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Like to draw?
Drawing for Money is about making a very good living from art-related work. How to earn significantly more that the US average family income, even while you are still single! You'll learn to leverage your talent - your drawing abilty - in different occupations where your visual communications skill adds great value.
Specific high-paying opportunities for artists in different key industry sectors, like advertising, defense, high-tech, and medical -- are thoroughly covered. The author, following a first career in ad agencies and a second as a corporate multimedia designer, provides extensive real-world experience and examples to help you make more money doing the work you love.
Paperback
-- get it from Amazon!
Or, you
can get it from Barnes & Noble stores, for $19.95. If not on the
shelves, it's in their catalog -- ask for it... ISBN: 978-0-9833191-5-3.
New --
Amazon Kindle ebook -- Drawing
for Money -- $9.95 -- loaded with Kindle-browser links to everything
you need! No DRM!
BEST
IN PDF FORMAT, so you can
easily use all the hyperlinks -- buy direct from author, it's part of my CVP
Communicator Value Package -- click here for more information
Free
eBook for paperback customers, click here
Read the sample text... then get the book!
Table of Contents
Two Sample Chapters
Contents
(back to top)
Initial sketch 11
Whirlwind 15
Slow down the rate of change? 17
Outsourced, offshored 19
College - no ROI? 23
Degree anxiety 24
The magic secret 25
Work hard, get nowhere 27
The 10,000-hour problem 29
The skills you really need 30
Software skills 31
Planning three years out 33
Opportunity - food for China 33
Opportunity - medical devices and medicine for the aged 34
Opportunity - animation 35
The $156,000,000 airplane 36
Trailing edge - the sweet spot 39
Fast money 41
We're Number Two! 43
We're Number 2 - Technical Publications 45
We're Number 2 - Marketing Communications 50
We're Number 2 - E-learning 53
5 in gold 57
Fine art world 61
Nothing to show? 63
A blurred line 64
Yes... you can be a portrait artist 65
They eat horses, don't they? 68
When first we practice to deceive... 73
Film and fashion 77
Was a miner, 49er 77
Fashionista 80
Photography 85
Freelance 89
Rollercoaster ride 90
Money 90
Sparrows in the field 93
An Arabian computer 97
Fax from your PC 99
Changes 100
The 4-square solution 103
1. Who's solid? Stable?
A safe, long-term job? 107
Parasites (oops, consultants) 110
2. Who's got the most money? 113
High finance 113
3. Work at the top 117
Beat the org chart 117
Up the ladder 119
Handling your manager 120
4. Deadlines mean dollars 123
Tight deadline jobs 124
On the other hand 125
Jobs - a shopping list 127
Art-related job list 129
Ad agencies 133
More job titles 141
Where the jobs are 142
Design Shops 147
Look to the future 149
Defense and High-tech 151
Defense 151
Military-industrial complex 153
High-tech 160
Pharmaceuticals and Biomed 169
The sweet spot 176
Debt - an exception to the rule 176
Break down the door 179
Internet searching 180
Professional associations 181
Afterword 183
About the author 184
Index 185
First
two chapters (back to
top)
Initial sketch
My contribution to the world is my ability to draw. I will draw as much as I can for as many people as I can for as long as I can. (Keith Haring)
At first, I wanted to write a book that would teach drawing skills - the skills that every artist needs to succeed in any art-related profession. Drawing is the lifeblood of visual communication. But, after a trip to my local bookstore, I realized that this would be preaching to the choir. There are a thousand books that will teach you how to draw.
This isn't one of them. It's about making money from art-related work. The people I really want to reach already know how to draw. They are people like me... drawing since we were kids, pretty good at it, and more than able to go to a library and pick up a specialized-techniques book anytime we need to learn a little more.
The problem, for the most part, is money. How to make a good living at something that takes advantage of our artistic skills. Not just a living, but a good living. Benefits, regular money, and enough of it to have a home, a car, kids, and a spouse who won't leave because of nail-biting financial uncertainty.
And so - Drawing for Money. If you like to draw, this book will show you how to make a decent living using your artistic abilities. You'll need to know how to use a computer, and it helps if you have even minimal knowledge of computer art programs.
By themselves, drawing and sketching won't get you too far. You've probably found out already that low-level graphics jobs barely pay a living wage. Why? Because at least 10% of the population likes to draw. Another 10% think they are artists, since they bought Photoshop, or used PowerPoint at work to make a presentation. That's a lot of people willing to work for peanuts. Because, just like you, they want to work at an enjoyable, fulfilling art job. And when you have an oversupply of available talent, salaries go down... and down... and down.
But you don't have to be a starving artist. Living with your parents until you're 35. Or living like a character in Les Miserables, in a ratty rundown apartment, coughing all winter because the landlord won't turn up the heat. You can do much, much better than that, thanks to your artistic talent. In fact, following the advice in this book, you will earn significantly more that the US average family income, even while you are still single! You'll learn to leverage your talent - your drawing abilty - putting it to use in different occupations where your visual communications skill adds great value.
More importantly, you'll also learn to plan your own future. Back when, this wasn't too important. An artist could go from one job to another, because the jobs were always there. That is no longer true. Why not? Turn the page.
---
Whirlwind
Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind
and directs this storm?
(George W. Bush, Inaugural Address, January 2001)
On Wall St., they call it churning. The purposeful ever-accelerating buying and selling of stocks, to increase broker commissions. Doesn't matter whether the churn benefits their clients. Who cares. Just buy and sell - faster and faster! And, thanks to the marriage of technology and greed, that's our workplace today. A churning whirlwind of constant change. And, with apologies to ex-President Bush, I don't think there's any angel up there running the show, not this time around.
Can you imagine a working career where your tools never changed?
Not long ago, as time goes, there were people called 'linotype operaters' and 'letterpress printers'. So many long-term, non-changing jobs, not long ago. 'Paste-up artist'. 'Stat camera operator.' Tools like 'drafting board' and 'Rapidograph' and 'french curve'. Back when, from roughly 1880 until 1980, anyone who learned how to do most any job could count on having that same job for life. Not in the same company, of course, but in a succession of workplaces with the same tools.
Because the tools people used were physical, made of metal, wood, glass, plastic, the rate of tool change was very, very slow. That's history. Today, software changes as rapidly as Adobe can get large corporations to buy into a new Photoshop release. Whether you need the new features or not misses the point. To stay employed, you have to keep learning new software, even though you use the new version to do exactly the same work as you did with the old.
As a manager, I ran into the churn buzzsaw from both ends. Decided to buy an art program, Xara, for my workgroup. One-tenth the cost of Photoshop and Illustrator, much easier and faster to use. But on the one hand, the corporate purchasing department didn't have Xara on the 'approved' list. On the other hand, my workers freaked out. 'No!' they said. 'We lose our employability if you move us off Adobe products. What if we get laid off?' Well, I lost that one. We ended up with Adobe CS-whatever, and everyone had to take a time-out to learn the new features, which we didn't need in the first place. Churn.
To be fair, this software-marketplace whirlwind does have benefits. It can be fun learning new art techniques. And, if you are looking for work, once you've downloaded that trial copy of Photoshop CS13, and practiced with it for a week or so, you are - suddenly - much more employable than you were before.
Slow down the rate of change?
Won't happen. Don't bet on it. You could become a Neo-Luddite, drive over to Half Moon Bay with an axe, and chop the Global Crossing cable as it goes into the sea to India, and - zap! - crash the 24-7 New World Order in a microsecond. But not for long, what with all the other cables, and satellite data transmission.
-
Paperback
-- get it from Amazon!
Or, you
can get it from Barnes & Noble stores, for $19.95. If not on the
shelves, it's in their catalog -- ask for it... ISBN: 978-0-9833191-5-3.
New --
Amazon Kindle ebook -- Drawing
for Money -- $9.95 -- loaded with Kindle-browser links to everything
you need! No DRM!
Free
eBook for paperback customers, click here
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