This is an interesting article from the Wealthy Freelancer.
“I’m looking for the least possible amount of responsibility.” What a great line from the movie American Beauty.
In this scene, Lester Burnham, a tired and overworked 14-year advertising executive (played by Kevin Spacey), has just quit his corporate job. He’s tired of his life at home and his dead-end career. And upon seeing a “Now Hiring” sign at the local fast-food joint, he decides to and start all over as a burger flipper. This scene came to mind when I read an article in the Los Angeles Times about high-powered and highly educated single young professionals who have recently lost their jobs. The article talked about a trend called “funemployment,” where many young professionals are opting to stay unemployed indefinitely.
Basically, these individuals gave their careers everything they had. And after years of sacrifice, they suddenly find themselves unemployed…and tired of the corporate BS. So instead of looking for another job, they’re taking advantage of the opportunity to do all the things they’ve been putting off for years. Some are traveling the world. Others just want to hang out at the beach and drink margaritas, take road trips to see friends and family, or play golf every day. To me, this is just more evidence that we’re about to see a massive paradigm shift in the way we view work. The current “work them to death” model in corporate America is broken. People are tired of sacrificing everything for their career, only to get a pink slip at the end. And we have a new generation entering the workforce that has a very different view of what the right work-life balance should be. That’s why I’m confident that a large percentage of these “funemployed” will come back (when their severance and savings run out!) as freelancers and solo professionals – not as corporate execs. They want the high pay, but they’re not willing to compromise too much to get it. Which means that in many cases they’ll have to settle for less until they build their solo careers. But I think most of them will be OK with that. The freedom to design the life they want and live by their own rules will be the biggest reward. And it won’t be long before many of them are earning more (and doing more of what they want) than they did in their corporate jobs.
I’m sitting here waiting to perform my civic duty in Hillsborough County, Florida. Yes, you guessed it, I have jury duty and that means waiting in a large room of my fellow citizens to be selected to judge other fellow citizens of their alleged crimes or offenses. The Internet connection here is painfully slow and I don’t have one of those plug in thingys so I thought I would use my time wisely to make another addition to my blog. Its been a while since I sat down to write anything so without further delay, here goes nuttin!
I was reading through my old college’s alumni job board trying to see if there was anything there that I could possibly bid on and I came across a gentleman’s listing for an animation professional. This man was looking for someone to produce a slick piece of animation based on his series of children’s books. He was looking for someone who had the skill set to create something beautiful and imaginative. He was looking for someone who could work within a tight deadline and finish work on schedule. This animation professional’s reward would be the author’s gratitude and the possibility of getting the attention of major players in the animation industry. I noticed something missing from the author’s submission. When I looked under the heading for compensation what I saw made me a bit upset. Heck, it made me downright angry. I have seen this before. Under compensation was the single word a freelancer doesn’t want to see. “unpaid”.
Been there, done that. I have been illustrating professionally for over 20 years now. Admittedly I’m no Maurice Sendak or Norman Rockwell. I have worked on some exciting projects and occasionally I will donate artwork to a worthy cause like the Ronald McDonald House of Tampa Bay. When I started on this journey of creating artwork for a living I did take on a freebie job every so often in order to get exposure. More often than not this exposure never comes. More often than not the person “helping you with your career” gets your services for free and works you to death as if he were paying you $100 an hour. I’ve been there and done that. I have to admit that part of me admires the nerve or someone to try to get something for free. Getting something expensive for free is almost more admirable. My gut feeling on people like this is why are you trying to take advantage of someone’s hard work. Why are you trying to get something for free on the sweat of some hard working artist? I hate to see this and I hope that no one responds to his request. It may sound mean of me or spiteful but why is it that some people seem to think artists want to give their work away? My wife accuses me of working too much for some people and not getting paid enough. I am probably guilty of that but I can’t help myself. Its my reputation and I just don’t want to release an art piece to someone that is not 100% perfect and up to my standards. So this is why I am upset when I see things like this.
OK, off of my soapbox and back to work. Back to work for my PAYING clients!
Sometimes it hits you like a load of bricks. You sit at your drawing table staring at it waiting for it to do something on its own. Just draw something!! Anything! You try to draw something and it just does not work. Nothing comes to you. No great ideas, no-thing!! So what do you do? When I hit the wall I will put in a movie or I will go for a walk. Sometimes I will go on line and look at other’s work. When all else fails I will simply give up. That’s where I am now. Usually with the end of the year my work goes dry. The phone goes on vacation but the bills still won’t fly south for the Winter. I have hit rock bottom.
I could sit here and be depressed about it. I could panic. I could go running around my neighborhood screaming from the rooftops like a madman. Believe me I have done all of those things before. Well I have not run on my neighbor’s roof….yet. The worst thing to do is panic. Today I have decided to take a work vacation. At this point we are blessed to have a current mortgage. Most of the bills have been paid. There are NO colelction agencies calling us. We are basically in pretty good shape. So I’m taking a day off…..what the heck, let’s do the whole weekend. Christmas is coming and no one I would get work from is working anyway. Today I will sit down with my soon to be 7 year old son and we will make Christmas cards. Later tonight we will watch Charley and the Chocolate Factory (the one with Johnny Depp) and just have some fun. Our schedules are so busy that sometimes we don’t get to spend that quality time you want to spend with a child. My son is going to either be an artist like me or a lawyer. The kid argues EVERYTHING!
Basically what to do when a creative slump hits? Things are different for different people but for me, I need to shut it down and stop trying so much. When it becomes WORK, it looks like WORK. Everything I draw comes out stiff and boring. Being a professional illustrator is hard sometimes because the artwork is not really yours. My friends in fine arts in college used to call us illustrators “art prostitutes”. They are in many ways right. Pay us the money and we give you what you want. Whatever you want whenever you want it. Sometimes you need a slump buster. Sometimes you need to drop back and punt. The way that I will get out of this is to go off on my own and create something totally fun and enjoy it though the eyes of a child…..me!
Once again corporate America has struck out. You see this happen with repetition over and over again. There is a company that relies on creativity to enhance its product only to see the guys in the business suits screw it all up. A few years ago we saw the corporate greed with a certain entertainment giant lead by a mouse basically destroy years of hard work and classic animation with multiple direct to video sequels of incredible films. Films that should have been allowed to stand on their own. Did we really need to know what happened after Cinderella married the Prince and lived happily ever after? Did we really need another Little Mermaid?
Now we see something in my back yard happen that leaves everyone around these parts scratching their collective heads. Raymond the mascot has been fired. There has been no reason given. Maybe its part of a down-sizing movement. Maybe Raymond demanded too many dog biscuits before, during, and after games. Was Raymond demanding too many hot dogs?
Once again the Wharton business school types have stepped in and made a creative decision. These are the same types who said something like, “wouldn’t it be great to do a sequel to the Jungle Book?” or “How much money do you think we can squeeze out of that Land Before Time movie?”. When business types meddle in creativity its a recipe for disaster. Films tank at the box office, animators lose jobs, baseball teams lose a great marketing tool to grow a fan base in a new market fresh off a World Series appearance. Its not about thinking just how much you can make off a bad idea. Its the way Walt Disney thought. Let’s go out and hire all of the most creative people available, put them in a room, leave them alone and see what amazing things they can do.
If you want an example of success, look no farther than PIXAR animation studios. While Disney, Fox, Warner Brothers, and Dreamworks all saw hand drawn films die at the box office, PIXAR was basically growing money down on its cash farm because they did it the right way. They put creative people in charge of creative decisions and stepped in only when things got over budget. The same goes for our little baseball team down here. Should the Rays corporate let Raymond be more active in the community? Yes. Should they have done more marketing involving Raymond as far as children’s books or posters? Yes. Should the Rays have let Raymond do more appearances at schools or fairs and the like? Yes. Did they? No.
Just once I would love to see what would happen if creatives were allowed in the board room. Who knows what would happen if the inmates ran the asylum.
It has been a while since my last post and I have decided to finally write something so absolutely no one will read it! Yeah, I know, I’m too hard on myself but seriously. No one reads my blog, not even my Mom!
I have been in a funk. I just completed my 4th children’s book and I am looking for another project to work on. a PAYING project. I get a lot of offers for work that will get me “exposure” but what these people can’t seem to figure out is I can’t pay my mortgage with “exposure”! I am also in a funk because I’m not sure exactly what I want to do next. In the past I have done advertising work but agencies are not exactly breaking down my door with offers. I love publishing but the song and dance I have to go through gets a bit tiring. I could finally work on my own book or an idea for a comic strip I have been kicking around for about 4 years now but……repeat after me….we need the money. There is an extension of the evil empire (Starbuck’s) opening down the street and I could serve my neighbors coffee all day long. Well, the neighbors who can afford Starbuck’s! Why does coffee have to cost so damn much!? Its beans and water! Is it because of the cool and trendy atmosphere of Starbucks? Is it because of the highly over-priced CD’s? I want to join my neighbors some day with my laptop, a tall mochachino latte double half caff and my glasses that make me look smart so I can look important when what I really am is an unemployed cartoonist with a serious addiction to fermented hops and barley malt!
I’m getting off the topic. What I may do are sculptures of some of my paintings. Stop laughing. There is this clay that you can mold and shape into funny little characters and bake either in your oven or with a heat gun. I will then take these sculptures, paint them and sell them for huge profits!
As you read this you will probably wonder why an illustrator would be writing a blog about coffee shops. Well my friends the evil empire hath stuck again. My local community coffee shop has been taken out for good. Sumatra Coffee has closed its doors. No more poetry slams, no more Saturday morning children’s book readings for the kids, no more open mic nights. Gone are the walls plastered with artwork from local artists in the neighborhood. The NEIGHBORHOOD people! In its place…well, up the road, there will be a…you guessed it. Another Starbucks. Instead of the local feel of being served a nice cup of hot joe by the guy who knows his stuff when you ask him what’s the difference between a chai and a latte there will be the local kid mixing up the “coffee of the day” from some recipe in a a lab in Seattle. Instead of poetry readings and live music we will have over priced CDs from people who have never heard or care about Riverview, Florida.
So will I venture into the evil empire’s new store once its built? Of course I will because I’m a coffee junkie. I need my joe before locking myself behind my drawing table in my dark little hole of a studio. Its my belief that Starbucks puts something in their coffee and their pastries that make you crave it like a drug. Mind you our local shop was in a bad location about 200 yards from a busy road tucked into a strip shopping center next to a pizza joint. The Starbucks is almost right in the middle of the road. Stevie Wonder couldn’t miss that big green mermaid logo. If you will recall in mythology mermaids seduced sailors with their songs and would then drag them under water to their deaths. Well Starbucks has a mermaid on their logo. You people do the math. I’m not trying to dog out Starbucks but it makes you wonder hmmmmmm?
So when do they open? Maybe I can go help the construction crew….
I was doing some research for a children’s book I am illustrating and I needed some reference of Jamaica. I found this really cool reading of a Dr. Seuss ABC book with a Jamaican Patois accent. Its really cool. Check it out!
I am a sports fan. I live in the Tampa Bay area of Florida and I love all of the area teams no matter how bad they are. I suffered through watching the then called “Devil” Rays, I watched as the rest of the nation laughed at the idea of professional hockey being played in Tampa, Florida. I have also stood by my favorite team through 26 straight, miserable losses and eventually winning a Super Bowl in 2003. Yes, I’m talking about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were an absolutely AWFUL team. I remember back in 1975 when we were awarded the team asking my mother exactly what was a Buccaneer. Give me a break, I was only eight years old! I remember falling in love with the team colors and that cool logo of the pirate with the feather sticking out of his hat. I would practice drawing that logo over and over again until I could do it from memory. I even did it in color with my set of magic markers. I drew it on my back pack, my lunch bag, my book covers, anything I could draw on. People, I LOVED that logo design. Fast forward to several years ago in 1997. The team has new owners and one of the first things they want to do is erase the losing legacy of those “creamsickle orange” Bucs and that awful “Bucco Bruce” logo. HEY! You can’t do that! I used to draw that dang logo everywhere! So out with Bucco Bruce and in with this menacing logo with a skull and crossed swords over a football. Out with the tropical orange and red colors and in with the pewter, red, black and a dash of orange for history’s sake. I will admit, I liked the new logo but I will always have a soft spot for Bucco Bruce.
“Bruce” was designed by long time Tampa Tribune cartoonist Lamar Sparkman. Faced with the difficulty of designing a logo that didn’t look too much like that of the other “pirates” in the league, the Oakland Raiders, Sparkman came up with a pirate in a plumed hat and a cutlass in his mouth. Like I said before, I thought it was cool. I remember a few years ago I tracked Sparkman down through the phone book. This was back when I didn’t have a computer and had to do things the old fashioned way. He was the only “Lamar Sparkman” in the book so I worked up the nerve to give him a call. I wanted to thank him for his artwork since it was being bashed without mercy in the local and national press. You see, we artists get quite attached to our work no matter how others see it. We spoke for nearly an hour about his career as a staff cartoonist for the Tampa Tribune and about the “good old days” of being a staff artist. I remember growing up always wanting to be a cartoonist for my local paper. We also spoke about the Bucs logo. Mr. Sparkman told me that it did hurt his feelings to hear people speak so harshly about his design and that it was not his intention to create a “winking pirate” as many people have called it. He went on to inform me that his drawing was an image of yester-year. The Buccaneers first logo was supposed to be a tribute to Errol Flynn. It was meant to be the kind of swashbuckling pirate seen in such classic films as Captain Blood and the like. It certainly was not meant to say anything about anyone’s sexuality! After talking for a while I thanked him for his work and he thanked me for taking the time to call an old retired cartoonist and we left it at that.
When we criticize a piece of artwork and bash it for not being “hip” or “cool” we oftentimes forget that there is a person standing behind that artwork and there are people out there who DO appreciate it for what it is to them, a really cool piece of football nostalgia.
OK. I’m a little bit more than burned up about something. First of all I have to mention that I log onto Craigslist.org every now and then to see if there is anyone with an interesting illustration gig. About 99% of the time I find nothing. I also look in other places on the Internet to see if i can find that diamond in the rough type job. This search also usually comes up with nothing. What I do see are lots of people with “free” jobs. These are people who have some sort of project like a mural or a t-shirt design or maybe even stationary. They want you to spend lots of time and energy working on their artwork for their nice little pet project. What they don’t want to do is pay you for it. Mind you I do free work every now and then but its usually for a charitable organization and I usually get connections with businesses in town from the director in the end. The losers I’m talking about are the ones who act like they are paying you thousands of dollars but what you really get in return for your hard work are coupons for free meals or a “portfolio piece”. My all time favorite is “you will get exposure”. Excuse the heck out of me!? Can I pay my electric bill with “exposure”? Can I put food on the table with a “portfolio piece”? Will the bank take a coupon from some restaurant as a mortgage payment? Heck no! Do these people realize that the artist needs to eat too? Mind you in this economy its hard enough trying to make a living as an artist. Its even harder when you have to put up with this kind of garbage! The other thing that burns me up are the actual jobs. Once again a company will work you into the ground in exchange for….wait for it…..$8 an hour! Is this country turning into a third world super power or what? Who can support a family on $8 an hour!? Once again you get twice screwed because its $8 an hour with NO BENEFITS. Now I’m sure that a lot of this has to do with me working in what they call a small market. I can accept that as I love in the Tampa Bay area. All I am saying is don’t be shocked, employers, when you try to hire someone to create artwork for you and they get all “pissy” when all you offer them are scraps. Soon enough will a bit of luck I may find out what its like to work in a major, large market. That, my friends is the subject of an upcoming blog. Stay tuned!
I am a freelance illustrator. Sounds nice huh. I think I’ll back up and admire that phrase for a minute. Looks mighty nice on paper huh? I also have a wife and a 6 year old son who goes to an after school program. I have a mortgage and we have to eat. Gas costs like $90 per gallon so if I need to actually see a client I need money to feed the Pontiac Vibe in the driveway. My freelance has just about dried up. I just finished a children’s book last year and have been waiting to start the 4th and last of the series. The start date for it has been pushed back several times. I understand that hard times hit my small publisher as well. She’s not Random House, Scholastic, or Harcourt. It was with a lot of thought that I decided to submit my portfolio and reel to Disney Animation Studios in California. That’s right. Ca-li-for-ni-a. There is no work for me now here in Florida so I will have to leave my family behind to work on the complete opposite side of the United States for a little over a year. That also means beside all of the bills here in Florida I will have to live on a shoestring budget in California. Cheap rent…cheap rent? In California? Yeah right! I will have to live off of Ramen soups and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but I need to lose weight anyway. Basically its going to be rough.
The position I am trying out for is called “breakdown artist”. In traditional hand drawn animation this is the artist who works on a clean up crew who receives either an entire scene or parts of a scene that needs to be broken up in order to pass out to other artists called “in betweeners”. I was a breakdown artist for almost 7 years at Disney in Florida until the studio was shut down in 2003. Last year it was announced that Disney would be creating another 2D film called the Frog Princess. I never gave any consideration to applying since it was clear across the country but in these economic times and given our bad situation I thought I would give it a go. Beside I always wanted to work on just one more feature film. I have also worked on Mulan, Tarzan, the Emperor’s New Groove, Lilo and Stitch, the Little Match Girl, John Henry, and Brother Bear.
Working for Disney will also give me the opportunity to brush up and learn some new computer skills since there is always some kind of training for the artists at the studio. I really need to learn programs like Flash, InDesign, Quark Express, Illustrator, and the dreaded Maya. If this all goes down I will of course keep a running blog of my production work on “Frog”.
Stay tuned kiddies!! Its going to be a bumpy ride!
