I made an Invoice!

It's quite a simple design, but that's what I want.

Hatem pt.2: Invoicing

Part 1 (getting paid) here.

ISSUU Porfolios

I've been looking at people's portfolios on ISSUU (to see what I'm up against haha). There are some really nice work going on out there! I've selected a few of my favourites (layout and content):

I like:

• The square formats make them more unique (but I think Fred wants an A3 for our end of year portfolio) 
• Creative CV in first portfolio 
• Variety of layout styles (full page/double spread work and some with text too - but I think theres too much writing in the second one?)

What should go on an Illustration Invoice

from Business of Illustration (really helpful website for dummies like me btw)

1. Your name
2. Your contact info
3. An invoice number
4. The client's PO number (only if applicable)
5. An invoice date
6. The client's information
7. A description of the work done
8. A tax ID number
9. The total fee due
10. Payment terms

Invoice examples: I want to keep my invoice simple. I think the examples below are the kind of look I want to go for - everything clearly laid out and easy to follow.

Sanna Mander

I came across Sanna's work whilst browsing on the net! The bold shapes and bright colours really caught my attention and I can just imagine some of her work recreated as paper illustrations! I think shape and colour also drive my work which is why I found her work so eye catching - soooo nice! I think the difference is that my work are more finished scenes, whereas she uses motifs and patterns. I actually would like to try simplifying my work one of these days - stripping things back to achieve a simple visual language. I think that would make an interesting challenge for me!

Dubai Studios

Animation Studios:

• Moving Reflection - will definitely try to go visit this one as my friend is friends with the founder and manager!
• Barajoun
• Infamous Studios
• Neon Studios
• Infosys Studios

Publishing Companies:

• Kalimat Publishing
• Al Salwa Books

Kristian Duffy pt.2

Woweeeee he's replied to my email already!

Can I just say, omggggg! why are people so nice to me ahhhhh!

Ok so, knowing the right people is so important! I need to keep broadening my network, go to any meet-ups/events, keep bugging animation studios to give me some work experience/internship. I also need to reconsider my portfolio and what I show on my website, because apparently my tumblr is stronger at the minute hahahaha! This is what I mean when I said I want to get portfolio reviews, so I can adjust and improve so I can shine the brightest in amongst all these other talented stars! After emailing Kristian, I gained a new follower on tumblr - an animator who has also done work for Kilogramme Animation! hahaha, I hope Kristian told everyone about me hehehe :D

I replied back to his email:

apparently he did tell everyone about me hahahaha!

Hatem Aly pt.1: Getting Paid

Hatem is an Egyptian illustrator currently living in NB, Canada. I've been following him on tumblr for a while now, and since receiving an email from a publishing company in Dubai about illustrating a children's book, I thought it would be a good idea to contact him to ask for advice etc. as he has illustrated many children's books for arabic speaking countries/dealt with work from abroad - if there are anything I need to be aware of/take into consideration and how he gets paid as well.

I am so glad I contacted Hatem! His response was so detailed and helpful! I think contacting specific individuals is better than contacting general business emails (like ones that you get on studio's websites). Next time, before contacting a studio, I will identify the head person first and use their email to contact them!

Kristian Duffy pt.1

Kristian is an animator and illustrator at Pale Blue Dot but has a desk space at Kilogramme Animation based in Manchester, where he gets frequent jobs from as a background painter for their animation. As stated in previous post, Kristian and I follow each other on Instagram - I was drawn by the aesthetic of this work and shapes and colours he uses, because they're quite similar to what I would use! I've really enjoyed doing the backgrounds for the children's book I created for CoP3 (surprisingly, even more than doing the characters), so I decided to contact him for tips on being a background artist in animation:

Emailing Craig

Finally sent Craig an email!

Books to buy

I realised that I actually have quite limited knowledge in the business side of my practice. I need to understand more so that I know how to manage my finances and won't get ripped off or anything of the sort. Fred brought in some books in today's PPP workshop and The Illustrator's Guide to Law and Business Practice caught my attention the most! It has everything in it to do with what I don't know about but seriously need to know! The second book is a suggested read - I had a look through the chapters online and I think it would be good to read now whilst I'm still a student, to prepare myself better for life outside of education. I think this one I would borrow from the library (if they have it).

PPP Workshop 18th Jan

What have I done so far:

1. Designed a promo pack
2. Researched/identified UK based animation studios.
3. Contacted/sent promo packs to 5 (studios)
4. Emailed some professionals in the animation industry.
5. Made a website
6. Illustrated children's book for Leeds Children's Hospital and got some press coverage about it
7. A bit of networking at Thoughtbubble
8. Networking in Dubai/MEFCC

What I'd like to have done by the end of programme:

1. Have a printed portfolio
2. Visited Studios
3. Contacted Agencies
4. Have a part-time job
5. Have massive confidence in myself and my work.

What I aim to have achieved (1st year out):

1. Signed to an agency and/or working in a studio
2. Making profit
3. Go to illustration events and participate in more conventions
4. Have a following
5. Enjoying life

What I aim to have achieved (in 5 years):

1. Have lots of contacts/client list
2. Have a stable practice
3. Not living at home/be able to provide for myself
4. Travel and researching/networking whilst doing that
5. Intern at Pixar!

Problems that might arise:

1. Lack of responses from when I contact people
2. Unforeseen problems/pitfalls - illness
3. Lack of motivation
4. Funds - inconsistent income - budgeting
5. Legalities - political/social changes/tax etc.

Things to do in the next two weeks:

1. Email Craig Knowles (Character Designer at Brown Bag Films) done!
2. Email Kristian Duffy (Background Artist at Kilogramme Animation/Pale Blue Dot) done!
3. Email Hatem Aly (Children's Illustrator and Cartoonist) done!
4. Email studios I sent promo packs to but didn't get a response from
5. Identify professionals/studios in Dubai and contact them - plan a meet up for when I go in April.
6. Research into internships at studios (identify which ones first)
7. Edit and update business cards
8. Write a standard CV.

OUIL 602 Submission:

• 5 A3 Presentation boards (ISSUU)
• PDF of Blog
• Portfolio (ISSUU)
• 300 word Summative Statement
• Evaluation

Contract

Children's book illustration contract example - things to consider and include in my own contract.

Royalty vs Flat fee

This website has useful information on this!

Breakdown:

Many artists have a hard time financially because they just don’t know what to charge.

Often, artists will turn down a good opportunity because they are paralyzed by the fear of making a mistake and charging too little.

The most common methods of pay for art licensing are:

1 – ROYALTY:  This is where the manufacturer pays the artist a royalty percentage of their gross sales.

2 – ROYALTY WITH ADVANCE UP FRONT:  Sometimes there will be an advance payable up front, which is later deducted from future royalties.

3 – FLAT FEE:  A one-time fee is paid instead of royalties.


Royalty payments are calculated based on the total (gross) revenues generated by the licensee (manufacturer) for your products.

Red Flag Warning:  Never agree to get paid your percentage based on the Licensee’s revenues minus their expenses.  This is an impossible number to quantify.

A flat fee is a lump sum that is paid up front at the time the contract is signed.  There are no royalties that will be paid later. Flat fees may be calculated by image (i.e. $500 per image x 10 images = $5,000); or they may be paid in one specified sum (i.e. $2,500 total).

The flat fee method is best when the licensee is either a small company that does low volume, or is a start-up company that does not have a track record of sales.

The disadvantage to a flat fee royalty is that if the product sells above expectations, you may be missing out on sharing a piece of those revenues. The best way to protect against the possibility of missing out on a piece of a great selling product is to have a short term, such as a one year or eighteen month contract.

Children's Book Commission! pt.3

I talked to Patrick on Monday in regards to last post/email I received. Now I am having a little bit of a dilemma. I am so confused. I just realised now that I know nothing about getting paid and handling money and bookkeeping and all these things to do with money, and I'm terrified. but I guess this is the time to be asking questions. this is why I'm in school.

So, basically I tried negotiating with the publisher about the amount I'll be paid for working on this project - as Teresa thought that proposed budget was too low. She also asked me if this is a flat fee or royalty (and obviously I had no damn clue what any of these meant when I feel like I should which scares me, as mentioned before)

Anyway, the publisher said that the proposed budget is the best that they can do. So now I'm getting mixed opinions from others whether I should do it or not. Personally, I really want to take it on as I feel that it'll not only help me with my portfolio, but also will hopefully increase my exposure over in GCC/Middle East countries - which in time, I hope will open up more doors for me. But I also don't want to be taken advantage of.

I decided to do a bit of research on how much an illustrator should be paid for working on a children's book and found Amanda Hall's 'Getting Paid' FAQs. which opened up some things to consider, but in conclusion, I'm still pretty clueless and unsure of how to go about doing this.

Some things I've learnt though (taken from Amanda's website):

Q - Is it usually good to take the fee you’re offered? 

 A - I think at first the client will usually offer less than they actually have in their budget for the job, in the hope that you’ll agree. You can always find out by asking them for more: if they won’t raise the fee, then you need to decide whether the job is worth doing.

Q - Do you always get paid a flat fee for your work?

A - I usually get a flat fee for educational illustration, particularly when I am one of several contributors to a book. The other way I get paid is as an advance on royalties.

Q - What is a royalty?

A - This is the way a lot of illustrators and writers get paid by publishers, and most picture book payments work like this. The royalty is the illustrator’s or writer’s percentage of the money made from the sales of their book. The details of the percentages are all outlined in the contract for the book.

Q - What is an advance?

A - The advance is the sum of money that the publisher pays to the contributor while they are working on the book, so that they have something to live on before the book sales come in. This varies hugely, depending to a large extent on the commercial success of the contributor so, if you have no track record, you are unlikely to get a large advance.

Q - How does it work?

A - Royalty statements are sent out twice a year showing the contributor how the book is selling. The money from any books sold will then be offset against the royalty advance the contributor has been paid, until the sales and the advance cancel each other out. Only then will the contributor earn more money from the book, but that will continue until the book either stops selling or goes out of print.

Q - What about doing your accounts and all that?

A - You’ll need to create a system of bookkeeping, sending out invoices and keeping receipts, paying your taxes etc. The Tax Office is pretty helpful in my experience and I have been on quite a few Business Link courses designed for people just starting out – see Other Sources of Advice.

After reading these, I feel like I should straighten out what I'm getting paid here - flat fee or royalty. If the budget they proposed is a flat fee and on top of that I will be getting a percentage of the money made from the sales of the book, then I think I will be super happy. But again, I still want to work on the project even if not because I feel like there will still be some good from doing it (such as exposure abroad). so I'm really torn! aaaaaargh! I'm going to discuss this some more with Patrick, maybe Teresa and John too, to see if they can help me with my dilemma haha.

Emma Reynolds pt.2

Emma replied to my email! Such a detailed response too!

I'm going to reply back asking if there is anyway she could put me in touch with Jon! ehehehe. Also, I just realised that her friend (Kristian) is also a follower of mine, and I'm a follower of his on instagram! what a small world huh?! - I shall also contact him! I'm quite glad that I asked if she thinks there are anyone else I can talk to! I'm going to continue asking this so that I can grow my network! and with the right kind of people too!

I also want to ask if she thinks studio visits are important - also about portfolios! I wonder if she'll do a review on my portfolio.. I want to start getting people (from the industry if poss) to review my portfolio so that I can keep improving and moving forwards with my work!

Children's Book Commission! pt.2

After receiving a reply to my previous email, I went to see Patrick on Tuesday for advice on how to create a contract. He suggested that I gather more info from them about the project so that I could use that to figure out an hourly rate. Things I included in my email in response to this:

• if I could have the manuscript of the book in English (since the book will be in Arabic) so that I could estimate how many illustrations I'd be doing - and also asked if one spread is one scene/illustration. 
• I asked them which one of my work that they saw so that I could have an idea of the media, style and colouring they would like.
• Territories - if the book would be distributed outside of the UAE.

I forgot to ask about tweaks and adjustments, but here's their reply - I think I'm going to wait until Monday to respond back as I'd like to talk to Patrick first:

Emma Reynolds pt.1

Emma bought my zine at Thoughtbubble in Nov - t'was also really nice of her to contact me afterwards about it! I sent an email to her on Monday to ask her about the projects that she's done at Kilogramme Animation and how she got involved etc. but then I found out that I sent it to the wrong address, which explains for the lack of response! it's all fixed now though hahaha! I'm quite excited for her reply! she seems like a really nice person and hopefully she might somehow maybe introduce me to the Kilogramme crew! BAM NETWORKING!

 email I sent her (to the right address this time):

The AOI Student Membership

Teresa and I ended up talking about the work commission email that I received from the publishing company in Dubai in my CoP tutorial yesterday. She also recommended I join theaoi.com (where i would get info on pricing and things like this) - because I'm still a student, the membership price would be cheaper than if I joined after. I think it would also help me to get noticed earlier (hopefully) - the earlier I get myself out there, the better I think. I'm not sure if I heard right, but I think Fred once told us that our College is an affiliate of the AOI, so price would even be discounted! I'm going to ask just to make sure! and also ask if it's worth it to go for the membership+portfolio instead of just membership.

I Was Here

please refer to this post for more info.

Answering questions about myself and my work (although, it felt really weird at first) was surprisingly very interesting. It reminded me why I'm here, doing this - being on this course - in the first place. I think it's very important that you never lose sight of what it is that you love do to, because it's basically what makes you, you!

 Having someone so much younger asking me all these questions also reminded me of my own experience in high school, when I was still deciding what I wanted to do in life! I kinda felt nostalgic and so very motivated when I was writing this out - like I wanted this person to do well in life. It makes me happy to know that my work can inspire someone! Beyoncé's 'I Was Here' was playing in my head all the while I was writing this out hahaha. *clicks tongue and rolls eyes* Me and my motivational songs/quotes, eh?

my responses:

Roll Up Banners

This Spring break, I will be making my way to Dubai for MEFCC's 5th Year Anniversary! I will have a booth again to exhibit and sell my work like I did last April. I have decided to invest in a roll up banner this time, for a couple of reasons actually - firstly, so I won't have to put so many stuff up on the walls of my booth (because this was a pain to put up and take down last year). Secondly, I can reuse it again and again. Third, it's quite eye catching because its fairly big!

I don't really have time to create something specifically for this, so I decided to just use work that I've already produced - I thought about using my underwater illustration again, but its getting boring now! time to give the people something fresh to look at! I haven't decided which one of the 3 designs (above) I'd like printed out though - but I am leaning towards the purple one because its just so much simpler and clearer. Though it's probably more ideal to have the logo/website at the top. I asked other people and most said the purple one as well, so I will print this one! (But I might also print the others as business/postcards). 

I adjusted the chosen design a little bit (made the character a tiny bit smaller) - and also added my instagram on there! Then I decided to play around with it some more and came up with 2 others. I wanted to see what it would look like to have my contacts at the top because I do think that it would be easier to see - so I tried doing that but found that there was just too much empty spaces - I added another character to it, but felt that this made it too crowded. So I decided to stick with the one character but added my name at the top as well so that even if the website gets covered up for some reason (tables/stands or something), people will still be able to see my name - and they can google me or something to get my website and Instagram. 

OMG CUTE!

I am so overwhelmed right now. just with everything. everything is happening so fast. but I am so eternally grateful for every opportunity that I've been given in my career so far! Mix this overwhelming feeling and gratefulness with emails like this and this:

.. and I am seconds from bursting with happiness. I can't believe that someone actually wants to use me as reference! hahaha. I thought I would still have a few years until I'd get to this stage! It's made me realise how much putting yourself out there is really important - NETWORKING IS SO IMPORTANT GUYS! I must continue to make myself known out there - need to open all those doors of opportunities! That is my goal.

Children's Book Commission! pt.1

 I met the manager of a publishing company in Dubai last April - he approached me whilst I was exhibiting at MEFCC. Today I received this email from them and I am so SO excited! My drawings could be used in a published book in the UAE! omg! This is really weird because I just finished a children's book for CoP3 and here I am getting commissioned to work on another children's book! Also, I wonder if I could make this an Extended Practice project? hmmm.. I must ask.

I haven't agreed on anything yet because I feel like I would also need to come up with a contract or something - I once heard John go through this process for Alice and now I regret not joining their conversation! I want to talk to John or maybe ask alice what he said to her about it. I think John mentioned something about making sure that you always ask a deposit of 50% before you start working? - I want to ask him how I should layout a contract, or if I need to come up with a contract even..

In the meantime, I'll reply back just to make sure they know that I've received their email!

I hope I've replied back appropriately..