Advice from RB Freelance Artists
It’s the beginning of a new year and what better time to revisit your dream of having a freelance art career than now.
Taking that leap can sometimes be daunting and maybe even a little bit terrifying. But, no one will argue that living a life dedicated to what you love is worth the risk.
We’ve asked a few Redbubble freelance artists to share some words of advice with our artist community to help you decide if this is the year to live your dream to the fullest.
Ben Kwok, perhaps better known as Bioworkz, is an animal lover and illustrator. Ben is best known for his incredibly ornate and detailed works.
"Don't worry about having lots of followers. Do good work and followers will come." - Ben Kwok
Artist JMHurd divides her time between freelance work (she designs for the craft beer industry) and sharing her work on Redbubble.
JMHurd has put together some great advice for anyone wanting to start out. To start: “For anyone new to freelancing or struggling with pricing I recommend picking up a copy of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines book by the Graphic Artists Guild.”
"In the beginning I was undercharging and taking any job that would come my way, as a result I was getting clients who didn't appreciate my time. Overworked and underpaid, I was frustrated and decided to raise my prices. I set my prices according to the industry standard for my experience level and set some boundaries. I lost a few clients but to my surprise it wasn't long before I ended up with better paying clients who valued my time, opinion and skill. I learned that people who genuinely care about their brand are willing to invest in good design." -JMHurd
Artist Hector Mansilla also known as Againstbound has been a freelance artist for nearly a decade. One of our favorite designs from Hector sums up the thoughts we often hear from artists.
Connect with Hector on his Facebook page.
"I am a good (enough) illustrator that is bad at drawing. This is not humbleness, it's awareness. Yes, my skills are much better than those of an average person that maybe doodled a bit in high school, but I've been doing this professionally for nearly a decade, 4 years of graphic design school and been drawing on and off for pretty much all my life, and it's still hard to draw, every time, even at my sub-par skill level. Being an artist is hard, making a living off it is much harder, but if a guy from a small city in Mexico who's bad at drawing can make it, why can't you? So try, and then keep trying, and then some more; yes, this is the most basic of advice, but I believe it remains the most important. So keep at it, you might just escape your office job and never look back." -Hector Mansilla
Freelance artist, MikeKoubou, is an illustrator and graphic designer who has a great talent for character design with a vintage feel.
Mike shares some positively inspirational advice to help get you started.
Connect with MikeKoubou on Instagram, Facebook, and Behance.
"If you love what you do and you cannot imagine yourself doing anything else, you are already in the right direction! If you are in the beginning of this road, catch every opportunity you can! Don't think about the money you will earn, just do the best on every project you work on! Your first goal is to enrich your portfolio and practicing every day to be better! Treat money just as a way which people can show their appreciation to your work! The appreciation will be play the most important role in your career! If you don't have any project yet, start practicing and participating on different contests or even to upload your own work on Redbubble and your social networks! Your followers and their feedback are very important for the journey of your success!" - MikeKoubou
Do you have any advice for fellow artists? Please share your words of wisdom in the comments below and you may have a chance of being featured in this reoccurring series.
