That Roller Coaster Ride
For anyone who is actually reding these entries, my apologies. This is the longest I have gone without making a new one, some 5 or 6 days. I much prefer to create anew entry every three days at least.
Clearly, I am in the midst of my best commercial art period in many a moon, maybe ever. Not only do I have a lovely batch of stimulating, fun jobs, but two of them are for relatively new-looks-like-long term clients. For me, great long-term clients have been an elusive and much sought after commodity. Still, there have been a few ups and downs regarding the work for them.
The newest one is only 5 days old; we had a great first meeting and the work was right up my alley: black and white line art illustratioins to be used as humorous ads in the local paper. If all goes as planned, the work looks to be fairly steady too. The day after our meeting, we got off to a fast start with a tight deadline for Halloween, and a sketch was approved to go to final art. The next day I executed the final art, and faxed it to him for his final approval, and when he called me, his first words were, "Is this the finished art?" . It was downhill from there, my heart sank as he told me he didn't like it, that the art was just "not making it". It is hard to talk about why a visual medium is not satisfying , and I understood that the art was compromised by the fact that I was trying to do it in someone else's style: that of the cartoonist my new client had been using for many years. So, even though it was hard for my cllient to verbaize exactly what was missing from the picture, we both knew that it lacked the humor, spontenaity, and exuberance that my best work has.
We ended the conversation by saying we'd talk the next day, and I was really feeling bad for something that had begun with high hopes that now seemed to be on the verge of being dashed. These feelings were hard to deal with, but the next morning I happened to get a call from a musician friend of mine, and we hashed the situation out, comparing it to similar situations he had had as a studio mucician, and put it into perspective. And then, an email came in from my new client saying, " maybe we can salvage this and still make out deadline by augmenting the art. I also wast to pay you in full, no matter how the art turns out as I know you put a lot of time into it." The sun broke through the clouds and I knew this would now turn out to be a successful job.
Another client hired me to do a Thanksgiving card for her, but had rejected the first two sketches, and then sat on the third for 10 days. I had to call her twice before she got back to me and did, in fact, give me my approval to go on to finished art. It had been a long 10 days for me wondering what was going on, but being busy with other projects, and also feeling that she had to call me at that point, that I had done all I could do. Managing my clients is not something I enjoy doing, but I suppose it is part of my job. "I'd rather be painting" is what I ought to have on my personalized license plate, if I ever get one.
One other good thing: despite all the commercial work I have at this time, I began a new creative piece of art. This is something I have vowed to always have going, and so I have started my own "History of Art", which is entirely irreverent. Picasso's "Guernica" meets Archie and Jughead, at last. The meeting we've all been waiting for.
Clearly, I am in the midst of my best commercial art period in many a moon, maybe ever. Not only do I have a lovely batch of stimulating, fun jobs, but two of them are for relatively new-looks-like-long term clients. For me, great long-term clients have been an elusive and much sought after commodity. Still, there have been a few ups and downs regarding the work for them.
The newest one is only 5 days old; we had a great first meeting and the work was right up my alley: black and white line art illustratioins to be used as humorous ads in the local paper. If all goes as planned, the work looks to be fairly steady too. The day after our meeting, we got off to a fast start with a tight deadline for Halloween, and a sketch was approved to go to final art. The next day I executed the final art, and faxed it to him for his final approval, and when he called me, his first words were, "Is this the finished art?" . It was downhill from there, my heart sank as he told me he didn't like it, that the art was just "not making it". It is hard to talk about why a visual medium is not satisfying , and I understood that the art was compromised by the fact that I was trying to do it in someone else's style: that of the cartoonist my new client had been using for many years. So, even though it was hard for my cllient to verbaize exactly what was missing from the picture, we both knew that it lacked the humor, spontenaity, and exuberance that my best work has.
We ended the conversation by saying we'd talk the next day, and I was really feeling bad for something that had begun with high hopes that now seemed to be on the verge of being dashed. These feelings were hard to deal with, but the next morning I happened to get a call from a musician friend of mine, and we hashed the situation out, comparing it to similar situations he had had as a studio mucician, and put it into perspective. And then, an email came in from my new client saying, " maybe we can salvage this and still make out deadline by augmenting the art. I also wast to pay you in full, no matter how the art turns out as I know you put a lot of time into it." The sun broke through the clouds and I knew this would now turn out to be a successful job.
Another client hired me to do a Thanksgiving card for her, but had rejected the first two sketches, and then sat on the third for 10 days. I had to call her twice before she got back to me and did, in fact, give me my approval to go on to finished art. It had been a long 10 days for me wondering what was going on, but being busy with other projects, and also feeling that she had to call me at that point, that I had done all I could do. Managing my clients is not something I enjoy doing, but I suppose it is part of my job. "I'd rather be painting" is what I ought to have on my personalized license plate, if I ever get one.
One other good thing: despite all the commercial work I have at this time, I began a new creative piece of art. This is something I have vowed to always have going, and so I have started my own "History of Art", which is entirely irreverent. Picasso's "Guernica" meets Archie and Jughead, at last. The meeting we've all been waiting for.
posted by Rich Sigberman at
7:26 AM
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