The last two years have been challenging in many ways for so many people. We’re not out of the woods yet though, and I’m sure a lot of us are wondering how to protect, improve, or find new avenues of income. You might be looking for some advice on how to build a better freelance art career, and the video below has some really valuable info.
This presentation comes from the first Lightbox Expo event which took place in Pasadena in 2019. It’s one of the most valuable presentations I’ve heard and one I’ve listened to a few times now. This is Making Your Freelance Career Bulletproof with Nathan Fowkes.
Tips on how to be a bulletproof freelance artist
Important points for being a freelance artist…
- Unexpected things happen.
We know work coming in as a freelancer can be intermittent. Sometimes though, projects you expected to keep you busy and paid fall through long before completion. At other times you may not be physically able work. Perhaps you get injured or sick, or maybe your mental health takes a knock and you need a break. - Plan for those unexpected things
These things are VERY likely to happen at different stages in your career and you should do your best to prepare for that. One of the big challenges though, is time. There’s only so much you can dedicate big chunks of energy to at one time. - Have a Plan F
You likely have a range of things you could offer. If you are only creating original paintings for gallery shows, you might want to consider diversifying a bit. The more you can offer, the more resilient you will be if for some reason are aren’t able to offer your main thing for a period. - Use the small bits of time productively
Bigger projects like gallery shows, developing an online course, or writing a book take hundreds of hours to put together. Devoting the majority of your energy to that for a specific period to get it done, is often not an option. It can mean sacrificing income from freelance work while time goes instead to your project. But perhaps you can use smaller chunks of time in between jobs to incrementally build these things up. Better yet if can make one thing serve more than one purpose. - Grow your freelancer warchest
Put money away where you can in case something happens. With Fowkes it was an unexpected legal case when a studio he had been contracted by went under. And be conscious of how you spend money. That doesn’t mean deprive yourself, but rather to ask serious questions around whether certain adjustments to certain spends could be smarter in the long term.
Nathan Fowkes’ Work
Nathan has worked as a concept artist for animation and games for over 20 years with clients such as DreamWorks, Blue Sky Studios, Disney, Blizzard Entertainment, and Riot Games. Below are examples of some of Nathan’s fantastic work. Some of these are from movies, some independent paintings and sketches. You can see more of his work on his website, his Artstation page, and by following him on Instagram.
Learn more from Nathan Fowkes
Fowkes has 4 courses and 2 month-long workouts available on online art school, Schoolism. The courses are Pictorial Composition, Environment Design, Designing with Color and Light, and Landscape Sketching in Watercolor and Gouche. To get a glimpse of these, head over to Nathan’s Youtube channel where he shares demos and tips.
Schoolism is currently running its Winter Sale where you can get an annual subscription to all of it’s 30+ courses for only $200. They run this special twice a year usually as part of their mission to make high quality art education accessible.
His book How To Paint Landscapes Quickly and Beautifully In Watercolor and Gouache mentioned in the talk can be found here. In it, you will learn quick and effective setups and techniques for painting any landscape.
Hopefully this all inspires you, and gets you thinking creatively about ways to bump up that freelance art career of yours to be able to weather the storms ahead.
If you are a beginner looking to get started in digital art, you might want to give my Digital Art For Beginners post a read. It’s a lengthy one, but covers most of the bases to help equip you for the journey ahead.
Full Disclosure: This post does contain the odd affiliate link so should you purchase through one of them, I may earn a small commission. This doesn’t impact your purchase at all but helps me to continue creating content here for you.
