-By Lauren Panepinto
As many of you know (because you were there), Spectrum Fantastic Art Live was this past weekend in Kansas City. If you were there, you know it was a sleep-depriving whirlwind of amazing artists, inspirational conversations, well-deserved awards, fabulous networking, and really informative panels.Â
Marc Scheff & I were excited to debut 3 of the Art Business Bootcamps we’ve been developing for Drawn + Drafted, pulled from material we’ve been collecting for Make Art Work, the Art Business guide we’ve been working on. (You can read more about the project in my last Muddy Colors column.) I confess that Marc and I were wondering how many people would show up for the Bootcamps, given that they are a new concept, and the fact that there’s just so much awesome stuff competing for your attention every minute at Spectrum Live. I did know that there was a demand for Art Business information from the big and positive response to a year of my posts here on Muddy Colors. So we expected a decent turnout.Â
We were very excited to see those expectations exceeded, with a packed room for all three Bootcamps. And word spread quickly, because for the rest of the weekend people were coming up to me and Marc, asking if they could get copies of the one-sheets we made for each of the Bootcamps. It turns out people are really hungry for this kind of information—the kind of information we wish more Art Schools were teaching.
This first Bootcamp is called Getting You Found, and covers Self-Promotion (how and how much), Social Media (where, what, and how to get out there), and Approaching Art Directors (cold emails and con conversations, and lots of dos and don’ts).
Go to www.DrawnAndDrafted.com to download the one-sheet pdf |
If you want the one-sheets from Bootcamps 2 (Portfolios and Websites) and 3 (Contracts, Rights, and Payment), get on our newsletter where we will be sending those pdfs as well as updates on our other projects.
These bootcamps would be great held as webinars for those who cant make it.
A lot of people have been asking for that (how exciting)…we're going to have to figure out how to raise some budget for some decent video production. Maybe we'll make it a stretch goal on the book Kickstarter.
You guys are the best. Good idea about the stretch goal.
Thank you! Ha, I am not looking forward to being on video for the kickstarter, I'm such a doofus on film. Maybe we should make it a skillshare instead…
This is terrific! And just hire Scott to shoot the video- if he can make me look presentable with a vicious cold and no make-up he can do anything.
Thank you so much for putting all of this together!
I beg to differ on the assessment that google+ is “generally useless”. There are two main reasons to have a presence there:
1. Google is the 800 pound gorilla of search engines. Postings on google+ can link directly to your main website, which add some nice link juice. And all public google+ posts are indexed by google for search, unlike Facebook.
2. Google Authorship. Extra authority can be given to your main website by linking to your google profile. In web searches, your picture will display next to search results for better noticeability, along with other search result benefits.
There are not a lot of illustrators, but TONS of photographers on google+. The image quality is excellent, layout is nice, and NO ADS. With some degree of effort, I have acquired over 8000 followers in 8 months. Not to say that quantity is better than quality however. Your results may vary. 😉
If you are curious, here is the link to mine as an example:
https://plus.google.com/+JoelFletcher/posts
you make fair points, we'll totally look into that.
Agreed. I do have a Google+ profile, but it gets no attention. I might need to change that. Thanks!
For those interested, just about everything on this sheet is also applicable to those wishing to attract the attention of comic book editors and publishers. Most of the points are similar to what I've heard/learned are good habits for trying to find comics work, writing and drawing alike 🙂
thats a good idea, I am going to pick his brain on that.
awesome! we're trying to make it widely applicable to all freelance illustrators and designers…
Thanks for the pdf, and doing these awe webinars for those who cannot attend an event is a very good idea!!!
No, doofus sells.
This is interesting. The question is, are the followers producing for you?
“This is interesting. The question is, are the followers producing for you?”
When it comes to social media, that is the million dollar question. I really don't care if I have 200,000 'likes' or 'followers'. That's nice for ye ole' ego but if they're not buying, then besides making me feel better, what's the point?
Thank you for posting this for those of us who got caught up in other events. I agree that webinars would be great. It's awfully kind of the two of you to give back to the next generation like this.
there's just too much good info out there not to package it up in a usable format…glad you guys are excited for it!
Thank you so much for this. Your posts are always a nice and refreshing step aside from just the artistic side of things. It gets one to focus on the tasks that can get easily overlooked many times when all you want to do is paint and draw. How come Monday and Tuesday from 10am-12pm are the best times to post? I post many times for instance on a Tumblr type page after a nice evening of doodling.
Your blog is amazing! thank you so much for your creative inspirations and thank you for sharing.
I like the content on this blog. would love to go to once more.
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I love the blog. Great post. It is very true, people must learn how to learn before they can learn. lol i know it sounds funny but its very true. . .
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Articles and content in this section of the website are really amazing. Great ideas indeed! I will surely keep this in my mind!
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