This Saturday: Space Penguins Coming to a Planet Near You!

For the last few months I’ve been working as a freelance character designer on 3-2-1 Penguins!, a new animated series on NBC. The premiere episode airs this Saturday (10:30am Central, check your local listings).

3-2-1 Penguins! is about four wacky penguins (Zidgel, Fidgel, Midgel, and Kevin) who travel the universe along with two kids, Jason and Michelle. Imagine Star Trek as a screwball action-comedy, raplace Captain Kirk with a clueless penguin with a pompadour, and you’ve got the basic concept. Penguins was created by Big Idea (the studio behind VeggieTales), so each episode is built around a Bible lesson form the book of Proverbs. Some of the scripts are really wacky and hilarious, so I’m hoping the show gains a solid audience.

Big Idea owns all of the artwork I’ve done for the series, but they’ve graciously allowed me to post it on the blog—as long as I don’t show any artwork for a given episode until after that episode airs. So watch for lots of concept sketches in the coming weeks.

I didn’t actually start work on the show until episode #2 (which airs next Saturday), but if you happen to catch the premiere please leave a comment to let me know what you think. I’m not fishing for compliments. I genuinely want to know your honest opinion. It airs this Saturday at 10:30am CST on NBC.

“Dream On Silly Dreamer” is now on iTunes

Dream On Silly Dreamer is a fascinating documentary about the rise and fall of modern Disney animation, told from the point of view of the animators who lived through it. I’ve blogged about it before, but here’s a summary: The film starts with the “renaissance” of Disney animation in the 1980′s (i.e. The Little Mermaid), moves on towards the Oscars (Beauty and the Beast), takes you through the phenominal success of The Lion King, and finally ends with the massive Disney layoffs of 2002. The film ends on a sad and poignant note, but that was very much the mood among animators at the time. Now that Pixar’s John Lasseter is running Disney animation things are arguably more hopeful, but the film is still fascinating nonetheless. Click here to watch the trailer.

Until now you could only watch Dream On Silly Dreamer on DVD. Now you can buy it on iTunes for only $1.99. Just click here. (Kudos to Tom Sito for the update). Or, if you want a version with extra footage and some nice special features, click here to order the DVD.

New Edition of “Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines” Now Available

One of the more challenging aspects of freelancing (especially if you are just starting out) is figuring out what to charge for your services. Different clients have different budgets, and they will be using your artwork in different ways. How do you know what your fee should be for a greeting card illustration? What is a reasonable royalty for a children’s book? What about that ad agency who just called and needs storyboards by tomorrow?

Fortunatley, there’s the Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines, published by the Graphic Artists Guild. The GAG is a professional organization for commercial artists. Every few years, the GAG surveys their members (both graphic designers and illustrators) to find out what they are charging for various projects and publish the results in book form. The 12th edition is hot off the presses.

Each chapter covers a different industry that commonly hires freelance artists (i.e. advertising, magazines, book publishing, etc.), and gives a detailed explanation of the standard industry contracts/terms you should expect to see for use of your artwork. The more you know about a particular industry, the more able you are to present yourself as a knowledgable professional and the less likely you will be to undersell your services, or worse, get ripped off by a client with low respect for artists (and believe me, they are out there).

Each chapter also includes charts that list the current “going rate” for various projects, to help you figure out what you should be charging. Since every project is unique and there are many factors that effect price (i.e. complexity, deadline, rights purchased, the artist’s experience, etc.), the charts often have some wide price ranges. Still, those charts have saved my bacon many times.

(Incidentally, when a client calls I have learned to never, ever give a price quote off the top of my head. I’ll either over-estimate and scare away the client, or underestimate and wind up resenting the fact that I’m working so cheap. Instead, I always tell the client I need to run some numbers and get back to them. After I’ve figured out what I think I should charge, I usually grab this book to see what others are charging for the same service and, if necessary, adjust my fee accordingly.)

Finally, the book also includes sections on professional ethics, legal issues and contracts, complete with sample contracts and business forms for you to copy and use. I’m surprised at how many freelancers (especially those just starting out) don’t use formal contracts when being hired for a project. If you come to the client with all of your terms spelled out in black and white, you immediately present yourself as a professional worthy of respect. You also scare off any shady clients who might want to take advantage of you. And by spelling everything out up front you prevent any misunderstandings about fees, deadlines, or what exactly is expected of you. I personally have adapted my estimate/contract from Tad Crawford’s Business and Legal Forms for Illustrators because it comes with contracts on CD which I can cut-and-paste into my letterhead. But the GAG info in the Handbook is very helpful as well.

I should also mention that most of the book’s content is geared towards graphic designers and illustrators, though there is also some info for cartoonists, animators, website designers as well. I’m still waiting for my copy to arrive in the mail, but the previous edition had only a few pages of general information about freelance animation work. But that edition was published four years ago. With recent advances in Flash technology and the YouTube phenomenon, internet animation is booming like never before. Hopefully the 12th Edition will have more in-depth pricing info for animators.

This book is an absolute must-have for any freelance artist. Make sure to get the 12th edition (although curiously, the 11th edition is still featured on the GAG website). If you freelance, run out to the bookstore and grab a copy right away. Or order one from Amazon.com

Schoolism.com: Attitudes and Expressions

As my regular blog readers know, I’m taking a character design class online from Stephen Silver over at schoolism.com. I’ve been posting my work from each week’s lesson here on the ol’ blog-o-rama.

So far I’ve designed a character (Dr. Jeckyll) for a pretend “Jeckyll and Hyde” movie, starting with thumbnail silhouettes, then concept sketches, final clean-up, and then turnarounds. This week’s lesson was all about model sheets, specifically attitudes and expressions.

A “model sheet” is a page of drawings that animators and storyboard artists will use as a guide when animating a character. A good model sheet will give a sense of both the personality of the character (i.e. how does he react to certain situations?) and the physicality of the character (i.e. how does he walk, move, etc.).

Our assignment was to create a model sheet for our character, consisting of two parts:

1. Six standard expressions (anger, surprise, sadness, happiness, fear, and disgust);

2. Two full-body attitude drawings, which could be whatever we wanted. The only rule was that they give a sense of the character’s personality and/or response to a given situation. I chose to depict Dr. Jeckyll before and after drinking the potion that transforms him into a big, ugly, hulking monster.

I’m fairly pleased with how my expressions turned out. The attitudes not so much. The first one turned out ok but the second sketch was done late at night, so I was tired and rushed through it. The face isn’t a dead-on likeness, the pose should have been more unstable (dizzy, almost drunken), and the feet are a mushy mess. But, since this is a class and not a paying project, I only have so much free time to invest in the assignments. All things considered, I did ok.

Next week’s assignment is all about memory sketching. I’ve heard a lot about it but have never tried it. Can’t wait!

Evolution of Sugar Bear

Saw this on the Drawn! blog. I don’t know if they even make Sugar Crisp cereal anymore, but for a character designer like me its fascinating to see how the cereal’s mascot has changed over the years. (The link takes you to a blog by Dan Goodsell.)

Coming Soon: Ben Stein Documentary

I generally try to keep this blog about art-related topics, but every once in a while something completely unrelated grabs my attention. Please indulge me.

Do you ever look up at the stars and wonder, “How did we humans ever get here in the first place? Were we created by God, or did we evolve on our own from a puddle of goo zillions of years ago?”

It’s an important question, worthy of discussion and debate. However, the scientific and educational establishments don’t always see it that way. In many intellectual circles Darwin’s theory of evolution is the only legitimate explanation for the origins of life, period.

Actor, businessman, and columnist Ben Stein (pictured), best known for his comedic role in Ferris Beuller’s Day Off, has produced a very serious documentary about the debate between Intellgent Design and Evolution. In Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, Stein claims that scientists and educators put their careers at risk if they publicly subscribe to the idea that the universe may have been designed by an intellgent Creator. For many scientists and scholars, to dare to question Darwin’s theories can be nothing short of career suicide. I think Stein is on to something.

Here’s the trailer:

(EDIT: Lest you think Stein is just one of those “crazy” conservative right-wingers, it’s doubtful. He gave $2,000 to the Senate campaign of the ultra-liberal Al Frankin.)

This looks extremely interesting to me. As I’ve written before (here and here), I am one of those crazy Christian kooks who believes there are gaping holes in the theory of evolution, and that Creationism and science are not mutually exclusive. Unfortunately, it’s not only risky for some to question Darwinism publicly but it’s even illegal to teach anything but evolution in some public schools. (If you think I am overstating the case, read this news story).

Stein’s message is one that I think needs to be heard. Of course Michael Moore, Al Gore, and James Cameron have all proven that documentaries don’t always present the pure and unvarnished truth. I hope Stein will do better, but I will be watching Expelled with a critical eye just in case. At the very least, Expelled should create lots of discussion and inject some new energy into a very important debate.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (official site) will hit theaters in February.

Series: The Business of Freelancing

As much as I enjoy making my living drawing pictures, it’s important for me to remember that freelancing is still a business. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m a business person first and an artist second. If I don’t, I know I’ll be headed for a train wreck.

Artists are creative and free-wheeling by nature. The discipline and planning required to maintain a business can seem boring, confusing, and/or intimidating. Fortunately, the magical and powerful Internet is there to help!

One of the sites I visit regularly is FreelanceSwitch.com. It’s a blog that specializes in tips, tricks, and advice for freelancers. The articles are well-written and often extremely helpful. All this week they are doing a series called “The Business of Freelancing”, with a new article posted every day. The author is Shane Pearlman, who seems to have a pretty good blog of his own.

Yesterday they posted Part 1, “The Business of Freelancing–Saving For Taxes”. For the rest of the series, visit FreelanceSwitch.com every day this week.

Also, I have a category of posts on this blog called (coincidentally) “The Business of Freelancing”. Click the link over to the right to view all of my previous posts under that heading.