Wow. You have been sharing some great advice on here lately. And it means a lot more when your own work is so stinking good! Thanks for sharing the wisdom and awesome illustrations. I was wondering, how long does it usually take you to complete an illustration or does it depend on when the deadline is? How many projects do have going at once? Thanks so much!
Asked by pabdesk
Thanks for the kind words! It’s good to know the stuff I’ve been writing has been helpful to some folks.
Time frame stuff depends heavily on what kind of project it is. I’ve had pieces for newspapers that had a crazy turn around. 5 hours start to finish. I’ve had really long term projects that I’ve worked on for many months. Typically I do full, half, and quarter page illustrations for magazines. I’d say a normal job turn around is 3 days for sketches (you usually need to present multiple options for any given piece) and an additional 3-5 to take it to final (depending again on the art director, magazine, and what their needs are). Sometimes there’s a rush job and you usually get offered a little extra for your trouble, but the 3 and 3-5 is the norm for me.
As far as how many jobs I take on at once, again it depends. I’m a pretty hard worker and I can handle a lot, but I have to be responsible and realistic. You don’t want to be late. You don’t want to have to make lame excuses. You don’t want to ever over promise and under deliver. You always want to be reliable and to deliver clever and consistent things done to the very best of your ability within the established time frame.
I’ve done 3-4 (a few times even more) jobs in a two week cycle, but my comfort zone is around 2. If I start doing more than that the quality of the pieces and my quality of life suffer. It gets tempting to say yes to everything, but I know I’ll only drive myself bonkers. It’s not unusual to pull the occasional all-nighter and I naturally don’t need a ton of sleep but I do like seeing other people and the sun from time to time. I also like to factor in a little time each week to do personal work and do sketches for fun.
My stuff starts getting really stale when it feels like all my time is job time and I never get to geek out over the stuff I like to draw for kicks.
Because the pay varies on things depending on the publication it can become a little bit of a balancing act to cobble together a steady income, but it’s doable if you can be good about your schedule and you’re not afraid to work your ass off.
