March AMA: Answers (Patreon)

Thank you to all of the $5+ Patrons that submitted questions! Please take all of this advice with a grain of salt as always.

If you'd like to submit questions next month, pledge just $5 a month (that's less than 2 Starbucks coffees!!)

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Wren asks:  What sort of brainstorming/draftsmanship exercises do you swear by? What sort of casual projects get you out of an art funk/block no matter what? 

Art block is often either the result of a lack of momentum or some form of burnout. The two reliable solutions to art blocks for me are:

1. To rest. The only real solution to burnout is to let your brain chill for a while. Art block during work is rough- ultimately, you just kinda have to power through sometimes- but I get consistent art blocks in my personal art for 3-4 months at a time once every year or two. And honestly? I just don’t force it. Punishing yourself into making art ~for fun~ is both ironic and counterproductive. Having discipline and being able to motivate yourself is really important, but don’t burn your relationship with your creative self in order to get a little bit better as gestural drawing.

2. This is intertwined with #1 in a lot of ways, but making sure you’re having fun. When I’m coming out of an art block, I try to stick to small, bite-sized personal projects that are slightly in my comfort zone, like prop designs or creatures. I make things that I can finish quickly (to get the burst of motivation by completing something), aren’t overwhelmingly hard (so I don’t get frustrated off the bat), and are something I know I like to do (to be a little self-indulgent.)

I think scope is really important in this. This varies for everyone, but if I try to take on a huge project while I’m coming out of a cycle of feeling guilty or whatever for not making a lot of art, then I get discouraged really quickly. Build up a few small victories and solidify your confidence first!

kimdianajones asks:  I saw a thread by Lyndsey Gallant you RT’d a few days ago, about how concept art in reality is more utilitarian and less flashy than it usually looks in concept art books. As someone who struggles with perfectionism and likes to fully render pieces, is there a place for that kind of work in the visdev pipeline? 

My first reaction is that you sound to me like an illustrator! In all seriousness- it depends on the context of the role. If you want to be a concept artist, I do really recommend getting comfortable with a lot of your “finished” work feeling like it’s only 70% done. Even the last piece that I turn in to a client usually tends to be relatively rough around the edges. It depends entirely on the context- the client/company’s budget, deadlines, and needs, as well as how quickly you can execute the level of polish that you like to deliver.

That said, when I’m keeping an eye out for artists’ portfolios to contact, I do like to see concept artists having a few really tightly finished pieces in their body of work so I can see the level they’re able to work at when they’re flexin’. Your portfolio is a place to demonstrate your understanding of the role, but ultimately, I also think it’s a place to show off a bit, and also to communicate to me what you love to do and the level you like to work at.

Sometimes you do get the opportunity to take things to 100%- just be really prepared to stay loose and quick for most of the process, and to stay flexible to the needs of your client/company while being conscious of their budget and hard deadlines.

Kairosmith asks: Hi Becca! I've got two questions for the AMA, if you have time to answer them!

1) What are your thoughts on posting a variety of art on Instagram/Twitter? Should separate kinds of art be kept on separate accounts for clarity, or is it ever ok to have a mix? (2D, 3D, cosplay?)

2) Do you have any advice on how to deal with imposter syndrome as a teacher? I ran a game dev club back in college and had posted a few tutorials on YouTube that got some attention, but as people ask for more advice I’m very aware that I’m just a novice freelancer and am still learning a lot about digital painting myself. With so many amazing artists in the community, how do you determine when your knowledge is worth sharing?

1. It depends on how you want to utilize your social media and who you want to appeal to on each profile. I personally prefer to simplify when possible, so I put all of my art on the same profiles, but I definitely think it can make sense to have “art I want to be hired to do 8 hours/day” and “art that I do for fun/hobbies/exploration/etc” in order to streamline your feed. I’ve recently started utilizing private Insta/Twitter in order to separate my personal life stuff from my public/art stuff, and I’ve found it helps me compartmentalize more (especially after realizing over time that noooo one following my Insta cares about life updates over there, they just wanna see art.)

2. It’s really important to know when to say “I don’t know” or “I’m not the best person to answer that.” If you see people asking questions frequently that you don’t have the answers to, then I recommend building up a library of resources and communities that you can direct people towards!

I think it’s important to remember that we, ultimately, are all students and also all have experiences to share with others. Practice being objective about what you do and do not know, and don’t be afraid to set boundaries. I also am very careful to frame all advice that I give as drawn from my own limited experiences, and I frequently suggest that folks find multiple answers to their bigger questions in order to have diverse perspectives regarding their concerns or questions.

I don’t think anyone is or isn’t “qualified” to help others, but I do think a helpful spirit is a wonderful thing to have, and that the best thing we can do is help others responsibly, humbly, with self-awareness, and objectively regardless of what our background is.

Lady Nerevar asks: You've spoken a bunch about how artists can be better at working with clients, but I'd love to hear what you think clients can do to be better at working with freelance remote artists :)

The basics: give me a day to respond to emails, especially if we’re in different time zones! Check in with me between task dumps and make sure that you understand my availability. When we’re starting to work together, please describe the project, your needs, and your budget/ideal rate in the very beginning. I’m open to doing regular check-in calls, but again: be aware of folks’ different time zones.

Keep things as predictable as possible. A great freelancer can adapt to changing needs, but if the brief changes, be aware of the multiple ways that this can affect the freelancer. If you tack on more time to something, are you paying them hourly? Are you providing a really clear vision about what the changes are? Are you confident that you’re giving them enough time to pivot?

Build in failsafes. If my computer breaks down and I suddenly can’t work for three days, have you built that into the schedule? Do you have other artists that you can reach out to if I have a family emergency? As a freelancer, I build unpredictability into my expectations to a degree, and I suggest you do the same!

Clare_3C asks:  I have a question for March:  

Recently I downloaded some resources - photo ref and brushes, both from well known artists - and it got me wondering about using them in my portfolio. Can having a particular resource that's free or super popular (or both) in a piece be super obvious? and if you do recognize a particular brush or texture does it sway your opinion of the piece/portfolio at all?  

Should you work to hide the seams as it were on resources or does it not make a difference so long as its not the whole piece / heavily reliant of that element?  

I find its a hard question to layout so hopefully it comes across ok... 

I personally don’t think you should worry about brushes. They’re made to be used in other artists’ work. If you really love working with tools made by another artist, give them a shoutout because that will help other people find them! But I don’t think you should feel obligated to credit them in like, every single piece you post made with those tools.

When photobashing and using images specifically made for other artists to use, it’s the same thing imo. Very nice to do a shoutout if you’re using just a few images from a pack but editing them pretty heavily, but don’t stress over it too much. If you’re using an image that is very clearly recognizable in your final version, then I would err on the side of including a footnote along the lines of “thanks to X for creating a great photo pack!”

I don’t recommend using images that were not intended for photobashing/textures/editing without clear permission from the original artist. If you do get permission, definitely credit them in this context.

Ashley asks:  My question:  What's it like working for Wild Blue Studios?  How is it the same and how is it different than working in a traditional studio?  What would be your advice applying to outsourcing studios like them vs. applying to more traditional studios?  What are the pros & cons?  

Thank you!  I'm really curious about your experience there! 

I’m going to make a bigger post at some point about what it’s like to work in a co-op, but basically: I am a remote worker creating art for clients through Wild Blue and also a worker-owner that owns part of the company (we don’t have C-level folks like CEOs!) A workers co-operative, or co-op, is a totally worker-owned company. We make decisions, discuss contracts, collaborate, negotiate rates, and build relationships with artists and clients as a team.

My day-to-day work and routine actually looks very similar to my time as a full time freelancer. I work remotely, live in the Midwest, communicate digitally, and set my own routine. But! The best part is that I share the work I create internally with my team before we sent it to the client. This means our art goes through a pass of feedback by other artists first, which means our results are better! The quality of work that I output has increased drastically and is constantly challenged thanks to this, and this is not something I would ever get to rely on as a solo freelancer. There are a lot of other awesome benefits to working this way instead of working solo. There are challenges too, but I consider all of it to be a major net positive.