A couple months ago, on Illustrophile (a group on Linked In), an artist asked the questions, “Anyone advertising in the Directory of Illustration? What are your thoughts? Was it worth it?” What followed was a thread of nearly 40 comments with the majority of them negative about the value of being in the Directory. I’d like to address the questions by first asking a another question:

What is your marketing strategy and goals for your illustration business? If your goals are short-term, such as “get some more work,” Directory of Illustration may or may not be a selling tool you want to use. If on the other hand your goals are long-term, such as “establish yourself as a national or international source for your particular style of illustration,” then Directory of Illustration may be something to consider using.

Here’s my business strategy:

I specialize in 3D and 2D photorealistic illustration, medical illustration, and difficult retouching. Most of my clients are advertising agencies (mostly pharmaceutical agencies) in the NYC/NJ metropolitan area because of my reputation as an AD and ACD at Saatchi in the past.

My income has been heavily dependent on the pharmaceutical industry, which is fine when things are going well in the economy, but I wanted to diversify my client base so I wasn’t relying on just one industry. It was at that time I set a goal of become a recognized illustrator nationally and internationally.

I had previously advertised in the Directory of Illustration 19. I must say, at the time, I didn’t think so much about going national as hoping it would get me more work. I even ran a spread ad. And when I only got one small job from that large expenditure, I felt it had been a waste of money. I stopped advertising in the Directory, the economy got better from 2003 through 2007 so because I was busy again, I didn’t do much to get work except to call a client now and again.

Seeing the writing on the wall in early 2008 that the economy might again turn south, I decided I had to do something to shore up my business for the downturn. It was at that time that I developed my current national/international strategy. I knew this was not going to happen overnight. I would utilize a variety of media and make an all out effort to reach my goal. Media would include: rebuilding my website (this time in WordPress so I could easily modify it and have a blog), online portfolios, fully utilize my Linked In profile, a national email campaign (for more details go to my email campaign page under ABOUT on my website), have a personal and business Facebook page, and begin advertising in the Directory of Illustration again (single page ads). I decided to get a rep to see if they could bring in work from their client base. American Artists Representatives rep me in the U.S. and Advocate Art, in London, rep me in Europe. AA Reps have shared the cost of ads in both the Directory of Illustration and Medical Illustration Sourcebook. (I’m going to leave the subject of reps for a future blog.)(To get more details about my use of each media, please read my blog “Broadening Your Client Base.”)

I’ve now been in the Directory of Illustration 25, 26, 28, and will be in 29 when it comes out next January. I think consistency is an important part of being in the Directory and to be seen each year by potential clients. (Skipped 27 because of cash flow issues at the time that edition was being offered.) I’ve also had ads in Medical Illustration Sourcebook 22 and 23.

When you buy a Directory ad you get more than a page in the annual: You get reprints for sending out; at least 20 samples on their website (more with an early buy); a Featured Project page; an automatic blog feed posting your blog both with your sample images and on their main blog page; contact info and bio page; and online images of your ad pages. I get significant traffic to my site both from my sample page and my blog on the Directory of Illustration’s site. But keep in mind some of those visits are from fellow artists and some are potential clients.

Before I tell about the results of implementing my strategy, there is another part of it which is probably the most important part of the plan: In order to be a recognized illustrator nationally and internationally, you have to become one through the quality of your work.

Because I do photorealistic 3D illustration, I’m competing with a lot of very talented people and companies with multiple employees doing what I do. I’m always developing new samples beyond actual jobs. When I work on a job, I not only try to meet the needs of my clients, I try to exceed their expectations. I also know whatever job I’m working on could be a potential sample, so I make sure it represents the highest quality of my work.

My personal goal each year is to bring my work up to the next level of quality. If you go to my DOWNLOADS page on my website, you’ll see a variety of ads, and promotional pieces I’ve produced over time. If you compare some of my earlier work with my current samples, I think you’ll see how my work is progressing.

So my recommendation is to always be critiquing your work. Show only the samples that represent the level of work you are currently producing. Get rid of older samples that no longer are your best work—even if you fell in love with them when you produced them. Stretch yourself to go beyond where you are at the moment.

With all of this, you probably think I’ve got tons of work. The truth is, ever since the downturn in the economy, none of us are getting tons of work. But I think how much less work there would be if I made none of these efforts!

The end of 2011 I started working with a large medical agency in NYC as a result of my email campaign. I’ve done 5 jobs for them to date.

Recently, I had a photographer contact me who was producing a book on “healthy heart living.” He was both photographer and art director for the project and wanted me to give an estimate for doing 15 medical illustrations for the book. Where did he find me? First he saw me on the Behance website (I have a free membership).The second place he saw me was the Medical Illustration Sourcebook. I was one of 3 finalists and the photographer’s client decided to go with someone they had worked with previously.

I was asked a month ago if I would be interested in selling any of my medical illustrations as stock. PhotoEdit has been around for 25 years and specializes in rights-managed, ethnically-diverse stock photography, but they’ve had a number of publishing clients request they go into medical illustration stock as well. This has some very good, long-range potential for me and I intend to create stock images part-time during my downtime. Their art director found me on the Directory of Illustration website.

My goal is to continue promoting my work during this poor economy through these various media, so that when things improve, more people will know my work and hopefully will turn to me for projects. In the meantime, I’ll be happy to occasionally get new clients and new projects and continue to keep my regular clients happy—and continue to raise the bar on the quality of my illustration.

This train of thought also shows up on the agency’s client side. For years, the decision about which campaign concept is the right one to choose is primarily decided by focus groups. This gives the decision maker backup for their choice and a way out should the chosen campaign fail to meet expectations. (“But it had very high scores in every focus group!”)

I remember the job interviews I had when I was still in college and looking for summer work in art studios in Detroit. Practically the first question was always, “Do you have any experience?” In frustration sometimes I’d answer, “No, but if you hire me, I’ll get some!”

The first job I got was at Art Group and Art Staff in Detroit. The year was 1964 and I’d just finished my 3rd year in college. I showed them a portfolio of some of my work from various classes. I met with the 3 studio owners individually and they asked me to come back in about an hour after they’d had a chance to have a discussion together. I came back an hour later. I sat in the office and answered questions from the three of them for several minutes. No decision was being vocalized and there was a momentary lull in the conversation. I brazenly interjected into the silence, “Well, when do I start?” They all chuckled and John Jones, the studio president, said, “Nothing like getting right to the point! Can you start tomorrow?” All of this was for a job as an apprentice working for what was then minimum wage—$1.25 an hour!

That summer was terrific and opened my eyes to many things including photo retouching. Got my first airbrush that summer! The best thing, though, was that after that—I was in. “Tell me, do you have any experience?” “Yes, I worked at Art Group and Art Staff last summer.” “Oh great, is Allen Kass still there?” I was finally a member of the club. I had experience!

Speaking of Allen Kass, one of the things I’ve always remembered him saying was this: “‘Do me a sample!’ It’s always, ‘Do me a sample!’ I’ve worked in this business for decades now and produced hundreds of illustrations, but they always want to see a sample! Your experience, your work, is only as good as the job you’re currently working on!” It wasn’t too long after our conversation that Allen decided to retire.

I’ve never been discouraged when someone decides to use a certified medical illustrator instead of me, because I understand the mindset. However, I do try to explain that all of my medical illustrations have been approved the first time they were reviewed by the client’s medical/legal team. The thing is I have experience. I have worked on staff and freelance for dozens of medical agencies in the NYC/NJ area on many, many brands. I also know how to do research. No matter what the project, I find multiple reference images, read enough to throughly understand the subject, and ask lots of questions of the art director so that I know what he/she is thinking about this project and what they are looking to accomplish. Even if you’re a “Certified Medical Illustrator” you have to do the same thing, or you don’t get it right.

I also have an additional ace up my sleeve: my oldest son, Franz, has a PhD in Molecular Biophysics and does research for a pharmaceutical company in California. He has the great gift of being able to explain even the most complicated scientific subjects. I’ve also enjoyed the times when he’s hired me to do illustration for some of his research papers before he submits them for publication. He’s as demanding as I am!

When you have a project that needs illustration, there is always going to be concern—even if you’ve previously worked with the illustrator. There are budget issues, timing issues, and individuals’ careers and client satisfaction at stake. And there are a lot of talented people available. My only suggestion is that if you are looking for “the right illustrator” for a job, that you consider all factors: credentials, experience, and the style and consistent quality of the artist’s samples. If you’ve narrowed it down to 2 or 3 artists, talk to them. See if they understand what you are trying to accomplish and if they are asking good questions. Then pick one. At that point, hopefully, you are comfortable with your decision and the results will be art that meets and exceeds your expectations, the agency’s, and the client’s.

“When the going gets tough…” as the saying goes. That’s what made me decide to start a year-long national email campaign last May. There have been some expected and unexpected positive results.

Working with Agency Access and their lists of art directors, associate creative directors, creative directors, and art buyers, they have assisted in selection criteria and counseling to send out around 4 to 5 thousand emails in the U.S. and Canada to 3 markets: Consumer Ad Agencies, Medical Ad Agencies, and Publishers.

I’ve been pleased with the number of opens and clicks (those who use the email to link to my website). The numbers seem to be progressively getting better as more emails go out over time. Also, when people go to my website, they tend to spend several minutes and look at multiple pages. Of most importance is that I’m getting new clients and jobs.

But here are some unexpected positives:

• Though I use some recent jobs as samples, this campaign has motivated me to produce new samples meant to attract clients from consumer agencies and publishers. It means I get to explore projects that go beyond what I’m normally asked to produce.

• It has caused me to aim higher—to bring my work to the next level. Because I’m not working to a client’s deadline, I can take time to explore and try new things.

• Because my new samples are not being created to a client’s layout, they obviously reflect only my thinking which means potential clients get to see what I offer conceptually.

• Perhaps the best result of all this is renewed enthusiasm and enjoyment as the new samples keep my thinking fresh.

All-in-all, I’m very happy with the results of this email campaign and look forward to continuing it for a second year.

If you’d like to see and download some or all of these emails, I’ve created a new page on my website under the ABOUT pulldown menu called EMAIL CAMPAIGN.

If you’d like to be on the list to receive emails from me every other month, let me know.

Might be too soon to know for sure if things are getting better, but during that same period of time, the Dow has been flirting with 13,000, we’ve had 2 months of better than expected job growth, consumer confidence is up, and the unemployment figure has gone down a tick. Now if the price of gas doesn’t go crazy, calm heads prevail regarding what to do about Iran and Syria, the EU can get Greece, Italy, and Ireland on better financial footing…. We certainly do have proof that our personal finances are effected everyday by the “global market.”

And, of course, it’s an election year and depending on which side of center you’re on, everything is either worse than it’s ever been or beginning to get better. At least we know the cable and broadcast networks are benefiting from record spending on political ads from now until the election in November.

Speaking of political advertising, and I’m not just referring to spots for candidates, but also the huge amount of spending by lobbyists and special interest groups, whatever happened to “truth in advertising”? It seems that today truth is in the eye of the beholder. Many people with controversial points of view seem to believe that if you say it enough times, everyone will believe it’s true.

So I think I’ve answered my own question: There are signs of improvement in our business, but because there are so many things that could make things worse, we have to continue to move forward cautiously with one eye on the future, and one eye watching our backs.

I’d like to know the direction you think things are going. Please feel free to post a comment at the bottom of this blog. If you are reading this on my main blog page, click on “Are Things Looking Up in Advertising?” in the right column and you can post your thoughts.

“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.