Selfishness? really? but we were always taught to be charitable, giving, and unselfish. Ok - I needed a provocative title but I'm going to defend it. How many times have you as an illustrator, graphic designer, author, artist, or creator allowed yourself to create under the umbrella of a studio, publisher, client, friend, spouse, parent etc.? In other words how often do you create for someone else? How often do you allow the parameters of the assignment dictate choice? How often are your choices influenced by what you think "they" want and not what you want? We all do it - even if you're a gallery artist chances are you create "in step" with the body of work the gallery owner has accepted. Right?
So my message today is that the invention of computers, tablets and ereaders and the internet have given power back to the artist. It's an amazing time my fellow artists. I now give you permission to be selfish - and it's a good thing when it comes to your art. Never before in the history of the world have artists been given the ability to get their work to their audience so cheaply. Because it's so cheap it means we can do it on our own so we don't necessarily need someone putting restrictions on our content. I'm not saying that it's not good to get opinions from other professionals but now we can do what we want - the environment for complete creativity is autonomy. I'm embracing ebooks, apps, and whatever else develops in the future.
So be selfish - your best art has yet to be created - what's hiding in there?
Nice post Will. I can't wait to see your new app. I am busily working on one too. Thank you for the permission to do it for myself. Really, I forgot. It's easy to fall into the "what it is supposed to look like mode." Oh, by the way, I was going to watch your newest painting video, but its not uploaded to your original store.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you, Will.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I am glad that stolen bird is not screeching, as that suggests the monster is his friend and not about to eat him. Of course, some birds are not very smart so he could be totally wrong, but I'm sticking with the happy ending.
ReplyDeleteSecond, it's so cool to see all the great resources you have collected around here! I just popped in through Illustration Friday and it's nice to find another spot with so much helpful information. I would love to look at some of your digital tutorials, but I am several months into learning Copic markers (trial and error, mostly!), and I have a regular job, and trying to work on blog things and Etsy, and oh dear, who has time for digitial painting, too? But one day. :)
I LOVE THIS POST!!!! to artistic selfishness...Cheers!!
ReplyDeleteJahSun ~
Nice Post. I'm working on an app too. Good luck with yours. Interesting times!
ReplyDeleteWell said!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! I love having my own creations out there, no one to tell me what to do or how to do it. It is totally freeing!
ReplyDeleteThanks guys! It means a lot to me - sometimes I feel like I'm posting to an empty room.
ReplyDeleteKaren - I've released those new tutorials at Folio Academy - please email me and I'll make sure all of your videos including the new one are all there under one password.
Cindy - I'm glad you read that into it - it WILL have a happy ending and the pets will love the monsters. Glad your busy with good things!
hi will, thanks for your post (or your blog in general)!
ReplyDeletei am a game designer from germany and i have been at this point (self publishing with new digital channels) about three years before.
i worked hard (about 10 hours in my fulltime job plus 4 hours in the night for the apps) and i believe in the quality we are doing. we have 4 apps out (under the label ThumbFire) in the appstore and my resume is: its getting worse the more apps we put out.
fact is: those channels are so massively overcrowded that only strong brands will survive at the end. have a look at the appstore or facebook - top ten are dominated by known brands (or brands that became a brand over the years but were there from the beginning). ea with sims entering facebook - BAM! disney entering the appstore - BAM! chances for a small company to strike a hit there is like winning in the lottery.
if you are doing well with your books now - then you are building a brand. people who start now - or in a few month - will face harder conditions.
having an app out, placing a product at etsy, uploading an ebook to bn will not make a sale - or just very few. making a living from that is 90% luck - in my opinion. everybody has to decide for himself if the left 10% is worth the effort.
Great illustration :) the composition is Awesome :D
ReplyDeletethanks Will! You're the best :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Caela and Karen!
ReplyDeleteRam - You are talking about a problem that we've all known about but it's never fun to discuss - the competition. You're right - it's getting tougher - over crowded - even dominated by big players. Keep in mind a few points: 1) you're competing in the game industry - the kitty is out of the bag and those behemoths have joined the race. It's going to be hard to come up with a game that satisfies on multiple levels when you're competing with well funded establishments. 2) I'm not making games (thank goodness) I'm making an ebook app at the moment. Will the competition get amazinly difficult? Absolutely - however I plan to use a lot of marketing strategies to get my app noticed. 3) I also have to believe that if you build an amazing app people will "word of mouth" it and it has the chance to gain momentum on it's own.
Remember I come from the children's book industry...how many children's books have been printed and how hard is it to get a print book noticed? It's been hard the whole time I've been involved so I welcome the challenge - It forces me to work harder and do my best possible work. I'll live if after that I still have a hard time selling it because I'm doing it for me first.
Hi, Will. I was wondering if you could elaborate on the process of finding a programmer and animator? Where is a good place to start looking and what exactly do you look for - Flash maybe? At a community college?
ReplyDeleteI've recently completed a picture book - I'm working on the epub now and all my master files are layered PSDs. I would like to take it to the next level and try an app but have no idea where to begin.
Your tutorial videos were incredibly helpful. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. It is much appreciated.
julie
Hi Will,
ReplyDeleteWith regards to your last post everybody "Pays the Man"(great song). No matter whether you are a fine artist or commercial artist somebody has to pay you for your creativity. Fine artists create art for themselves and hopefully a client buys into that vision and pays. Commercial artist are different they create art for the client who has hired them in order to get paid . This is where it gets tricky, because the client is paying the commercial artist there is only so much freedom he/she has and no more. The commercial artist may give his but the client has the final say as to what is acceptable or not. The influx of technology just offers another tool for the artist to express themselves and no more freedom than what has existed in the past or the profession. Yes, the latest computer technology is great and offers the speed to express and saturate the commercial market but there is a limit. The technology is not the end all because the artist uses the tool to come up with the vision. Creativity is boundless and waiting for expression from the visionary to bring to fruition but there are limits working within the commercial field.
correction: "the commercial artist may give his input but the client has the final say as to what is acceptable or not".
ReplyDeleteHi Julie - I wish I could be more help - I just started posting my sketches here on my blog in the "if you build it they will come" model and it's been working. I've been talking to a few programers and flash animators who might want to get involved with me on my project. Since I'm so early in the process I haven't committed just yet but talking is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteI would however put the word out at your local college that you're looking - if they teach dreamweaver or flash. I'm sure you'd find someone who was interested - you might have to pay them up front but if you're excited you'll attract people.
Ok, thanks Will. And best wishes on your app...
ReplyDeletejulie
Thank you for permission to do what we want and to embrace the digital world! Luddites no more.
ReplyDeleteI have one app by an amazing company called Auryn. They did not use all the bells and whistles from their cache of proprietary animation software but, hey, we are all going to figure out this technology.
Looking forward to starting your video as soon as my Wacom comes in the mail.
(Apologies if this is an obvious suggestion, but Kickstarter might be something you could try if you think you could make your project sound super appealing) :)
ReplyDeleteNice work. You have a fluent style!
ReplyDelete