The Education of an Artist - Part 2

Apples - for my first college drawing course-1985.

This concludes the interview that began in yesterday's post. 

  Q: What separates a good artist from a truly successful, great artist?

I think it has to be a combination of dedicated hard work, truthful expression and luck. Sometimes it's not enough to be talented or to work hard, you have to be in the right place at the right time in order to take advantage of opportunity. I think in some regards you need to be lucky, but you can make your own luck by working hard and being in a place where you can embrace possibilities when they are presented. Nobody is a success without hard work though.

Q: What resources have helped you to become a professional artist?  How important are mentors, critique groups, art groups, additional workshops or training, to becoming successful?

Have a strong network of professional friends- people who can help you, motivate you when you are struggling and celebrate with you when you have success. You can't create in a vacuum and having like minded friends is a great resource. Getting a graduate degree allowed me to meet a number of artists who I respect and are now among my best friends. I try to attend at least one workshop a year with an artist that I respect and want to learn from. I also like to get out and paint with other artists as often as possible. Any time you can be around really great artists, you learn and are pushed to improve.  All these things keep the creative juices going.

Q: How important are learning the business aspects of art, such as  marketing, negotiations, contracts, taxes, etc.?  Where did you learn  the business side to art? Do you do this yourself, or do you hire someone to do these things for you?

It is critical to know how to run a business because, like it or not, artists are in business to make money. If you don't make a living, you are just a hobbyist. If you don't want to do certain aspects of business for yourself, then pay someone to do it for you, but know every facet of the business regardless of whether or not you do them yourself. I had a business class in my undergrad studies but learned more by doing than I did in class. As good as they are, classes are just theory until you do it.  I don't have an agent at the moment so I do most aspects of the business myself but pay others to do accounting and taxes and some promotional aspects like web and graphic design.

 Q: What are the best ways for an artist to market themselves and get their name out there?

So many ways, so many price ranges. The common denominator is that it takes money to make money. Be willing to invest in yourself and get your work out there. Websites and blogs are a given and a good place to start. Postcards and ad pages still work to grab attention. Pick the top 100 clients you would like to work for and court them with great images every 2-3 months. It only takes a few really great clients to launch a career.

Q: What advice would you give to students and future artists on what they need to do to become a successful artist?

Draw, paint, repeat. Do it every day and don't stop. Artists that survive and thrive are the ones that never, ever give up.

Q: What advice would you give to art educators on how to help prepare students to become successful professional artists?

Teach them how to draw, how to think and help them learn how to be authentic. If they can pull artistic expression from their soul, they will find a unique voice that will set them apart from the artistic masses. A strong work ethic and solid craftsmanship is a must also.

Q:  There are a large number of students graduating with art degrees with only a small percentage able to successfully transition from being a student to making it as a full time professional artist Many continue to create art part time while working another job unrelated to the arts. Only a few actually succeed at making a career out of it. Why do you think so few artists are making that transition?

As I mentioned in a few of the earlier questions, There are multiple factors including luck, talent (or lack thereof ) and motivation that may contribute. One thing is certain though,  artists who HAVE to make art are far outnumbered by those those who merely like to make art or who find it interesting but have no real passion for it. A career in art is wrought with stress and sacrifice and I think few really have the stomach to do it full time or long term. The uncertainty of finances I think is a huge factor. That and the fact that many artists simply do not know how to sell their art or can't sell enough of their art to be viable. There are many factors, but I think those are the critical ones.

 Q:  Do you feel that art programs are doing enough to prepare students to enter the workforce  If not, what should be added to the curriculum to better prepare students to make a living as a professional artist?  What areas do you think should be improved in art education?

I Think most schools are trying to do a good job, but the intangibles of  being a successful artist probably can't be taught effectively on a mass scale. It is just very hard to teach things like passion, curiosity,  tenacity and hard work in an institutional setting. Some things just have to be learned by doing.

That concludes the interview. I would love to hear your thoughts. Please share your comments, thoughts and ideas on this subject in the comment section below!

The Education of an Artist - Part 1

Lincoln- by Greg Newbold circa3rd grade

"I don't think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday"

-Abraham Lincoln

I was recently interviewed by an Art Education graduate student as part of his MFA thesis paper. Below are the questions that he asked of me as well as my thoughts.  It's a bit of a snapshot of what my experience has been as well as my thoughts on the whole process of gaining an artistic education. Part 2 will follow tomorrow.

     Q: What mediums do you use?

I paint in acrylics, mixed media, oils and Photoshop depending on the project. For illustration, I have used mostly acrylic or mixed media in the past, but these days, I do mostly digital illustration using Photoshop. For my gallery work, I use oil paint.

     Q: How long have you been a professional artist?

If you count my first paying jobs in high school, almost thirty years, but as a full time freelance artist, almost twenty.

     Q: What schools did you attend and what training have you
           had to become an artist?

I have a Bachelor of Fine Art from Brigham Young University and I earned my Master of Fine Art from the University of Hartford. Both with an illustration emphasis.

 Q: What did you learn in your training that has been the  most valuable to you as a professional artist?

That hard work will get you much further than talent will.

  Q: In what ways did your art education help you succeed?

In my undergrad studies, I learned the technical skills of picture making and problem solving. In graduate school, I learned more about personal expression and the how important it is to experiment, to create self initiated projects and to follow my heart.

 Q: What areas, do you feel were lacking in your art education?

Not so much for me, but for many art students what is lacking is an emphasis on developing the ability to draw well. Drawing seems to be marginalized in today's art culture, there is somewhat of an attitude that drawing (or at least observational drawing) is not important to art making> I believe strongly that drawing is the basis for all art. Picasso learned how to draw well before he chose to "unlearn" it.

Q: What things did you have to learn on your own, through personal experience, that you did not learn in school?

Though school provided a lot, I learned far more on my own that through any formal education. Of course there are many things about the business of art that I learned at the school of hard knocks. Things like negotiation and learning to pace my projects in order to finish them on time. I learned to always do my best and deliver more than the client expected and to always deliver on time. One especially important thing I think I had to learn how to truly "see", rather than just look. Many students can copy well by looking a photograph, but fail to interpret and truly "see" their subject. Such looking must be coupled with familiarization, absorption, dissection and intimate study of the subject at hand. Individual expression only comes after you learn to see.

 Q: What are the most important skills, attributes, habits, etc. that you think are essential to become a full time professional artist?

 I think that discipline, humility and hard work are golden aspects of artistic success. If you are dependable and do decent work, you will never disappoint a client. They will come back and give you another chance to work with them. When you get another chance to work, you have an opportunity to improve and do better than the last time. If  you are humble you will realize that you can always improve and you will strive to increase your skill and expression with each new piece. If you always give your best effort, no matter the assignment, you will get better. When you get better, you will get more and better work and the circle will continue. It's a magical thing how that happens. The more I learn about making art, the more I realize I don't know. I try to learn new things all the time. I am always trying to make my work better.

Q: Are there habits that you created for yourself on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule that have helped you to become the artist you are today? What are those habits?

I just love to create art, so I work at it a lot. I try to work regular days, but schedules seem to spill into other hours and weekends. As time goes on, I try to keep a more regular schedule though,  it's healthier that way. I religiously take Sundays off. For a long time, I only worked on paying jobs, never making art just for fun or for the exploration. Lately,  I have tried much harder to mix in work that is just for fun or just  to try something new. I think drawing something every day is a good  start.

Q: What are the biggest problems or obstacles that you have encountered as you worked your way from student to professional?  Could any of these problems have been avoided or lessened if you had more knowledge or different instruction at your institution?

I think there is a big gap between expectation and reality. Many students have been coddled and had their ego stroked all their lives. When you hit the real world, nobody cares that you were the best in your school, only whether you can deliver good work and  compete with the aesthetics of other professional artists. The shock of not getting work and the reality that it may take a long time and a lot of sacrifice to make a career in art is a big shock to most students as it was difficult for me. I try to make it pretty clear to students what the realities of an art career are, but it doesn't sink in until reality smacks you square in the face.

Read part 2 of this interview here     

Cover Launch Scratched

Unused cover illustration for "The Barnyard Night Before Christmas

Have you ever had an illustration project scratched before launch? Worse yet, scratched after launch? After you painted it? It has happened to me a few times in the last 17 plus years. The first time it happened, I was really bummed, even angry, as if because someone thought my art was less than usable, this somehow made me a bad artist. A couple more times and I figured out that it's not always  the artist's fault. Most of my rejected pieces have been perfectly good and publishable projects, but for whatever reason (client preference, miscommunication of intention, intuitive feel, etc.) someone in power kills the project. Fortunately, I have never failed to be paid for one of these aborted flights. Sometimes I can see and even agree with the Art Director's rationale as was the case for the cover of my book The Barnyard Night Before Christmas. I was furiously painting along, needing the cover to be finished so that it could go out to marketing and have the promo cover made. I finished and shipped it off to the publisher. Then word came that the focus group made up of the editor, Art Director, designers and whomever else sits in on those things had determined that the image I painted wasn't the right one for the cover.

After some discussion, it was decided that, indeed it might not be and another image was selected. The new image did not quite fit the shape for the cover while allowing for the type, so I had to extend the edges and paint another strip of sky that was inserted using Photoshop for the final crop. 

I am actually very happy that we went with the other cover. It has more mystery to it and invites the reader to open up the book and see what the inside holds.

Barnyard Night Before Christmas previously on LNA

Pig Freefall

Sheep Chase

Pig Detective

Got 10,000 Hours?

"Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. 
It's the thing that makes you good." 

- Malcolm Gladwell

I get asked from time to time how long it takes to become an established artist. Not an easy question. If you have ever wondered how long it takes to master a skill, you should read the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. He puts forth the idea that although there are many other factors that lead to success in any given undertaking, including talent and opportunity, the number one factor in becoming a "genius" or "master" of your craft is hard work. In fact, 10,000 hours of hard work, says Gladwell.

An innate gift and a certain amount of intelligence are important, but what really pays is ordinary experience. Bill Gates is successful largely because he had the good fortune to attend a school that gave him the opportunity to spend an enormous amount of time programming computers-more than 10,000 hours, in fact, before he ever started his own company. He was also born at a time when that experience was extremely rare, which set him apart. The Beatles had a musical gift, but what made them the Beatles was a random invitation to play in Hamburg, Germany, where they performed live as much as five hours a night, seven days a week. That early opportunity for practice made them shine. Talented? Absolutely. But they also simply put in more hours than anyone else.

The answer to the above question "how long will it take?"  is linked to how you answer the question "how hard are you willing to work?". After reading Outliers, I did the math and if you dedicate your time to your craft at a rate of forty hours per week, you can reach that 10,000 hour threshold in 4.8 years. At four hours per day, it will take you nearly ten years. 


No wonder that when you look at it, there really are no overnight success stories. Some people are just lucky you say. In the right place at the right time.  As professional golf champion Gary Player once said, "The more I practice, the luckier I get".

Graphic Artist's Guild Lawsuit Dismissed

Anyone who has been following the ongoing nonsense between GAG and the IPA will be interested in this update:

Last week the New York State Supreme Court, New York County, dismissed all claims in a million dollar lawsuit brought by the Graphic Artists Guild (GAG) against the Illustrators' Partnership of America (IPA) and five named individuals.

In the lawsuit, GAG asserted claims for defamation and interference with contractual relations, alleging that IPA had interfered with a "business relationship" GAG had entered into that enabled GAG to collect orphaned reprographic royalties derived from the licensing of illustrators' work. GAG alleged that efforts by IPA to create a collecting society to return lost royalties to artists "interfered" with GAG's "business" of appropriating these orphaned fees.

In her decision, Judge Debra James ruled that statements made by the Illustrators' Partnership and the other defendants were true; that true statements cannot be defamatory; that illustrators have a "common interest" in orphaned income; and that a "common-interest privilege" may arise from both a right and a duty to convey relevant information, however contentious, to others who share that interest or duty. 

Regarding a key statement at issue in the lawsuit: that GAG had taken over one and a half million dollars of illustrators' royalties "surreptitiously," the judge wrote:

"Inasmuch as the statement [by IPA] was true, [GAG]'s claim cannot rest on allegations of a reckless disregard of whether it was false or not. Truthful and accurate statements do not give rise to defamation liability concerns."  (Emphasis added.)

And she noted:

"The plaintiff Guild has conceded that it received foreign reproductive royalties and that it does not distribute any of the money to artists."

Labor Department filings provided as evidence to the court document that between 2000 and 2007, GAG collected at least $1,581,667 in illustrators' reprographic royalties. GAG admitted to having collected similar royalties since 1996. GAG's officers have repeatedly refused to disclose how much money their organization has received to date or how the money has been spent.

Read the entire article at the IPA's site

Enduring Image

"Looking for a Good Book"  12" x 12" acrylic

by Greg Newbold

If you work long enough in this business you will invariably create images that seem to transcend time and keep selling long after their inception. This is one of those images for me. It originally was conceived when I was given one of those "dream jobs". You know, the one where the art director calls and says "we need a cover for our catalog and here is the theme - take time for a good book - do whatever you want, just make it cool". I painted this image as a cover for book distributor Brodart. It ran on the cover and was later licensed as a poster for the same client.

As a Publisher's Weekly cover

With rare exception, I retain all subsequent copyrights for my work so that I can potentially resell them to other clients. Rarely does a client need, or even want, to secure all copyrights, so I always make sure my contracts only list the specific rights being licensed. Consequently, this piece has been picked up and used for probably a dozen different applications, including the cover of Publisher's Weekly, and seems to keep on chugging.

Scott Foresman Reading textbook adaptation

I even adapted it for use on a textbook cover by adding a wraparound piece of art along with a new toucan rider spot which was then Photoshopped together. Most recently (I got my copy last week) it appears on a library card for a branch of the San Bernardino County, California library system where it will also be blown up to mural size and be permanently affixed to the wall of the children's section.

Wow- my own library card!

I have also used it on a business card and since I have about a thousand of them, I still give it out from time to time. That may have been one reason why it keeps hanging around. The piece made it into the Spectrum annual and hung in the first Spectrum retrospective several years back at the Society of Illustrators. The moral of the story is keep your copyrights- you never know when someone might want to use your painting again.