Are you in or out?

How to Get and Keep Illustration and Design Jobs: Post Number Two

In my continuing mission to turn every artist into a working artist who eats whatever they want (not just dry packaged noodles), I’ll be posting a series on getting work. Whether that means FT employment or complete independence, I’ll cover it. I’ll probably get some of my talented working friends to help me out. You’ll enjoy them. They’re nice.

Are you in or out?

You know how in the movies the ultra cool, fast-talking, just-got-out-of-prison-but-still-scheming character briefs his circle of ne’er-do-well cronies on his really hot plan to rob the vatican of all its earthly treasures? At the end of his ultra cool briefing, he turns to his pals and says, “Are you in or out?”

We all know that once they say they’re in, we’re going to see them do whatever the hell they need to do to get ‘er done.

Gandhi was like that ultra cool dude.

Okay, what?

Yep, Gandhi.

No, he didn’t plot to rob the vatican (that we know of. it’s just an assumption). However, he wrote about this very idea from jail in 1930:

“Taking vows is not a sign of weakness, but of strength. To do at any cost something that one ought to do constitutes a vow. It becomes the bulwark of strength. A man who says that he will do something ‘as far as possible’, betrays either his pride or his weakness. I have noticed in my own case, as well as in the case of others, the the limitation ‘as far as possible’ provides a fatal loophole.

To do something ‘as far as possible’ is to succumb to the very first temptation. There is no sense in saying that one would observe the truth ‘as far as possible’. Even as no businessman will look at a note in which a man promises to pay a certain amount on a certain date ‘as far as possible’, so will God refuse to accept a promissory note drawn by a man, who will observe the truth as far as possible.”

So you’ve decided that you want to pursue your dream of  freelance illustration. Or maybe you’ve chosen a path to go after the best design firm on the planet and succeed there.

Are you in or out? Are going to go “as far as possible” or are you going to actually get there?

You know, I could blog all day about how I understand how tough it is for you. You’ve got kids, you have no money, your husband/wife took a permanent vacation in la la land, you live with your ‘rents, you’re on disability, blah blah blah blah blah.

I do understand it. I’ve been there. No job, new baby, credit card bills to scare a GM exec, and no way in hell I could see how I was supposed to pursue this art thing when all I want to do is avoid living on the street.

Don’t think I don’t know what that’s about. My wife sure does.

There is absolutely no point in reading this blog any further if you’re “kinda thinking you might want to do something with your art someday.”

There is no someday. Someday is today.

Are you in or out? Are you with me? Are we speaking the same language?

If so, then here’s the truth. Building a freelance art business or getting into the firm of your dreams is really, really hard. Sometimes it sucks. Sometimes even when you’ve had some success you want to curl up beneath a piece of furniture and hide. Meeting new people is scary. Interviewing ties you up in wet sailor knots. Trying to pay your bills with the scant fees you made last month is a nightmare. Trying to get paid when your clients are late and you want to strangle them but you know it’s best to maintain the relationship keeps you awake at night. When your kids get sick and you don’t know how sick yet but you don’t have a health insurance plan, you start wondering if you should have taken that office job after all.

That’s what this “trying to do something with your art” thing is about.

I’m a nice guy. I care about you. I have tons of empathy for your situation, I really do.

But I can’t teach you a damn thing if you’re going to start out thinking that it’s going to be easy or quick.

I recently did an illustration for Highlights High Five magazine. It didn’t just land in my lap one day, although it seemed like it did. The truth is, I pursued that gig for over a year. It was hard. I even flew to NYC and Los Angeles for conferences to meet with people who would help me figure out how to get it (and more like it). That was expensive. And hard.

I hear from artists all the time say things like, “Well, I’ll start really working on my marketing after I get some clients.”

It doesn’t work that way. Are you in or are you out?

There’s no, “Now I’ve made it so I can just chill and just create my quirky art on my Malibu deck.” It never ends.

Even if you aren’t going freelance, it never ends. So you get your dream job, then what? Do you just coast from then on?

Hey, I get it. You get the gig, you land the job, you want to go out to dinner and celebrate. Mazeltov! Do it. Bask for a bit. Pat yourself on the back.

But don’t coast. Show up, every day. Be in it.

I love what I do, that’s true. It’s fun coming up with concepts and designing characters and tweaking layouts. It’s exactly what I thought it would be.

But there are days where I pull up to my drawing table and look down at my tracing paper and moan. Ugh. Not this. Again. Do I hafta?

I won’t lie, that feeling surfaces from time to time. That’s being human.

There’s a difference between momentary ugh-ness and acting as if it should be easy.

So are you in or out?

Because we are robbing the Vatican tomorrow. Gandhi’s our point man. Don’t be late.