10 Things I wish I Knew As A New Illustrator

A collection of advice I would give my younger self

I signed the contract for my first middle grade book in July 2008 (the above image). I was 20’something, full of enthusiasm and ready to burn the midnight oil. 15+ years later, I feel like I should sit that kid down and tell her to buckle up. She’ll love the job; it’ll be the fulfillment of so many childhood dreams. But spoiler alert: there’s a couple things 2008 Abbie has to learn. There will be the inevitable bumps and bruises. And while I can’t time travel and spare her, I can (hopefully) help anyone who stumbles on this post. So in no particular order, here’s what I’d tell my younger illustrator self.

1. Yes, you do need to do a revision for every single piece of feedback. This will save guesswork and unpleasant surprises when you get to final art. And in turn, your art director will sleep much better at night. Is it frustrating to draw the same thing over and over and over a zillion times? Yes. But you’re trying to narrow the gap between idea and execution. So sharpen your pencils and start sketching.

2. Ask for clarification when in doubt. It’s easy wanting to appear as if you know ALL THE THINGS, but don’t make assumptions. Talk to your editor and art director whenever an issue pops up. Is 300 dpi okay, or is higher needed? RGB or CMYK? What kind of margins, how large a bleed? How do I upload or mail or…? Don’t guess. Ask.

3. You have to start somewhere, but you don’t have to stay there. You will most likely have some exceptionally tight turn around times and ever-looming deadlines as a new illustrator. You have to earn your stripes. But a lifetime of working like that will burn you out. As you progress, be more mindful of your physical and mental abilities to work long, erratic hours. It can be okay to turn down work or to ask about flexibility in the due dates. Sometimes you’ll get a, “No,” and sometimes you’ll get a, “Sure.” It can’t hurt to ask, respectfully. This isn’t something I did initially, as in school I’d had the mantra, “You’re replaceable!” drilled into me. And this was helpful advice to an extent. You aren’t a special snowflake. There’s always another illustrator that can step into your shoes. But sometimes it’s okay to see if there’s a way to work that won’t leave you crying late at night, stress-eating Swiss Rolls, listening to Sufjan Stevens. Not like I ever did that…

4. Continue to Develop Your Portfolio: A year after graduation, do NOT have a portfolio website that’s just art you did in school. That’s okay when you’re first starting out, for sure. But as you grow in ability, you want to highlight your maturation as an artist. Give yourself faux assignments. Design a fictitious book cover. Make a poster for an imaginary band. Create (within reason) projects for friends and family. Establish parameters for your personal work which will continue to develop your problem-solving abilities. For example, illustrate an album cover, but design it to be three colors, capture a 1920’s aesthetic and reference at least one line from The Great Gatsby.
   Nota bene: for published work, wait until the date of publication to share any images to your website.

5. Go outside. Head to the gym. Call your mom. Don’t sit in front of your drafting table/computer all day. You will lose all sense of perspective and any objectivity in your work. Get up and move. Go! That hour running will pay in far greater dividends than you just sitting, agonizing over the character that you can’t make work. Scheduled breaks will leave you renewed and in the background, your brain will have been churning away with a solution.

6. Contracts Are Your Friend. Don’t do any work without a contract. It protects you, it protects your client. Along the lines of the Robert Frost line that, “Good fences make good neighbors,” managed expectations and clear boundaries benefit everyone.

7. Track Your Hours. For new illustrators, it’s hard to estimate just how long it’ll take you to complete a project. Look into time tracking apps to help you with this. When you know how long it takes you to complete a project, it allows you to estimate how much work you can reasonbly take on while maintaining appropriate quality. I can’t recomend this step enough. It’ll take a little while to understand your working habits, but I’m now typically able to estimate how long a project will take me with reasonable accuracy. My time estimates are usually within an hour or two of the end result, which is close enough for me.

8. Read and Listen. Some of the best advice I ever read as a student was from Paula Scher. She raised the issue that cultural awareness was a huge part of commercial art. If you don’t have a knowledge of the world around you, you have nothing to pull from in your own creative work. While her advice was for graphic designers, I think it applies equally to illustrators. Be aware of things like what a “white whale” is and why someone might be called a, “Lady Macbeth.” Look at Art Noveau posters and understand how that influences psychadelic band art of the 1960’s. Listen to Bach and the architecture he creates with notes. Above all, be a student of the millenia of art, music and literature that are the collective treasure of humanity. This will cause your work to grow and bloom in unexpected and marvelous ways.

9. Don’t take yourself too seriously. This is probably just good advice for life in general.

10. Be Humble. Humility gets a bad wrap, but that’s because it’s often misunderstood. Humility isn’t being a doormat. Humility isn’t degrading your abilities. Humility is recognizing that you are an unfinished work and that there are things you have to learn. If you approach illustration with a posture of humility, it’ll make life so much easier. Take pride in your accomplishments, celebrate your successes and recognize the areas where you still need to pursue growth.

11. And a bonus… DON’T MISS A DEADLINE EVER. Sometimes life happens and there’s appropriate times to reach out for help with a deadline (like when a death in the family happens). But be sure to pad your work calendar enough that distruptions won’t disrail you. I usually try to block out 2-3 extra weeks at the end of a book project, so that if (and when) things come up, I’m not scrambling at the 11th hour. It’s better to finish too early than too late.

12. Oh, and one more. THE INTERNET IS FOREVER! Don’t forget that the Wayback Machine is a thing. Think twice before you post something inflamatory online and be a decent human being. Never, never, never, ever under pain of death gripe about your clients on social media. If you want to blow off steam, go out for beers with your buddies or play Call of Duty. I enjoy taking the mats out of my car and beating the dirt out of them when in moments of high dudgeon. Treat others as you’d want to be treated, etc., etc. Lather, rinse, repeat.