Published by a Publisher
Hi guys,
I just found out that our early bird launch for the Children's Book Pro class is on TUESDAY! We are so excited it's finally here! The first spots will be restricted to people who are signed up at www.childrensbookpro.com. We are limiting space because we are doing live weekly zoom sessions with the students. Should be a ton of fun! Hope to see you in there!
Let me know if you have any questions at all! : )
-Lee
Yep, it's posted on the www.critiquearena.com website
THIS MONTHS CHALLENGE!
Our Fairy Tale Traveler is in a situation!
For this month’s prompt, your mission is to draw our Fairy Tale Traveler in an environment, in a situation. The enemy is coming down the road and now our traveler must decide whether to face the adversary, flee or hide. How will our traveler get out of this situation??
In March, we designed a Fairy Tale Traveler. In April, we designed an inn for our weary traveler to sleep for the night. And this month, we are creating a full page illustration featuring our traveler.
For this challenge, the image must be a full page illustration, and the dimensions must be 9.5 inches high x 10.5 inches wide.
Just to clarify: don't worry if you haven't submitted in the previous Fairy Tale Traveler contests, you can still do this prompt! Just treat it as if it's a stand alone prompt
@Samanta Not sure if that's what you're looking for, but I have a Facebook group called the Freelance Illustrators Café 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/freelanceillustratorscafe
It's a great place to hang out and meet other artists who are serious about making a living with their art, and exchange information, advice, ask questions, etc.
@Annabishop Marketing like anything else requires learning and practicing Artists are really good at learning art, but we rarely put the same dedication into learning how to sell our services... which is a shame, because that's where most of us fail 
We can't be good at something if we've never learned it, that's only natural. I feel like saying things such as "I suck at marketing" isn't helpful and mentally, it can affect how we see ourselves. "I'm someone who's just not good at marketing" as if it's part of who we are, and there's nothing about that we can change. Thinking of it instead as "I haven't learned marketing yet" is more helpful because it's not self-depreciative, it's not related to your identity... it simply states you haven't yet developed your skills in this area and pushes you to think about your next steps. What can you do to learn marketing?
I am literally drawing a demo on that exact topic as a lecture for our new Children's Book Pro class right now. How do you draw a background so it has the most narrative punch it can? You can't just think about filling a scene with stuff. Everything needs to help the narrative that you are trying to tell. In my demo, I am using red riding hood as a story basis to show how to let story drive the content. It's so fun and best of all, when you approach it in the right way, the background will sort of let you know what it needs! : )
This is a good question. And it's great that you are working to get it clarified.
For actionable advice please consult an IP attorney. I strongly recommend Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. They are a national organization with chapters in many of the the cities around the US.
My opinion: I don't think you are licensing the use of the images in book form. "Own" means something specific. I learned a long time ago from an IP attorney not to use the world "sell" or "buy" in regards to intellectual property. Rather if what is meant is a "temporary permission to use" then "license" is the appropriate term.
The client could reasonably think they own the sole right to reproduce the images in book form. More importantly they could reasonably think the client (a consulting firm?) could sublicense the images to a third party to use the images in book form.
From this wording it would seem reasonable that all other uses (other than book form) are controlled solely by the illustrator (you).
It's worth noting that this phrase doesn't need to be included int he contract since by default any aspects of your copyright that you don't specifically sign over (either temporarily "license" or permanently "transfer") remain with the intellectual property creator (you)
@Annabishop said in Need to vent a bit!:
I've been told 'just take every job when you're starting out even if it's low paid/crappy, it will lead to more'.
The saying should be "it will lead to more... of the same"
Sure it's a good idea to take the first couple projects your agent sends you so that they know you're professional and can get the job done (as Braden brilliantly explained) and when you're just getting started and have nothing in your portfolio at all it can help jumpstart things and look more professional to take a couple gigs regardless of pay to fill up your projects page and get some testimonials... But 1-2 gigs, not 10-12! We need to quickly start looking for projects that offer a livable wage after that, otherwise we stick ourselves in a terrible loop of only working at the bottom of the ladder. We have to get climbing sooner rather than later! And that means saying no to more gigs and that can be scary, but the beauty part is that if the gig is paid 2x better, then you only need half as many gigs like that to pay your bills
@Annabishop You're absolutely right! There's a strong mindset problem that leads us artists to being afraid to stand up for ourselves. And it's not our fault, it's society's message that we're lucky to do this, we're lucky to have the work, we shouldn't complain. It creates this really terrible power imbalance where we artists just feel so indebted to our clients like they're giving us the moon and we need to be thankful. In reality of course, it's a simple business transaction where BOTH parties get something. If a client is paying $1000 for illustrations, it's because they're able to turn around and make more than that in profits selling their product. We needn't act like they're doing us a favor by making money with our intellectual property! It doesn't mean let's act like an entitled queen, but we really needn't lick their boots and take the consequences for their mistakes. I know what you mean about the fear of being impolite - I'm Canadian! But being polite is not the same thing as being a doormat! We can be professional AND firm all at once
Yes! still adding a lot of new things for svs! In fact, advanced perspective just wrapped up this week! should be out soon!
We will not be taking any courses away!
SVS is going to be targeted at getting a VERY solid foundation. With the ability to branch off into other specific "majors". Obviously children's book is our flag ship so that is being developed first. SVS will be expanded to have a "workshop" component where studets get feedback from instructors. That is starting VERY soon with an emphasis on the curriculum classes.
