This brief has dragged on a bit. The illustrations which were dropped from the original commission turned out out to be required afterall, except for one. My agent had sent an invoice for cancellation which amounted to 25% of the original fee, (to cover work carried out on the roughs). So he then had to send another job sheet to cover the other 75%. But the publishers had combined two of the original illustrations into one. This is out of order as in the original brief two separate illustrations were requested. Also the brief had asked for all images to be created in pen and wash but now one of them is required in plasticine.
Basically this is a real mess. The Nutcracker illo in the previous post was the one illustration which was actually dropped, but in the confusion I painted it and sent it to the design studio. I felt a bit of an idiot, but in light of the fact that the Publishers had duplicated artwork numbers and combined others it was bound to happen. Especially with my numeracy skills!
Anyway here is the next image. The 'Evil Japanese King wearing a theatrical mask.
Basically this is a real mess. The Nutcracker illo in the previous post was the one illustration which was actually dropped, but in the confusion I painted it and sent it to the design studio. I felt a bit of an idiot, but in light of the fact that the Publishers had duplicated artwork numbers and combined others it was bound to happen. Especially with my numeracy skills!
Anyway here is the next image. The 'Evil Japanese King wearing a theatrical mask.
Comments
Interesting blog. I am doing research for a dissataton in Illustration I am studying in Cambridge the title of the dissitation is
Does the commercial aspect of being an illustrator undermine artistic freedom??
Do you feel restricted by art directors, writters or deadlines.
I would also like to know whether you do your own personal work. and what you intend to do with it. or does it feed other work?
I don't know how typical I am, but I do perhaps get a bit more freedom than most. This is probably more because of my style, ( see my work at http://ravenmadness.blogspot.com/ )
I tend to submit roughs for the briefs in the knowledge that the final illustrations can look quite different. The Art Director's mostly accept this, so they afford me some freedom. Having said that I do sometimes get asked to make changes to the finals which is a bit vexing.
The deadlines are the most restricting, to the point of dispair with the last job. 19 illustrations in 16 days with my style of illustration was a nightmare, involving 14-15 hour days and all weekend work. This impacts on the makeup of my illustrations where I have to compromise and use less time consuming mediums such as digital 3D. This is mainly an issue with Educational work
My personal work will have little to do with illustration ie sculpture. But many of my peers sell both paintings, prints and craft items on Etsy.