A caricature for an old high school friend.
You know the routine: they ask for a drawing, give you a big spiel about how much it would mean to them, won't you do it for yr old pal, etc., etc. You tell them you have to be paid for your work. They agree, then they start worrying. "It won't be TOO much, will it? smiley face." You agree to do it cheap. But of course you can't just dash something off...you get sucked in to the challenge, you want to make it worth yr while, so you really do a good job. Two days later you turn it over for a check that won't even cover dinner for you and the missus.
Sigh. I am such a softie. I swear this is the last time I am doing this without a reasonable fee.
Shared for yr amusement: photograph of My Monsters & Dames as it looked before scanning. So real life (no PhoSho).
Also a shot with some of my various wrasslin' drawings. You can see the final drawing of the big ring shot to the left--it is pretty much the final image, just a little level-tweaking in PhoSho after I scanned it.
Characters reappear in drawings because I start with one sketch, scan it, correct it, then print it, (usually on another sheet of bristol), and add more figures, building the crowd this way until I get everyone in. A slow method, but necessary to get it right at my skill level. A real expert would do it all in one go.
BTW...there is a way to do all this and make money, right? I mean, a living wage?
19 comments:
You ARE a softie Marty. Reasonable fee for that drawing I would put at $500-$1000. What do you think? When you say you turned it in "a couple of days later", does it mean there's about 16 hours of work there? More? Less?
Make em PAY!!!!!
Ha! You guys are nice. No, I made them wait almost four months for the drawing...one of those "when I get the time." But yes, easily 16 hours in it.
Never again...except for those two other commissions I've got waiting for me....
...one of 'em a commission from March.
Oof!
You could make a ton of money with just a couple of clients. You just need to get a nice web page and some traffic to it. Just like me, only less so. Your stuff will sell. You could always go the agent route.
Do you print on the bristol board at kinkos? Or do you do that yourself. Big expense right there. That should always be covered in your invoicing.
El, I've been printing 12" x 17" (or 18") bristol at my local Staples--it's like twenty cents a copy! Super-cheap. That's from their b&w xerox-type machine. For the posters of the Gorgon, they print 16" x 20" on their super-deluxe color printer (the roll-type that is used for architectural plans, etc.), and they were only charging me $5 a print (!!). It was for some promotion...may be a little more expensive now. They ordered in this terrific heavy-duty paper that looks the same as the archival stuff you can get thru Zazzle or CafePress. Real velvety finish. I love it for the color stuff.
I had them print my (PhoSho corrected) orange-line pencil of the Monsters & Dames scene on that heavy paper, and then I did my markers right on the print. It worked OK--the paper didn't take as much color saturation as my normal cheap-o paper, (the pigment didn't sink in deep enough to resist the alcohol in a second layer of color, so colors would get pulled up). So I probably wouldn't do that again...but otherwise, dang nice for $5 bucks. Great way to do prints for comic cons.
Thanks for the info Marty. Kinkos you can go broke using them. I'll do an experiment with Staples sometime.
But I know you are someone who is going to worry if his line work is getting "lossy." Isn't that occurring with xerox?
By Xerox I mean the output comes thru one of those machines. The source is a digital file given to them by me.
And no, their particular machine doesn't compromise the lines--in fact, when I print one of my already-inked pieces in order to add more figures, the lines that come out of the printer are very fine and SUPER black. Looks good!
I should know that wasn't the term to use. You would be giving them scans.
Hey, can you do a drawing for me?
If you don't mind my asking, are you getting better paid for the wrestling drawings? They certainly seem to be of a more epic scale.
Rick: yes, I am getting a lot more for the wrasslin' pics--tho' I still wouldn't call it a lot. But I'm happy with it.
For now.
And I hope you are giving your friends just a print of your drawing and not the original.
This girl gets the original (what else am I gonna do with it??), but I've got the wrasslers.
Tommy, I love that you're looking out for me!
Save the originals! In twenty years time people will be paying a fortune on eBay for Marty Davis originals, and you will want to have a stockpile of them. Just think if Kirby had gotten to save all his originals. The things that are most valuable today are the things that, decades ago, no one thought were worth anything.
Your most recent Tumblr, with the rabbit giving the finger. I saw that and instantly recognized Marty Davis, head of the class, Editorial Cartoonist.
Get that seen.
The cartoon I'm talking about
Thank you, El-Go!
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