I was in extremely good company. Mark Fearing spoke just before me on Graphic Novels. He's an amazing illustrator and also an animator (animators RULE). He's got a graphic novel coming out in 2011, which sounds really promising - so look for it!

At the end of his talk, Mark said something really awesome. It was about rules and how he doesn't like them when it comes to talking about getting your work sold.

You know how I am about rules. There are so many ways to approach any endeavor. People can have success with completely opposite approaches.

My talk was about not creating art in the computer, based on this blog post. The title sounds very rules-ish, right?

In fact, before,during, and after my talk I learned that at least three artists in the room (including Mark Fearing) create their art directly in the computer.

It's a perfect example of not applying stuff people tell you (me included) about how to create your art. The rules are, there ain't no rules.

I can talk on the blog and in my digital illustration course about my approach to creating digital art. It works for me. It's a proven method and lots of people buy my stuff.

Regardless, if it goes against what works for you, then please do one of two things:

1. Ignore me. Move along, nothing to see here. Do your thing.
2. Tell me about it so I can share it with my people.

One of my grander plans for the digital illustration school is to bring in guest illustrators to demo their methods. There are as many methods as there are people and I think this would be a huge help to students - knowing that there isn't just one way.

So my talk went well. People seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say and I think they were entertained. Here's a sampling of some of the images I brought up to demonstrate my points...

My head floating out of a robot. At least they knew I would be weird right up front.

I used Jenni's bread to talk about illustration. Yep. Officially wacko.

I also used coffee to talk about illustration. Where was I going with this?

Believe me, I knew they were wondering.

It's a NASA flight control panel. If you weren't there, you wouldn't understand.

My first attempt at creating art in the computer. Hideous, scary, and really, really bad.

A recent illustration for Highlights Magazine. I eventually figured out a method.

The final pencil sketch for the Highlights High Five illo. It was "done" before I even went to the computer.

There was more to it than these slides show. I wish you had been there.

It was fun. People laughed at me (thank god).

I think the reason I felt good about it was that aside from the little slide show, I pretty much "winged" my talk. Sure, I knew where I was going, I rehearsed a few things. Mostly it was conversational and that made it much more relaxed for me and (I think) the audience.

I think I helped some people, which was the whole point of me standing in front of them and waving my arms around while talking about weird stuff like bread. 

If I gave even one person in the audience a seed of an idea about how to use their computer to create illustration, then I succeeded.

If I made them hungry, then my plan for total world domination kicked off nicely.

ADDENDUM

I am such a cotton-headed ninnymuggins.

I failed to acknowledge Robin Koontz and Judi Gardiner, organizers of the SCBWI Oregon Spring Conference.

Robin also gave an outstanding, very informative presentation about the illustrator's market in children's publishing. She's the reason I was able to speak to anyone about anything by allowing me time in the Illustrators Master class to do my thing.

Mucho thanks to Robin and Judi. You both did an incredible job with this event.

You know, like in a computer. Pixels, vectors, Adobe products, Apple gear, WACOM tablet, LCD, external drives. Electromagnetic Hell.

So some students will find it odd that the first thing out of my mouth when I talk about method is, "Don't create your art in the computer."

This coming from the guy who makes his living with a computer. I didn't always make awesome digital illustration. In fact, it kind of sucked.

A little backstory.

The first time I sat down at a computer was at my dad's office at O'Hare airport (riiiight. try that nowadays, kids). It was a green-screen airline reservations system hooked up to a dot-matrix printer.  I was seven years old. My first thought was "This is just like Star Wars." My second thought was, "How can I make art with this thing?" My sister and I had all kinds of fun making rocket ship patterns with numbers and letters. Weee-hoo!

This image will self-destruct in 3...2...

Years later, when Windows 3.1 became the hottest thing since 10-lb. mobile phones, I started creating art in the computer again. It was terrible. Pixelated nightmares of birthday greetings and mutilated self-portraits.

When a friend loaned me a copy of CorelDraw, I created some equally bad art in the computer. The fact that I had a more sophisticated vector application did nothing to improve my digital work. Why?

It's because I strayed from the wildly fun and inspirational process of drawing and doodling and focused on just making it all up onscreen.

My digital work has improved considerably since I "went backwards" and started sketching again. When I work on a project now, my first step is to move away from the computer. Even though the final art is all digital, it always (always, always) starts out with a #2 pencil and plain ol' paper.

Copylicious was delicious

Here's an awesome real-world example of my method. It's not brain surgery, this method of mine. I didn't file a patent on the process. It just works.

Kelly Parkinson is a copywriter extraordinaire. If you visit her copylicious web site, you'll soon find yourself inventing excuses to work with her. She's just awesome, and she's also my ideal client. She's independent, knows her business, and enjoys talking about it. That made it incredibly easier to get a handle on how I could help her with some illustrations.

Kelly has a pretty cool product called the Web Site Jet Pack. The design of her site is simple and fun. She just needed a simple bird illustration. A birdie wearing a jet pack. When I hear something like that you can't pull me away. A bird wearing a jet pack. This is what gets me excited, what can I say?

Let's make some birdies!

After Kelly and I talked about her site, I went to Step 1: I put my computer to sleep and started doodling little birdies. I just had fun with it, let loose. No high art here, no polished Leonardo DaVinci renderings, just some messin' around.

Then I went away and had something to eat (that's Step 2 if you're keeping track). It's good to go away for a bit because I find I overfocus and lose sight of the big picture.

When I came back I narrowed down my doodles and made some more finished drawings. Below you can see a few examples. I do this every time.

Digital Illustration Unplugged: pencil and paper.

You'll also see the final drawing on the tracing paper (upper right, by the pencil point). That's the thing I scan in and use as a reference in the computer.

I'll get into that in more depth another time, I promise.

For now, the thing I want to stick in your mind is the idea that creating digital illustration does not always start in the computer. For me, it starts where all my better illustration starts, which is in the noggin and on paper.

Another interesting point is that I never sent Kelly my doodles and scraps. How much fun would that have been for her?

Ummm... what the hell is this? I thought this guy was good, I don't want this sketchy crap on my web site. What is this, like, half a bird? Oh my god... is it too late to get my money back?

It would be the equivalent of Kelly sending one of her clients a torn-up notebook page of shorthand and saying, "It will be kind of like this."

Disaster, right? So instead they just get awesome copy that works. Kelly gets a polished-up birdie in a jet pack. Everyone's happy.

So again, the lesson for today, Kids? Turn off the computer. Give that pencil a workout. You'll be very pleased with the results and you might just have a blast in the process. Isn't that why you do this anyway?

Jenni (my wife) can do amazing things with yeast and flour. Here's where I suddenly become a non-expert and kind of an idiot. I'm happy to be a baking idiot because the stuff she bakes is so freaking awesome that I would pretend to be a baking idiot even if I weren't. She makes our bread every week. Yep. Two crusty, golden loaves of goodness for sandwiches, toast, and just stuffing huge hunks in our mouths when she's not looking. She recently perfected her California Sourdough. Sigh.

Baking her bread is an art. There are three million little steps she goes through by hand. It's a craft.

Long ago in a galaxy far, far away we had a bread machine. The bread was... okay. Kind of a weird rectylinder-shaped loaf. Not bad. The thing that made it palatable was that Jenni still used her own dough and just used the machine for kneading (carpal tunnel issues). However, I was fascinated (okay, turned off) by the inherent concept of a bread machine.

If you used this machine in the way it was intended, you simply had to combine their box of mix and some water in the machine and press the appropriate buttons at the right time (some even have one-button functionality).

Or, you could drive to Safeway and pick up some Wonder Bread. I still have personal issues with either option. Where's the love, the craft? Bread baking should be like my Great Grandma Mary used to do. I don't think I ever saw that woman without flour in her hair or on her clothes. It was messy, yeasty, loud (slap!), and uneven in shape. Beautiful.

I guess that's why I'm still writing about it twenty-five  years later.

Coffee

Coffee. Mmm.. coffee. We make ours in a French press at home. We grind the beans before brewing every pot. We are total coffee snobs (I blame Europe). I don't care. We love our oily beans, our fresh coffee.

When I'm out of the house my first preference is the local coffee shop, but I'm not opposed to stopping at Starbucks. I won't pretend that doesn't represent a conflict in my values (Kiva), but I have other value issues which must be remedied first. Priorities.

One thing that will likely hasten my boycott of Starbucks is the buttons. While Howard Schultz claimed to have a vision of bringing Italian espresso bars to America, he seems to have created the McDonaldLand® version. Just ten short years ago, the Manhattan Starbucks I frequented made their espresso "by hand" in a real machine. The baristas would talk to me and they knew my name. Now it's just push-button technology and "I HAVE A VENTI SOY LATTE FOR... DAVID?"

It's a bread machine.

In contrast, the baristas at Concordia Coffeehouse in NE Portland take a little longer to get me my soy latte (like, 30 seconds). But man, what a thing of beauty. It's an art and I enjoy watching them perform. We talk. I feel pity for the Starbucks "baristas" who don't get (choose) to do that every day. Maybe there's a special way they press the buttons. I don't know.

Computer Art

Well. If you've followed me this far, you can see what I'm driving at.

You can create art in the computer by using the pre-set shape tools, gradient effects, blur filters, and use every gadget dans le maison. You can press buttons all day long and you may come out with a good illustration.

Did you put some art in there?

For a long time, a lot of art directors and agents stayed away from buying "computer art." It looked too perfect, too slick. You could tell it was computer art. People still like seeing those little imperfections that make an illustration feel... real.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with digital illustration. If there were, I would be out of business.

The thing is, if you're going to create art using the computer, you've got to allow for the happy accidents, the serendipitous flyaway brush stroke, the uneven rectangle here and there. Let it be messy. Be asymmetrical. Slap that vector line on the counter with a loud SLAP!

If you use traditional tools (paint, pastel, cut-out paper), you know how messy you can get. Feels good, right?

The computer is just a another tool. You can learn every feature and effect in the Adobe CS4 Design Suite, but that simply makes you a Technical Expert. What makes you an artist is the ability to communicate emotion, action, subtle wit, or simply a comfy feeling. It doesn't matter if you use a pencil or pixels, but if you choose pixels, please don't become a button-pusher. Anyone can push a button and learn some features by using a manual. Yes, anyone.

When Jenni takes her bread out of the oven, she beams. She holds it up a steaming, golden loaf and everyone says, "Oooooooohhhh!"

That's art. That's what art does.

So use the computer to make your art. Don't forget to be a little messy.

Did you know there are hidden rewards in a freelance art career? Rewards that take you farther than the ability to buy tonight's keg, that is. If you're new to freelancing as an artist, you need to hear this. I wish they taught this stuff in art schools. It's about sustaining your career in the long term. It's about building something more than a permanent "side" business. It's about truly going out on your own and feeling awesome about it. Read on!

The Perspective

As a freelancer, I do my share of one-off projects. There's that package design illustration for a kid's snack container. There were the custom avatars, a few icons, a web site header. They're nice, these one-offs. I enjoy them (because why else would I fire up my computer every day), but the projects I do my best work on are the ones that require lots of chatting, e-mails, and idea-tossing. Those are the ones that blossom into an ongoing, mutually beneficial relationship.

Womb to Bloom is one of those relationships. 

The Womb to Bloom web site is an online community and resource for new moms and moms-to-be, "Maternity and Beyond." Awesome concept, amazing potential for growth.

The Client

The Womb to Bloom founders (Greg and Heather Zellers) and I reached each other through a gig-type site about some animation work they needed done. It's no secret that I love to talk with people about their projects. First, it's just fun (I geek out on web and TV development). Second, it helps me frame my portion of their project with a reference that controls the budget. It's also easier to offer new ideas without going off on crazy tangents.

So when they called, we talked a lot about what the animation could be. It also happened that they needed some simple illustrations and icons that would tie everything together. This is where I started drooling on my phone because I loved the site concept, they had a great logo already, and the web development was already flowing.

The Concepts

The initial concept was to have a central "mom" character to base everything on. Once we nailed down that character design, the icons and other illustrations would flow. I was already loving this project because it made sense before I even got out my pencils. It was also very easy for me to create a project plan that worked with their budget. 

Although we had some great early chats about concepts, I have to admit that the initial brainstorm sketches I created were a little... off. The style of my first sketch was just somewhere between Family Guy and Rugrats. But this is the part that makes my job awesome, because we were able to use those sketches as a jumping-off point and keep the conversation going.

So we chatted in greater detail about Greg and Heather's ideas. What they wanted was an attractive, hip, and fairly trendy woman who could transition easily from pre-pregnancy to new mom. The next sketches were right on target and ready for vector illustration and color. Below is a final concept image:

Incidentally, I created all the final art for this project in Adobe Illustrator CS3. In the very near future I'll be providing step-by-step instruction on how to create this kind of work, so graphic designers, web designers, and traditional artists can reap the benefits of my experience. Yay!

A few things made it easier to create the final art for this project. They already had a logo, so I had specific colors to choose from. Greg and Heather really knew what they wanted to see. They couldn't always sketch out an example or articulate a style, but once I gave them a sketch to go on we had a basis for conversation. They knew their demographic, which translated very well to visual goals. 

The Work

I know, I know. You want to see sketches. I hear ya. Here's a great, simple example of how an illustration concept developed. One of the sections on the web site is for contributors. We started out with the idea of a smart-looking woman (new character) in a cafe with a laptop. I sketched it out and hit the mark, woo-hoo! However, we did decide to go with the main character after all, and you can peek at the results:

As an even better demonstration of how a project can progress and a great relationship can generate even more fun ideas, take a look at what we finally used for that section of the site. I think it worked out nicely.

Another favorite illustration of mine from the project is the community section. The whole idea was to get moms together from all over the country and have them chat online, as if they were in someone's living room. Pretty cool, right? I knew I had to thinkify something unique and fun, but also instantly communicate that idea. My first sketch:

The question became, how do I divide this cozy little scene into sections that show that cozy closeness and distance at the same time? It turned out not to be so difficult with a little sleep and some coffee. After seeing the final art, they added a new wrinkle; let's see an image of the U.S. behind them to really hit home the idea. Not one to shy away from a challenge, I came up with a funtastic solution. You can see the progression. I still like both. Good thing I didn't have to decide.

State of the Iconomy

The web site also needed some icons. About a hundred of them, in fact. I loved that I was able to work on this part of the project because I could take everything we had developed in the illustrations and use it to create the icon concepts. It worked out beautifully because we already had a flow going and could reference previous conversations. It turned out to be a lot of work, but also a ton of fun. You can see the icons all over the site, but here's a sample page of a few I really like:

Wrap it Up

This is the best part. We haven't wrapped it up. The working together part, that is. After getting to know the Zellers through working with them, we've shared information, links, and even referred business to each other. It's the ideal b2b relationship, where we mutually benefit beyond the exchange of service and money.

The truth is, I did find this client through a bid-type freelance gig site. I don't love these sites because typically you're bidding on projects in a vacuum. My whole method of working revolves around many conversations and lots of information exchange, which the bid sites make very difficult.

The thing that I took away from this is that bid sites can yield some good projects, but you have to be prepared to build a relationship beyond the one-off. If I see a project posted and I don't feel that's possible, then I move on. It's just not my cup of chai.

If you're new to freelancing, I can't stress enough that long term relationship-centered business is one of the major keys to your success. You can work on a hundred one-off projects through a crowdsourcing site and make a little cash. That's great. You can throw your artwork up on a stock site and make a few dollars for every download. Awesome.

Those activities will not sustain you for very long because you only come away with cash. I say "Big deal, Dude." Anyone can make some quick cash these days. Create a free blog and stick a PayPal Donate button on it.

Remember that rewards thing, kids. If you want to keep the art thing going and get Mom and Dad off your back, listen to your Uncle Sparky.

Members of the Sparky Firepants Images Club enjoy the benefit of an original, high-resolution illustration every month. Sometimes they're big, sometimes they're small, but they're always wacky and fun. You can do pretty much whatever you want with them except sell them or use them on products for sale. On the right you can see a little detail of the awesome image that subscribers are getting.

If you want to sign up, you can click on that box in the sidebar or just go here. Love to have ya.

I'd like to let you into my brain for a few moments, so you can see how I thinkified the idea for "Be Your Own Bot." Watch your step around that sinus cavity, it's a little slippery.

Be Your Own 'Bot

Be your own 'bot. Robot, that is. Or human, dog, monkey, sasquatch. Whatever.

Whatever you happen to be, be it. Be it 1,000 times. Be bookish if you like books. Be a girl who likes building mechanical things. Be a giant sandwich dancing on the corner if you like lettuce and traffic (or you happen to work for a guy who makes you dance on the corner selling them).

It's funny. We start out in life weird little creatures who put crackers on our heads and yell, "Ga-ZOO ZOO!" just because it strikes us as something we should probably do. We fall down and stay there. Just felt like it. We wear socks on our hands.

As we grow up, other people start defining for us what's weird and what shouldn't be done anymore in social situations. It's not a Shakespearean tragedy. It's part of life and it's learning how to function in a world full of people who hesitate to give us money or jobs if we break crackers on our heads. Still, it's sad to put our crackers away.

Some people manage to find ways to break the crackers, yell "ga- ZOO ZOO" and bring in large sums of money on a regular basis.

Many people secretly want to do that. Not many know how. Not everyone needs to. Do you get that?

Thing is, if you enjoy being in an office and crunching numbers all day, that's cool. Someone obviously needs you to do that because there you are. If you enjoy wearing button-down oxfords and khakis, get yourself a closetful. Crunch, numbers, crunch!

Who's to say that because you like doing data entry and dressing Office Casual that you're not living up to your potential? Only one person and that's you, Dude. Or Lady. Maybe you crunch numbers all day and break crackers on your head at night. Salut!

The world currently uses outward appearance to make first judgments about potential pals. I do it all the time. Can't help it, even if I wanted to pretend otherwise. You would think that the fact that I'm frequently wrong would change my thought process. It does to a certain extent, but there's always a tiny nugget of judgment in the lower regions of my cerebral cortex.

I'm writing this at a large convention of AFOLs, or Adult Fans of LEGO. Yep. LEGO Geeks. Total geeks, 1,000 times geeks. Geeks in the sense that they know every single thing there is to know about LEGO.

Cool part is, these people have an amazing passion for this little plastic building brick toy from Denmark. That downward-cast quiet dude who looks like he couldn't string two sentences together suddenly leaps from his seat and starts animatedly discussing the awesome potential of something called "Power Functions." Woa.

Now who's the wallflower? Yours truly. I'm an idiot here. I am officially uncool. I don't know my Technic from my Bionicle. I do not fit in. I suddenly I wish I did.

I admire the people who are so into whatever it is they're into that it actually becomes part of their outward appearance. They fit in to a group, somewhere. They can't help it. The group forms.

I think one of the worst conditions in which an individual can be is the state of "blended in."

Of course we've all got our own groups we fit into, which is different from blending. For example, I have my children's book group (which makes other dudes I know utter huge catlike yawns). We love our groups because they make us feel safe in what we love. Groups are awesome. Yay groups.

Within every group, you've got unique individuals. In this LEGO group, there's something distinctive about every person here, outside of their LEGO love. Sometimes it's obvious and sometimes you have to get to know a person before you even get a hint of what it might be.

It's hard for an adult to recapture the cracker-on-the-head thing. It's a little fear and a little conditioning (don't fit in and you might not get the job/house/car/loan). When you're in your group, it's a little easier because you already share a commonality.

It's funny but I struggle with this all the time. I got very good at blending. I'm an expert at nodding my head and remarking in tiny bits to establish my status of belonging, even in groups I've never visited. Turns out that's not a blessing, its a curse. I've missed out on a lot by doing that.

This weekend I practiced very hard to let go of that curse. I was... stupid about LEGO. I asked dumb questions (apparently there are still a few of those left). I made an effort to open my face up and talk to people I wouldn't normally rub elbows with at the local brew pub. I learned. I experienced. I remained myself even when that meant that I stuck out like a Galidor arm on a Toa.

I enjoyed, more than usual.

In this world, this weekend, I am decidedly... different.

It's awesome. I even have some new pals. The ones that decided I could actually be taught.

One of the most important skills I want to pass on to my kids isn't how to blend, it's how to feel comfortable being different. Not in-your-face-anarchy-in-the-UK different or don't-look-at-me different, but rather teach-me-something-about-your-world different.

It's about how to be your own 'bot.

Here are two THREE vector app solutions I found just for you:

NeoOffice Draw (FREE): This is part of a family of open-source office apps that work on Windows, Mac, and Linux machines. The drawing application is basic, but it does everything I need to. It's free to download, but if you like it I highly recommend donating so they can keep developing new versions.

VectorDesigner ($70): This is an excellent value. From a company called Tweakersoft, this app does everything I need to create simple vector graphics. It has some nice effects, too.

InkScape (FREE): I did not have this in the post when I first published it, so I'm correcting the error! InkScape is another open-source app that runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, and there's even an "unofficial" Fedora version out there.

I work in the Adobe Design Suites on a Mac. I started years ago using CorelDraw on a Windows machine. I sometimes dip my virtual pen into the well of an Ubuntu machine (because I'm geeky like that).

One of the things I've learned over the years since is that the tool is not the most important thing in creating artwork.

It's your imagination. That's free.

I love questions in the comments that keep things rollin'. That's amazing. Even if you don't comment and just enjoy lurking about, that's fine too. Happy to have ya.

You're all awesome (yes, you reading this right now). I appreciate how valuable your time is and with all the blogs to read out there, I'm happy that you include mine in your list. You simply rock.

As thanks to you fun people who keep coming back, I've decided that I'm going to offer up a free illustration every month. Yep, that's right - a free, original, unique, probably strange, Sparky Firepants illustration to have and to hold from this day forward as long you both shall...  

Well, you know. You can have it.

Use it for whatever you feel like. Print it on a t-shirt, put it in a frame, use it as your desktop wallpaper, your twitter background, in your blog, on your web site, the list of possibilities is endless. Tape it to your teacher's back. Tape it to your student's back. Tape it to the side of an airplane and see if it's still there when you arrive. Bring it to the International Space Station. Please, have some fun with it (and if you're going to the ISS, can I come?).

The only thing you can't do is sell the image or sell stuff with the image on it. My lawyer says that's a no-no and I listen to her because she wears very sensible shoes.

So what do I do?

It's easy. It's free, no hidden costs, taxes, shipping, handling, or foam peanuts in your living room.

I've created a fantastically weird and fun Sparky Firepants Members Club. To join, all you have to do is sign up here. Every month (starting with this one, hooray!) you'll get an e-mail from me with a password that allows you to access your free illustration. You'll also get fun little tidbits and special things that those regular people you see in line at Starbucks aren't getting.

That's because you're awesome.

Here's an excerpt from Chapter Two that struck a chord with me:

"Because words are essential in building the thought connections in the brain, the more language a child experiences – through books and through conversation with others, not passively from television – the more advantaged socially, educationally, and in every way that child will be for the rest of his or her life. Conversely, the fewer words a child experiences, learns and uses before school, the more stunted that child's brain will be."

She goes on to talk about television being a passive learning experience that has some value, but not the same as the back-and-forth interactivity that enforces a connection with language and ideas.

I agree completely. In both books and TV, the focus should be on getting a child to be an active participant in the story. 

Blue's Clues is the perfect example of the participatory kid's TV experience, a show I had the good fortune to be involved in. Every time we created a new episode, we had a blast thinking up visual gags and new character designs, but at the core of each of those early meetings was the understanding that our ultimate goal was to get the kids actively thinking and responding to what they saw on screen. It wasn't enough to simply entertain. Our job (not an easy one) was to get the viewers to want to help Steve and Joe so much that they just couldn't help shouting at the screen. It was better suited for developing problem-solving than vocabulary skills, but it was incredibly successful in getting kids' minds active.

Books should accomplish the same thing and even more so with vocabulary and language skills.

When I read to my 1-year old, he goes between listening quietly and jabbering and pointing. Personally, It's much more interesting for me to have him be active because we tend to read the same books over and over. After 1,000 reads of "All by Myself" by Mercer Mayer, I'm ready for some conversation from the little dude.

As an early reader, I enjoyed getting lost in books. It was a solo activity for the most part. However, what got me started and most involved was the teachers and librarians who read to the class, then asked us what we thought. It was a like a book club without the coffee and wi-fi hotspot.

Reading for entertainment is a luxury my older kids indulge in quite often. They don't really think about what it's doing for them from an educational standpoint. I would be worried if they did (I mean, they're kids for cryin' out loud). But my wife and I know what's happening. We wonder if they hadn't had that early interactive relationship with books from being read to, would they still be reading now just because they like it? Would their writing skills be as advanced?

Mem Fox's book really hit home when I think about creating illustration for children's books. More than just making pretty pictures, it's got to be about getting all those circuits firing in a kid's brain. A cute picture of a bunny is nice and fluffy and all, but to be successful in supporting a story visually, it's got to prompt a strong enough reaction to make a kid point and speak. It's got to "Change their lives forever."

That's quite a challenge. I better get back to it.

I've followed a few conversations lately on Twitter about spec work and working for free.

I can't tell you how many times I hear artists who are trying to break into freelancing ask, "Should I work for free?" They're understandably confused because they see others doing it and there's no shortage of projects asking for free work – in exchange for massive publicity and future fame and fortune, of course.

Unfortunately, I can't answer the question for someone else. No, it's not some lame-ass dodge. I am of the strong opinion that every artist needs to decide this for themselves.

Personally, I don't work for free. Anymore.

Early on I did my share of contests and free gigs just to get myself in the game. What I realized after a very short time was that I was keeping myself very busy with work that wasn't even paying to keep my laptop running. The rent was coming due, I was getting burned out, and the checking account showed only debits. After having a long talk with myself (that was something), I decided to cancel my membership to the pro-bono club.

Karen J. Lloyd is a Storyboard Artist and teacher with a fascinating blog. She addressed this subject as it relates to storyboard artists, but I think that illustrators will find it chock full of stuff they can use.

If you decide that free is for thee, think very carefully about your reasons. If you think about yourself as a business, you'll find it's easier to make those kinds of calls.

###

The other thing that caught my eye was a comment on my holiday card post from Judy Dunn. She was told by a publisher not to submit illustrations with her children's book manuscript. She's paying attention and it's awesome.

This is another question that I get more often than, "Daddy can I watch Gilligan's Island?" Writers ask me if I will illustrate their book and artists ask me if they should illustrate their friend's book.

Nope and nope.

Okay, I'm nicer than that, but that's the stock answer. Here's why:

Reputable publishing houses find their own illustrators for the manuscripts they buy.

Yes, Judy is absolutely right and she's smart to hold off until the right publisher buys her book. Illustrating a picture book by an established professional can cost anywhere between $6,000 - $10,000, on average. It can be more.

Let's say you have disposable cash and want to illustrate your children's book to make it more easily acquirable by a publisher. Here's what's going to happen:

1. You're going to have some interesting artwork to hang on your wall and explain to guests.
2. The publishers you submit to will become annoyed and may not even review your manuscript. In fact, they may even drive to your house and burn it on your doorstep. If that happens, stay inside.

Artists, have you been approached by someone to illustrate their picture book so they can submit it to a publisher? Congratulations! Make some tea and hug yourself for five minutes. Now explain to them what I just told you and ask them if they still want to spend the money.

When I do this, I usually get one of two reactions. The first is indignant anger and outrage at how much I charge for illustrating "just a simple little 58-page picture book." And how I should be lucky to get the offer. It's happened.

The thing is, I love illustrating books for kids. It's what I do! Passing up an opportunity to do what I love sucks. But I can't take someone's money just because they don't know any better.

The second is thanks for taking the time to explain how it works and not just taking their money (and there are people who will take their money).

I prefer the second reaction. The tea goes down easier.

However, I do get requests to illustrate books for very personal reasons, from people who understand the costs involved and just feel strongly about getting their book out into the world. I love it, great idea, let's do it!

See how this relates back to the earlier topic of working for free? As an independent professional, it's extremely important to respect your work, treat yourself as a business, and always be ethical. Some people won't get it, but that's okay. They don't have to look at you every morning in the mirror.