How to choose your side projects

How to choose your side projects.

Lately I’ve experienced a boom in freelancing from looking for projects to just not having descent sleeping time because I have so much work is a blessing… but really is it? The fact that I have to compromise time with my loved one, a little bit of a social life is it worth it? Honestly no it’s not and I had to learn the hard way.

Time away from your computer or drawing table is essential. I love creating, I love drawing when ever I come up with a fresh new concept it’s a creative orgasm for me and I would not want to lose that joy, that passion. I have a 9 2 5 however that doesn’t quench my creative thirst that’s why I’m also looking for something that will allow much more artistic freedom.

Let me give you an example, I love to draw the Ti-Moun and I was unable to do it because I was too busy with paying contract because I do the comic strip for pure fun and love and that’s the point that I want to illustrate I think when we have the opportunity to jump in projects we, well I will ask myself what am I gaining with this contract? In one year I can say that I get 2 maybe 3 opportunities to make outstanding pieces, a lot of factors have to be lined up in order to have that groundbreaking design piece and unfortunately money i$ not one of them.

So in the future I will take more time to choose my contracts and do not forget never, NEVER compromise quality for quantity. I hope this post was helpful to you, comments and suggestions are welcome.

• The artwork that I used for this post is a graphic element for a magazine that I’m freelancing for and I taught it would be perfect for this little article.
Ron

Blind Date

More freelancing is coming my way and I can't complain. this is an illustration for Souche magazine (the september 2009 edition). This is artwok for an article called the blind date, basically a girl who wants to cheat on her boyfriend sets up a blind date on the internet and the guy ends up being her current boyfriend.

I actually had to come up with a way for the girl to look surprized and it worked and I also came to the realisation that drawing hands is something that i need to practice more because I had to start over a few times in order to get the effect that I wanted.

The client loved it and to me that's more important then getting a paycheck. I enjoyed working with Souche and I'm pretty sure that we will develop a good business relationship.

Le Mack Illustration

Wow, was it that long ago, was my last post really in February yet it seemed like last week. Anyhow with a full time job, freelancing, looking for a better job and trying to have a social life well my blog suffers. I've been really busy lately (that's what they all say) really I have.

Now this little piece of vector artwork is still in progress. A certain client (cannot say the name yet but a lot of my freelance will come from these guys). Like I was saying I had to slap something together real quick to show my skills if I wanted the contract everything is made from scratch by me, exept for the chandelier and the two girls in the background. When I presented the illustration the secret client loved it and he said that's exactly what he was looking for. The final very soon... hopefully.

Ti Moun 5

What can I say I've got Obamania and I took the opportunity to express my true feelings. It's a great thing that the US have a black president, come to think about it 60 years ago lynching was still a practice in certain parts of the US. It's like the man on the moon one great leap for mankind. Now let's figure out a way that Israel and Palestine get along.

Ron

Kiano Logo design

Kiano logo design.

What started as an e-mail ended up being one of my favorite contracts of 2008. When Kiano a carabein restaurant asked me to design their logo, they came prepared. They had their ideas written down, pictures they had already choose their font so it's a very rare time that the client did their work unfortunately not everybody is that prepared.

So here we are first meeting because they sent me a little document by e-mail with what they wanted. I submitted about 20 different variations they did not go with my pick (which was a little more graphically interesting). They changed their minds a few times but that's to be expected from time to time. We had a great relationship and I did a lot of work for them after.

In conclusion I like the piece, the work is more of a typography study and how the fonts interact with each other. I went for a contrast, if you see the KIANO are made of two script (one for the K another fonte for the IANO) and I choose a serif font for the bottom (carribbean restaurant)just not to loose the sense on continuity but to have something that is more lo-key for we want the attention to be on the KIANO not the lower text. The lower text (carribbean restaurant) is also used as a line to sit the KIANO so even if I'm using 3 different fonts it doen't matter because they interact well with each other.

Hope this was somewhat helpful, suggestions and comments are welcome.

Ti Moun 4

Another Ti Moun cartoon, if you live in Montreal Quebec you just know that Grégory Charles is just the most annoying artist around. White people love him and think we like him (we the black community) I''ve been told that I even look like him and the idea came from that. On the artistic direction level, the comic is way too polished for my taste so in the future I'm going to give it a more humanistic touch because cartoons are mostly about people and I don't think it should be that clean. The first idea is always the best one and I will take a different approach that will look more like the 1st one I know my editor is going to flip and it's all goood !

fashion illustration / CD cover

Another illustration for the newspaper I freelance for and I also used it as the artwork for one of my mixes as you may or may not know I have a music blog as well called thegoodvibez. In all honesty sometimes I get tired of doing somewhat the same type of illustrations so I always challenge myself to add some new elements and also to polish of my work. On this piece I worked hard on the hair because I wanted a more natural look for the highlights and I like the final result, I also kept away of the thick black contour to have a realistic look. You know my technique by now if you read any of my previous posts, I always start by drawing by hand then I scan, trace in illustrator and polish off in photoshop.