The 'Choosing what to create' dilemma

You want to make something. You sit there in front of an empty canvas, a blank sheet of paper, or digital file. What do you put on it?

There's an infinite amount of potential colour or line combinations you could create. And even if you have something in mind, like a drawing of your pet, there's endless styles, perspectives, and ways of taking on the task. Making the perfect choice and taking the most correct path is impossible. There is no correct path.

It seems like you have three choices:

1. Wait patiently for your internal muse to inspire you.
2. Start doing something immediately and hope for the best.
3. Get overwhelmed at your limitless ideas and possible directions to go in, subsequently having a complete meltdown.

I tend to do a combination of all three! Although I wouldn't consider them much of a choice. Sometimes it just depends where you're starting from. For example, if you're in the habit of focusing and creating on a daily basis, starting on the next thing isn't going to be as taxing compared to when you've had a long break away from it. Getting back into the habit to begin with is often half the battle. Knowing the general direction you want to head in also helps.

But what happens when the muse has left you, the goal is unclear, and overwhelm is kicking in?

Right now, I'm at a point where I don't know what to do for the best. Both so far as knowing what type of art to create, and also what steps to take in order to survive financially.

I'm supposed to be a professional, yet I'm stuck

Over the years, I've created thousands of artworks, graphics, and illustrations. Identifying as an artist is a huge part of who I am. Therefore, shouldn't it be easy to know what to do next?

This year I've begun feeling like "I'm done." Or that "I just don't know what else to do."

When it comes to ability, there's always room for improvement. I'm nowhere near the level of skill or talent I'd wish for. No artist ever is. But I feel like I've somewhat plateaued. Reached my limit. Peaked. Or perhaps gone as far as I am willing?

When I was a kid, I used to love 80s and 90s video and game box art like the ones above. I'd often draw my own sci-fi and fantasy characters based on this kind of stuff. It was great! Even though I was a million miles away, skill-wise, it didn't matter. I used to wonder, "Maybe one day I'll be pro and good enough to create box art for games like this?"

I'm sure creating art for relatively unknown B-movies and obscure games back then wasn't a glamorous job or particularly lucrative. No doubt I would have been better off training to become a doctor or something. I didn't know. I didn't care. If I could just create artwork on the same level, I would have achieved my life's dream!

Fast forward to 2024, and I'm now at a point in my life where I look at these and think, "I could actually do that!" Although the first cover in particular (Mirai Ninja) is still pretty badass!

Granted, the bar for this genre of art has risen massively over recent decades. I often see a million other pros out there producing next-level, mind-blowing images. But the goal was never to be the greatest of all time. I just wanted to feel like my artwork was on par with the box art I used to admire all those years ago. Now I do. See examples below. Considering where I started, the personal obstacles I've had to overcome, and my lack of genuine talent, I'm seriously proud of what I've managed to achieve.

I've reached the goal. More or less. Although imposter syndrome kicks in often and I start to doubt myself. Am I actually any good? Was it all just luck? I still don't really know what I'm doing!

So why am I concerned, frustrated, confused, and lacking direction? It must be because I've finally reached a huge milestone in my life, and yet at the same time, surviving as an artist got harder!

Let me explain my current situation

There are a million different art styles I've fallen in love with over the years, but for the most part I ended up going down the comic and anime route. Particularly, recent years were spent concentrating on anime fan art to sell as prints at comic conventions and online. It took a few attempts to get right, but eventually people started buying my work. It was awesome. I'd gone from producing How-To-Draw Manga books, which required hundreds of drawings, thousands of lines of text and several months of my time, to making single art prints, which sold at a similar price point to a book. And despite young talent rising all the time, I could still compete as a now 'old-skool' artist in his 40s.

Then it went bad. Even though my skills and product range are better than ever, selling art has become much, much harder. Due to increased competition, the rise of AI, and soaring living costs, I've seen my sales decrease by 70% in recent years. Paying bills and making a modest living solely from art has become difficult, to say the least!

I could continue to push out a new fan art piece every so often, but there's no way adding more of the same would get sales back up by 70% or beyond. Even if I were to double my output.

How should an artist spend their time?

To reiterate the title of this post, what the hell are artists supposed to do? What is the best way to invest our time? What should we be creating? How much time should we devote to the different aspects of our business, i.e. making, sourcing materials, promotion, and so on?

We live in an age where the answers to these questions are never far away. Ask Google or Youtube "how to be a professional artist" or "how to run an art business," and you'll find plenty of advice. But will that advice help YOU? The trouble with advice is that it's either middle-of-the-road general statements that anyone with an average IQ could have worked out for themselves, or it's specific to the advice giver's very particular situation.

What I personally want to know is, where do I, Ben Krefta, go from here? Given the fact I've done a load of stuff and lived on this earth for over four decades, what should my next move be?

I tried some things

They said to create a website. So, I invested several months learning graphic design and how to code and made a site. I then worked as a web designer for a number of years before making myself a new one.

They said get on social media, so I got on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Pinterest, Tumblr, Deviant Art, Art Station, Cara, Youtube, and TikTok. Missed SnapChat, but that's fine with me! When a following didn't present itself, they said to post consistently and engage with your followers. So I did, for years. I posted thousands of times and responded to thousands of posts and comments.

They said sell your products online. So I created Etsy stores, Amazon stores, an eBay shop, and a WooCommerce store on my own website. I also added several thousand products to print-on-demand sites like Zazzle, Society6, Displate, and Spreadshirt. (Check out my DesignbyHumans article for more about this.)

They said get offline and exhibit at comic conventions. By the end of this year, I would have attended 42 of them.

Despite doing what was expected of me, there was never a time where I felt successful. Where I had the opportunity to spend my work time doing the jobs I wanted, or earning enough money to keep a roof over my head and pay the bills. The inevitable consequence of that is to feel cheated, like a failure, that something went wrong. Maybe I was too dumb to notice my shortcomings? Maybe the world is against me!

I may not feel successful as a person overall, but I appreciate the fact I've had successes with the endeavours listed above. Without my first website, I would have never landed my first, albeit low-paying book project. Without setting up the stores, I wouldn't have sold over 5000 art prints or print-on-demand products. Increasing my follower count to 50K across my various socials probably even helped validate my application to comic cons and events.

What next

I am still learning what the hell I'm supposed to do. Although at this point in my career, I'd hope to continue pursuing selling my art in some capacity, as opposed to taking on work for hire.

Right now, this means needing to sell hundreds of prints every month in order to pay the bills. Yet anime fan art, at least in the style or to the standard I've been producing, no longer sells. Continuing to do the things I've been doing up until now simply isn't working...

I ask myself, "Why create another fan art to sell, if virtually no one cares? Why invest work hours into maintaining a website or social media presence if it can't generate a living?" Sure, there's nothing wrong with making art or posting online as a hobby, but this isn't a hobby for me. My hobbies are rock climbing and video games. Art is one of the only skills I have, so I'm desperate to find a way to make the most of it and provide value to the world.

I'm trying to work out if the things I've attempted just need tweaking and improving, or if a new direction is necessary.

It seems clear that the content (the images I'm producing) or products (e.g. prints and t-shirts) I'm offering aren't quite hitting the mark. People still buy my artwork at events, or online, and I'm fairly certain there are future customers out there who'd love to get their hands on the things I'm producing. If only I could get their eyeballs on my art. Although, for the most part, the product range and certainly the content needs a fairly drastic change.

As for the promotional side of things, I'll need to try a new approach also. Social media posting, blogging, vlogging, or running ads like I have been isn't effective when it comes to selling. The competition is relentlessly grabbing attention with click bait, catchy hooks, psychological manipulation, or finding new ways to exploit a platform's algorithm. Meanwhile, half my posts are just me showing a thing I did! I'm coming to terms with the fact that a pretty illustration or artwork is just an AI image prompt away. And so, now you need to combine the presentation of artwork with entertainment, education, or human connection.

This might all sound obvious, but I grew up believing in the "Build it and they will come" philosophy. I thought if I could just draw 'Rotox' (see above), I'd be set for life! Perhaps if you or the thing you do is phenomenal, that philosophy still holds true. For the rest of us, it seems we need to work a little harder. And smarter. I've arrived a little late to the party, and there's a lot of catching up to do.

From here, I'll start figuring out how much time to devote to creating new projects and products and then learn how best to promote them. I'll update in future posts, so stay tuned.

As a freelancer:

I joined up to Freelancer.com a number of years ago- my first experience with crowd sourcing- which is basically a case of assigning work you need done to a crowd of potential bidders on the internet.

It sounded like a great idea- there's lots of work to go around from potential employers and providing you can put forward a good case for each project, there didn't seem much reason not to be provided a regular stream of work.

However, there's a few issues I wanted to highlight after having used the site several times.

1. Getting work is difficult!

When bidding on a project you start at the bottom of the rankings list. That's until you complete more jobs, earn more money and receive positive reviews through the site itself. You may have had decades of experience off-site, but that fact is irrelevant to how you're ranked on the freelancer.com bidding list. Competing against the regular freelancers on the site will therefore be challenging- they will have already completed work specifically through the site and boosted their rank, despite not necessarily being the most talented, hard working, professional or suitable candidate on the list. To compete you'll need to build your site rank and to do this to start getting better paid jobs and until then, you'll have to under-sell your services to stand out and have a chance of being selected to work on any given project which may already have a several, if not dozens of bidders already.

2. Reviews can be bullshit

I entered a graphic design competition on the site, won it out 20 or so other entries. Great! Especially considering I'm a much stronger illustrator than I am graphic designer. However, being given a 2 star review from it wasn't so great! Why did this happen? I was marked down in my review for things like 'lack of communication' despite the fact there was never an opportunity to communicate - the competition format simply allowed submission of entries and then a winner was chosen. As a person who takes his level of service and professionalism seriously, I'll always aim for nothing less than a 5 star rating and will go the extra mile with my clients to make sure their expectations are always met if not exceeded. It's pretty annoying that my account is now stuck with this unfair, unjustified poor review and it gives a completely wrong impression of my work ethic, lowering my chances of getting hired for future projects.

If my art or design ability wasn't up to an employers standards, I'd be more than happy for them to award a different winner, or in this case I'd rather just give them the work for free than receive a poor review... Yeah, it pissed me off.

Reviews count for a lot on Freelancer since they contribute to your ranking as a professional, but they don't always indicate a freelancer's actual knowledge, ability, experience or professionalism.

3. Can't compete with the rest of the world

I don't live in a developing country. I need to earn enough and charge an adequate fee to an employer to be able to pay the cost of living in the UK. Most freelancers are from countries such as India and Bangladesh where the cost of living is less and so are able to complete a project for 10-50% the cost of out-sourcing to a UK freelancer. If you want to earn a fair amount for your time and pay your bills with the money you earn through Freelancer, forget about it!

As an Employer:

I've also used the site as an employer to find assistants to help with parts of a project I couldn't quite finish myself. When it works, it's great- you get exactly what you want for a very reasonable price.  When it doesn't work out however it can become a very stressful experience.

1. The standard of freelancers vary

Communication is an issue- since most are from non-English speaking countries. Be prepared to deal with broken English and a degree of rudeness and unprofessionalism from many freelancers on the site.

2. Lots of Time Wasters

I've so far awarded seven projects to bidders, but only two ended up starting and completing the work. The others would either ignore messages or make endless excuses, stating they'll start it tomorrow and tomorrow never comes. This wastes days or weeks dealing with freelancers who have no intention of working.

3. Piss takers

Right now I am listing a 'micro project' to edit a few lines of code on a web page. I've listed my budget of £10-£20. It's 1-4 hours work max. Yet some freelancers will ask for hundreds of pounds. One guy is currently asking for £2600 for the job! Obviously they can charge whatever they like, but surely a lot of freelancers don't even read the briefs of the jobs they bid on.

Freelancer.com acts as the middle man between Freelancer and Employer and is always looking to leach as much money off everyone as they can. Making Paypal deposits incurs a fee. Awarding a project incurs a fee, accepting a project incurs a fee, resolving disputes incurs a fee, deleting a project incurs a fee and that's before dealing with the many up-sell or boosting services the site constantly pushes for. They'll even steal your earnings or deposits if you don't log into your account on a regular basis!

So I'm currently listing my last micro project on Freelancer and hopefully once it's finish, I'll never have to waste my time with the site again.

[amazon asin=1784040460&template=add to cart]

Ever wanted to publish a guide book?

Here's a a short overview how I created Digital Manga- A step-by-step guide, teaching more or less everything I know about Photoshop and turning an initial drawing into a full rendered work of art. Perhaps you'll find it useful, or interesting to learn what was involved?

The project

People have often been impressed with my digital colouring. And so I've wanted to create a book on how I colour my character art since my last year at Uni, back in 2007. Finally in 2013 I put together a proposal and asked the Publisher of my previous titles if they'd be interested in the project. It got the go ahead!

Originally, I wanted full control of the project, even down to creating the layouts. Although I was asked to alter my initial idea somewhat to make it work for the publishers. But I was so keen to see it out there that I was happy to compromise. We dropped a section or two and added in something else and I needed to collaborate with an in-house graphic designer who took the lead on layouts.

In 2014 the book was finished and Published. I was happy!

Time

It took a while to complete- the initial given deadline was around 4 months to submit both the text and images. I then needed a number of weeks some time later to revise the page layouts and re-check over the edited text.

Initial planning took a few weeks prior. I had already created a 30 page BLAD (book layout and design proposal) years ago, which helped speed the initial planning stages up, and of course aided in pitching the idea to the publisher.

Fortunately, I also already had several finished character artworks I'd go on to contribute to the book. Each of which would have otherwise taken a good 20 hours to complete.

I worked my own hours. Some days spending 15 hours solidly working. Other days, just 4 or 5 hours. With 160 pages to fill up with well written, fresh content, it was never going to be a breeze. If I were to guess, all in, I must have spent well over 500 hours on the project.

Effort

I wanted the book to be one of the best things I'd ever produced! I was willing to go above and beyond to bring it up to my standards, even if the publisher was otherwise content with a product that was passable. Unlike my previous book TAODM, Digital Manga needed about 55% more written content and 50% more image content. Unlike the previous book, I also didn't want to use a writing assistant or several image contributions from collaborators this time around. It was important that the work would be my own. Other than a a couple of pages at the back offering tips from fellow artists I happen to follow.

I also took it upon myself to record / screen capture several of the book's character tutorials. These were converted into time lapse videos and upload to a web page I'd created along with downloadable content.

Positives

The book had been available for years now. I appreciate it may not be everyone's cup of tea, or it may not be the best instructional book in the world, but I'm really proud of the end result. After having researched hundreds of online art tutorials, forums and videos over the last decade , I know the book is covering all the necessary bases and more. It draws upon everything I've learned about Photoshop art creation since I started using it back in 2000. Years later, the book's content is still relevant even with modern versions of Photoshop having been released.

Like with many books sold, I realise a lot of readers will simply just buy it for the pretty pictures and with the intention of one day making use of it. But I really hope people out there get the chance to read it fully or practice some of the content I've provided. I'd love to know readers have learned something interesting, useful, and for the book to help with their digital art endeavours.

Problems

The book isn't as perfect as I'd like it to be. Frustratingly, I found several small errors still left in the book after having gone to print! (Mostly not my fault). These could have been easily resolved, but unfortunately, I was not given the opportunity to check out a final proof. I imagine the publishing team were up against deadlines or problems of their own and not as invested in the project? I did all that I could to make sure many of these errors were rectified when to book was reprinted in my expanded Art Class: Manga Art title.

I remember having to spend a lot of time adjusting the graphic designer's layouts or advising upon how each page was presented. There were an unacceptable amount of inconsistencies and some cases, horrendous design choices- use of garish, clashing colours, tacky background images. I hate to think how the book would have ended up had I not insisted on overseeing the layout stages. It was frustrating that the publisher insisted on using their own graphic designer for layout when I knew I could have done a much better job.

I suspected sales wouldn't reach the same levels as my previous titles. While the book is, in my opinion, totally awesome and a huge step up from the last ones, I realize Photoshop isn't as accessible to manga fans as a pencil and paper. Or indeed cheaper and free art software which many beginners use. While the book is accessible, some of the content is more advances and not something for complete novices. The book teaches how I work, but this may not be to everyone's taste.

Dealing with Publishers

Communication was done completely over email. It was great to have a record of everything sent and received and suited my late working hours.

Although there is this detachment whereby I don't know exactly what is going on their end. Like me, are they also frantically trying to get everything done and staying up until the early hours to do so? Or are they not taking the project as seriously, slapping together a half-baked job and calling it a day? If often felt like the latter. It can be easy to fear the worst if there is a lack of face to face communication or if there's a problem and I can't talk to the designer, the sales team, the accountants directly. Instead everything is going through the editor as a middle-man.

What's Next?

Another tutorial book perhaps? I was asked to work on something else which has the same of visual impact as Digital Manga. At the time of writing, nothing has been confirmed yet. I've already given my all to this book. It's hard to know how I can top it. For now I'll continue to build up a new portfolio and give myself a back-catalogue of fresh, full coloured artwork to use in a new title.

Until then, I'm looking forward to producing some more artwork and moving onto the next stage of my career :)

A C+P from chrisoatley.com. Thought it was worth a repost on the blog...

What Do Bad Clients Look Like?

Many years ago, I was offered what sounded like a nice freelance gig.

An oil painting. A huge portrait of a couple that would be given to them as a gift.

The painting would have taken me about two weeks.

I quoted my hourly rate which was around $35/hr at the time.

2 weeks (80 hours)  x  $35/hr = $2800

If you ask me, for a huge double-portrait in fracking oil paint, 28-hundy is a legitimate steal.

But the man offering the job did not agree. In fact, he was shocked and offended. He had a much lower figure in mind…

He the offered me $25 for the portrait.

I asked him how much he got paid for his job and if it was higher than $12.50 a week.

…and that’s the end of that story.

Granted, the “$25 Portrait” example, although true, is ridiculous. No sane artist would accept that guy’s offer.

My point here is that bad clients usually look bad right from the beginning.

It’s desperation that blinds us.

It is our desperation that gives power to the bad clients.

I'd say this example represents 90+% of the job offers I've had while freelancing. Perhaps not to this extent, but similar. With the huge pool of internet artists for both companies and private individuals to choose from these days, generating the kinda money an artist deserves is no easy task.