[Bishop_Six]

I would like to work a freelance artist(specifically concept artist) for games/films/etc. One thing which seems to be a big setback to this is the fact that I live in Arizona and the industry is in LA. Obviously, the best path for this career choice would be to move to LA, but I have a lot of ties in Arizona. I know there are freelancers out there who work in the industry but do not live in LA, although, it would seem most of them are able to do so because they are already established artists(Craig Mullins, for example). I was wondering what anyone currently in the industry thinks about the probability of being a successful freelance artist while living outside of the LA area. And to those doing freelance only, how long did it take you to build a solid client base? Thanks.

[Gort]

"Long ago in a distant land . . . "

Back in the mid 90s when I was doing storyboards and stuff, I encountered a similar situation; I had an L.A. agency review my work, give me a thumbs up for new work but with a catch: I should move to Southern California. Since I was new to the industry, it was suggested I move out there from Atlanta, work my butt off for lord only knows how many years making a name for myself and then pack out to work remotely after establishing connections.

That was the plan.

I didn't do it. I too had "ties". All of my family was here and my wife's too. We were wanting to really settle down and start a family, and we didn't want to do it in Southern California. Now let me just say that were we a bit younger, or were I not married, my thoughts would have been otherwise.

So if may find yourself in a situation that calls for sacrifices, you have to think about your career and where you want to go. You have one big advantage: Arizona is way closer to California than Georgia is.
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"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[Bishop_Six]

bump.

Anyone else care to add your experiences?

Thanks.

[jinnseng]

First of all, sorry I don't really have an answer to your questions. Just some questions to shoot back at you.

I'm from Arizona myself, still very much in my beginning learning phases as far as drawing and painting. Someday I would hope to feel like I have some decent skills in digital art. I'm just curious, what have you found in AZ as far as oppurtunity as an artist?

Also, repeated words of wisdom i've kind of picked up from reading forums and advice from artists out there is to send out a portofolio to any potential client you can find. Maybe you'll find the right opportunity.

Good luck to you!

[spooge demon]

So you are stuck in Arizona and can�t find work. You say you have friends in the biz, which is all you need. Get them to spread the word around. If the work is what they are looking for, great. Never miss a deadline and don�t screw up. You are only as good as the last job completed, and the cost for them to replace you is low. The client is ALWAYS right, and especially with you being where you are. Bad word of mouth travels even faster and lasts longer than good word of mouth.

But lets say that your contacts don�t turn up jobs. Then you have to ask and listen very carefully to what they say. Remember they are always right.

The main reason you would not get the jobs is your work is what they are looking for, or is not professional enough, or, drum roll, "good" enough. You have to be prepared to hear this over and over, and work your ass of until you do not hear it any more. (And learn to recognize when someone is being poilite.) They want to hire someone who can do the job because every competent person in their address book gives them more power/comfort/ flexibility over other artists.

It is not personal if you don�t get the job (unless you are really weird). The stranger you are, the better you have to be. So take the load off that side of things and get a haircut, speak gud Englishhh and be reliable. You know that.

The work has to be to a certain level of technical polish, and has to be different enough to set you apart. It can�t be too different; this is not a personal expression. Both the film and game biz are really very conservative given the size of investment required. Look through the starwars art books. Are you this "good?" OK, when will you be? The clock is ticking. To be fair, I ask myself the same questions. But the question of how to get better has been asked and answered many times. They are really good at addressing this over at conceptart.org.

If the variety of work in your book is large, there is a better chance that a client will feel confident that you can do something not shown. If you show flexibility, there is a higher chance that you can solve their particular need. I remember a guy who did amazing airbrush renderings of red, wet coke cans sitting in ice. That was it. Chances of getting work are slim if you can only do one thing well. But if you spread yourself too thin you run the risk of not polishing your work to a needed professional level overall. Your time would be too scattered.

This is why I have always said to concentrate on drawing, it underlies just about everything. I remember I had a type class (hand lettered serif stuff) I count this as drawing. It really helped me. I don�t mean drawing as in using lines, but in being aware of structure and how things are put together and how to represent/ stylize/ play with it. Drawing even helps 3-d artists. Sculpture is a great way to get the forms in your head.

OK, lets say you are really good now. How to get your work in front of the right noses? In the old days you had to physically take your portfolio around NY/LA and show it to art directors. The other way was to buy a page in a workbook for about 3 grand (plus technical costs). This worked OK. Now, the workbooks are dinosaurs and nobody uses them as far as far as I know. The internet has replaced all of it. The workbook used to having a stranglehold over the client/artist path and then tried the same idea on the internet. The deal is usually� we will give you 2MB of pics at 500x400, and link you with 8 million other artists, all for only 75 bucks a month!� Clearly their idea of their own importance was distorted by their previous dominance. Kinda like AOL. Now they can�t give it away. But the film biz never used illustrators from this pile. I think most of the illustrators that were in the book would prefer to do print work for no other reason than they find it more �highbrow.�

As far as the film biz goes, I have never really worked on film productions. You really need to be able to go into the studio every day and I was never willing to do this. Art center guys all know each other and pull their buddies into productions and around union restrictions. I can�t be of much help here. Most of my work is for post production and effects houses. I have only recently begun to do concept work on the very front end. I really thing that the reason I can do this now is the work is strong enough that the production is willing to put up with me being off location. I was going to work for LOTR, but I could/would not move to NZ for the duration. I was worried that moving to Hawaii would put a dent in work, but the opposite has happened. �wow, he�s good enough to live there, he must be the stuff!� and other such very Hollywood nonsense.

I did spend 19 years in LA working, going to clients (sometimes barefoot) and generally hand holding. I screwed up my fair share of jobs, and never heard from those clients again. Luckily they were not the wrong clients, or I did not screw up too badly.

But am I getting work now because I was around all that time or has my work gotten better? If you do live outside the area, your work has to be stronger than the competition that lives locally. Very simple truth. If the work is good enough, put it on the web and word of mouth will do the rest.

I guess there are several tiers. 1) not good enough to get work no matter what 2) good enough for manual labor, if you are polite and your attractive sister is willing to give backrubs 3) good enough to compete with most professionals 4) good enough to live off site, 5) good enough to be expensive, slow, rude and live far away. 6) good enough so that George and Steven will personally fly to your Himalayan cave with piles of money and give you a backrub for simply listening to their pitch.

The problems of living remotely are not insurmountable; you just have to be a little better at what you do. And how much better has gotten lower since the internet became capable.

So concentrate on the work, put it out there, and if nothing comes back, work on it some more, according to what you hear. You might be thinking that this is easy for me to say, but keep in mind that I just had my ass handed to me in the tourist art market. Clearly my work was not good enough to even sell one print. I am listening on how to get better, and remember, the client (money) is the sole arbiter of what is �good.�

[eyewoo]

Craig... your writing is right-on, just like your artwork...
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[MCMA]

Thank you for your insights Spooge and taking the time to write that.
Clear, solid and inspirational to me (us all I assume).
Back to the drawing board since I live so remote I have to be better than level 6
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The Dark Ages was caused by the Y1K problem.

[Bishop_Six]

Thanks so much for taking the time to share all that with us, Craig. It was very enlightening.
I really appreciate it.

[Impaler]

I'm sure heysoos can back me up on this, but with New Mexico being fully ONE-HALF Arizona, this thread is Very Useful.
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QED, sort of.

[balistic]

I like it when spooge finishes a project and has time to write smart words for us again
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[Popeye]

i second to you balistic.