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– ## CSULB_ART311_Reading_6-1_Brodner_Education_of_an_Illustrator-part2.pdf
– ## CSULB_ART311_Reading_6-2_Heller-Arisman_Marketing_Illustration-ch16.pdf
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**## CSULB_ART311_Reading_6-1_Brodner_Education_of_an_Illustrator-part2.pdf**
The Education of an Illustrator
Steven Heller & Marshall Arisman
Part 2: Ebbing & Flowing, Chapter 51: The Author/Illustrator
Steve Brodner
ISBN: 9781581150759
School of Visual Arts, et al. The Education of an Illustrator / Edited by Steven Heller and Marshall Arisman. Allworth Press, 2000.
The
Education
• ~… ~'
Illustrator
51
THE AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR
By Steve Brodner
0 ne of the reasons I quit teaching illustration was that I began to question
what illustration was, how its essentials could be made clear to students,
and what on earth could I, or should I, be preparing them for. As I write
this, the field is changing rapidly. I'm not certain what it 's becoming or how much
we will recognize of professional illustration when the dust settles. Cheap disks
threaten to supplant large sections of the profession. The "market" seems glutted
with artists of varying levels of skill, which is leading to a much looser interpreta
tion of "quality." Art departments are showing great faith in their in-house person
nel to replace illustration with Photoshopped collages. Fees for art works have not
changed in a generation.
I see illustrators for whom the next big movement is a movement out of
illustration. So, the question must be asked: For those remaining in illustration or
those wanting to get in, what does it still hold for us?
I begin first with the premise that there is nothing inherent in illustration
that is different from "art." I know that this old distinction is prevalent, but the
graphic universe I know tells me it's an irrelevant dialectic engaged in, quite often,
by those with a good deal at stake in maintaining a prescribed order. Winslow
Homer, Andy Warhol, Toulouse-Lautrec, Marshall Arisman, Ben Shahn, Thomas
Hart Benton, George Bellows, George Grosz, and Diego Rivera all argue persuasive
ly against this idea. Therefore, if we, as they, are "real artists," making "real art,"
what is the distinction that makes us illustrators as well?
The distinction that I see is in content. What makes our job different and
harder than other artistic pursuits is that we must do at least two things at once:
solve formalistic graphic, spatial, and color problems of all kinds plus, tell a literal
story. Storytelling is a cultivated craft, ancient and deeply important to a culture.
The truly fine illustrators share the mantel of shaman along with poets,
composer/troubadours, playwrights, and filmmakers. That "content" is shunned by
gallery owners and critics is not important. Pleasing them need not keep anyone up
at night when there are things one's art has to say. Answering that call can be the
driving force in your life.
It is my observation that the highest calling in art is telling the important
story. The greatest art of all for me is about that. Bach, Shakespeare, Goya, John
Ford, Billie Holiday, Cartier-Bresson, and Michelangelo told, in their moment and
in their way, important stories. This is the guidepost for what future illustration
must have-to take the content and direction of your illustration into your own
hands. By starting with what you need to say and finding a plausible place to put it,
worlds can open up for your work. This is no magical panacea. Indeed, great finan
cial reward is not in the equation. It's just the simple notion that when your work
focuses on something deeply felt and earnestly expressed, it will naturally convey its
importance. In lieu of fame and fortune (which we in illustration are quite libera ted
from expecting), let there be the opportunity to make art that contains the ideas,
observations, and passionate points-of-view that artists see and feel in the world
around them.
In my case it has led to journalism. I love to go places and cover stories in
words and pictures. I regularly contact art directors with story ideas, some of which
they buy. I've covered political conventions, primary campaigns, a music festival, a
labor strike, a farm crisis, a climb of Mt. Fuji, and many other things. Very few of
these assignments originate with the magazine itself. They result from my love of
doing that work along with the courage, as an artist, to suggest a story. And why not?
Photographers do it all the time. They' ll live in a place for a while and bring in pho
tos an editor might want to build a story around. I know artists who will call a
regional magazine art director with a project and say, "Hey, let 's do a spread on the
birds of the Southeast." How about covering a boat show for a yachting magazine,
dogs of New York, opening day at the ballpark? Almost anything about the tangible
world is a potential subject for a magazine piece and can be covered by an illustra
tor, usually, with greater impact.
The key word here is "passion," the powerful connection you feel for
something true and compelling. "When truth is the goal," Ansel Adams said, "your
work cannot help but partake of truth." If self-generated projects come from that
place, they will, I believe, be compelling; and find a home in books, magazines, or
on the Internet. Meanwhile, back at your portfolio, your work will assume a new
center of gravity. Art directors, thinking of you as more than a walking wrist, may
finally start calling with assignments, which are much closer to your hean.
52
– The Education of an Illustrator
– Steven Heller & Marshall Arisman
– Part 2: Ebbing & Flowing, Chapter 51: The Author/Illustrator
– Steve Brodner
**## CSULB_ART311_Reading_6-2_Heller-Arisman_Marketing_Illustration-ch16.pdf**
Marketing Illustration
Steven Heller & Marshall Arisman
Chapter 1: What to Do If You Want to Make Art, But Need to Make a Living
Chapter 6: Marketing the New Illustration
ISBN: 9781581156577
Heller, Steven, and Marshall Arisman. Marketing Illustration: New Venues, New Styles, New Methods. Allworth Press, 2008.
F.411.Hb)'
Steven Heller …
Marshall Arisman
,.,,,. …
Jff'e•·"",_
:,~ , ,
Chapter One
What to Do lfYou Want to Make Art,
But Need to Make A Living
Throughout the twentieth century, the obvious solution to this particular quandary
was to compromise by becoming an illustrator (or a designer). It is an accepted myth
(even in most art schools) that real artists do not make money, but through accepting
illustration into one's life comes the potential to earn a reasonable living while
continuing to make art (or a reasonable substitute for art). Well, that paradigm has
changed over the past dozen years. Art increasingly intersects with commerce, and
artists have found that their muse-driven concepts can, under the right circumstances,
be transformed into marketable products.
Likewise, illustrators have found that certain styles and conceptual trends are
currently accepted as art in the hollowed halls of galleries, museums, and art fairs
(like Art Basel). As sacrosanct distinctions are routinely challenged and with the
boundaries between fine and applied arts becoming increasingly fungible, making a
living (or at least somehow profiting) from art is not as difficult as it once was.
Of course, not all fine artists have the entrepreneurial gene, and not all illustrators
are perfectly suited to perform in the art world, but for those who can make the
respective leaps on either side of the divide, a potentially vital and welcoming market
I
MARKETING ILLUSTRATION
awaits. For the artist, it is a way to reach more of an audience with an alternative
kind of"multiple"; for the illustrator, it is a way to branch out from the conventional
problem/solution model into more self-initiated projects. But this is not an either/
or scenario. Illustrators are not required to become fine artists in order to expand
their earning capabilities. In fact, the definitions of illustrator and of illustration are
changing in such a way that editorial and advertising are no longer the only options.
Illustrators are now able to show their work in art venues, just as more traditional
artists are welcome in commercial venues.
The reason for this change is that, in the late twentieth and early twenty-first ·
centuries, art has expanded to fill the many containers built with new technologies,
economies, and moralities. Art is not restricted to canvas, clay, or paper and is
as much a response to external media and mediums as it is to internal emotions.
Moreover, the creative act is not determined by the ratio of suffering or angst to
ultimate result, it is defined by the impulse to create something that has not existed
before or build on something that has.
The consequence of this impulse is that artists and illustrators are currently
creating "stuff." Not only are the boundaries between fine and applied arts more
or less lowered, but form, content, and accessibility are more democratic. In this
way, the entrepreneurial spirit is ignited, and graphically, greater options are now
available. Below are some of the ways illustrative image-making has become more
entrepreneurial.
Toys
With the explosion in vinyl toy marketing and manufacture with companies
like K.idrobot and Giant Robot, illustrators have a new venue for their more
absurdist, three-dimensional concepts. What began a decade ago with a few artists
transforming action hero toys into mutations has grown into a highly profitable
collectible industry.
Games
To say video games are a mammoth industry is not an exaggeration. Billions are
spent annually on both development and sales, and illustrators are increasingly
employed in rendering and development. While it is not always easy to create
characters from scratch, the video game field welcomes as much creative thinking
as it can absorb.
2
WHAT To Do IF You T,½zNTTO MAKE ART, BuT NEED TO MAKE A LrvING
Animation
The most significant change in field of illustration can be summed up with the
word motion. While illustrators have worked in the animation field since the first
animated cartoons in the early twentieth century, digital technology allows anyone
with software skills to be a desktop animator. Motion has become as common to
illustrators as cross-hatching, and animation is now second nature.
Novelties
Illustrators have long toyed with the idea of creating knick-knacks, and some have
produced delightful novelties that end up being sold in design-centric boutiques.
They range from silly to profound, and they can be pure designs or concept- or
character-driven.
Candies
This may not be the most prodigious of the entrepreneurial ventures, but specialty
companies like Blue Qin Pittsfield, Massachusetts, produce various confections
packaged with silly but cleverly illustrated covers and labels . Some artists have used
their packaging skills to create custom lines of candy, as well.
Books
This is not an unconventional alternative, but increasingly, illustrators are turning
to writing, illustrating, producing, and packaging books- and 'zines-that have
independent life in the marketplace.
Graphic Novels
They are technically books, but graphic novels and artist books have a distinct
genre of expression. Various specialty publishers, like Drawn and Quarterly and
Fantagraphics, offer prodigious outputs of historical and original material, which
increases the market for interesting new work.
Wallpaper
When it comes to products created by illustrators, the quirkier, the better; and few
things are more unusual than wallpapers . While there is not an immense market for
it, artists have, in recent years, become involved in wallpaper production, as well as
designing wrapping paper and textiles.
3
MARKETING ILLUSTRATION
Fashions
Speaking of textiles, designers have contributed their fair share to this field. Dut
artists are increasingly developing all manner of clothing, from hats to shoes, and
these days, hoodies.
T-shirts
A decade or so ago, when illustrators had an entrepreneurial inkling, their first
thought was, Let's create a T-shirt line. The artful (and often just plain goofy) T-shirt
industry has grown exponentially. It is also a good jumping-off point for other street
fashion concepts.
A word to the wise: Illustration is a stepping stone, not an end in itself Working
with images opens doors to the above-and doubtless many other-unheralded jobs
and genres. The key is to think entrepreneurially and to spread your talent as far as it
will go.
MARKETING ILLUSTRATION
Diversify. The editorial market is not dead, but it is only one of many ways of making
and selling mass images.
The Unbearable Burden of Marketing
Yourself: A Personal Bistory
The motor that drives the art machine is fueled by energy. Energy is a by product
of believing that you have something to say. The fuel for marketing is the desire for
money. Desire, in itself, produces craving and depletes energy.
If you desire success you will covet the concept of marketing to fulfill your
desires. If you desire communication with yourself and others, that energy base may
be the best marketing tool you have.
If all this sounds confusing, it is. Now in my late sixties, after forty years of making
pictures that appear on the printed page and gallery wall, I am still confused by Andy
Warhol's comment that "The best art of all is the business of art." I am less confused by
Mark Rothko's comment, "There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing."
The part of me that paints is not the part of me that markets the painting. Like
many artists, I would like to leave the marketing to someone more qualified than
myself, but I can't. I wish I could-I have tried. Over the years, I have had a few
illustration reps and many gallery owners whose jobs, I thought, were to market
me better than I marketed myself The end result was being forced to acknowledge
that I know myself better than they do. Marketing something I believe in is my
responsibility. I have tried to make peace with the two parts of me that are in conflict.
For example, I set aside specific days to make phone calls, to e-mail, etc. These are the
days I don't try and make pictures. This is not a perfect solution, but the tug-of-war
between the state of creativity and the state of marketing is less draining.
Looking back is the only way that I can perceive a pattern. If you ask what my
next project will be, I will answer, I don't know. If you ask what I have learned about
marketing myself over the years, I will answer, I am still learning.
I was educated as a graphic designer (Pratt Institute, 1956-1960). My first job
was at General Motors Tech Center. After three months of employment, I realized
that I didn't like working with people-I didn't like solving problems that were not
my own. The only time I was happy and full of energy was when I was alone, drawing
and painting.
132
MARKETING THE NEW ILLUSTRATION
My first portfolio was done on 30×40-inch Masoniite boards and weighed
sixty pounds. A marketing expert would have talked me out of it. Many art directors
stopped me on Madison Avenue and asked what was in the portfolio-on-wheels.
The card I gave out was an original painting of a man playing a paintbrush with
a violin bow. A marketing expert would have sent me to a printer. The card sat,
framed, on many art directors' desks. The card included my name, address, and phone
number, but the phone, unfortunately, was located at my friend's house a half-block
away from my apartment in Brooklyn. The art director who called me for my first
illustration job was put on hold for the ten minutes it took my friend to run down
the block and get me. The art director, thinking I had listed the candy store on the
corner, told me to never get my own phone.
"Meaning," Carl Jung said, "has curative power. What is meaningful to you is the
basis of all things, perhaps everything."
My advice is simply to accept the responsibility of marketing yourself. If you are
marketing for yourself, it will provide you with the energy to do it all.
A kung-fu master told me this about replenishing energy: hug trees . My advice:
make more art.
– Marshall Arisman
133
– Marketing Illustration
– Steven Heller & Marshall Arisman
– Chapter 1: What to Do If You Want to Make Art, But Need to Make a Living
– Chapter 6: Marketing the New Illustration
**CSULB_ART311_Reading_6-3_Heller-Arisman_Inside_Business_Illustration-ch4.pdf**
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**## CSULB_ART311_Reading_6-1_Brodner_Education_of_an_Illustrator-part2.pdf**
The Education of an Illustrator
Steven Heller & Marshall Arisman
Part 2: Ebbing & Flowing, Chapter 51: The Author/Illustrator
Steve Brodner
ISBN: 9781581150759
School of Visual Arts, et al. The Education of an Illustrator / Edited by Steven Heller and Marshall Arisman. Allworth Press, 2000.
The
Education
• ~… ~'
Illustrator
51
THE AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR
By Steve Brodner
0 ne of the reasons I quit teaching illustration was that I began to question
what illustration was, how its essentials could be made clear to students,
and what on earth could I, or should I, be preparing them for. As I write
this, the field is changing rapidly. I'm not certain what it 's becoming or how much
we will recognize of professional illustration when the dust settles. Cheap disks
threaten to supplant large sections of the profession. The "market" seems glutted
with artists of varying levels of skill, which is leading to a much looser interpreta
tion of "quality." Art departments are showing great faith in their in-house person
nel to replace illustration with Photoshopped collages. Fees for art works have not
changed in a generation.
I see illustrators for whom the next big movement is a movement out of
illustration. So, the question must be asked: For those remaining in illustration or
those wanting to get in, what does it still hold for us?
I begin first with the premise that there is nothing inherent in illustration
that is different from "art." I know that this old distinction is prevalent, but the
graphic universe I know tells me it's an irrelevant dialectic engaged in, quite often,
by those with a good deal at stake in maintaining a prescribed order. Winslow
Homer, Andy Warhol, Toulouse-Lautrec, Marshall Arisman, Ben Shahn, Thomas
Hart Benton, George Bellows, George Grosz, and Diego Rivera all argue persuasive
ly against this idea. Therefore, if we, as they, are "real artists," making "real art,"
what is the distinction that makes us illustrators as well?
The distinction that I see is in content. What makes our job different and
harder than other artistic pursuits is that we must do at least two things at once:
solve formalistic graphic, spatial, and color problems of all kinds plus, tell a literal
story. Storytelling is a cultivated craft, ancient and deeply important to a culture.
The truly fine illustrators share the mantel of shaman along with poets,
composer/troubadours, playwrights, and filmmakers. That "content" is shunned by
gallery owners and critics is not important. Pleasing them need not keep anyone up
at night when there are things one's art has to say. Answering that call can be the
driving force in your life.
It is my observation that the highest calling in art is telling the important
story. The greatest art of all for me is about that. Bach, Shakespeare, Goya, John
Ford, Billie Holiday, Cartier-Bresson, and Michelangelo told, in their moment and
in their way, important stories. This is the guidepost for what future illustration
must have-to take the content and direction of your illustration into your own
hands. By starting with what you need to say and finding a plausible place to put it,
worlds can open up for your work. This is no magical panacea. Indeed, great finan
cial reward is not in the equation. It's just the simple notion that when your work
focuses on something deeply felt and earnestly expressed, it will naturally convey its
importance. In lieu of fame and fortune (which we in illustration are quite libera ted
from expecting), let there be the opportunity to make art that contains the ideas,
observations, and passionate points-of-view that artists see and feel in the world
around them.
In my case it has led to journalism. I love to go places and cover stories in
words and pictures. I regularly contact art directors with story ideas, some of which
they buy. I've covered political conventions, primary campaigns, a music festival, a
labor strike, a farm crisis, a climb of Mt. Fuji, and many other things. Very few of
these assignments originate with the magazine itself. They result from my love of
doing that work along with the courage, as an artist, to suggest a story. And why not?
Photographers do it all the time. They' ll live in a place for a while and bring in pho
tos an editor might want to build a story around. I know artists who will call a
regional magazine art director with a project and say, "Hey, let 's do a spread on the
birds of the Southeast." How about covering a boat show for a yachting magazine,
dogs of New York, opening day at the ballpark? Almost anything about the tangible
world is a potential subject for a magazine piece and can be covered by an illustra
tor, usually, with greater impact.
The key word here is "passion," the powerful connection you feel for
something true and compelling. "When truth is the goal," Ansel Adams said, "your
work cannot help but partake of truth." If self-generated projects come from that
place, they will, I believe, be compelling; and find a home in books, magazines, or
on the Internet. Meanwhile, back at your portfolio, your work will assume a new
center of gravity. Art directors, thinking of you as more than a walking wrist, may
finally start calling with assignments, which are much closer to your hean.
52
– The Education of an Illustrator
– Steven Heller & Marshall Arisman
– Part 2: Ebbing & Flowing, Chapter 51: The Author/Illustrator
– Steve Brodner
**## CSULB_ART311_Reading_6-2_Heller-Arisman_Marketing_Illustration-ch16.pdf**
Marketing Illustration
Steven Heller & Marshall Arisman
Chapter 1: What to Do If You Want to Make Art, But Need to Make a Living
Chapter 6: Marketing the New Illustration
ISBN: 9781581156577
Heller, Steven, and Marshall Arisman. Marketing Illustration: New Venues, New Styles, New Methods. Allworth Press, 2008.
F.411.Hb)'
Steven Heller …
Marshall Arisman
,.,,,. …
Jff'e•·"",_
:,~ , ,
Chapter One
What to Do lfYou Want to Make Art,
But Need to Make A Living
Throughout the twentieth century, the obvious solution to this particular quandary
was to compromise by becoming an illustrator (or a designer). It is an accepted myth
(even in most art schools) that real artists do not make money, but through accepting
illustration into one's life comes the potential to earn a reasonable living while
continuing to make art (or a reasonable substitute for art). Well, that paradigm has
changed over the past dozen years. Art increasingly intersects with commerce, and
artists have found that their muse-driven concepts can, under the right circumstances,
be transformed into marketable products.
Likewise, illustrators have found that certain styles and conceptual trends are
currently accepted as art in the hollowed halls of galleries, museums, and art fairs
(like Art Basel). As sacrosanct distinctions are routinely challenged and with the
boundaries between fine and applied arts becoming increasingly fungible, making a
living (or at least somehow profiting) from art is not as difficult as it once was.
Of course, not all fine artists have the entrepreneurial gene, and not all illustrators
are perfectly suited to perform in the art world, but for those who can make the
respective leaps on either side of the divide, a potentially vital and welcoming market
I
MARKETING ILLUSTRATION
awaits. For the artist, it is a way to reach more of an audience with an alternative
kind of"multiple"; for the illustrator, it is a way to branch out from the conventional
problem/solution model into more self-initiated projects. But this is not an either/
or scenario. Illustrators are not required to become fine artists in order to expand
their earning capabilities. In fact, the definitions of illustrator and of illustration are
changing in such a way that editorial and advertising are no longer the only options.
Illustrators are now able to show their work in art venues, just as more traditional
artists are welcome in commercial venues.
The reason for this change is that, in the late twentieth and early twenty-first ·
centuries, art has expanded to fill the many containers built with new technologies,
economies, and moralities. Art is not restricted to canvas, clay, or paper and is
as much a response to external media and mediums as it is to internal emotions.
Moreover, the creative act is not determined by the ratio of suffering or angst to
ultimate result, it is defined by the impulse to create something that has not existed
before or build on something that has.
The consequence of this impulse is that artists and illustrators are currently
creating "stuff." Not only are the boundaries between fine and applied arts more
or less lowered, but form, content, and accessibility are more democratic. In this
way, the entrepreneurial spirit is ignited, and graphically, greater options are now
available. Below are some of the ways illustrative image-making has become more
entrepreneurial.
Toys
With the explosion in vinyl toy marketing and manufacture with companies
like K.idrobot and Giant Robot, illustrators have a new venue for their more
absurdist, three-dimensional concepts. What began a decade ago with a few artists
transforming action hero toys into mutations has grown into a highly profitable
collectible industry.
Games
To say video games are a mammoth industry is not an exaggeration. Billions are
spent annually on both development and sales, and illustrators are increasingly
employed in rendering and development. While it is not always easy to create
characters from scratch, the video game field welcomes as much creative thinking
as it can absorb.
2
WHAT To Do IF You T,½zNTTO MAKE ART, BuT NEED TO MAKE A LrvING
Animation
The most significant change in field of illustration can be summed up with the
word motion. While illustrators have worked in the animation field since the first
animated cartoons in the early twentieth century, digital technology allows anyone
with software skills to be a desktop animator. Motion has become as common to
illustrators as cross-hatching, and animation is now second nature.
Novelties
Illustrators have long toyed with the idea of creating knick-knacks, and some have
produced delightful novelties that end up being sold in design-centric boutiques.
They range from silly to profound, and they can be pure designs or concept- or
character-driven.
Candies
This may not be the most prodigious of the entrepreneurial ventures, but specialty
companies like Blue Qin Pittsfield, Massachusetts, produce various confections
packaged with silly but cleverly illustrated covers and labels . Some artists have used
their packaging skills to create custom lines of candy, as well.
Books
This is not an unconventional alternative, but increasingly, illustrators are turning
to writing, illustrating, producing, and packaging books- and 'zines-that have
independent life in the marketplace.
Graphic Novels
They are technically books, but graphic novels and artist books have a distinct
genre of expression. Various specialty publishers, like Drawn and Quarterly and
Fantagraphics, offer prodigious outputs of historical and original material, which
increases the market for interesting new work.
Wallpaper
When it comes to products created by illustrators, the quirkier, the better; and few
things are more unusual than wallpapers . While there is not an immense market for
it, artists have, in recent years, become involved in wallpaper production, as well as
designing wrapping paper and textiles.
3
MARKETING ILLUSTRATION
Fashions
Speaking of textiles, designers have contributed their fair share to this field. Dut
artists are increasingly developing all manner of clothing, from hats to shoes, and
these days, hoodies.
T-shirts
A decade or so ago, when illustrators had an entrepreneurial inkling, their first
thought was, Let's create a T-shirt line. The artful (and often just plain goofy) T-shirt
industry has grown exponentially. It is also a good jumping-off point for other street
fashion concepts.
A word to the wise: Illustration is a stepping stone, not an end in itself Working
with images opens doors to the above-and doubtless many other-unheralded jobs
and genres. The key is to think entrepreneurially and to spread your talent as far as it
will go.
MARKETING ILLUSTRATION
Diversify. The editorial market is not dead, but it is only one of many ways of making
and selling mass images.
The Unbearable Burden of Marketing
Yourself: A Personal Bistory
The motor that drives the art machine is fueled by energy. Energy is a by product
of believing that you have something to say. The fuel for marketing is the desire for
money. Desire, in itself, produces craving and depletes energy.
If you desire success you will covet the concept of marketing to fulfill your
desires. If you desire communication with yourself and others, that energy base may
be the best marketing tool you have.
If all this sounds confusing, it is. Now in my late sixties, after forty years of making
pictures that appear on the printed page and gallery wall, I am still confused by Andy
Warhol's comment that "The best art of all is the business of art." I am less confused by
Mark Rothko's comment, "There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing."
The part of me that paints is not the part of me that markets the painting. Like
many artists, I would like to leave the marketing to someone more qualified than
myself, but I can't. I wish I could-I have tried. Over the years, I have had a few
illustration reps and many gallery owners whose jobs, I thought, were to market
me better than I marketed myself The end result was being forced to acknowledge
that I know myself better than they do. Marketing something I believe in is my
responsibility. I have tried to make peace with the two parts of me that are in conflict.
For example, I set aside specific days to make phone calls, to e-mail, etc. These are the
days I don't try and make pictures. This is not a perfect solution, but the tug-of-war
between the state of creativity and the state of marketing is less draining.
Looking back is the only way that I can perceive a pattern. If you ask what my
next project will be, I will answer, I don't know. If you ask what I have learned about
marketing myself over the years, I will answer, I am still learning.
I was educated as a graphic designer (Pratt Institute, 1956-1960). My first job
was at General Motors Tech Center. After three months of employment, I realized
that I didn't like working with people-I didn't like solving problems that were not
my own. The only time I was happy and full of energy was when I was alone, drawing
and painting.
132
MARKETING THE NEW ILLUSTRATION
My first portfolio was done on 30×40-inch Masoniite boards and weighed
sixty pounds. A marketing expert would have talked me out of it. Many art directors
stopped me on Madison Avenue and asked what was in the portfolio-on-wheels.
The card I gave out was an original painting of a man playing a paintbrush with
a violin bow. A marketing expert would have sent me to a printer. The card sat,
framed, on many art directors' desks. The card included my name, address, and phone
number, but the phone, unfortunately, was located at my friend's house a half-block
away from my apartment in Brooklyn. The art director who called me for my first
illustration job was put on hold for the ten minutes it took my friend to run down
the block and get me. The art director, thinking I had listed the candy store on the
corner, told me to never get my own phone.
"Meaning," Carl Jung said, "has curative power. What is meaningful to you is the
basis of all things, perhaps everything."
My advice is simply to accept the responsibility of marketing yourself. If you are
marketing for yourself, it will provide you with the energy to do it all.
A kung-fu master told me this about replenishing energy: hug trees . My advice:
make more art.
– Marshall Arisman
133
– Marketing Illustration
– Steven Heller & Marshall Arisman
– Chapter 1: What to Do If You Want to Make Art, But Need to Make a Living
– Chapter 6: Marketing the New Illustration
**CSULB_ART311_Reading_6-3_Heller-Arisman_Inside_Business_Illustration-ch4.pdf**
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**## CSULB_ART311_Reading_6-1_Brodner_Education_of_an_Illustrator-part2.pdf**
The Education of an Illustrator
Steven Heller & Marshall Arisman
Part 2: Ebbing & Flowing, Chapter 51: The Author/Illustrator
Steve Brodner
ISBN: 9781581150759
School of Visual Arts, et al. The Education of an Illustrator / Edited by Steven Heller and Marshall Arisman. Allworth Press, 2000.
The
Education
• ~… ~'
Illustrator
51
THE AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR
By Steve Brodner
0 ne of the reasons I quit teaching illustration was that I began to question
what illustration was, how its essentials could be made clear to students,
and what on earth could I, or should I, be preparing them for. As I write
this, the field is changing rapidly. I'm not certain what it 's becoming or how much
we will recognize of professional illustration when the dust settles. Cheap disks
threaten to supplant large sections of the profession. The "market" seems glutted
with artists of varying levels of skill, which is leading to a much looser interpreta
tion of "quality." Art departments are showing great faith in their in-house person
nel to replace illustration with Photoshopped collages. Fees for art works have not
changed in a generation.
I see illustrators for whom the next big movement is a movement out of
illustration. So, the question must be asked: For those remaining in illustration or
those wanting to get in, what does it still hold for us?
I begin first with the premise that there is nothing inherent in illustration
that is different from "art." I know that this old distinction is prevalent, but the
graphic universe I know tells me it's an irrelevant dialectic engaged in, quite often,
by those with a good deal at stake in maintaining a prescribed order. Winslow
Homer, Andy Warhol, Toulouse-Lautrec, Marshall Arisman, Ben Shahn, Thomas
Hart Benton, George Bellows, George Grosz, and Diego Rivera all argue persuasive
ly against this idea. Therefore, if we, as they, are "real artists," making "real art,"
what is the distinction that makes us illustrators as well?
The distinction that I see is in content. What makes our job different and
harder than other artistic pursuits is that we must do at least two things at once:
solve formalistic graphic, spatial, and color problems of all kinds plus, tell a literal
story. Storytelling is a cultivated craft, ancient and deeply important to a culture.
The truly fine illustrators share the mantel of shaman along with poets,
composer/troubadours, playwrights, and filmmakers. That "content" is shunned by
gallery owners and critics is not important. Pleasing them need not keep anyone up
at night when there are things one's art has to say. Answering that call can be the
driving force in your life.
It is my observation that the highest calling in art is telling the important
story. The greatest art of all for me is about that. Bach, Shakespeare, Goya, John
Ford, Billie Holiday, Cartier-Bresson, and Michelangelo told, in their moment and
in their way, important stories. This is the guidepost for what future illustration
must have-to take the content and direction of your illustration into your own
hands. By starting with what you need to say and finding a plausible place to put it,
worlds can open up for your work. This is no magical panacea. Indeed, great finan
cial reward is not in the equation. It's just the simple notion that when your work
focuses on something deeply felt and earnestly expressed, it will naturally convey its
importance. In lieu of fame and fortune (which we in illustration are quite libera ted
from expecting), let there be the opportunity to make art that contains the ideas,
observations, and passionate points-of-view that artists see and feel in the world
around them.
In my case it has led to journalism. I love to go places and cover stories in
words and pictures. I regularly contact art directors with story ideas, some of which
they buy. I've covered political conventions, primary campaigns, a music festival, a
labor strike, a farm crisis, a climb of Mt. Fuji, and many other things. Very few of
these assignments originate with the magazine itself. They result from my love of
doing that work along with the courage, as an artist, to suggest a story. And why not?
Photographers do it all the time. They' ll live in a place for a while and bring in pho
tos an editor might want to build a story around. I know artists who will call a
regional magazine art director with a project and say, "Hey, let 's do a spread on the
birds of the Southeast." How about covering a boat show for a yachting magazine,
dogs of New York, opening day at the ballpark? Almost anything about the tangible
world is a potential subject for a magazine piece and can be covered by an illustra
tor, usually, with greater impact.
The key word here is "passion," the powerful connection you feel for
something true and compelling. "When truth is the goal," Ansel Adams said, "your
work cannot help but partake of truth." If self-generated projects come from that
place, they will, I believe, be compelling; and find a home in books, magazines, or
on the Internet. Meanwhile, back at your portfolio, your work will assume a new
center of gravity. Art directors, thinking of you as more than a walking wrist, may
finally start calling with assignments, which are much closer to your hean.
52
– The Education of an Illustrator
– Steven Heller & Marshall Arisman
– Part 2: Ebbing & Flowing, Chapter 51: The Author/Illustrator
– Steve Brodner
**## CSULB_ART311_Reading_6-2_Heller-Arisman_Marketing_Illustration-ch16.pdf**
Marketing Illustration
Steven Heller & Marshall Arisman
Chapter 1: What to Do If You Want to Make Art, But Need to Make a Living
Chapter 6: Marketing the New Illustration
ISBN: 9781581156577
Heller, Steven, and Marshall Arisman. Marketing Illustration: New Venues, New Styles, New Methods. Allworth Press, 2008.
F.411.Hb)'
Steven Heller …
Marshall Arisman
,.,,,. …
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:,~ , ,
Chapter One
What to Do lfYou Want to Make Art,
But Need to Make A Living
Throughout the twentieth century, the obvious solution to this particular quandary
was to compromise by becoming an illustrator (or a designer). It is an accepted myth
(even in most art schools) that real artists do not make money, but through accepting
illustration into one's life comes the potential to earn a reasonable living while
continuing to make art (or a reasonable substitute for art). Well, that paradigm has
changed over the past dozen years. Art increasingly intersects with commerce, and
artists have found that their muse-driven concepts can, under the right circumstances,
be transformed into marketable products.
Likewise, illustrators have found that certain styles and conceptual trends are
currently accepted as art in the hollowed halls of galleries, museums, and art fairs
(like Art Basel). As sacrosanct distinctions are routinely challenged and with the
boundaries between fine and applied arts becoming increasingly fungible, making a
living (or at least somehow profiting) from art is not as difficult as it once was.
Of course, not all fine artists have the entrepreneurial gene, and not all illustrators
are perfectly suited to perform in the art world, but for those who can make the
respective leaps on either side of the divide, a potentially vital and welcoming market
I
MARKETING ILLUSTRATION
awaits. For the artist, it is a way to reach more of an audience with an alternative
kind of"multiple"; for the illustrator, it is a way to branch out from the conventional
problem/solution model into more self-initiated projects. But this is not an either/
or scenario. Illustrators are not required to become fine artists in order to expand
their earning capabilities. In fact, the definitions of illustrator and of illustration are
changing in such a way that editorial and advertising are no longer the only options.
Illustrators are now able to show their work in art venues, just as more traditional
artists are welcome in commercial venues.
The reason for this change is that, in the late twentieth and early twenty-first ·
centuries, art has expanded to fill the many containers built with new technologies,
economies, and moralities. Art is not restricted to canvas, clay, or paper and is
as much a response to external media and mediums as it is to internal emotions.
Moreover, the creative act is not determined by the ratio of suffering or angst to
ultimate result, it is defined by the impulse to create something that has not existed
before or build on something that has.
The consequence of this impulse is that artists and illustrators are currently
creating "stuff." Not only are the boundaries between fine and applied arts more
or less lowered, but form, content, and accessibility are more democratic. In this
way, the entrepreneurial spirit is ignited, and graphically, greater options are now
available. Below are some of the ways illustrative image-making has become more
entrepreneurial.
Toys
With the explosion in vinyl toy marketing and manufacture with companies
like K.idrobot and Giant Robot, illustrators have a new venue for their more
absurdist, three-dimensional concepts. What began a decade ago with a few artists
transforming action hero toys into mutations has grown into a highly profitable
collectible industry.
Games
To say video games are a mammoth industry is not an exaggeration. Billions are
spent annually on both development and sales, and illustrators are increasingly
employed in rendering and development. While it is not always easy to create
characters from scratch, the video game field welcomes as much creative thinking
as it can absorb.
2
WHAT To Do IF You T,½zNTTO MAKE ART, BuT NEED TO MAKE A LrvING
Animation
The most significant change in field of illustration can be summed up with the
word motion. While illustrators have worked in the animation field since the first
animated cartoons in the early twentieth century, digital technology allows anyone
with software skills to be a desktop animator. Motion has become as common to
illustrators as cross-hatching, and animation is now second nature.
Novelties
Illustrators have long toyed with the idea of creating knick-knacks, and some have
produced delightful novelties that end up being sold in design-centric boutiques.
They range from silly to profound, and they can be pure designs or concept- or
character-driven.
Candies
This may not be the most prodigious of the entrepreneurial ventures, but specialty
companies like Blue Qin Pittsfield, Massachusetts, produce various confections
packaged with silly but cleverly illustrated covers and labels . Some artists have used
their packaging skills to create custom lines of candy, as well.
Books
This is not an unconventional alternative, but increasingly, illustrators are turning
to writing, illustrating, producing, and packaging books- and 'zines-that have
independent life in the marketplace.
Graphic Novels
They are technically books, but graphic novels and artist books have a distinct
genre of expression. Various specialty publishers, like Drawn and Quarterly and
Fantagraphics, offer prodigious outputs of historical and original material, which
increases the market for interesting new work.
Wallpaper
When it comes to products created by illustrators, the quirkier, the better; and few
things are more unusual than wallpapers . While there is not an immense market for
it, artists have, in recent years, become involved in wallpaper production, as well as
designing wrapping paper and textiles.
3
MARKETING ILLUSTRATION
Fashions
Speaking of textiles, designers have contributed their fair share to this field. Dut
artists are increasingly developing all manner of clothing, from hats to shoes, and
these days, hoodies.
T-shirts
A decade or so ago, when illustrators had an entrepreneurial inkling, their first
thought was, Let's create a T-shirt line. The artful (and often just plain goofy) T-shirt
industry has grown exponentially. It is also a good jumping-off point for other street
fashion concepts.
A word to the wise: Illustration is a stepping stone, not an end in itself Working
with images opens doors to the above-and doubtless many other-unheralded jobs
and genres. The key is to think entrepreneurially and to spread your talent as far as it
will go.
MARKETING ILLUSTRATION
Diversify. The editorial market is not dead, but it is only one of many ways of making
and selling mass images.
The Unbearable Burden of Marketing
Yourself: A Personal Bistory
The motor that drives the art machine is fueled by energy. Energy is a by product
of believing that you have something to say. The fuel for marketing is the desire for
money. Desire, in itself, produces craving and depletes energy.
If you desire success you will covet the concept of marketing to fulfill your
desires. If you desire communication with yourself and others, that energy base may
be the best marketing tool you have.
If all this sounds confusing, it is. Now in my late sixties, after forty years of making
pictures that appear on the printed page and gallery wall, I am still confused by Andy
Warhol's comment that "The best art of all is the business of art." I am less confused by
Mark Rothko's comment, "There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing."
The part of me that paints is not the part of me that markets the painting. Like
many artists, I would like to leave the marketing to someone more qualified than
myself, but I can't. I wish I could-I have tried. Over the years, I have had a few
illustration reps and many gallery owners whose jobs, I thought, were to market
me better than I marketed myself The end result was being forced to acknowledge
that I know myself better than they do. Marketing something I believe in is my
responsibility. I have tried to make peace with the two parts of me that are in conflict.
For example, I set aside specific days to make phone calls, to e-mail, etc. These are the
days I don't try and make pictures. This is not a perfect solution, but the tug-of-war
between the state of creativity and the state of marketing is less draining.
Looking back is the only way that I can perceive a pattern. If you ask what my
next project will be, I will answer, I don't know. If you ask what I have learned about
marketing myself over the years, I will answer, I am still learning.
I was educated as a graphic designer (Pratt Institute, 1956-1960). My first job
was at General Motors Tech Center. After three months of employment, I realized
that I didn't like working with people-I didn't like solving problems that were not
my own. The only time I was happy and full of energy was when I was alone, drawing
and painting.
132
MARKETING THE NEW ILLUSTRATION
My first portfolio was done on 30×40-inch Masoniite boards and weighed
sixty pounds. A marketing expert would have talked me out of it. Many art directors
stopped me on Madison Avenue and asked what was in the portfolio-on-wheels.
The card I gave out was an original painting of a man playing a paintbrush with
a violin bow. A marketing expert would have sent me to a printer. The card sat,
framed, on many art directors' desks. The card included my name, address, and phone
number, but the phone, unfortunately, was located at my friend's house a half-block
away from my apartment in Brooklyn. The art director who called me for my first
illustration job was put on hold for the ten minutes it took my friend to run down
the block and get me. The art director, thinking I had listed the candy store on the
corner, told me to never get my own phone.
"Meaning," Carl Jung said, "has curative power. What is meaningful to you is the
basis of all things, perhaps everything."
My advice is simply to accept the responsibility of marketing yourself. If you are
marketing for yourself, it will provide you with the energy to do it all.
A kung-fu master told me this about replenishing energy: hug trees . My advice:
make more art.
– Marshall Arisman
133
– Marketing Illustration
– Steven Heller & Marshall Arisman
– Chapter 1: What to Do If You Want to Make Art, But Need to Make a Living
– Chapter 6: Marketing the New Illustration
**CSULB_ART311_Reading_6-3_Heller-Arisman_Inside_Business_Illustration-ch4.pdf**
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