In the last part of this blog post I have promised you to share my strategies and tactics.
How do I organize myself as a freelancer? How do I approach clients? How do I find projects?
This is going to be a post with lots of informational goodies, so keep on reading!
Read MoreI have been going through many different stages of becoming an illustrator - from hobby to first paying clients, from side hustle to quitting my day job to founding and 2022 is finally the year I can say: I am a successful freelance illustrator In Berlin, I support myself and have a good life only by drawing and that’s huge for me!
Read MoreWhile hearing “illustration” most people think about children’s books, the world of illustration is so much broader. Try to go around one day with the “illustration focus” in your mind and you’re going to see them everywhere: in newspapers and magazines, on websites, on products, in social media, apps, podcast covers, in advertising, on posters, all kinds of books, book covers…and I could go on forever.
Illustration (and animation) have become incredibly popular in the last few years and today I want to share the reasons of why that happens.
Probably the most obvious and well known reason to choose illustration for your business is that illustration is an art form that will make you stand out. While, of course, photography is also an art form, we’ve gotten so used to stock photography on websites that in many cases it just doesn’t speak to us as emotionally, as an individual illustration does. There’s a such variety of stiles and executions of illustrations out there that a client can certainly find one fitting the purposes of what they need: from whimsical, to modern, hand drawn to graphic, one line to 3d - illustration can capture the stile of your brand and elevate it with its wow factor.
Check out just a few examples of big companies using illustration to stand out:
Headspace (Meditation App - Website)
Mailchimp - Newsletter Provider
Etsy - Selling plattform
While choosing between illustration and photography can still be a matter of personal taste, the next feature of illustration cannot be denied: illustration can show the invisible. Let me give you some examples straight away: how about photographing heartbreak? Or the coronavirus for that matter? There’s so many things that want to be shown but cannot be captured by a camera or words:!
One example in my portfolio is what I did for Revox. Revox has a multiroom audio systems where the speakers are build into the walls…try capturing and explaining this product to your customers. Here’s what we’ve done with it:
Revox Multiroom System
Test to go website - Berlin free Covid testing centres
Let me explain this to you with an example of a request I once got. This brand wanted me to illustrate big outdoor garden scenes with people working on different things. It was more convenient for them to explain the scenes to me and let me draw them than to find the spaces, models, photographer, stage everything and do a shooting. Honestly it was just faster and cheaper this way and while this absolutely isn’t my favorite reason to illustrate something…it might be the reason your company is looking for an illustrator.
If you want a very specific looking person on your website or product, it will probably be easier to illustrate that than to find such a person in reality. Or you want a scene that would be only possible to get in photography post-production and you don’t like the feel of that, illustration is your friend!
Invision Website
Infographic are so much easier for our brains to absorb and digest than words are. There are tons of scientific evidence showing that brains process images better than text. Plus, images are more enganging, persuasive and accessible to humans than information in text form.
So many brands and companies use this knowledge and create visual marketing. Here are just a few examples:
everylastdrop.com
metoomentum.com
To sum up there are many reasons to choose illustration for your company, brand, product or website, I’ve just gotten into a few of them today. And those reasons are also the reasons why I love to be an illustrator.
If you want to discuss the possibilities of elevating your business with illustration, feel free to contact me!
I’m not sure if it is a polish superstition or something I have heard from someone in my youth, but it stuck for good - the idea that your new year will be the same as the last night of the old year (and therefore go and celebrate!). So I could have predicted how my 2020 would be on New Year's Eve and it wasn’t looking good. I was running between bed and bathroom with a gastrointestinal infection and slept through midnight, completely exhausted and feeling sick…
Read MoreOne year has passed, again, the third year living my dream, working as an illustrator. Well, the first year I didn’t even know I wanted to be an illustrator, I just started to draw again after a really long time and things fell into place...so let’s say it was the second conscious year working as an illustrator. And this year I did not achieve everything I planned, as I did last year, because of a major life change: I became a mother.
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Exactly one year ago I wrote a blogpost titled “From dream to reality - in one year to first customer illustrations” where I showed you how I started to earn money with illustrations for my first clients. The post ended with stating that I have drawn eight paid portraits for people I knew and strangers. As I am a vivid journal writer, I can see that three days later I made my plan for the next year, 2018, and I had a big plan for it!
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Easter is just around the corner, so I decided to make a little freebie for you!
I've made 3 postcards that you can color yourself and send away your greetings or frame and use it as a gift. You could also sit down (with your kids) during the Easter time and color it just for fun or to destress!
The 3 versions are basically the same, just one in English, one in German and one in Polish. So simply choose your language and print the one you need.
You'll get the 3 page pdf completely for free by clicking on the download link.
Hey there, feeling the V-Day pressure already?
She or he says they don't care but you know that deep inside they do?
Do you wanna show some love, but are broke, out of ideas or simply negate the whole pink industry?
I have a simple and free solution for you! Just download (click on the download button below) the Valentine's Day Card you need (boy or girl), print it on thicker paper (ok, thin paper will also do!) and there you go! You are officially ready for Valentine's Day. You might even get a kiss.
IF you wanna go big, add a bunch of carrots to this card...noone can say no to carrots! :D
Ho ho ho! Welcome to this christmas party, this link party, this blogparade!
You don't know what I am talking about? What you need to know is: we have gifts for you! You can get a lot of free christmas cards and gift tags from talented illustrators from all over the world. Isn't this amazing news?
Online coach and illustrator Johanna Fritz started a link party (Blogparade in German) and using the hashtag #xmasillublogparade you can search on instagram for you favorite cards and tags, download and print them and be ready for Christmas! You can also simply check out Johanna's blog with links to everyone who joined this blog party!
I love parties, so of course I decided to join and made some lovely gift tags for you guys! I'm a big fan of gifts, pretty wrapping and details and each year I'm looking for special wrapping paper, cords or ribbons and gift tags, which is not that easy to be honest...sometimes it's hard to find something simple, not over-christmasy cheesy, stylish. So this year I'm doing the gift tags myself! For me and for you!
All you need to do is download them with the link on the bottom of this post, print them (I used 220gsm paper - this one, but you can use any paper you want), cut them out (I used a puncher for the holes) and get some cords of you choosing and there you go! You'll have very individual gift tags for your friends and family, made with love, completely for free for you.
Here you can see some more examples of how your gifts could look this year. Of course the lines on the tags are free and you can write the name of the reciepient, the giver or anything you like on them!
This is how the printable looks. Dowload it by clicking on the link on the bottom. You don't need to leave your e-mail or anything, no need for any code or other data. Just a click and the pritable is in your downloads!
Be sure to check out the other freebies, tell your friends and have a lovely Christmas time! <3,
Today is the anniversary of my first drawing as an adult. I have been drawing as a child, sure, also as a teenager. I’ve always been creative in one way or another but then… life happened. I wanted to study something creative but was convinced that to make a living it was a much better choice to study something else, something substantial. Although surely one could argue that Cultural Science, which I chose and concluded with a Master of Arts (sic!), wasn’t the best choice for earning money either.
When I moved out from home at the age of 17 and started to study and work as a translator, I stopped drawing. I had a wound in my heart, yet I thought I understood that adult life was not supposed to be fun. It was just supposed to work out and therefore you needed to compromise, work and be serious. Creativity was put aside and labeled as a childish wish.
Last year a friend of mine recommended me Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. I’d read about the book some days earlier and decided it couldn’t be a coincidence, so I went to buy it immediately. I started reading it and doing all the assignments, also the daily and weekly ones, such as morning pages and artist dates.
Morning pages is a ritual to start your day writing 3 pages of whatever comes to your mind. Your worries, hopes, anything — a stream of consciousness. My morning page during week 3 of the book’s course, on the 17. November 2016 goes like this:
I am sad since 3 weeks, but it really is sad: I just want to know what I could do professionally to be fulfilled and have enough money and this question is bugging me since I’m 17 – 15 years now! Do I want to be a graphic designer? An Art Director? That seems to be the direction anyways…Do I want to draw and touch people’s heart with my drawings? I think this is what I want to do! So today I will go on the Artist Date to Modulor and just stroll around and let myself get inspired.
two notebooks full of morning pages
Artist dates are dates with yourself, with your inner artist, your inner child. Julia Cameron puts it like this:
The Artist Date is a once-weekly, festive, solo expedition to explore something that interests you. The Artist Date need not be overtly “artistic” — think mischief more than mastery. Artist Dates fire up the imagination. They spark whimsy. They encourage play. Since art is about the play of ideas, they feed our creative work by replenishing our inner well of images and inspiration. When choosing an Artist Date, it is good to ask yourself, “what sounds fun?” — and then allow yourself to try it.
That day I went to Modulor (a great art supply shop in Berlin), bought myself three micron pens and a small notebook, and already on the way home started to draw little comics to help me cope with my emotions… and just for fun.
I continued drawing daily, as it was a lot of fun and helped me clear my head. I also showed my friends some pictures and the feedback was always positive. My better half started convincing me to do something about it, to show my drawings to more people. So, a month after starting to draw, I created an Instagram account only for my drawings. The name was drawings in the sky. The Instagram crowd was immensely nice and supportive. I received a lot of positive feedback and decided I wanted to continue.
first drawing as an adult - 17.11.2016
I’m a spiritual person who believes in the power of thoughts and wishes. I make a ritual of it every now and then to send out a wish to the universe. The idea behind it is to send out a wish, let it go, consider it already done and feel and behave accordingly. This has worked for me so many times that I really have no problem believing in it, although it may sound like magic or madness.
So, on New Year’s Eve I sat down and looked deep within myself. What do I want to achieve next year? Which wishes do I want to come true? I wrote down: I want to develop professionally and leave my boredom behind me, I want to illustrate, to learn to draw and edit digitally, I want to create a portfolio of my drawings and (at some point) illustrate articles for magazines. Also, I want to see something of my own in Flow magazine.
I took an hour to get clear about those wishes, to write them down, send them out to the universe and embody their realization. I imagined with all my senses how it would feel when a drawing of mine appeared in my favorite magazine and how it would feel when the first person was going to pay for a drawing of mine. I considered it done and went out to party.
I continued to draw and to post daily. More and more friends and strangers started to notice my drawings. At some point in February my good friend Sissi asked me if she could use my pictures for her articles in the online magazine Seikkailijattaret. Of course I said yes! I proposed her to not only to choose from the pictures I already had, but for me to custom make illustrations for each article she wrote. She agreed.
I couldn’t believe that the first wish of illustrating an article was already coming true after such a short time. As I continued to illustrate Sissi’s articles, also other writers of the online magazine became interested in my illustrations. Soon thereafter, I received a proposal for becoming the official illustrator of Seikkailijattaret. I made illustration for their logo and banners, as well as some character designs and social media profile pictures. All of this pushed me forward. I got my dose of self confidence and started having the big wish and will for becoming a professional.
At some point still in February, I googled information on color schemes and found a very good article about it at byjohannafritz.de. Looking through her webpage I found a ton of freebies with tips on how to become a successful illustrator. I downloaded all the planning tools and started making plans for the year to come. I truly recommend her from the depths of my heart to anyone wanting to get structured on their way in becoming a professional illustrator (or creative overall).
The overall goal for the year was to get the first paying client. After that I quarterly set goals concerning my brand (logo, color scheme, IG profile, FB profile etc.), my portfolio (PDF and printed version), my website and professionalizing everything (becoming a freelancer, insurances etc., customer acquisition). I made plans for every month, week and day of the year. There weren’t huge things to accomplish daily, rather very constant, slow steps forward, concerning the time I had left with a part time job and the will to get better at the craft by drawing daily. Yet, the slow and steady pace helped me not to procrastinate, as I was never overwhelmed by the difficulty of the daily goals I set for myself.
planning 2017 - started in February
Slowly, I started doing all the tasks I had set myself: setting up my social media accounts (or professionalizing them, like changing the name of my IG account into @zoluart), drawing for my portfolio, putting up my website, printing business cards, networking and collaborating with creatives from different fields.
In July, I had my first small publication in Flow magazine. It was just a little picture from instagram, but I couldn’t have been happier. In the meantime, I was illustrating free cards for friends: newborn cards, wedding invitations and Mother’s day cards. Then finally, in September, a friend of mine asked me for a portrait as a gift for her boyfriend… the first paid commission! I couldn’t believe my luck.
Good thing I had set up all the essentials for being able to earn money and write invoices by then. I just wasn’t sure if I was good enough to draw portraits. But, I made my attempt and the client was happy with the result. After posting the first portrait on social media, more questions for portraits came in.
first portrait
By now, I have drawn eight portraits for people I know, but also strangers have started finding me through my Zoluart social media. I have exceeded my own expectations. My gratitude for everything that has happened during this year is overwhelming. Sometimes I think I’m dreaming and am scared to wake up from living my dreams.
All I can say is that I’m immensely thankful for all the helpful people on my way and can’t wait to make a plan for my next year.
If you are somewhere on a road similar to mine yourself, here’s a list of useful links for you:
first drawing posted on instagram
This article was first published on http://www.strangerless.com on the 17.11.2017.