Hello newbie!

If your AD isn’t clear about what they expect from you, be sure to ask. After receiving the briefing (the description of the art needed), you should acknowledge that you received it and ask for any clarification if needed. If they have a deadline for sketches, repeat it back to them. If they haven’t given you a deadline for sketches, make one for yourself so they know when they can expect to hear from you. For example,
“Thanks for sending this over! Everything sounds good. One question: for page 39, did you want the banana to be wearing a trenchcoat or more of a windbreaker kind of deal? He seems like he’s got kind of a classy vibe but I didn’t know how specific to the 80’s you wanted this retro urban fruit sci-fi story to look. Please let me know. I’ll have the black-and-white sketches for you by Wednesday morning. Thanks!”
Some ADs may want to chat on the phone, especially if it’s a complicated project, but usually communication is done over email.
Moral of the story: DON’T leave your AD hanging! Don’t leave them wondering whether you got their email and when sketches are coming. Always leave them feeling confident that you understand the assignment and will turn it in on time. That’s professionalism.

-Agent Thumbnail

Originally posted by boldlygiffing

Studying other illustrators’ artwork is very good practice, and is actually essential to developing your taste. You can learn a lot by studying, imitating, or even tracing the art of other artists for practice. In art school they call these “master studies” and professors will MAKE you do them.

There are two things you need to be careful about when studying other artists’ work:

1. If the artist whose work you copied/traced is long dead, then you can post your study online with proper credit to the original artist. (For example, “personal study after Sargent.”)

2. If the artist whose work you copied/traced is still alive, then, in my opinion, DON’T post it online. Even if you posted it with credit, there’s still a chance that you’d be accused of “stealing” someone’s style, or of your image being confused for the original artist’s work, etc. Just keep it in your personal files.

Also, just for your personal development, try to absorb a variety of artistic styles. Don’t rely too much on one genre or one artist. A good way to do this is to get off the computer and go to a library, bookstore, art gallery, or museum, and look at art that isn’t curated by an algorithm. If you study art from a variety of sources, your art will look like a unique mixture of influences, rather than a second-hand imitation of someone else’s style.

-Agent Thumbnail

Originally posted by meggory84

Anonymous - it’s okay to ask for deadline extensions!!!

In the future, if you’re on a tight deadline, ask the AD to respond to you within a certain timeframe. For example, “In order to meet the deadline of (DATE), I need feedback from you by (DATE). Looking forward to hearing the team’s thoughts on these sketches.” That way, you’re letting the AD know what YOU need in order to meet the deadline. It’s a polite way of putting the ball in their court.

If they don’t send feedback by the date you asked for, a good AD will offer you a deadline extension. If they don’t, it’s okay to ask for one. “Because of the delay in receiving feedback, a deadline extension on this would be really helpful for me. Would it be possible to move it back to Monday?”

An extension might not always be possible, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. A good AD will not think less of you for asking. An AD who takes forever to respond, won’t budge on the deadline, and gets mad at you for asking, is a crummy AD.

-Agent Thumbnail

Originally posted by adventurelandia

Yup! Totally common, make sure you sent them EXACT SPELLING. Like, directly copy-and-pasteable, capitals are correct, any diacritics that need to be on there are correct, etc.  Let them know that you would like to be credited as a work alias instead of what’s on your paperwork, and send them that. Depending on the company, they might need you to update your vendor info so they can make it all official in their databases or what haveyou, but I’ve never run into nor heard of a situation where a publisher has deliberately refused to use an alias if it’s requested before things go to press. 

-Agent Critique

Great question! It’s okay to send one or two extra sketches! You could preface it with, “I know you only asked for two sketches, but I was so excited about the project that I did a few more.” That way you’re framing it in terms of your enthusiasm for the project, not a lack of confidence in your artistic choices. Your AD will probably be impressed!

It’s true that it’s part of your job to curate your ideas and bring only your best ones to the AD. So it could be unprofessional if you sent in, like, I dunno, twenty extra sketches, because then you’re making us do the work of sorting through every idea that passes through your brain. But two extra, well-thought out sketches? Awesome!

-Agent Thumbnail

Originally posted by richdifeo

Great job cold-emailing some ADs! I’m glad that you got some responses and I hope that encourages you to keep knocking on doors! (Figuratively, of course, since we’re all at home right now. Remember knocking on actual doors? Remember seeing real human flesh faces? I SURE DON’T!)

There’s really nothing to a second update email. Keep it short and sweet and let your art speak for itself.

“Subject: illustration samples

Hello! I just wanted to let you know that I’ve updated my portfolio. Here are some new pieces. You can see more at my website: wwww.artistname.com
I’d love to work with you and I hope you’ll keep me in mind for future projects. Thanks!”

Attach your new art. Be sure these samples represent your latest and greatest work. Don’t overthink it!

- Agent Thumbnail

Originally posted by nerdswhoteach

Please do not do the right click/copy protection thing! If an AD likes your work, we’ll often save it to a file for future reference. If you implement the “no right click” feature, you are making it harder for ADs to keep you on file!!

Put your name and website address on all your artwork. Not only will that make it easier for ADs to remember who drew the art in our files, but it will also help keep your work from being stolen online.

- Agent Thumbnail

Originally posted by lesterjeff

If this is a picture book, then having the illustrator’s name and bio (but not necessarily photo) is standard. If this is just a book cover, then usually the illustrator’s name is mentioned on the back cover and the copyright page, nothing more. If the case is the latter, and the client is still insisting on your photo and bio, politely let them know that that’s not “industry standard.”

If this is a picture book or a graphic novel or something, well, it IS industry standard to include the illustrator’s name, and if you insist on being anonymous then you’re the one making things weird. That’s like asking your date not to tell anyone that you’re dating. They will, understandably, be insulted.

The good news is that, unless this book goes viral or becomes a bestseller, it isn’t going to define your career. You don’t have to put any of this work in your portfolio or post about it on social media. (Unless that’s part of your contract.) Having one project out there in a different style won’t determine your career forever, but you’ll have to course-correct by producing new portfolio pieces that ARE in your preferred style. Eventually the “a bit weird” book will drop down in the Google search results and in your memory, like that person you once dated who was also “a bit weird” and you’d prefer to forget.

-Agent Thumbnail

Originally posted by kirstyofjakku

In industries where the final product is going to print, the general rules are:

1— Work in RGB, at at least 300dpi at double the printed size (or 600dpi at double the size) unless otherwise noted. Deliver in RGB. The folks in-house are going to convert to CMYK to their profiles set and synced with whatever printer they’re using, and that can vary wildly. Also, everything that’s print still ends up online to sell on a website or post on social and the colors always look better in RGB.

FYI: if you have someone ask you to deliver in CMYK, or you’re going to send something to a printer yourself, keep it RGB until the very last moment, then group it and convert the group to a smart object. This will preserve the layers, but look like it’s been flattened. You can convert that file to CMYK, but if you double click the Smart Object then all the RGB layers are editable. Magic! Obviously this is in Photoshop, but the other programs have versions of this as well.

2 – You can ask what general color profile they’re using, there’s a ton built into most art programs, and all adobe programs. But honestly, there’s so much color correction done in house before something goes tot he printer that we don’t expect an illustrator to know. You have to set DMAX (Maximum Ink Density) depending on what paper and lamination you’re using. Then you also have to know matte lam makes things tend pink, gloss lam makes things tend towards yellow and more contrast. The grittier the matte coating the less dense the blacks, etc etc. In other words, it’s fine to ask, but the answer is probably going to be “don’t worry about it, work in RGB” because you’d never expect to send something from a freelancer straight in the same file to the printer.

—Agent KillFee

IT DOES! THANK YOU.

Seriously, folks. 2020 is hard. For everyone. And so many people are scared & angry & taking it out on people on social media. Unfortunately people are much more likely (about 10x more likely) to post negative comments than positive ones, even if they feel positively about more things. So take a moment, go out and send someone a positive comment or note when you can. It’ll make social media a kinder place.

—All Agents