December, 2012 | Luis' Illustrated Blog

The Business of Art.

December 27, 2012 in THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS – The Business of Art

Simpsons Quote:

“Family, religion, friendship, these are the three demons you must slay if you want to succeed in business.” – Mr. Burns

Today I’m talking about something that, as an artist, you’re probably not going to want to hear, or think about, or do, but you’ve got to do it anyway if you want to be an artist with job security. And that is, you have to become a business person whether you like it or not.

Why should you even want think this way? What does it matter?

It matters. Your art is your product and you sell it to clients. Those clients are either the public, which makes you in the service or product industry, or other businesses, which makes you in the “business to business” industry.

Realizing this and understanding what this means may be the difference between you doing well and not having any money.

Below you can watch a video where I talk about this. You can either watch is or read along below the video. I say basically the same thing. Make sure to read up on what I’m sending my e-mail subscribers below so you can see the goodies you get for subscribing:

The Animation Industry

I’ve really started to think about business recently and I’ve never had to think about it because I’ve been at the Simpsons studio for so long. I’ve been on the show for many years but the average time an artist is on a TV show or a feature film is two years.

Usually, as an animator or artist, you’re like an independent contractor. When you’re freelancing, you’re an independent contractor. You’re like a small business working for a bigger business.

As an artist or freelance artist, you are in a business and your product is your art. You are selling your product to somebody or another business. If you’re trading your art for value (money)–that’s a business transaction. You need to learn how to manage a small business in order to know what’s working, how to leverage it, how not to get jacked by taxes, things like that.

If you’re really serious about making a living doing your art, you have to learn this for more than one reason. One major reason is, even if you’re working in a studio environment like I am, if you know business then you understand what the higher ups are working with and what they’re thinking. If you can understand that and give them that, and make yourself a valuable asset to them because you have that business mentality anyway, you become more valuable as an artist.

Another reason is if you’re not in a studio or you’re doing freelance, you want job security. A good way to get good job security is to have a head for business. You need to think about how you are going to sell your product in ways that are going to give you the money you need in order to survive and have job security.

The Rule of One

There’s this rule called The Rule of One.

The worst number in business is the number one. One product, one form of marketing, one stream of revenue, one product, one client, etc. You don’t want one. Usually as artists what we end up doing is focusing on “one thing,” such as wanting to be only a comic book artist, only an animator, or only doing fantasy illustrations for Magic The Gathering.

That’s ridiculous, because when that one thing goes away, you’re out of work.

What do investors do with their portfolios? What’s the common wisdom?

They diversify.

That means that you don’t put all your money in one market. You put some money in foreign currencies, some in land, oil, etc. so just in case one market fails, you have all these other markets that keep your portfolio safe.

Why don’t we as artists do that? Why don’t we diversify? If you do art, you should do it not only for a client, but also for yourself so you can market it and even license it. Find different avenues for your art. You should do comics, cartoons, everything. Do it all at once.

That way, if you’re not working in the studio anymore, you’re at least still doing freelance, or selling comics, or starting an art school and bringing in revenue from that. You have job security, and you’ve got the skill to create assets to make you money.

Mini Business

So if you’re only focusing on the one thing, you’re not very secure financially. Don’t do that. Find, distribute, and diversify the business. Create a model that will allow you to do that.

Learn to hire out. For example, a virtual assistant can look up references for you, check your email, send out your tweets, etc. for $150 a month so you can work on the stuff you need to work on. You’ll need the time to be producing a lot of content in different formats so you can be a successful business.

I hope this gives you something to think about.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Simpsons Holiday Cards Continue

In this week’s e-mail newsletter, I continue my highlight of this year’s Christmas cards from my fellow Simpsons artist. This week Head Director, Producer David Silverman makes an appearance in the way of his New Year’s card.

If you want to get a copy of this sent to you, opt in before next Thursday and I’ll send you copy of the e-mail.

FAMILY

Had a great Christmas with the family.

Alesha gave me a copy of THE FOUR HOUR CHEF for the Kindle. Not because I don’t know how to cook but because I wanted to read the chapter on “meta learning.”

I got Alesha money. The left over money from a “commission” of sorts I finished before Christmas.

The kids got TONS of presents from everyone. The highlights of best present, by kid are:

Elizabeth (5 years old): a new fish she saved her money to buy.

Dante (4 years old): A Super Mario Brother DVD (not a game but the animated TV show from the 80s)

Ambrose (2 years old): A toy airplane (he loves airplanes.)

Luke (1 year old): Wrapping paper.

We spent a lot nights up late. Lots of sleepy kids this week.

Also we met Santa Clause AND Saint Nicholas. Santa showed up at our Christmas eve party and gave kids presents. Saint Nicholas showed up at the Kid’s Mass on Christmas eve, looking like a what he is, a Catholic Bishop. He gave Elizabeth a candy cane as we left the church.

It was a good Christmas. I hope you had a good one too.

The liturgical Christmas season has started (before Christmas was Advent), I hope you have a wonderful Christmas season and a Happy New Year.

For more comics and stories written by me: COMICS AND STORIES

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

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Artists and the Value of Learning to Market Yourself.

December 20, 2012 in THE SIMPSONS NEWS, WEBSITES

THE SIMPSONS NEWS – Artists and the Value of Learning to Market Yourself.

Simpsons Quote:

Homer: (places a dollar on the counter) I’d like a colossal donut, please. Just like the one on the sign. (Homer is given a regular-sized donut.) D’oh, nuts! That’s false advertising!

How often do you hear an artist talk about marketing?

When does it come up in a drawing class? What art school has a special class dedicated to Direct Marketing?

Is it even part of the artist’s radar? Do we even consider it to be a valuable skill or does marketing have a negative connotation?

I’m going to explore this topic this week. I’ve come to believe it’s an essential part of an artist’s skill set and I’ll explain why below.

You can either watch the video or read the post. They both say pretty much the same thing:

Marketing

I was never taught marketing. Not in any art class I took. It wasn’t ever mentioned. I don’t know any artist who was taught marketing in any art school they went to.

I’ve been learning a lot about marketing recently. I’ve come to the realization that everyone who draws…well, not just those who draw, EVERYBODY, period, should learn marketing.

Why?

Because, we’re ALL selling something.

Any person that’s gone to a job interview to get a job for any reason, is selling something. That something is YOURSELF.

You’re Already a Marketer

When you go to a job interview, what are you doing? What’s a job interview?

It’s a “pitch session.” A “pitch session” of YOU. You’re pitching yourself, your service, as someone who has what they need.

What’s a resume? It’s “testimonials’ of your past work, right? It’s proof that your worthy to have the job. It’s “social proof” that you’ve got experience.

Marketing is the same thing. It’s pitching a service, pitching a good, pitching something of value to someone. A value you exchange for equal value, in the form of money.

Marketing in the purest sense is getting the word out, that you have a service that will help other with what they need.

Direct Marketing

When I talk about marketing, I’m not talking about any kind of marketing. I’m talking specifically about Direct Marketing.

Direct Marketing is a different kind of marketing. It’s not like Brand Marketing. It’s not like having a billboard with a Santa Clause drinking a coke or someone on TV eating a burger. That’s not what I’m talking about.

Direct making is getting your potential customer to directly respond to your ad. When you put an ad somewhere, you get a direct measurable result.

When you put money into a Direct Marketing ad, it results in getting a client. The ad you use gives information that allows your client to contact you for your service. That way, if you spend money, say, in a newspaper ad. The amount of money you spent on the ad pays itself back through the clients it brings in and may even bring MORE money than you spent on the ad.

This response marketing, is measurable.

Brand Marketing is far more difficult to measure. There’s no real way to measure if anyone will buy your burger or drink you soft drink, just because you put an ad up with your drink in it without some way to track an actionable response.

Big companies do this because they have enough money to throw at Brand Marketing. As artists we can’t afford to be wasting our money this way. We need results from any marketing you may pay for. You want something you can measurable results from.

Avoid “Hope Marketing”

There are many forms of Direct Marketing. There are also many sources to learn about Direct Marketing. I highly recommend you seek them out and learn these things.

Without it, what will happen is, you’ll put your portfolio online and you’ll sit and think that by taking that action people will magically go to your site and give you work.

Not going to happen. It’s what Direct Marketers call “Hope Marketing.” You don’t want. You don’t want to put yourself out there and “hope” someone sees your work and gives you a job.

You want them to come to you because you’ve gone out of your way to show them what you can do for them.

Direct Marketing should never be about you. It should always be about what your service can provide for other people. For you potential clients.

It’s about them first, “here’s what you’re having problems with, I can help you with that.”

That’s what Direct Marketing is all about.

I advice everyone, but specifically you artists, freelancers, animators whatever your in, to learn this. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a good job in a studio or a steady job.

Learn it. I guarantee, it will help you no matter what your circumstances. It’s a very important skill set, to hone, learn, and have.

I hope this has given you some food for thought. I may be writing more in depth about this in the future.

Simpsons Crew Christmas Cards

If you like or dislike what you’ve read here, please leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you. If you have anything to add, even more so.

This week, in my newsletter, I sent some examples of Simpsons Christmas cards that my co-workers handed out this year. They’re all very cool and Simpsons related. This is the kind of unique item, you’ll never see in stores…or anywhere.

If you’d like to receive a copy of this e-mail, opt in below before next Thursday and I’ll send to you.

Have a Merry Christmas.

THE DRAWING WEBSITE- Formulas – An Introduction to Drawing Shorthand

Yesterday I managed to get my latest Drawing Website post up on my site.

It was the closest I’ve ever come to not meeting the post deadline. I honestly thought I was going to upload it later in the week.

There were so many false starts, so many useless and unused drawings.

It took me a while to even wrap my head around exactly what part of my topic I was suppose to focus on. I was in a panic about it.

I then, simply sat down in a quite place and began to write. The post took shape, I knew exactly the artwork that was needed to illustrate my points and I cranked away at them the next day, whenever I had a chance.

Once the artwork was done, I wrote a second draft of the post and it was ready to go.

So here is it, just for you. I hope you like what I wrote:

Formulas – An Introduction to Drawing Shorthand

For more comics and stories written by me: COMICS AND STORIES

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

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Agreeing To Do Work That You Don’t Know How To Do And Quickly Learning How To Do It.

December 13, 2012 in MOVIES, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS – Agreeing To Do Work That You Don’t Know How To Do And Quickly Learning How To Do It.

Simpson Quote:

Aim low. Aim so low that no one will even care if you succeed. ~ Marge Simpson

When the opportunity presents itself, to do something that you haven’t done before artistically, take it.

Over my years on The Simpsons, I’ve had opportunities to work on other Simpsons things besides the show.

Sometime I accept to do work I’ve never done even though I tell the person I have. Especially if I know I can learn to do it quickly.

It’s a little trick I learned in my animation class in high school. Basically taking on a project that you don’t know how to do and then quickly learning how to do it.

What I’m going to be talking about this week is how I did this and ended up cleaning up a few scenes of a Church’s Chicken commercial.

You can watch the video of read the text below it. It’s practically the same thing. The only difference is that I posted some images from the scene I cleaned up. You can also see the final commercial below.

And make sure to scroll down and read about the special audio surprise I have in store for anyone who’s opted in to receive e-mails from me:

Advice From My High School Animation Class

I used to go to a regional occupational program (ROP) in a different high school from mine. There they taught animation. The teacher in that high school was very well connected to the animation industry and that’s where I got my start.

One of the big pieces of advice our teacher gave us was, if someone asked us if we could do something artistically and if we knew that it would be possible for us to learn how to do it but we didn’t know how to do it yet, we should say, “yes” to the job.

“Oh yeah, I could do that. No problem,” and then very quickly go learn to do it. that isn’t to say that you should do something so out of your skill set that there’s no way for you to learn how to do it. but agree to something that your reasonably certain that you’ll be able to do.

How I Ended Up Doing This

This is an example of what I did many years ago as I was doing Character Layout on The Simpsons. I was on the show for about five or six year by that point. There was a producer I didn’t know that just walked into my cubicle, perhaps by recommendation. He introduced himself and then asked me,

“Can you do clean up?”

And I’d never done clean up. All I had done at that point was Character Layout and that’s a very different skill set. I had also animated and inbetweened but I hadn’t ever done any clean up. Nothing that I had done up to this point required me to clean up my roughs in any final way.

Well, I knew how to inbetween so I didn’t think it would be that difficult to do clean up. So I said,

“Oh yeah, I know how to do clean up.”

So he says,

“Oh good, because I have this giant stack of drawings. Can you clean this up by this date next week?”

“Oh yeah, I do that all the time,” He smiled, thanked me and waked away.

As soon as he was gone I went into complete panic mode because I hadn’t done any clean, ever.

Crash Course Time

So I immediately got up, went to the phone, and called up a good family friend of mine that happened to be a clean up artist at Disney,

“Dude, you have to have lunch with me TODAY. You got to tell me everything you know about doing clean up.”

That day I drove over to Disney, we went to the his desk, he showed me what he was doing and how he did it and basically gave me a lesson on clean up during lunch.

Then I came back to the studio and started working on the clean up job.

The Result

It turned out fine. It was good work. I did a professional quality clean up job.

I had never done it before. I had just been taught to do it. As I did, I got better at it. But it wasn’t super difficult for me to do.

I had enough experience at that point to be able to pull something like that off. Learning clean up wasn’t too far off from my general experience that I didn’t know what I was doing. It turned out I knew how to do it well.

There’s more to clean up than just pretty lines. It’s also doing good inbetweens AND there was a part that I was asked to reanimate and time as well.

Clean up itself was just a skill I needed to know to round out my education and it wasn’t a big barrier.

I hope this is helpful and instructive.

Just remember, if you don’t know how to do a thing but you’re reasonably sure you’ll be able to learn it quickly and handle it, go ahead and accept the job. As long as you then quickly learn how to do it.

You get more experience that way. You learn more skills and your perceived value increases.

Here’s The Final Commercial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqXvmPYBc50

Special For All My E-mail Subscribers

Sit in on an audio conversation with Simpsons artists.

In this week’s e-mail, I sent out an audio recording of a lunch conversation I had with my friends and co-workers: Paul Wee, Tommy Tejeda, and Herman Sharaf.

You basically get a virtual seat at one of our many crazy and fun “comic book Wednesday” lunch conversations.

If you want to hear it, opt in before Thursday of next week and I’ll send it to you. Who knows, if everyone likes what they hear, there might be more to come.

MOVIES – Superman: Man of Steel

So Awesome. I hope it’s as good at the trailer makes it seem:

For more comics and stories written by me: COMICS AND STORIES

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

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Increasing Your Value as an artist by Doing What Others Can’t or Wont do.

December 6, 2012 in BLOGS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, WEBSITES

THE SIMPSONS NEWS – Increasing Your Value as an artist by Doing What Others Can’t or Wont do

Simpsons Quote:

“You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is: never try.” – Homer Simpson

Sometimes an art job is…well, to put it mildly, unappealing.

Artists simply don’t want to do it or don’t have the skill to.

At some point, after being in the art industry for a while, you can choose what jobs you’re willing to have and which ones your not so excited about.

Let’s say, for whatever reason, you turn down an unappealing job. In fact, it’s an unappealing job that MOST artists turn down or can’t do, though it’s still a good paying job.

You’ve just thrown away an opportunity. That job that no one wanted or couldn’t do, may very well have been the job that set you apart and made you look better than the rest. You would have become a more valuable artist.

I’m going to be talking about that in this week’s post. How doing what others can’t or wont will increase your value as an artist:

Drawing as Work

I just wanted to point something out that I’ve noticed and this is something that happens in just about every industry, and the art industry is no exception. The job is perceived as work–it’s a job.

We get our job done and then we go home, and we want to relax and have nothing to do with our job. An artist draws all day, for eight hours, and goes home and just wants to relax. That’s okay, that’s perfectly fine.

The thing is, sometimes an artist is given an opportunity in work or freelance to do something that might be more work. This work might be a pain in the neck, something they don’t want to do. But, it’s something necessary that whoever is giving you the job is really counting on it getting done. So they go to you, and you turn it down.

What does that do to you?

Well you’re not the go-to person after that. But had you said yes and accepted the job, your perceived value from that person would’ve gone up.

What Happened to Me During THE SIMPSONS Movie

Let me show you an example from my life from both sides, when I turned down a job and when I didn’t. They happened around the same time.

During the Simpsons movie, there was a ton of work that had to be done at the Fox lot. What ended up happening was that production would come around and ask artists,

“Can you work this weekend at the Fox lot?”

Just imagine how the artists were all overworked already because production was heavy. We needed a break, we needed a little rest. We wanted a free weekend. Just about everyone refused.

When they came and asked me, I said yes, and I was on the Fox lot working on the weekends. I thought it was a good opportunity and a good place to be, and it turned out I was right.

I eventually ended up working at the Fox lot ONLY. I was among all the other people who had agreed to come to the lot on weekends. The perceived value of every artist at the Fox lot increased, and it was much easier for us to be the go-to people than the people who refused.

How I Lost my Freelance Gigs

While I was working at the lot, it was a very intense and very heavy duty experience. It meant I had no free time, I had to stay there, and had no control over when I could leave.

I got a phone call from one of the art directors for the comic book that I worked on. I’ve been doing comic books on the side for twelve years.

The art director called me up and asked me to do a freelance job while I was at the Fox lot. He was desperate, and he was begging me to take the work. I couldn’t do it. If he had given me the work, there was no way I could meet the deadline. I wasn’t in a position to take the job.

Because I couldn’t accept the job, I hadn’t been called back by him in five or six years.

The Point

So, you take the opportunities that you can get. Don’t refuse work because you don’t want to do it; I refused it because it wasn’t humanly possible to do it, and even THEN it had negative effects.

I took the work that no one else wanted at the Fox lot, and it benefited me.

I recommend being willing to do what others are unwilling to do, and being willing to do what others cannot do, and that will increase your perceived value as an artist and secure more work in the future.

E-mailing Bum Thumbnails from “The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson” episode

This week my newsletter group gets a behind the scenes look at my thumbnails of the bum in this scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSCcUWrxKeM

If you want to get in on this exclusive, opt in below before next Thursday and I’ll send you a copy of the e-mail as soon I’m able.

PODCASTS – Man vs. Art #75

I was on the Man vs. Art podcast on episode 75. Raul and I had a conversation about art and specifically I talked about my drawing site.

It was a good time. I laughed so hard during our talk.

Raul also put all kinds of goofy music and sound effect depending on what we spoke about.

If you want to hear out conversation go over to the Man vs. Art site and give it a listen.

And make sure to check out the post because Raul has done a cool little video about drawing a picture using “The rule of thirds”.

WEBSITES – Designing Super Basic Compositions

New drawing website post is up. This time I took on the daunting task of picking ONE tip on composition and wrote about it.

Really, it feels ridiculous to only pick one. I’m not sure what it was about this particular post compared to the other ones but this one REALLY felt like was I leaving a lot out.

Did I not pick the right principle to talk about? I’m not sure.

You be the judge. Go read it and let me know:

Designing Super Basic Compositions

For more comics and stories written by me: COMICS AND STORIES

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

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Luis' Illustrated Blog

The Business of Art.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS – The Business of Art

The Animation Industry

The Rule of One

Mini Business

Simpsons Holiday Cards Continue

Sign up for, special content that I will NOT post on the blog. Don’t miss out.

FAMILY

Share this:

Like this:

Artists and the Value of Learning to Market Yourself.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS – Artists and the Value of Learning to Market Yourself.

Marketing

You’re Already a Marketer

Direct Marketing

Avoid “Hope Marketing”

Simpsons Crew Christmas Cards

Sign up for, special content that I will NOT post on the blog. Don’t miss out.

THE DRAWING WEBSITE- Formulas – An Introduction to Drawing Shorthand

Share this:

Like this:

Agreeing To Do Work That You Don’t Know How To Do And Quickly Learning How To Do It.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS – Agreeing To Do Work That You Don’t Know How To Do And Quickly Learning How To Do It.

Advice From My High School Animation Class

How I Ended Up Doing This

Crash Course Time

The Result

Special For All My E-mail Subscribers

Sign up for, special content that I will NOT post on the blog. Don’t miss out.

MOVIES – Superman: Man of Steel

Share this:

Like this:

Increasing Your Value as an artist by Doing What Others Can’t or Wont do.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS – Increasing Your Value as an artist by Doing What Others Can’t or Wont do

Drawing as Work

What Happened to Me During THE SIMPSONS Movie

How I Lost my Freelance Gigs

The Point

E-mailing Bum Thumbnails from “The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson” episode

Sign up for, special content that I will NOT post on the blog. Don’t miss out.

PODCASTS – Man vs. Art #75

WEBSITES – Designing Super Basic Compositions

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