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| BABY! © Diana Ting Delosh ink & Watercolor Here's my illo for this week IllustrationFriday.com word of the week - TOY. The toy crammed border was inspired by my dad announcing "We can buy toys again!" when I was pregnant with my 1st (about another lifetime ago). Needless to say when I was designing greeting cards more recently, his words inspired me to create this Baby Congratulations Card. |
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
IF: TOY
Friday, March 18, 2011
IF: CULTIVATE!
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| GARDEN GAFFE © Diana Ting Delosh Ink & Watercolor The bunny family is at it again. Cultivating a garden takes hard work: watering, weeding and harvesting. My illustration for this weeks IllustrationFriday.com prompt - CULTIVATE. I've been trying to cultivate the habit of working on my personal drawing or writing first thing, everyday. It starts me off on an upbeat mode, even if it's only for 15 minutes. Unfortunately it means having to get up earlier to squeeze it in before the daily grind of must do's and should do's eats away the day. Which means I should go to bed earlier and not watch mindless hours of TV into the wee hours of the night. Not the easiest thing to do for an unnatural lark. |
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The Art Hare's Wares: Designed to Support Japan Relief Efforts
The Art Hare's Wares: Designed to Support Japan Relief Efforts: "Like many of you I have been horrified by the Earthquake/Tsunami disaster that struck Japan on March 11, 2011. To do something to help I hav..."
Friday, March 11, 2011
IF: STIR!
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| Baking Bunnies © DianaTing Delosh ink & watercolor When the Bunny family bakes together all sorts of things get stirred up and chaos ensues. This is an older piece but couldn't resist posting this as my entry for this week's IllustrationFriday.com prompt: STIR. I need to stir things up, make some noise, get some attention for my art. dianadelosh.com FYI: This illustration may be purchased as a giclée print from my gallery at wingedrabbit.imagekind.com/animals |
Friday, March 4, 2011
There's Good & Bad Spec Art
Spec art - a Big No No - or is it? Many organizations , like the Graphic Artists Guild routinely advise to "Just Say NO to Spec Art!" On the surface I whole heartedly agree. But I think there needs to be a distinction made between Bad and Good spec art and how to tell one from the other.
Good Spec Art.
Now there's nothing wrong with a potential client asking to see how you would visualize their concept - asking for and paying for it with a fee. Since they're spending money they tend to really narrow the pool of illustrators and there is a good chance that there will be a paying project in the future with them.
There are even some fields where creating spec art is the norm. When I first freelanced for greeting card companies I would submit 3 - 6 finished art for greeting card designs. The companies provided potential freelancers with art specs. Example: size 5 x 7", schedule for reviewing art for birthdays, Christmas, etc. They did not review sketches or samples that were not formatted for cards. They just wanted to see your available to be acquired art. it should be noted that the companies rarely approached artists to do spec. Rather it was the artists researching the companies to see how to submit art. Yes they bought some and did not buy others. True to it's name it was a speculative endeavor - but if you were interested in freelancing for Recycled Paper Products, Inc and other card companies back than that was the game. I believe it still works the same but I have not approached them in recent year.
Anytime you create a manuscript/picture book dummy, visual activity for a magazine, etc. you are creating spec art. You're taking a gamble on creating your project and submitting it to the right place. The distinction is that it is a self-generated project and most likely some of it makes for nice portfolio pieces.
There's also a gray area. About a year ago I attended a seminar where the Guest speaker a prominent editor from a kids publishing house. Mentioned that he was looking for illustrators for the following manuscripts that were already under contract. He gave out a brief synopsis of each picture book and invited us to submit appropriate samples. Now if you just happened to have art that fit - great. BUT what if you didn't but wanted to be considered. Your only choice would be to create spec art -assuming you had the time. Which is what I did - with eyes wide open that the odds were against me. Did I get the contract - no. But I did get portfolio pieces out of this endeavor as it filled a gap. Maybe next time - I'll be able to just send a sample.
BAD Spec art the kind you should always say NO to - is usually requested by someone else as a sample to show how you would approach a project.... and if they like it ... you get the job, contract etc. The problem is that they are not just satisfied with looking at the samples in your portfolio that already show that you can do "it". What they want is art specifically created with their specs for free. You are handing them a free layout, sketches, finished illustration etc. In other words a cattle call that rarely results in getting the job. Now if you have cute mice in your portfolio, why should you draw 1 more cute mouse in a flamenco dress for said person/company. Yes this is a request for spec art I actually received after I sent them to my animals portfolio and even sent them lo-res jpg samples of my illos of my mice in various outfits. In this case if you did honor the spec request you would not even get the benefit of having a nice new illos for your portfolio because it would not add anything new to it. As to getting the job - most of the time it never materializes.
The keywords here are requested, Free art and self-generated.
Good Spec Art.
Now there's nothing wrong with a potential client asking to see how you would visualize their concept - asking for and paying for it with a fee. Since they're spending money they tend to really narrow the pool of illustrators and there is a good chance that there will be a paying project in the future with them.
There are even some fields where creating spec art is the norm. When I first freelanced for greeting card companies I would submit 3 - 6 finished art for greeting card designs. The companies provided potential freelancers with art specs. Example: size 5 x 7", schedule for reviewing art for birthdays, Christmas, etc. They did not review sketches or samples that were not formatted for cards. They just wanted to see your available to be acquired art. it should be noted that the companies rarely approached artists to do spec. Rather it was the artists researching the companies to see how to submit art. Yes they bought some and did not buy others. True to it's name it was a speculative endeavor - but if you were interested in freelancing for Recycled Paper Products, Inc and other card companies back than that was the game. I believe it still works the same but I have not approached them in recent year.
Anytime you create a manuscript/picture book dummy, visual activity for a magazine, etc. you are creating spec art. You're taking a gamble on creating your project and submitting it to the right place. The distinction is that it is a self-generated project and most likely some of it makes for nice portfolio pieces.
There's also a gray area. About a year ago I attended a seminar where the Guest speaker a prominent editor from a kids publishing house. Mentioned that he was looking for illustrators for the following manuscripts that were already under contract. He gave out a brief synopsis of each picture book and invited us to submit appropriate samples. Now if you just happened to have art that fit - great. BUT what if you didn't but wanted to be considered. Your only choice would be to create spec art -assuming you had the time. Which is what I did - with eyes wide open that the odds were against me. Did I get the contract - no. But I did get portfolio pieces out of this endeavor as it filled a gap. Maybe next time - I'll be able to just send a sample.
BAD Spec art the kind you should always say NO to - is usually requested by someone else as a sample to show how you would approach a project.... and if they like it ... you get the job, contract etc. The problem is that they are not just satisfied with looking at the samples in your portfolio that already show that you can do "it". What they want is art specifically created with their specs for free. You are handing them a free layout, sketches, finished illustration etc. In other words a cattle call that rarely results in getting the job. Now if you have cute mice in your portfolio, why should you draw 1 more cute mouse in a flamenco dress for said person/company. Yes this is a request for spec art I actually received after I sent them to my animals portfolio and even sent them lo-res jpg samples of my illos of my mice in various outfits. In this case if you did honor the spec request you would not even get the benefit of having a nice new illos for your portfolio because it would not add anything new to it. As to getting the job - most of the time it never materializes.
The keywords here are requested, Free art and self-generated.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Now on HAI!
*childrensillustrators.com/DianaTDelosh is also a UK based site - how I know location does not matter.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Bunny Post #15 - Hoppy Dance!
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| BUNNIES DANCING © Diana Ting Delosh Ink & Watercolor |
I'm doing a hoppy dance too - as I've actually fulfilled my obligation to post bunnies for 15 days.
Posting bunnies from February 3rd - Feb 17th to celebrate the Chinese New Year 2011. 15 Bunny Posts and that's all folks. Happy 15th day of the Year of the Rabbit. Wishing all Good Luck and Good Fortune for the remainder of the Year.
Be on the look out for these dancing bunnies as they will soon be hopping onto my cards at www.gcuniverse.com/dianascards and other nifty things at www.zazzle.com/deloshdesigns*. I'll probably announce their debut at arthareswares.blogspot.com
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Bunny Post #14 -5 Friends
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| 5 Friends, © 2006 Diana Ting Delosh, Ink & Watercolor Hare and her friends are running through a field of wild flowers. They have balloons, plans, carrots, wonder what they're up to. This illustration is available as a giclée print at wingedrabbit.imagekind.com Posting bunnies from February 3rd - Feb 17th to celebrate the Chinese New Year 2011. 14 Bunny Posts down and just 1 more hopping up. Happy 14th day of the Year of the Rabbit. |
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Bunny Post #13 & IF: SWEATER!
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| BUNNY SWEATER - © Diana Ting Delosh - Ball Point Pen |
The SWEATER looked different than how Bunny imagined it would.
Here is my illustration for this weeks illustrationfriday.com prompt - SWEATER and it's also doing double duty as a Bunny Post*.
Sometimes this is how my writing progresses. My story is all mapped out in my brain - concise and elegant prose. It should just flow onto the paper. Then I sit down to actually write and it morphes into bloated, awkward text. Only after much angst and many revisions does it match the original dream.
*Posting bunnies from February 3rd - Feb 17th to celebrate the Chinese New Year 2011. 13 Bunny Posts down and 2 more hopping up. Happy 13th day of the Year of the Rabbit.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Bunny Post #12 - Valentine's Day
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| Picnic Hares © Diana Ting Delosh HOPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! |
Posting bunnies from February 3rd - Feb 17th to celebrate the Chinese New Year 2011. 12 Bunny Posts down and 3 more hopping up. Happy 12th day of the Year of the Rabbit.
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