“When the going gets tough…” as the saying goes, tough times require extra effort to keep the cash flowing. Here’s some things I’ve been doing to broaden my client base that may give you some ideas:

1. Appeal to a wider and more diverse market: I’ve for years been dependent for most of my business from medical ad agencies. I’ve been producing samples that have a wider appeal. (The attached image “Snail’s Pace” is my latest image for the book publishing market.)
2. We work in advertising, why not advertise: I’ve started a year-long email campaign sending out over 4000 emails every other month to three markets–consumer ad agencies, medical ad agencies, and book publishers. The off months are for follow-up calls or mailers.
3. Track results: There is always a spike in the number of people that come to my site on the day the emails go out. Working with Agency Access on this email campaign, I get reports of opens and clicks. Also I can get traffic reports from Google Analytics and my web hosting management tool “Web Statistics.” Though the latter two don’t give names of visitors, they do give a lot of interesting information like what countries visitors are from and what the traffic source is (such as referral sites).
4. Traditional advertising: I’ve had one page ads in Directory of Illustration and Medical Sourcebook for years.
5. Using social media: My blog automatically is posted on my business Facebook page, my Linked In profile, and my gallery on the Directory of Illustration website. Of course none of that matters if you don’t have “friends” or “links” so you have to keep adding people you are connected to by searching. And people do frequently request to link to you.
6. Portfolios and Galleries: I have several galleries at different art search sites (see my Links page on my website).
7. Public Relations: I’m not sure if I’ll ever get business from the fact that I have samples and interviews on the Smith Micro Poser software “User Stories” page or Cornucopia 3D (for people who use Vue 3D software), but you’d be surprised at the number of visitors that come from all over the world to my site because of them. They are probably fellow artists that use the software, but I do make a point to publicize to clients and prospective clients about the latest entries on these sites.
8. Don’t forget the phone: I know, I know, I hate the phone messages and waiting for someone to be out of a meeting, but after a while, you get a sense of when or when not to call someone. It is particularly important to stay in touch with existing clients.

It’s all about being in the right place at the right time. Through a diverse approach, you increase the number of possible “right places” and “right times.”

“…the tough get going!”

1. It forces you to always keep your book and resumé up-to-date.
2. It keeps you in shape for real job interviews. Since you’re not really looking for a job, you are more relaxed because being able to eat and have a roof over your family’s heads isn’t on the line. You can relax and that meant you present yourself and your work better.
3. You remain practiced at interviewing for when a job you are interested in appears.
4. It gives you a peer review that let you know how others see your work: What people like best in your samples; what doesn’t go over so well; and where you could improve your book.
5. It gives you confidence that you could get another job if you need to either because you’re tired of your present job or for some reason (hopefully beyond your control) you lose your current job.

Working as an illustrator, your first line of peer review is always if clients like what you do for them and if they come back for more. But still something is missing. You need to know how you stack up against other illustrators and you want the confidence that comes from having honest feedback from the toughest eyes–fellow illustrators.

For as long as I’ve been working with Vue 3D software, (same software Industrial Light and Magic and other big movie companies use for photorealistic natural outdoor environments) I’ve gone to their Cornucopia3D website where I buy various models, textures, materials, etc and where I look at various users galleries of their best work. Well I bit the bullet and decided to open my own gallery on their site and allow comments. They only let you upload 3 images a day, so it takes a while to fully upload the select samples you want to post.

Each day the Cornucopia moderators review uploaded images and select images they consider “Cream of the Crop” and “Picture of the Day”. Within the first week I had 3 of my images selected as “Cream of the Crop” (the three images above). They’ve selected one of my image for rotating on their home page banner and another for their Weekly Featured Gallery Images. Fellow illustrators see latest additions to galleries, can visit your gallery, can comment on your images, and rate them. Much like other social media, you do get a lot of smiley faces and short positive comments, but you also get helpful critiques.

Feedback is always good and keeps you sharp. Do visit my Cornucopia Gallery. The images are large and allow you to see more detail.

I’ve been fortunate to have quite a number of those projects over my long career both as an art director and as an illustrator. Three years ago the Lincoln Memorial 4 image series was one of those. Last year it was the 33 3D dinosaurs for The Discovery Channel’s “My First Dinosaur Encyclopedia.”

Well, I just finished another one: Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz is celebrating it’s 70th birthday and are putting up a large display in their lobby with photos from their history and the present day. I was asked to supply the images of the future of medicine at their hospital. Given only subject matter, there were no layouts or art directors to work with, so I had to be my own art director. I figured it was a time to produce images unlike anything I’d previously created.

Besides your willingness to put in crazy hours to produce them, there’s another thing these assignments have in common. When they’re finished, you sit back and look at them with a smile on your face and pride in a job well done. And that, in a nutshell, is why we do what we do and keep us coming back for more.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed doing them.

1. A deeper understanding of the brain through combining information from a variety of visualizing techniques
2. iPhone diabetes blood monitoring
3. Full bodysuit complete systems monitoring
4. Scarless surgery

See larger images in my 3D Medical Illustration Gallery.

Solution: 3D illustration

I’ve heard a lot of people say, they only use photography—never illustration. I simply show them some samples.

When you want photorealism, 3D illustration delivers—when created with care for lighting and details—and will come in for less than original photography or rights-managed stock every time.

Piecing stock images together:

Can’t find everything you want in one photo? If one photo has something you’re looking for and an other has another, you can combine them together if you pay attention to three important things—lighting, contrast, and focus. If those things closely match from photo to photo they can be combined and no one will know they came from different photos. But if they don’t, don’t just say we’ll fix it in retouching. A photo taken on a bright sunny day at noon can’t be combined with a photo taken on a cloudy day at sunset. You need the light source coming from the same angle and you want the same sharpness of focus from image to image. You can soften a photo’s focus, but the “Sharpen” filter in Photoshop is limited at best.

Take a look at the jockey and horse photo below. It is made up of 3 images: jockey, horse, and background trees. A bit of early morning fog was added to the background trees to have the trees blend with the grass from the horse photo. Also, a lot of patience is needed to silhouette the complex jockey and wreath from the complex background.

Can’t find it? Illustrate it:

When is a retoucher not a retoucher? When he or she is a photorealistic illustrator. Sometimes what the art director needs is to combine a stock photo with elements that don’t exist. That’s when the illustration ability of the retoucher comes into play. Take the belly flop photo, for example, the empty pool had to be illustrated to match the scene in the photo. In the case of the “American Pie” pizza the image was a combination of illustration and illustrating by cloning and piecing a photo.

So don’t limit your creativity just because you’re using stock photos. But do make sure your retoucher is up to the task!

A couple years ago, I had a group of location photos that needed to be taken for a client and some of the estimates came in around $78,000 to $85,000. But I found a photographer in L.A., Brian Davis, that was willing to work with me to get the budget down to about a third of the other estimates. Here’s what he suggested that substantially reduced costs:

1. Rather than spend a lot of time on location with a full crew and everyone listed above, he went with one assistant to quickly shoot locations for our photos without models. I was able to approve the photos of the locations before going to L.A. for photographing models.
2. Matching the lighting of the locations in his studio, we were able to shoot the 3 shots of the models below in one day in his studio.
3. Then I composited the location photos with the studio images in Photoshop. As you can see some final images were made from multiple images, but the end result was totally believable.

Savings came from shorter booking time for models, and crew, reduced location fees, no need for trucking and recreational vehicle, and fewer days required for completing the shoot. And no rain dates, because the locations were shot as time and weather fit the photographer’s schedule.

Basically, I suggest before you rule out location photography because your budget is tight, find a photographer that is willing to work with you to find ways to keep costs down. You’ll get the results you want with original photography and you’ll be a hero for keeping costs down. Oh, and don’t forget to use a good retoucher!

Here’s the problem: After photos were shot, it was decided that the client wanted large posters of these Johnson’s Baby Product bottles. Solution: These illustrations weren’t created in Photoshop—they were done in Illustrator! The results: They look photographic, but you can enlarge them to fit on the side of a barn if you want to. It’s care for detail and using gradients, masks, feathered edges, and internal glow effects that make this work.

Go ahead, look at the close-up of the shampoo bottle. Yes, it’s done in Illustrator!

2D Solution: Using the mechanical for the package design, you can distort each side of the package in Photoshop to create a dimensional image such as this Pool Rover display that combines a vacuum formed roof and product package along with display brochure and handouts in the chimney. After the sides have been distorted simply add highlights and shadows to the appropriate sides to give added dimension.

Plus: Quick, easy, sharper text than photographing real box

Minus: Change package design graphics or want different angle you have to do it over completely

3D Solution: If you have dimensional elements other than flat sides, such as in the second example, which has both tablets and a plastic blister pack that contains the pills, consider having a 3D model made from the mechanical of the package. The advantages are photorealistic lighting, the ability to use the same model rendered from different angles, and if needed, an animation can be made showing how to open the package.

Plus: Very believable, looks photographic, any camera angle, if graphics change, simply reapply new graphics to faces

Minus: Takes a little longer initially, so cost is higher, but cost of changes or rendering new angles is minimal

You wonder sometimes if anyone really sees your blog and if matters that you went to the trouble to write it. The blog, “Remember when Poser figures looked like ugly toys?” I recently posted on my new website, is actually one I wrote a while back and posted on my Premium Network Worldwide blog page.

Well one day a few months ago, I got an email from Rebecca Watson, who worked at the time for Smith Micro (maker of Poser) as a Community & Artist Relations Manager. She had seen my blog and liked that my images with Poser figures were not typical. She requested that I post some of my Poser samples in their user gallery and wanted to interview me for their User Profile page. I got paid with software. There were a lot of questions about my use of Poser, but every once in a while she’d ask a silly question like “How do you like your eggs cooked? or “Do you have any pets? If so, what are their names?” I told her I thought she was trying to find out my secret words for my online bank account.

The results were four-fold: She posted a lengthy user profile on the Poser website that included 8 links, they put 13 of my images on their Facebook page, Rebecca wrote a funny blog about my answers to her silly questions called “There’s no such thing as a stupid question,” and, as you see below, they are using 2 of my image on the Poser homepage.

But wait, there’s more! They also chose my Native American image to be a sample on their new Poser Debut software box—for which I was paid again with a pile of software.

Hey, I’ll take all the free publicity I can get!

Though I’ve been an illustrator for 17 years, most of my long career has been as an art director and associate creative director. A lot of people in the industry still remember me as an art director and though I don’t seek work art directing, I do occasionally get called to art direct. Case in point: the end of last year, an account exec that I used to work with at Robert A. Becker called me. He was starting his own business in San Francisco and wanted my help designing a logo for his company—Capito Life Technologies. I agreed to do an exploratory that would look at a variety of fonts, icons, and color combinations from which to select. We discussed a variety of tag lines and that his company would gather information from 3 sources to develop a total patient profile for his clients. Below are some of the initial concepts I presented and the final logo that was derived from combining elements from some of the initial concepts.

Also last year I donated the design of a logo for the new Special Needs Ministry at my parish. It was inspired by the ministry’s first craft project where participants, family members, and volunteers made handprints that were assembled into a wreath. When asked to do the logo, I knew immediately what it would be.

It got me thinking about the fact that over the years I’ve designed a lot of logos for a wide variety of different products and companies—not the least of which was for Rogaine. So I thought I’d share them with you. Be sure to take a look at my LOGO DESIGN gallery when you visit my site.

Let me know what you think of my new site!

I made the 3D Victorian house,egg and sperm models used to create this image. As I was working on it, I couldn’t help but think about how direct-to-the-point this image is—sperm comes calling—egg doesn’t want to come out for fear of getting pregnant. I got thinking about how times have changed and that over the last few decades we openly talk about such things—a far cry from back in the day when Norman Rockwell painted covers for the Saturday Evening Post. Then my mind wandered to what scene Norman would have portrayed on this porch and that led me to the second image below.

Though the scene and wardrobe are contemporary, the emotions of the characters harken back to an older time: the boy nervously comes over to visit a girl he has a crush on; the girl is not sure how she feels about this, and it doesn’t help that she’s aware that her family is peaking out the windows; Dad is suspicious; Mom thinks this is so cute; little brother finds the whole thing extremely funny; and little sister dreams of the day her prince will come calling on her.

Ah, puppy love! Do we even say “Puppy Love” today?

See more of my work on my site.

The following are illustrations produced using Vue Infinite, a 3D environment creation program used today by Industrial Light and Magic and other film production companies instead of creating miniature sets. Each image includes Poser figures. Though Poser figures are not quite ready to replace people photography, there are times where these figures can be used such as comp images where the right stock photo you want can’t be found—and in some cases—even for finished art with significant cost savings over photography.

There are only 2 figures used in all the images below—one male and one female, but morphing the figures older, younger, fat, thin, or muscular and changing the high-resolution photographic skin textures, hair, and clothing produces the resulting variety of figures.

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The attached slideshow gives a detailed explanation on how the 4 illustrations were produced.

To see more of my work, please my site.