THE SIMPSONS NEWS – Increasing Your Value as an artist by Doing What Others Can’t or Wont do

Simpsons Quote:

“You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is: never try.” – Homer Simpson

Sometimes an art job is…well, to put it mildly,  unappealing.

Artists simply don’t want to do it or don’t have the skill to.

At some point, after being in the art industry for a while, you can choose what jobs you’re willing to have and which ones your not so excited about.

Let’s say, for whatever reason, you turn down an unappealing job. In fact, it’s an unappealing job that MOST artists turn down or can’t do, though it’s still a good paying job.

You’ve just thrown away an opportunity.  That job that no one wanted or couldn’t do, may very well have been the job that set you apart and made you look better than the rest. You would have become a more valuable artist.

I’m going to be talking about that in this week’s post. How doing what others can’t or wont will increase your value as an artist:

Drawing as Work

I just wanted to point something out that I’ve noticed and this is something that happens in just about every industry, and the art industry is no exception. The job is perceived as work–it’s a job.

We get our job done and then we go home, and we want to relax and have nothing to do with our job. An artist draws all day, for eight hours, and goes home and just wants to relax. That’s okay, that’s perfectly fine.

The thing is, sometimes an artist is given an opportunity in work or freelance to do something that might be more work. This work  might be a pain in the neck, something they don’t want to do. But, it’s something necessary that whoever is giving you the job is really counting on it getting done. So they go to you, and you turn it down.

What does that do to you?

Well you’re not the go-to person after that. But had you said yes and accepted the job, your perceived value from that person would’ve gone up.

What Happened to Me During THE SIMPSONS Movie

Let me show you an example from my life from both sides, when I turned down a job and when I didn’t. They happened around the same time.

During the Simpsons movie, there was a ton of work that had to be done at the Fox lot. What ended up happening was that production would come around and ask artists,

“Can you work this weekend at the Fox lot?”

Just imagine how the artists were all overworked already because production was heavy. We needed a break, we needed a little rest. We wanted a free weekend. Just about everyone refused.

When they came and asked me, I said yes, and I was on the Fox lot working on the weekends. I thought it was a good opportunity and a good place to be, and it turned out I was right.

I eventually ended up working at the Fox lot ONLY.  I was among all the other people who had agreed to come to the lot on weekends. The perceived value of every artist at the Fox lot increased, and it was much easier for us to be the go-to people than the people who refused.

How I Lost my Freelance Gigs

While I was working at the lot, it was a very intense and very heavy duty experience. It meant I had no free time, I had to stay there, and had no control over when I could leave.

I got a phone call from one of the art directors for the comic book that I worked on. I’ve been doing comic books on the side for twelve years.

The art director called me up and asked me to do a freelance job while I was at the Fox lot. He was desperate, and he was begging me to take the work. I couldn’t do it. If he had given me the work, there was no way I could meet the deadline. I wasn’t in a position to take the job.

Because I couldn’t accept the job, I hadn’t been called back by him in five or six years.

The Point

So, you take the opportunities that you can get. Don’t refuse work because you don’t want to do it; I refused it because it wasn’t humanly possible to do it, and even THEN it had negative effects.

I took the work that no one else wanted at the Fox lot, and it benefited me.

I recommend being willing to do what others are unwilling to do, and being willing to do what others cannot do, and that will increase your perceived value as an artist and secure more work in the future.

E-mailing Bum Thumbnails from “The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson” episode

This week my newsletter group gets a behind the scenes look at my thumbnails  of the bum in this scene:

If you want to get in on this exclusive, opt in below before next Thursday and I’ll send you a copy of the e-mail as soon I’m able.

PODCASTS – Man vs. Art #75

I was on the Man vs. Art podcast on episode 75. Raul and I had a conversation about art and specifically I talked about my drawing site.

It was a good time. I laughed so hard during our talk.

Raul also put all kinds of goofy music and sound effect depending on what we spoke about.

If you want to hear out conversation go over to the Man vs. Art site and give it a listen.

And make sure to check out the post because Raul has done a cool little video about drawing a picture using “The rule of thirds”.

WEBSITES – Designing Super Basic Compositions

New drawing website post is up. This time I took on the daunting task of picking ONE tip on composition and wrote about it.

Really, it feels ridiculous to only pick one.  I’m not sure what it was about this particular post compared to the other ones but this one REALLY felt like was I leaving a lot out.

Did I not pick the right principle to talk about? I’m not sure.

You be the judge. Go read it and let me know:

Designing Super Basic Compositions

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