I
have
visited three illustrators, who work as freelances in Berlin, Germany and carefully
looked at their everyday challenges for better understanding what does it means
to be freelance artist.
For everybody of them – Ella Cohen (Kookoo), Edith Caroon and Bethany
Walrond – proactivity is the success of their illustrators’ career. Energetic,
with a great smile and positivity, they make their dreams come truth. Freelancers’
job involves a lot points of thinking, planning, doing creative and
entrepreneurial activities. They develop own personal style drawing
continuously and having positive mind for surviving.
Youngest of illustrators, Bethany Walrond, she makes fifty sketches per day
and states that if you do not have a brief to work on, you must make at least one
illustration, because ‘it does not lift down your spirit as well as you
strength skills’. She always is updating her social platforms with her illustrations
and sending e-mails for potential clients consistently to be noticed and get commissions.
Bethany Walrond, ‘San Antonio’ Magazine, ‘City Park’
Extremely productive examples of
hard working personalities might be illustrators Edith Caroon and Ella Cohen.
Ella is challenging herself to make one hundred drawings per day. Most successful projects are those, which are
made very fast. She is fully engaged with self-advertising and posting information
about herself for clients.
The freelancers Edith Carron’s distinctive style is really simple,
because of use line drawing and coloured pencils; her view of point is to draw
without thinking about perfection.
Edith Carron, ‘Daily Blip’
The illustrator was very active while she studied (was making posters
and sold them). After graduation she participated in the France Art Festival,
making new relations with people and selling her artworks. Later, she had
participated in a one fashion event with her printed illustration on models’ dresses.
It shows, that Carron is not only living from commissions, but also collaborating
with other artists and entrepreneurs to make her success.
Ella Cohen works with screen-printing mostly; she knows that her
characters are well and she says, that students should relay on what they are
doing best. Edith Caroon encourages to draw extensively and put images on
social media platforms to get known.
When the day of freelancer is facing, they are approaching it really
seriously. Ella Cohen (Kookoo) and Bethany Walrond are renting studios with
other people. Separation of the private life and thinking about time management
is very useful as well as having breaks and holidays. ‘When you are happy, you
can make it well’, - said Bethany Walrond. Getting to the studio every day,
finding clients, making self-advertising, marketing are harmonized with breaks
at parks, museums making drawings. As illustrators mentioned, it is important
to know in what we are best, to work with an own style and develop it. Finding
the time to build the career while young people study it might be very
useful. Some of them still are making
posters and sell them, are participating in festivals with drawings, creating
new entries in their blogs. All these steps are helping artist’s name stands
out, because for everything to do takes time and establishment.
Ella Cohen (Kookoo) did Master of Art degree in illustration being as
the journalist. It helped for her to improve the composition, graphics design
skills. First commissions came from the journalism and it shows that when we are
incorporating our interests’ fields, hobbies or past experience in the
illustration what pays back.
Ella Cohen (Kookoo), ‘Golden Cosmos’
By Edith Carron saying thanks to animation knowledge, she is able to make
animated drawings and put them in video platforms to be noticed better that
those artists, who have not animation skills. Bethany Warlond works mostly with
paper-cut technique and digitally as it economises times and allow to change
what you cannot do handy.
Being freelancer includes a lot communication and working with potential
clients, art directors. It is powerful to
write e-mails adding own works, make drawings and post them to agents or
clients and do it regularly. Three is very good to keep updating blogs,
artist’s websites other social media profiles as well.
Certainly, summarizing what each freelance is doing, there is a lot
self-organizing, multi-tasking activities with well sorted, prioritized values,
what makes freelancers to establish themselves in the career. These great
illustrators are optimistic infectious to follow and make dreams come truth.
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