Preserved Topic: Get Paid for making Graphics

My friend told me he gets paid by this guy to make graphics and I can do twice as good as he can, I was wondering if maybe anyone knew of a place where I can signup to work for a website by making layouts or graphics.

Hey InSiDeR - I fished this out of another forum for you, written by the way kickass Socar J. Myles who really knows her stuff, imo!. Not exactly layouts n webs but it still applies I think, anyways I hope this is helpful to ya, was to me =)

Weadz

quote:

---

Nick! I know you've already seen this, and I also posted it on Sijun, but I thought I'd put it up again, just for the benefit of anyone who hasn't seen it:

'I find that the Internet is a BRILLIANT source of free and almost-free advertising for your illustration talents. Personally, I get about 75% of my freelance work from people who've seen my work online. I just go around the Net regularly, looking for new places to show my work. Here's a quick list of the best ones: www.epilogue.net - THE best. I get at least two small commissions from people who've found me there per month, and I've also scored a major job thanks to Epilogue.
elfwood.lysator.liu.se - Not nearly as good as Epilogue-there's a lot of rubbish to wade through-but I do get occasional work from there, so it's not to be sneezed at just yet. www.renderosity.com - Lots of people go there. I wrote in the description of one of the pics I posted there that I was looking for work, and I got responses almost immediately. www.deviantart.com - Good publicity, and free. www.digitalart.org - Well, I've gotten lots of compliments on my work from there, but never a job offer. But hey, any publicity is good. www.bkaro.net - Just for fun. www.critical-depth.com - I sold a lot of prints of 'Gone Fishing' the month I entered their contest. (I didn't win, but who cares?)

And a few other sites, not generally so effective, in my experience, but still worth the effort, if only to get your name in more places... www.side7.com www.mysketchbook.net (for students only) www.findmeanartist.com (I THINK it's .com..might be .net) www.absolutearts.com www.talentx.com www.portfolios.com

There are a million of them out there. The hard work is finding them, uploading all your art, and making sure people see it. Get involved in all the communities; help out, get friendly with the site admins. It really does help. PR is the biggest part of making it in any industry.

One other thing you can do, which isn't free, but very cheap: Go to e-bay. Auction some prints of your work for cheaper than usual. Provide a link back to your site from EVERY SINGLE AUCTION, and have an about-me page, also with links to your site on it. I've got a couple of small jobs from people who've bought prints on e-bay (I drew a pet rat for a birthday gift, for example)--and also, people come from e-bay and buy other full-price prints from my site.

And when you DO get a job, make sure you go out of your way to please your employer. Have the work done AHEAD of deadline if possible, and always do exactly what you say you're going to do. Never, ever, finish work late. Repeat business is your friend, and so are references.

Whenever you find you're getting more work offers than you can handle, jack up the price. That knocks the volume down for a while, but the profits stay the same.

Anyway, that's all I have to say on the matter.... Good luck!'


________________

Squonky Illustration Forums

Gorblimey Trousers

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[This message has been edited by Weadah (edited 11-25-2001).]

I am still confused . I went to almost all of those sites and read there policies but not one said that they would pay u for making stuff. See I want money, mulah, deneiro, lol. I still am a bit confused.

make contacts, get yourself known, show what you can do, have a portfolio, blow the socks off people, then think about making money -understand?- money trees are extinct didnt ya know? ~Vp~

:: edit :: Exeleent article and some great llinks Weadz - thanks for the effort-

[This message has been edited by vogonpoet (edited 11-27-2001).]

"I am still confused"

Then you have a future in design.

HAHAHAHAHHA

Wow, man.

And while we're at it, I'd like to get paid for all kinds of different things too! Gimme Money!

You may have noticed that life is not as simple as that insider.....but then again you may not have. There are millions of artists with actual *talent* out there trying to get jobs.

Saying 'I wanna get paid to make graphics cuase my friend says I'm good enough' doesn't quite cut it.

DL-44 do shut the F*CK up. If you even knew the situation you would understand, but since you don't, you just keep your mouth shut.

Neither of those last two comments were really justified. Let's not turn this into a needs-to-be-locked thread.

uhoh, restraint? just this once?

...

Jason

We're talking facts of life here Slime.

End of story.


There are millions of artists looking for jobs, and coming and saying 'I want to get paid to make graphics' isn't an approach to getting a job.

!st step is to learn how to make graphics, which quite frankly, Insider here has yet to learn.

Plain and simple.

Sometimes the truth isn't what we want it to be. Get used to it.

Next step is to follow some of those links weadah posted and get your work seen, and get your name out there.

People who want to get something without having to do any of the work to earn it need a reality check, Slime, and there was nothing out of line with what I said.

So no, I won't pay attention to insider's kind request to shut the fuck up.




[This message has been edited by DL-44 (edited 11-28-2001).]

Yeah, the things you're saying are all *true*. It's just that you need to say it with a bit more tact. These things can be pointed out in ways that won't make people feel the need to be defensive.

Slime - sometimes tact is called for.

I give you a lot of credit for using it well.

But, sometimes tact is decidedly *not* called for. This is one of those times.

Weadah very kindly pointed insider to some good resources. he chose to ignore the 'tactful' point and come back saying 'me want get paid'

After that point, tact is set aside for plain and simple reality.

InSiDeR: I think we can all understand your frustration but we are here to pass on advice (it just might not be what you want to hear!!). The unpleasant answer is that jobs aren't often allocated on merit but on being able to BS in interviews, being in the right place at the right time, odd lucky breaks, etc. and it sounds like your friend got lucky there.

There aren't websites offering good cash for graphics as the browser traffic would bring them down within minutes. You can improve your chances and the advice vp and Weadah provide is pure gold (as usual). Get out there, get you work known, set up an online portfolio, etc. If I was looking for a talented graphics artist I'd probably nose around here and some of the sites in Weadah's post, ask a few questions to the right people, etc. - you really need to network and grapevine (as cliched as that sounds) and urm notice this:

quote:

---

Get involved in all the communities; help out, get friendly with the site admins.

---

They tend to be trusted and have seen a lot of the work so people do tend to turn to them for advice - telling one of them to fuck off pos. isn't starting on the right foot.

Throw together a portfolio site and plop it into site reviews and we'll see where we can go from there - I'm interested to see the quality of your work. Deal?

Emps


You're my wife now Dave

right smooth this one's going

I may not "have talent" as DL pointed out in another thread, but DL wouldn't know tact if it slapped him in his ugly mug.

heh

I thought my post was pretty tactful ~Vp~

As always VP, however, your spelling leaves something to be desired.

man it was taking a turn for the better til those last 3 dumbasses showed up

Hey JK I reseemble that remark! and watts wring wid me fat fingers Krets?..

*looks above JK's last post and see's*

JKMabry, vogonpoet, kretsminky

Yep, 3 dumbasses.

And he didn't even use his fingers.

you've done well young Jayhawker, you've harnessed the powers of the force to decipher my original cryptych message ;-)

By the by Krets, I've got a picture you'll love... post it soon...

Jason

EEEK! Jayhawker? ACK! Thats like kryptonite to a Wildcat. Thats KSU not KU my friend.

he he he Not even gonna go down that road, I done closed that one off.

Jayhawker rhymes with Skywalker, sorta. And it's a dirty word too.

=)

Sorry, what was this thread about?

Jason

heheh Krets is talentless tho, and tactless, oh but he can count to 3. WooT.

InSiDeR : You're a tool.

Weadz

Wow, I didn't even know this many people visited this forum =)

By the way, DL, I still disagree =) I think tact is *always* called for. Besides, if things get heated up, especially in a forum, no one even *listens* to each other, they just skim everyone else's posts and then write their own without really caring what the other people said.

I think Insider's comments about money in his second post were just sort of joking around; he didn't really catch the main idea of what Weadah was saying.

But wait! What am I doing? This has turned into a happy thread! Resume your dumbass and jayhawker discussion =)

Oh yeah fucker?

*touches nose with tongue*

How's that for talent?

Slime - as is your prerogative.....
You'll notice however, that I did not flame anyone, I didn't even swear I simply stated that it's not as simple as signing up to get paid to make graphics, especially considering the vast amount of very talented artists out there looking for work.

And insider is quite obviously not very talented comparatively, plain and simple. And being part of the 'graphics' or art world means having to be able to accept such unfavorable comparisons, even if they are not delivered tactfully.

~shrug~

If you can't take criticism, you've got no place looking work in this field.

Ok I feel the need to give advise here even most of the thing a going to say has been said before.

I feel your points of view there InSiDeR, I was like this till I thought why try and get paid if they don't know what I can do first. The point there is that "See first then hire for work" that point goes for all jobs.

I think in this world of graphics is not that hard to break into if you REALLY WANT TO that is. I know a few people my self in the graphic business and getting paid a lot for it and there work is crap if compared to my work. But it's just not the visual side of graphics that will get you work, you have to know a lot more then Photoshop and how to make earth moving images with in Photoshop. There is a lot to it depending on what and where you want to go in the graphic world (web, print, ect). Also depending on where you go with the graphics work, is that you will not be able to sit at a computer all day in Photoshop and make pretty images.

Lets say you go for the web side of things, now you have to learn code, browsers, image sizes, image files, severs, ect. That list can go on and on if you want to be a hybrid in this area (Hybrid knowing Code and graphics like the back of you hand) you will have to learn to flash, director, freehand/Illustrator, and other programs too.
Now the print side of things, you must know a lot about printers, DPI, colours, screen rulings, image size, scanning, ect. That list can go on for ever to, and the same as web work you will not be able to sit in PS all day you need to know a lot of programs mostly Photoshop, Quark and Illustrator.

So there is well more to it than you think. You have really have seem to have done a great leap too from no work (or portfolio even if it is all personal work it still shows what you can do) to hoping to get paid for this work. So I would really think before jumping into this if you want to paid for doing graphics work.

1. You have a site make some graphics to show and use you site for it.
2. Learn more about the web and print (This will help in the future)
3. Make contacts like vogonpoet said, the word of mouth is the best thing to get work.

After that you might be halfway there.

Now I have made some great contacts since I launched my site to the world by including my URL in emails, contacting the big boys in the graphics world and see if they link me. Also but up work on they sites that Weadah said, I have some work with some of them and some that are not said, yea I get no work but it's there just in case some so browsing though them sites. Also going in some forums will help just like this one, I have do a digital quilt with softhead (which I met in here) that is now up at this site(http://ds9r.com/digitalquilt/). That was do just for fun, but at the same time I met a great person doing it and I get some more people to see what I can do, which helps in the long run.

So I would get a lot of work behind you before jumping in, because you will get no where if you keep doing that.



Chris C

DS: Some good advice (make contacts and try and stay positive).

Insider: I went through the members details and you do have a site:
www.insidershak.net

There a certainly things that could be tweaked but fatally the art link doesn't take us to the art page and if you are trying to sell yourself through these pages then I'd put more work in here.

You should also think about linking your page in via your sig or even putting the link in below your sig - it all helps.

There are plenty of people here who are willing to help if you'll let them.

Emps

[edit: Chris I do like the quilt you and softhead produced:
http://ds9r.com/digitalquilt/quilt/complete/quilt_31.htm

there is some good work in there and some interesting transitions]


You're my wife now Dave

[This message has been edited by Emperor (edited 11-28-2001).]

emperor: thanks a fucking lot, my site is underconstruction IF U DIDN'T READ AT THE OPENING PAGE, I usually like ur posts but that one made me mad . Last night i was working on it and stopped to sleep which is what a human would do and I marked where I left off as <!---HERE!---> so plz dont talk about my site untill i post it inn the review room ty.

DS: I do know some coding and servers and other graphic progs and most of the other stuff of what u said, I understand your long post very well, thanks for the adivice.

DL: Man you have know fucking clue, believe it or not I looked up to ur artwork and I still do. Its not that I cant take critisism (I think slime said) its just that when you have only seen my 3 sigs and then say that I pretty much suck, it pisses me off. So once again stfu.

Dumbasses: Take your pills and go back to your rooms!

Thanks to everyone thats given me advice and especially weadah I think I have the Idea.

InSiDeR: My.... I think you are the one in need of some more black pills (or pos. some more sleep - I know that feeling) - I mentioned the broken link because it was in connection with the above messages and as your site is listed in the members section it is free to mention it here in context (esp. as I said a good idea would be to make a site to display your talents and then thought they you probably already had).

Trust me this wasn't an attempt at a review (I'll leave that until it is officially in the review forum) because I would have had more to say than pointing out a broken link (my reviews tend to be much longer than that)!!

~considers handing out some free advice about how to get constructive comments but refrains due to doubts over its reception~

Emps

[edit: some stuff]


You're my wife now Dave

[This message has been edited by Emperor (edited 11-28-2001).]

*sigh*

I know I'm gonna get it for this one, but wtf.

Insider.
If you want a promising career at any profession, you perhaps should start working on your people skills, and controlling your temper.

If you go off like this 'cause someone is trying to help you and missed a detail, how the hell will you handle a job interview where someone might be nitpicking your work, or just skimming it and then give you feedback!
I most project you work in a team, and with an attitude like that you won't be lasting long in a creative team. And I bet that they won't exchange the team just for you. A bit of humility will get you much further. How do I know? Cause I hire people, buy services and contract work to web agencies for a living.
I personally had one gfx-guy removed from "our" team at the agency for somewhat similar reasons.


well then. Flame on.


(e) wrote while emps posted(/e)


[This message has been edited by Nimraw (edited 11-28-2001).]

Life is great when you can answer every bit of advice, criticism, or offhand commentary with 'fuck you, me smart, you don't know what I talking about'

People have often tried to help you in one way or another, and your demeanor is always the same - ask for help, then throw a hissy fit and tell everyone to 'shut the fuck up' when they don't say what you want to hear.

Grow up.

~hands out the big "L"~ there ya go Insider, you earned this ~Vp~

~wanders in and signals for a time out to let things cool down a little~

*Walks in*

Oppps sorry , I think I will get out of the way here.....

*Walks out as fast as my shadow legs can take me*


[Edit to emp: thanks for the comments on the digital quilt me and softhead did .

Chris C

[This message has been edited by Darkshadow (edited 11-28-2001).]

*presses button on SP 200 to dispense some Fluoxetine (because I'm sure you can't afford brand name Prozac) for Insider*



[This message has been edited by kretsminky (edited 11-28-2001).]

Nimraw: I won't get mad at you and if you read in the philosophy section everyonce in a while you would notice that I do have a sence of humor. Though it's not that I can't take critism or that I don't have people skills, it's that DL-44 made a comment about me that made me mad because he didn't know the situation. That just makes me mad.

DL-44: I would advise you please leave me alone through out the rest of this thread, and please don't post an apology post cause it's not excepted sorry, actually don't bother posting anything on this thread anymore ty.

Everyone who isn't trying to help: TAKE YOUR PILLS AND GO BACK TO YOUR ROOMS OR I WILL PUT YOU IN A STREIGHT JACKET AND GIVE YOU AN ANIMA!

No wait I'll give you an anima and THEN put you in a streight jacket

I sincerely doubt that anyone will waste the keystrokes on you. But I sure hope they do.

Weadz

I really think this topic is a done deal. As soon as I stop laughing and gain control of my hands...I will click that close topic button down there vvvvvvvvvvv

Good night John Boy