Ask Mr. Artist Guy: Why Have A Blog?

Designer/illustrator Clay Cantrell writes:
“How important do you feel a blog is as a part of an overall business model for a freelance visual artist? Does it make good business sense, or do you think that only other artists read them, as opposed to potential or current clients?”
This is an excellent question, one I’ve been thinking [...]

Deadline Crunch…And A Joke

Between meeting deadlines and getting my taxes ready for my accountant (ugh!) I’m pretty busy at the moment. Too busy to write a full post. However, there’s some great art blogs linked over to the left. I highly recommend giving them a looksee.
Also, I thought I’d pass on a joke someone sent me the other [...]

Keeping A Morgue Or “Swipe File”

As a freelance illustrator I often use reference photos for my work. Not to copy or trace but to study in order to help me understand the subject matter as I draw. My friend and fellow illustrator Tom Richmond recently wrote a good post on the proper role of reference photos when creating a piece [...]

PayPal For Freelancers: Pro’s and Con’s

When I bill out a project, my experience has been that most clients prefer to pay me the old-fashioned way by mailing in a check. However, as the internet continues to make things more convenient some companies are beginning to embrace online options as a way to pay for outside services like freelancing. And more [...]

DrawerGeeks: The Monster Under My Bed

For a few years now I’ve had the privilege of being a member of DrawerGeeks, a fun website for artists. Each week a different character or topic is assigned and we each take a shot at illustrating it any way we’d like.
This week’s topic was “The Monster Under My Bed”. Ninety percent of the time [...]

Tutorial: Inking In Illustrator

(Sketch by Corbett Vanoni. All rights reserved.)
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about inking via Ask Mr. Artist Guy and through posted comments. I’m slowly working on a post or series of posts about inking principles. As for the mechanics of digital inking, back in 2006 artist Corbett Vanoni posted a terrific tutorial [...]

Kikkoman Character Design

Recently I was hired by the good folks at Ketchum Communications to create a character for Kikkoman soy sauce. They were printing a brochure and wanted to include a fun cartoon mascot. They asked me to take a bottle of Kikkoman and add a face, an apron, and a chef’s hat.

It was the standard “take [...]

Talks About Money

This looks interesting. Talks About Money is a new book designed to help freelancers figure out what to charge for their projects. While the book is primarily aimed at graphic designers, there is not all that much difference between how a freelance graphic designer decides what to charge and how a freelance illustrator/artist decides [...]

Harnessing The Power Of The Internet

Recently I was hired to write a feature article for Adbase Insight, the email newsletter of Adbase.com. Each issue contains meaty content designed to help freelance illustrators and photographers market themselves better. I’ve found the articles to be extremely helpful and am proud to be a part of it. You can sign up for Adbase [...]

Random Silliness And Fun

Too many serious posts lately. Time for some fun time wasters:
Pirates’ Pet Peeves
John Cleese’s “Letter To America”
And the always classic StrongBad Emails.
For previous posts that don’t necessarily have anything to do with anything, check out the “Just For Fun” category listed over to the left.
Oh, and Doug TenNapel is back! If you miss his [...]