Freelance Advice for New Art School Graduates and Soon to Be Seniors...

I love this page of Golden Age AQUAMAN Comics, probably from ADVENTURE COMICS. It has nothing to do with today’s subject other than being amazing art.

I’m trying to stick to Freelance Advice on Mondays- we’re in graduation season, that time of year when art school seniors are prepping for their final show, final portfolio reviews and depending on the school advice on how to get hired.

The worst advice I ever heard was at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston— the head of the illustration department was addressing the graduates and she said words to the effect of “expect to keep your table waiting jobs for sometime while you look for freelance work.”

Yikes.

Four years of art school, a new degree and your only words of encouragement are “keep salting those fries”?

True, as you enter the freelance realm you might have to take some work that might not be ideal for a little while but if you’re a senior in art school and you’re only NOW starting to look for work and make contacts you got a pretty poor education.

Ideally you should start prepping for your career by finding work midway through your Junior year. Connections with editors, connections with art directors. If you’re a Junior reading this you should feel a little panicked because you’re about two months behind, if you’re a Senior you’re in real trouble but all is not lost.

If you DO have to keep that job as a host at a steakhouse or a grocery clerk or whatever here are a couple of rules (and if I was on your faculty I would have given you these instructions sometime around your Sophomore year);

1. Work only part time hours, even if you can work more don’t be lured by the money, you need time to work on your art. It goes without saying that you also must COMMIT to spending that extra time on your art, portfolio and samples. During the school year you should get used to surviving on a base pay of 20 hours a week— this gives you at least another 20 hours a week to work on art and 20 hours of class time. Get used to 60 hour weeks, that will be your life for sometime.

2. I hate to mention taking time off because too many students take that to mean much more than I intend, but you should take one full day off a week and you can split that with one morning off, one evening off, one afternoon off if that fits better with your schedule. Am I saying work all the time? If you want to be successful I absolutely do.

Now again, if you’re a sophomore and you’re getting this advice from me I’m also going to teach you how to budget— put away as much as you can of your pay for post senior year 1— more in a minute. Learning how to budget is going to go a long way towards helping you achieve Freelance goals.

As a balance to that, learn how to live well below your means. Set an entertainment budget which is no more than 10% of your take-home pay. Let’s do some simple math— let’s say you get a job that pays you $15/hour working second shift at Cumberland Farms— your gross pay is going to be $300 after taxes your take-home pay is going to be around $240 that means if you’re planning on going out with friends on Friday you have $24 to spend— stay within that. If you went out with them already this week and you spent $18 you have $6 left, maybe you can get some noodles. Or, you can take that $6 and roll it into next week where you’ll have $30 to spend. It’s not easy making hard decisions like skipping something that sounds like fun, but you need to invest in your Freelance Life so you can make all this work.

Let’s say you’re able to save 30% of your paycheck for post senior year 1; if you started doing this in your Sophomore year and you work year round you’re saving $72/week x 52 weeks= $3,744 annually— over the course of three years (Sophomore, Junior and Senior) you’ll be at that graduation ceremony with $11,232 in the bank. Not a fortune but enough to help you get off the ground right at graduation. Enough that maybe you don’t have to keep that job salting fries while trying to launch your freelance career.

So what about seniors now facing the world?

Time to get to work— while you are looking for gigs you should be spending your down time…

1. Build your website— register your DOT com name and use Wix if you’re broke or Squarespace if you can afford it and get your site up and running. You can go the Facebook or Deviantart route to really save money but if you want to attract good sized clients they’ll be more responsive if you have a real website.

2. Create a sample list— gather as many contacts as you can, LINKEDiN is a good resource, so are company websites. Start compiling a master list of who the power people are— people who can hire you.

3. Attend a trade show— even if its virtual. You need to get yourself out there and get your work known.

4. Resist the temptation to work for “exposure” but if you do, stick with non-profits like The Boys and Girls Club or UNICEF. A publisher who doesn’t want to pay his employees is not a worthy cause, a real non-profit is.

5. Don’t Undervalue your work. Please don’t make me tell you the story of how the moronic artist I knew took a job and didn’t wait for the client to tell them it was a $1200 gig, and blurted out they would do it for $100. That gig never bounced back to real money and that moron cost a lot of artists a living wage.

6. Under Promise and Over Deliver. I use a simple method of figuring out how long something is going to take me. Ideally I work Tuesday thru Friday and take Saturdays - Monday off. That’s a happy schedule for me. I work four ten hour days. If a job coming in looks like it will take me four weeks I quote six weeks, by building in that extra time I can have some breathing room and build in unforeseen trouble like bad work days, power outages, sick time, etc. Then if I end up bringing the project in at four weeks the client will be thrilled.

7. Back to #5 use the same method to calculate your rate— let’s say you’re figuring on making $30 an hour when you’re starting out— that’s not great pay but it’s okay, but are you going to be paid for second and third drafts, revisions, changes, etc? Nothing worse than redoing something. Maybe $40 an hour would be better.

8. As you make revisions, save the previous one. I cannot count how many times I’ve finished a piece and someone asks for a color change, then another, then finally it ends up with “actually can we go back to the first one?”. If you save revisions it’s s simple matter of pulling out the previous file. I use a simple method; say the file is named CLIENT— the first draft sent over is CLIENT 01, the second CLIENT 02 and so on. If there are changes to the art from a draft it becomes a B— so a second draft with art changes would be CLIENT 02B. Now in my files I’ll have CLIENT 01, CLIENT 02 and CLIENT 02B should I ever need them.

9. Keep the communications line open. Nobody likes bad news. They don’t like getting it and they don’t like giving it, but if you’re running behind and you’re going to need more time let the client know as soon as you know— and that doesn’t mean on the day the project is due. Just a simple email or phone call will usually result in no trouble. If it continuously happens you’ll have to rethink how you estimate how much time you need.

10. Don’t be afraid to turn work down if it doesn’t feel right. We call it flags. Sometimes its the project itself. Sometimes its the client. Sometimes we can’t explain it but something is off. Turn it down. Work will come. The few times I’ve gone against instinct and taken a gig was because of panic, and a better job came right behind it and I struggled through the one that I knew I shouldn’t have taken in the first place.

11. Learn how to schedule your time; I have a good friend who is addicted to video games. He’ll have three weeks to do a project and spend two playing a video game. The final work looks rushed and his stress level goes through the roof. Treat Freelance like a real job. Schedule your work time and be honest about the amount of time you’re putting in.

12. Don’t panic. Control your stress. Stay on deadlines, keep yourself sane and you’ll get through this.

A Tale of A Critical Recall

After months of back and forth with the dealership I finally got my Ten Year Old Kia setup for its recall repair. They’d sent me a scary letter back in November telling me there was a chance the car could burst into flame, even if its turned off, so I shouldn’t park it indoors or near small children or pets. If I’m driving it and I smell smoke, I should pull over and high tail it into a bomb shelter because things are going to go boom.

I’d arranged an 8am appointment on the day I get a haircut, so that I could get that done and then get dropped off at the dealership at 9:30 since they’d assured me this would only take about an hour.

I swung by the afternoon before to drop off the keys. The guy didn’t seem to know what recall I was coming in for so I handed him the scary letter as I’d done multiple times through the whole struggle of trying to get this appointment and getting the parts from Korea which apparently must be delivered by hand via an unmanned inflatable raft.

The counter guy told me about another recall, this one for anti-theft. I told him as long as it was here, to run the whole recall shebang through it and get it all taken care of. Trouble was if they did the anti-theft recall my remote car start wouldn’t work, and it would cost me $125 to get it back. I didn’t like the idea of me paying for their mistake so I passed understanding the tremendous risk of the highly sought after 10 year old very basic car living its life in the streets.

“Okay, I’ll be back in the morning to pick it up.” I cheerfully said.

“Oh no, no. It was only going to be ready by then if you were waiting for it. Now we won’t start it until your appointment.”

I’m not making one word of this up.

I looked around. The shop was empty, the bay was empty, the waiting lot had one car in it— mine. There was a guy sitting on a stool in the repair bay like he was waiting outside of Floyd’s Barbershop hoping Aunt Bee would come by with a pie.

Behind him was a rack where they hung all the keys for the cars in for service. That was empty.

“But my appointment is for 8am. If the repair takes ‘only about an hour’ then we should be good to go by 9:30, right?”

“Right, but that’s only if you’re waiting for it. If you’re dropping it off we don’t start the repair until your appointment.”

“Are you hearing your own words? Am I missing something?”

The guy smiled, I smiled back. I didn’t have the time or the inclination to get into this. I left and he said he’d text me when it was ready.

Next morning I got my haircut as scheduled, as luck would have it, my ride wasn’t available so I drove myself. When I got back home at 9:30 my phone alerted me to a text— the Kia was ready.

I drove back out- it was a beautiful morning- and a nice chance to put the top down on the MX-5. I pulled into the dealership and my car sat alone, the guy on the stool was still in place, still no pie. The service manager came out, shook my hand and handed me my keys.

He seemed pretty happy with the day. Car was fixed, no burning smell, and the remote starter still worked.

This is why I don’t go to dealerships.

Home Remedy: WASABI

Prepared Wasabi in Tube, Family Size, 3.17 oz (90 g) Plus Bamboo Chopstick (1 Pack)

SB

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Discovered a home remedy recently that seems to actually work; WASABI.

For many years I have been a strong proponent that the second you feel a cold coming on you should instantly grab some saltine crackers, a tube of wasabi and go to town. You can actually feel the wasabi burn away whatever it is that’s making you sick right away. It’s tough and it really burns the hell out of your tongue but it works like a charm.

Bond...LIVE AND LET DIE (1973)

I think the only way you can accept the Bond films is to imagine there are two versions of the same character— the Sean Connery Bond who was oft times a cold calculated killer, and the Roger Moore Bond who was more gentlemanly with a bit more humor. George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton and Daniel Craig are in the Connery camp, while Pierce Brosnan is in the Roger Moore one. Roger Moore isn’t Sean Connery, and in this early one they’re trying to play him that way, but it doesn’t work. Moore seems out of his element when he’s trying to be stern, and that seems to be the case because in interviews it’s been said that he was the fittest of Bonds at the time, and that he was made out of granite, but he didn’t like anytime he was asked to be mean.

Here’s the story for this one, Bond has to travel to the United States to chase after a heroin dealing outfit that is somehow taking out secret agents. He starts in Harlem and ends up in Lousiana dealing with voodoo rituals and bumbling sheriffs. The villain this time is Mister Big, and his right hand man is the sinister Baron Samedi who might actually be the spectre who leads the dead rather than just a guy. Overall it’s an entertaining adventure movie and if you can let go your preconceptions of Connery as Bond you might find yourself liking this. The comedy with the sheriff is uncomfortably bad, but it’s going to get worse because…

James Bond will be back in MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN and so will the sheriff.

• BOND: Roger Moore is a different kind of Bond, get over it. ***1/2

• THEME MUSIC: Paul McCartney and Wings— you either dig this or you don’t. ***

• VILLAIN: I don’t hate Mr Big as much as most Bond fans do, and Baron Samedi is great. ****

• OVERALL BOND RATING: ***1/2

The $8,000 Art Scam - Beware Things That Seem Too Good To Be True Part Two

With the check in hand I decided to go to my town police station and see what they thought. I reasoned that the check was mailed to that town so it falls into their jurisdiction and they’d be less busy than the “Big City” Police Department that is my jurisdiction.

A detective came out and went over everything and then scratched his head— “And you think this is a bad check because….” was his response. I went through the things that floated flags through the process. Then I pointed out the return address, the postmark and the check address. “Oh yeah. “ Said he. His advice was to either deposit it and wait and see what happens or send it back.

Not that I doubted the small town detective but I drove down to the City Police and went through the same thing with them. “Definitely seems funny— I’d send the check back.” was his response.

Now if you know me, I respect authority but I don’t blindly follow it. I wasn’t comfortable sending it back because it was made out to me and all someone would have to do is sign my name to the check and cash it. I’ve autographed enough stuff over the years that it could be an issue. For the record, the way I autograph something and the way I sign my checks are two entirely different styles for this very reason, but if someone did sign it the way I autograph things they could pass it off as mine.

I called my attorney who said absolutely do not deposit the check and do not send it back. Still not fully satisfied with the answer I did what I should have done the first time but just hadn’t thought of it— I drove it over to my banker.

I have a banker who thinks we have a monogamous relationship, he thinks I’m only seeing him. I don’t have the heart to tell him I have money deposited into at least another 6 banks. But he’s been the one who tries to talk me into taking out a loan, plus he’s got his own office and everytime I go there he sees me right away so I walked in, no secretary at her station, and plunked myself down in front of him and tossed the check on his desk.

He picked it up, looked it over, held it up to the light and said “where’d you get the fake check?”

BINGO!

His advice, absolutely do not deposit it and under no circumstances send it back. Hold it in case anything funny happens and if it does file a police report and get him and my attorney on the phone. I had already filed TWO police reports over it so I was happy with his response and my instincts.

As I left the bank I got the following text:

DID YOU DEPOSITI (sic) THE CHECK? CAN YOU SEND ME A SCREEN SHOT OF THE DEPOSIT SLIP?

I replied letting him or her know that the cat was out of the bag, I’d filed two police reports, consulted attorneys and bankers and would be reaching out to the Landscaping Service on whose check they sent the funds.

No reply.

About two days later I got a text.

DID YOU DEPOSIT THE CHECK?

I replied that they should probably check with their partner to see where we stood because clearly there was some breakdown in their communication.

That was it, I didn’t hear from them any longer.

About four months later I got an email that started with this;

“Dear Dr Fish;

I’m writing to you because I am a big fan of your work, and particularly your style which I think is a terrific fit for our latest project. I have a severe hearing disability which I hope you will not hold against me, but I’m wondering if you have time to discuss a possible commercial illustration job?”

So beware my friends, beware.

I don’t have any idea why they lead with the “disability” disclaimer— there is a slight variation which has them in Europe so forgive their English skills, but the key phrase to look for here is always “I hope you will not hold against me….”

Stay safe!

The $8,000 Art Scam-- Beware Art Students and New Artists

It starts with an email hoping that you won’t hold the fact that the writer is deaf, or blind, or black, or Asian, or Jewish or some other “disability” that we might hold against them. These are their words, not mine— I don’t care who or what you are, I don’t care if you have three eyes and five legs and stand 3’6”— especially since I’d never know this if it weren’t for you mentioning it in the first email.

AND I only mention it because that is the start of the email that I have gotten TWICE with two different elements from the “hope you don’t hold it against me” angle— and Veronica has gotten it once.

So this person will reach out to you and say they are a big fan of your work or your style, or a post you made on IG, FB, Twitter or whatever— they won’t be overly specific about which piece but they’ll tell you that they have a project of 18-31 illustrations and you’d be perfect for it and what would your price be?

So at this point, if you’re savvy or desperate, you’ll name a price. In my case I was specific and I gave them my “Gabe Kaplan” rate— so named for clients I anticipate will be difficult— so it’s usually 2x or more— in this case it was 4x my going rate and 8x my rate if they wanted publication rights. They agreed to the price and asked if I needed a deposit to get started.

Yep— that’s the norm— I need to be paid a piece up front so that I’m not chasing the entire amount at the end. I told them to send me a check for $4k— they said they wanted to send me a check for $8 so that they’d have less of a balance at the end.

I said OK and had them send it to a friend’s business a half a town awayand I figured that would be the last I heard from them. I still smelled a rat, I still saw red flags in this but the money was good enough to give it some effort to land the gig if by chance it was legit.

They emailed me and said they’d sent it Priority Mail signature required— a slight problem because unlike a regular envelope which would just drop through the mail slot on the weekend if it arrived on a Saturday there would be no one to sign for it which means it would go to the post office. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of trying to chase it down, but again— $8k deposit.

I got more suspicious again when I got a text message saying I needed to go to the post office and get the envelope. I told them I hadn’t gotten the notification yet and wouldn’t leave until I did— I have a life. They were adamant and didn’t like that I refused. They said maybe I didn’t want the gig— I told them maybe they should find someone else and I would just pickup the check on Monday and write RETURN TO SENDER on it.

So why— why where they so adamant that I pick up this check?

They backed down and said they wanted me on the project and it would be OK to wait until Monday. So I still expected something crazy here but I got the check in my hand and sure enough, it was made out to me and it was $8k— it looked like a legit check.

I texted them and said I got the check— they asked if I could send them a pic so that their boss would calm down that it had arrived safely.

AH- that checked.

I’ve worked on many projects for committees and that usually entails levels of approval— maybe this is why they were so nervous.

Check in hand, it looked fine. Legit bank. Account and Routing number looked like it all worked.

But then they made their mistake;

“When you deposit the check please send me a pic of the deposit slip.”

Nope, there it is.

Do you see it? Does it add up for you now? Remember each step had flags and something that was unusual but then they would counter with something that just about made sense. And the money was good enough to cut them some slack.

The reason I even post this, the reason I’m getting into such clear details is this; Today a job that is going to pay me $24k is certainly an important one, but it’s not one that if I lose it my entire world is shattered. Not so when I was first starting out— not so for someone fresh out of art school with student debt to pay off, so I want to get as specific as I can so that if it happens to YOU then you’ll get out of the web before it’s too late.

Back to the ah-ha moment— there is absolutely no reason for them to see MY deposit slip, if you write a check and send it to someone and they cash it your bank will have a record of that transaction for you almost immediately. The ONLY reason someone might want to see the deposit slip is that it has MY bank account numbers on it.

And there it is.

That also made me look more closely at the check, now keeping in mind that this was a multiple-client gig it’s not unusual for a corporate check to be signed by a name you don’t recognize. I’m sad to admit it but it was only at this point I first looked at the check closely and realized the check was from a Landscaping Business out of Southern California, but the return address on the envelope was an address in New Jersey, and the postmark was Chicago. More flags.

Now what to do with this check? Shred it? Send it back? Deposit it and see where it goes?

Find out next tomorrow.

Bond Tuesdays...DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (1971)

I grew up in the 1970s so to me Roger Moore was James Bond. The first Sean Connery Bond film I ever saw was this one, and I thought he looked like an old pudgy balding man (which he was), so I couldn’t understand everyone’s attitude that Connery WAS James Bond. It would be many years later before I would see the earlier Bond’s and really understand and appreciate them.

For everyone who says that ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE would be regarded as the best Bond film of all time if Connery had been in it I point to this one and I say think again. Lazenby at this point in Connery’s career is a better choice for James Bond than Connery is. Connery is over the hill. Ironic because his soon to be replacement Roger Moore is older, and Daniel Craig is older than both of them as he continues to play Bond and he’s not only fit he’s super secret agent fit. Connery is wearing what looks like a cheap toupee and he’s soft enough that it makes the action scenes real groaners. Jill St John is the Bond girl and she’s great, Charles Gray, who played a good guy way back in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE takes over the Blofeld role here and I don’t know what to think of him. He’s not as good as Donald Pleasance, and he’s not threatening as Telly Savalas so this entry, about stolen Diamonds set in Las Vegas seems like a step back in the wrong direction. At least they don’t try to make Connery Korean in this one. There are some good elements here, the homosexual assassins are a bold choice for the time and there are parts set in a funeral home that are downright creepy, overall a lot of people were excited Connery was back only to realize sometimes its better to say goodbye.

Is the Worst Connery still better than the best Moore? Nope, not even close. He can’t beat Lazenby or Craig here either. It’s Connery but just barely.

James Bond will be back, but Connery won’t, in LIVE AND LET DIE

• BOND: Connery might have been bored in YOLT but he’s bored AND out of shape here which is worse. *1/2

• THEME MUSIC: It’s trying to be GOLDFINGER but it’s not. ***

• VILLAIN: Charles Gray is an little odd, and there are some real camp elements which don’t help.

• OVERALL BOND RATING: 7.0 and I’m being generous.