Why Branding Is Crucial If You Want To Be Profitable
Creative freelancers invest time and effort carefully crafting brands for their clients. In regard to their own brands, they often come up short. Creatives should pay as much attention to…
Portrait Sketch Tutorial: Bonita at 102
Older people provide a varied facial landscape to draw. In many ways, it's easier to describe the external contours when there are more landmarks. But structure is still important. Whether…
4 Onboarding Steps For Successful Client Relationships
So you have a brand-new shiny client that you're excited to be working with. You're looking forward to helping them achieve their goals. They've accepted your project proposal and you're…
How To Draw A Hand
In this Sketchbook Session I demonstrate my approach to drawing a hand. I start by sketching the general structure and overall shape, and pay attention to proportion, position and direction…
10 Proven Networking Strategies for Introverts (and Everyone Else)
Building a business requires connection with people: prospective clients, colleagues, mentors, customers, and sometimes even family members. When we connect, we share information, ideas and inspiration. We problem-solve. We listen…
How To Create A Complementary Color Scheme
Are you ever unsure how to create a color scheme? Do you tend to use color directly from the tube because you don’t know what to mix it with to…
Keys to Building a Better Portfolio
Art and design students focus on developing their portfolios during the final terms of their education. The portfolio is the most important tool when entering the professional world, and will…
Color Basics: 10 Absolute Truths About Color
Color is fundamental to life. We not only see color, we experience it. To apply color appropriately in art and design, you need foundational knowledge about how we see color,…
3 Types of Freelance Contracts and Which Ones to Avoid
Because pretty much everything runs on design and other forms of visual communication, the role of the visual communicator (designer, illustrator, photographer) is more in demand than ever, and also…
Number 5: Illustrated Portrait Step-by-Step
One of my latest illustrations is a portrait of Albert Pujols, who plays first base for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim MLB team. I referenced a photo I captured…
Creating Rituals To Do Significant Work
I'm currently reading Cal Newport's Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success In A Distracted World, in which the author makes the case for engaging in serious, uninterrupted times of extreme focus…
Add Energy To Your Drawings With Structural Syntax
Whether drawing from photographic reference or from life, we can easily adopt what I call a line-by-line approach to drawing. We look at our subject, observe, draw a line or two,…
Making the Most of a Creative Review
You can get more out of a creative review than just a go-ahead to move to the next phase of the project. In coming together with your client to assess…
The Art of Influence: 5 Ways to Affect Your Outcomes and Attract Clients
If you want to be successful, you need to be influential. Influence can be positive or negative, and everyone has influence. The key for success as creative freelancers is to…
Optical Color Mixing
There are two ways color is mixed to make new colors. One is commonly known as admixing. The other is optical mixing, also known as optical fusion or perceptual mixing.…
Do You Need A Marketing Plan?
Q: As a freelancer, do I need a marketing plan or can I just wing it? A: Indeed, you do need a marketing plan. Marketing is vital for your business…
Introduction to Light Logic
Light logic is a system of using value pattern to create the illusion of real space and form. It is simply the idea that light interacts with form in a logical…
Creating Compositions That Communicate
Whenever we create design and art we are composing. Composition is the make up, arrangement or structure of a work, whether it's music, writing, or visual art. Composition is often…
Create A Social Media Connection Strategy
When you’re in business, you use social media differently than you do personally. I was an early adopter on many social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Back then the…
A Freelancer’s Guide To Retainer Agreements
When you work project-to-project, you can experience inconsistencies in your schedule and revenue flow. One way to mitigate those gaps is with retainer agreements. These agreements are being used more…
Blue Steel: Anatomy Of A Portrait
In my article, Show Your Work, I talk about how showing your creative process increases your value to clients. If you are selling your creations to customers and collectors, sharing…
Using Visual Planes in Design and Art
Planes are probably one of the least known formal elements of design outside of the classroom, but understanding what they are and how they’re used is crucial for anyone engaged in…
Contracts Protect the Freelancer and the Client
As I write this article I'm in the middle of a contract negotiation involving copyright and licensing of one of my character designs. I worked with a local organization for a…
Taxing Topics: A 9-Point Q&A For Your Schedule C
The first 3 1/2 months of the year are known in the US as tax season. If you are an independent creative professional, that means you get to fill out your…