Characters for children's book

These are the characters I am working on for the Macmillan's Book project. I am using clay, oxide, scraffitto, camera & computer. I like the textures, lines & print-like quality that can be achieved as well as the liveliness.

More from Daryl Rees

'How to be an illustrator'  by Daryl Rees

Agents

Illustrators are often keen to get an agent straight after graduating because the idea of an agent creates the illusion of security & employment. However, an agent is not a source of immediate & constant commissions. If you have the wrong agent and the wrong agreement “what began as an exciting step in your career could end up feeling like a prison sentence!”

The agent can offer experience & professional advice, use the reputation of the whole agency to promote you, give you access to a particular pool of clients & negotiate the larger more complicated jobs on your behalf.

You have to find the right agent – who deals with your kind of work, but where you can still stand out. You may also lose the chance to start learning from your own experience & to establish your own client base. If your contract with the agent doesn’t allow you to seek your own clients too, then you could feel trapped. Need to agree an outline of understanding based on mutual trust & respect. Find out how they get commissions, what clients they have, how they deal with client contracts and disputes, what promo materials they use, how they became an agent & why...Be wary of anyone who tries to get you to sign a contract in haste without giving you time to read it thoroughly...

How to be an illustrator by Darrel Rees

How to be an illustator by Darrel Rees (founder of Heart Agency)
(2008 Laurence King Publishing, London)

I had this book for Christmas and it is full of useful information and advice. It also features interviews with art directors (Luke Hayman – Pentagram, Mark Porter - Guardian, Simon Esterson – Esterson Associates, Sarah Thomson – Art Buyer DDB, Wladimir Marnich – Marnich Design) and illustrators (including Aude van Ryn, Brett Ryder, Micheal Gillette, Sam Weber, Marc Boutavant, Yuko Shimizi, Rui Teneiro, Jeffrey Decoster). There are chapters on getting started, preparing your porfolio, job-hunting & interviews, producing the first job, financial tips, sharing studios, agents and promoting yourself.

New illustrators often begin by doing editorial work, because there is plenty of work here (plenty of illustrators too). You need to contact the design director, art director or senior designer. This information is often in the newspaper or magazine.

Promoting Yourself

This chapter has loads of tips and stresses how important it is to make the most of your ‘debut’ appearance when you first leave college. 

Need to sort out:-
Small well-printed cards (ideally full-size image one side & 2 smaller images on reverse) to send out monthly
Website for quick access
Enter competitions
Enter annual images book (eg AOI) if possible
Pursue self-initiated projects (leading to exhibitions or self-publishing to send to clients)

There are 3 stages to promotion:
1 To get you contact with client
2 To maintain contact with client
3 General profile-raising

 Vital to compile some sort of database of clients, along with what promo work you have sent them & on what date. This needs to be updated regularly too (3-6 months). Need to include following information:
Company/public name, name of contact, position
Address, phone no, fax, email
What promos sent & when
Last time met them
Last time they commissioned you
Last time they called a porfolio of yours
Fees/rates
If moved

It seems that making the images is only a fraction of what the illustrator does!

Penguin Book competition

Link to agency listings

I found this link from the A.O.I website. Many UK agents seem to have links which ones overseas so that the illustrator gains dual representation and perhaps gets slightly different work in another country.

Agencies

I have been looking at the following agencies:- Inkshed, Central Illustration & Eastwing. I note that both Inkshed & Eastwing do stock illustrations too. 

Inkshed represent almost 30 illustrators, including Ian Pollock, Lo Cole (illustration physical illness & mental health), Leonie Lord (illustration - I love to eat sardine sandwiches), Michelle Thompson & Rose Forshall.

CIA , founded by Brian Grimwood (musicians illustration), represents over 80 illustrators, including Jeff Fisher, MH Jeeves(Illustration -woman playing violin with a saw), Adrian Johnson, Tim Marrs (Go Green illustration), Paul Wearing (black woman, white lines) & Sarah Young (figures with butterfly).

Eastwing Illustration Agency represents about 25 illustrators, including Nelly Dimitranova (wonderful linework), Rhona Garvin (swimmers), Damian Gascoigne (bike), Matthew Richardson & Ian Whadcock.

Agents Who Needs Them

I have been looking at the AOI’s The Illustrator’s Guide To Law & Business Practice (2008, Simon Stern) and it’s full of useful info. and some great illustrations too (Lasse Skarbovik, Andy Smith (illustration above), Kenneth Andsersson, Nigel Owen, Paul Bommer, Sarah Coleman, Lyn Moran, Harriet Russell & Russell Cobb). Section 9 looks at agents, and here is some of what it says. Finding the right agent can be very difficult, and having found one, the agreement between the agent and illustrator needs to be clear from the start. It is important that the illustrator knows what licences are being granted, what invoices are being sent out and has last word on price, deadline etc.

What do agents do for illustrators?
* help promote work
* give illustrators access to ‘agent-only’ annuals
* give illustrators access to buyers and organisations who prefer to go through an agent.
* give illustrators access to certain types of promotion (eg special agency promo packs, joint promo with others)
* take portfolios to clients
* keep portfolio updated & fresh
* negotiate for you – especially important with high fee jobs with copyright issues (advertising and design jobs).
* do invoicing and paperwork
* proof and artwork chasing
* act as a buffer between illustrator and client

Agreements with agents
Even if there is no written agreement between the agent and illustrator, there is still a contract between them. Best if there is at least some sort of written checklist of what the agency will do and what it expects from the illustrator. This can be confirmed in an informal letter, and could include the following:-
• area and market (eg some agents happy to let illustrator deal with editorial work while they concentrate on the higher paid areas – advertising and design group)
• check out ratio of agency staff: illustrators (much more than 1;8 could mean not enough work coming in)
• how much work?
• commission (currently 25-30% for basic commissions, 20% editorials, 40% for work outside uk)
• promotional expenses (who does what and who pays for what
• terms and conditions (illustrator needs a copy of standard terms & conditions under which agency trades. Eg does agency normally consult the illustrator before accepting terms & conditions other than their own? Copyright & artwork ownership)
• invoicing proceedures (if invoice on illustrators behalf, the illustrator protected should the agency go bankrupt, but VAT issue)
• accounting (how & when illustrator paid, right to inspect accounts)
• agency liability (insurance against loss of artwork)
• parting company (when does payment of commission cease?)

I went to a Children’s Book Seminar last year where Joy Monkhouse, the design manager from Scholastic Educational Publishing, said that they always went to agencies to get illustrators, and wouldn’t respond to individual illustrators. Considering the pay for this illustration work is on the lower end of the scale, it is annoying that the illustrator has no option than to go through an agent. The other issue is that agencies are reluctant to take on students straight after graduation, so you have to figure out a way of getting work published before you can even approach the agencies.