Pricing

If you're anything like me, you think pricing is a bitch (pardon my language). Myself and every other new-to-the-real-world artist I know struggles with this concept beyond belief. What media used, size, how long I worked on a piece...all these are huge factors in how to price a work.

A coworker of mine recently sent me this link. I highly recommend perusing its' contents and seeing what it has to say. It even has a freelance calculator. I've known for a while now that I've been underpricing my works - mostly due to selling them to friends or professors. I know they can't afford much more, but now trying to submit new pieces to galleries I don't want to seem like that chump that doesn't know what their work is worth. This site has helped me figure out what I need to be selling work for and why. I especially liked the bit about charging hourly vs. fixed rate.

Or just email various more experienced friends/coworkers every time you price something...just to make sure you're doing it right.

Towers

And by back on the wagon I meant sporadically posting from work 2 months later.

Towers Hall

Sorry for the poor quality. My cell phone is not exactly high tech and this is the best it could do. Hoping to take some better photos tonight and post them soonish. Have to get the pictures sent tomorrow or Wednesday to enter a show in VA. Eek hope I get in and that it sells - gotta make up that $40 entry fee.

Back on the Wagon

Wow has is really been 5 months since I last published a post? I guess that just shows how fast this year has been flying by. Lots of changes in my life. Here are just a few:

January - Bought a new car. Well new to me. It's an orange 2007 Suzuki Reno hatchback and I absolutely love it. The mini van (yes, I was driving my mom's old van for the past 4 years) was finally becoming a deathtrap and I didn't want to pay to fix it.

February - Got a new job. A big kid job! In my field of study! That seems to becoming more and more of a rarity for my profession as a graphic designer. I'm incredible thankful for getting a full time in-house design job within 8 months of graduation.

March - Starting looking at new apartments (and found one!) Thanks to my new job I can afford (barely) to have a one bedroom apartment to myself. My roommates just moved to Toledo so I had the option of finding new roomies or finding a new place. And since no one can top my last roomies I had to opt for a new place.

April - Ran my first 5 mile race. The Dam Fool 5 Miler. It was a lot of fun and now I'm hoping to run a half marathon in September.

May - One of my best friends has returned from a 2 year mission in Brazil. I haven't actually been able to see him yet (he just got back Friday), but I'm looking forward to that reunion.


So yes, lots of changes. Now it's time to reboot! I promise more updates are soon to come, including the pictures of the finished wedding invitations.

Wedding Invites

It's funny how life works out sometimes. This year was supposed to be quiet and steady. A year to get all my ducks (or chickens?) in a row so to speak. Well let's just say that's not how it's worked out. Throughout all the changes lots of good has come as well. Just when I finished my last commission and wasn't sure where to go next one of my favorite professor's from college contacted me. He wants me to do his wedding invitations and other little pieces for his wedding in July. So not only am I gaining a great portfolio piece, I'm doing a piece that I've always wanted to make (maybe it's a girl thing, but I always thought designing wedding invites would be cool. I love getting that personal touch in a formal piece).

 Yes, there will be chickens in the piece. They'll be featured in a much more contemporary/less obvious way than what I have in the above sketch, but it's fun to draw chickens.

I'm super excited to be able to use Igloo Letterpress for the printing. Be sure to check their work here, they make beautiful pieces.

Wedding Shoes

I recently had the honor of being commissioned to paint a wedding present. The couple's wedding colors are gray and yellow (so cute!) and they're both wearing gray converse down the aisle. I was given pretty much free reign on what I wanted to do - as long as it was gray and yellow. I hope they love it!

Icons icons everywhere

So I finally finished my commission to illustrate 245 icons. Here's a few samples. I promise to get back into blogging.

The holidays plus working all the time kinda made me put blogging on the back burner.

 

tricks

 

smile

Thomas Jefferson

 

shuttle

 

quarter

 

nose

drink

 

heated

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving this past weekend, I know I'm not the only one not ready for the weekend to end. I even practiced being a domestic housewifey person and baked lots of goodies for the holiday - and they were all tasty. OM NOM NOM!!!

I did more than my share of om nomming this weekend that's for sure.

So today has me back to work - the good kind. Tomorrow I have to go back to the pay-the-bills job.

Icons

I have over 241 icons to make. It's going to be a long next couple of weeks.

Illustration Rally

I just spent an hour going through the list of "IR Artists" and "We Adore" section of Illustration Rally. They have some really great artists featured, including some that I already follow and love. 

It's going to be an illustration rally around here too. After not getting an internship I was hoping for I'm just going to have to continue on and keep creating work on my own (not that that would have stopped if I had gotten it, but it would have been nice to be getting that experience.) I was asked to do a list of about 240(!) icon/symbols that go along with the poem illustrations. These will be placed above words that kindergartners aren't expected to know yet, like "animal" and "cupcake".  I'm really looking forward to doing these! Talk about lots to do.

Unfortunately, this week has been all about work. And not the fun kind. I haven't had much time for any illustration aside from the poem illustrations that I've been working on. Here's a sample from the last set.

 

Chips and Salsa

 

Marching Ants

 

Sid and Lin

I'm hoping to get some more work done on my new website this week plus get most of a portrait commission finished. Time to get pumped up and get some work done! Now where is that caffeine!

Song Therapy

I swear I listened to this CD on repeat for the entire 6 hour drive from Chicago back to Columbus this morning. This first song sums up perfectly how I've been feeling lately. Nothing like some song therapy.




 "2 Atoms in a Molecule"
Noah and the Whale

Last night, I had a dream
We were inseparably entwined
Like a piece of rope made out of two pieces of vine
Held together, holding each other
With no one else in mind
Like two atoms in a molecule
Inseparably combined

But then I woke from the dream
To realize I was alone
A tragic event, I must admit
But let's not be overblown
I'm not trying to write a love song
Just a sad, pathetic moan
And maybe I just need change
Maybe I just need a new cologne

But now I look at love
Like being stabbed in the heart
You torture each other from day to day
And then one day you part
Most of the time it's misery
But there's some joy at the start
And for that, I'd say it's worth it
Just use a blade that's short and sharp on me

Oh if love is just a game
Then how come it's no fun?
If love is just a game
How come I've never won?
I guess maybe it's possible I might be playing it wrong
And that's why every time I roll the dice
I always come undone


And please check out "5 Years Time" by Noah and the Whale as well. It's how optimistic I want to feel.

Oh, well, in five years time we could be walking round the zoo
With the sun shining down in every me and you

And there’ll be love in the bodys of the elephants tool
I’ll put my hands of your eyes, but you pick throught

And there’ll be sun, sun, sun
All over our bodys.
And sun, sun, sun
I’ll die in next
There’ll be sun, sun, sun
All over our faces
And sun, sun, sun
So, what the hell

‘cause i’ll be laughing around your silly little jokes
And we’ll be laughing about how we use to smoke
All those stupid little cigarretes and drinks to put wine
‘cause it’s what we need to have good times

But it was fun, fun, fun
When we were drinking.
It was fun, fun, fun
When we were drunk
And it was fun, fun, fun
When we were laughing
It was fun, fun, fun
Oh, it was fun.

Oh, well, i look while you’re saying: “it’s the happiest that i’ve ever been”
And i’ll say: “i love to feel that i have to be james dean”
And you say: “yeah, and i feel a pretty happy too, and i’m always pretty happy when i’m just thinking about with you”

And will be love, love, love
Love throught our bodys.
Love, love, love
All throught our minds
And will be love, love, love
All over her face
And love, love, love
All over our minds.

And i’ll remember all these moments suggesting my head
I’ll be thinking about then and there’s lying in bed
And i know that you believe that might not keeping come through
But in my mind i’m having a pretty time with you

Five years time
I might not know it
Five years time
We might not speak
And five years time
We might not care about
Five years time
We might to prove it along

Oh, there’ll be love, love, love
Wherever you go
There’ll be love, love, love


I think I needed those 6 hours in the car with that CD.

Om Nom Nom

OM NOM NOM!

all of these are found on Etsy.

 

lovesickrobotdesigns

 

knotworkshop

 

 licoricewits

 

argentacollaborative

 

funparts

Enjoy!

Slacker

Sorry I've been such a slacker blogger lately. Procrastination happens here when everything else is going crazy. Here are the things I've been working on lately:

1. Completely redoing my personal identity. OmNomMonster is soon to be a side project more specifically geared to my monsters and I'll have a new site dedicated to my portfolio and current artwork that isn't monster related. To start that I've come up with a new logo. What do you think? The new site will just be my name (Lindsey Billingsley) so I needed a new and appropriate logo. All the other branding is soon to come as well. My mom, way back when, named me Lindsey because she liked to draw cursive L's and the line-work is similar to the penmanship seen in a lot of my pieces.



2. I had an interview last week at Winchester Gardens for an In-House Design internship. Full time and paid. I got a call back today saying they'd like to give me a second interview! Unfortunately when I tried to call back after work (several hours after they called me) their Humans Resources person had already left so I have to call again tomorrow to try to schedule another interview.

3. Tomorrow I also need to call Highlights and inquire about an internship position that I had applied to. Now THAT would be my dream internship.

4. Going to Chicago this weekend to visit a friend who is attending Adler School of Professional Psychology for grad school. Trying to get that planned out has been a little more stressful than originally planned. Thank goodness for gps systems and friends who know where I can park!

5. I've also been commissioned yet another set of poem illustrations. Here's a few from the last batch that I'd like to share.

 

Happy Bees

 

Pigs and Chickens

 

I Dig Big 

6. I've been doing a lot of work for the Columbus Society of Communicating Arts this week as well. Creative Best is coming up and there's still lots to do!

Lots more on the To-Do list for this week! Gotta finish the next set of poem illustrations, towers painting, rebranding stuff, portrait commission and CB stuff!

Towers Hall

So I've started my new Towers Hall painting that I mentioned in my last post. I prepped the board (that was graciously given to me by Steven Walker) Thought I would share the beginnings of this work. It's made with layers of newspaper with acrylic (treated more like watercolor), and pen. The pen is taken forever...I went into a little more detail than I had originally planned, but I think it'll be much better for it. I love using my new pens on it. Nostalgia is hitting me pretty hard. Towers Hall was a building on my Alma Mater's campus. I miss school.

le sigh.

Let me know what you think! I still have all the foliage to do and the remaining details/shadows of the building.

lists lists lists

So this week I've added quite a few of my things to my perpetual to-do list. I have the next two days off from my pay-the-bills job so while I was there today I wrote out everything I wanted to get done. And here we are!

1. run 4 miles (2 Monday, 2 Tuesday...3 on Wednesday)
2. complete Creative Best book - I'm inserting and working on the layout of the CB book. Columbus Society of Communicating Arts (which I volunteer for) has a huge contest every year called Creative Best. Everyone who attends the event to find out who the winners are gets a book with all the winning pieces and a bit about the judges and volunteers. This is going to take awhile to do since it's a 120 page book - mostly full of pictures!

3. prepare/start Towers Hall painting - I need to tape off parts and just get started!

4. paint elephant painting - a new commissioned piece!
5. eat sushi - CHECK! mmm

6. clean up sushi mess - almost check
7. complete a set of Christmas monster cards
8. complete 2 more spreads of dino book - this is going to be tough one
9. blog - CHECK!
10. clean bathroom - yeah, this is a little overdo at my place, gross!
11. get gas - gotta get some or I'm not going to make it to the park to run
12. play with Squarespace - I'm using this to recreate my website
13. clean out leftovers from fridge - CHECK
14. order postcards - I wanna be able to send these out in the next couple of weeks and hopefully get some professional commissioned pieces for magazines, etc. Anyone have a good suggestion for who to order from?
15. wake up and be moving by 9am! - I'm going to have to in order to get all this done in time!

Now back to work!

Work, Anniversaries, and other stuff

So this week has been yet another week with crazy working. I got a second set of poem illustrations to do and pay-the-bills-work I haven't had a lot of doing my own work. I've had a lot more ideas rummaging through my head - note cards, small monster canvas', postcards, calendar?, new website! So much! I've got one more poem illustration then I'm done with that set and I can send out the invoice and get paid! Hopefully someday soon I can afford to quit my pay-the-bills-work because I'll be able to pay the bills without it.

On that note, I did send in a couple resumes the other day. One for an internship (that I REALLY want, and one for a junior design position). I hope I hear from them soon - I sent them on Friday night so I'm not expecting anything till later this week. Either way, I'm going to make some postcards to send out my work to potential clients.

Tomorrow is a new day and it's going to be a busy one! My grandparents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. 50TH! Can you believe that? My grandma got married when she was only 16 and my grandpa was only 18. I can't imagine being with someone for that long. I'm so happy for them. Plus the party is going to be fantastic. We're going on the Queen Lorena Stern-wheeler in Zanesville (where I grew up) for dinner and fun.

After some thought I've decided that this year I'm going to buy all my Christmas presents for my female recipients from sellers on Etsy. Mostly just my female friends just because a majority of the sellers/buyers from Etsy are female and they market to other females. I'm going to try to buy for everyone from there - there are some really great geek gifts and most of my friends, male and female, are pretty geeky. Anyways,  I really want to be supportive of artists, like myself.

Crab in a Cab

Work should never make your neck/back hurt so much. After spending the last two days on the computer working on a new illustration gig my neck wants to kill me. Violently. And it seems to be succeeding. I have recently, as in today, realized that I have not spent this time on the computer since before graduation. Also, a word from the wise (or something like that), never use a chair you bought at a thrift store for an art project and then 3 years later decide to use it as your main work chair by simply throwing a pillow on top of it. It's not a good idea and your neck will try to murder you.

But to the important news, I got a new illustration gig. I'm being paid to illustration several poems that will be on a woman's website that helps kids learn to read. I'm not going to be able to quit my day job any time soon but it's a start!

Here's my favorite so far!

Unfortunately I haven't been able to get much of my personal work done thanks to this new endeavor but promise I'll have some updates soon.

figure drawing

Believe it or not I was never required to take a figure drawing class at school. Today I went to Wild Goose Creative to figure draw for 3 hours at the ungodly hour of 7 AM. But I managed to drag my butt outta bed, grab a diet coke and ride my bike the whole 3ish blocks down there. I'm beyond happy that I went. It was the most welcoming group of artists I've ever met. We had a few 10 and 20 minute sessions followed by one 25 min. session.

Here are some of my favorites out of today's session.

This was my first sketch of the day. Our model was kind of downcast but she was still good to draw and an excellent model overall.

 

 

 

 

 

independents to dinos to seattle

So updating this has not been my strong point this week. Sorry about that. Any who...the CSCA (Columbus Society of Communicating Arts) had a very successful Creative Best Judging weekend. Although I wasn't accepted (volunteering has it's perks, I got to know early, even if it was disappointing but now at least I don't have to wait another month of anticipation). Jessica Hische and Mikey Burton were super entertaining and Peter Chan was so knowledgeable about everything.

Independents Festival was amazing. I met lots of local artists that I wouldn't have come in contact with otherwise.

In creative news, the book has been progressing nicely. I'm fairly confident I'll be able to finish everything by Halloween.

I also made my first monster cutout. It's just my logo for now, but I'm planning on doing a series of note cards very soon.

This week I had that crafty urge...so my old ratty looking lamp the the preteen in me decided to paint sometime in middle school got a makeover. I bought some amazing vintage fabric at A Gal Named Cinda Lou's earlier in the summer and some ribbon from JoAnn Fabrics (which was easy to find and use thanks to my handy ribbon organizer!), add some white paint and Ta-Da!

  

Before (the top was almost completely broken off from the frame due to the wind blowing it off my beside table at least once a week)

Another before image, this one is my awesome preteen paint job.

I love the new simplistic modern look my lamp now has. It looks great in my room and was super cheap to make. To continue my craftiness this week I also finally made a shadow box frame (and by "made" I mean bought at Target) for some mementos I have from my trip to Seattle last spring.

Anyways, hope everyone is having a good week!