Please Help Me

[Jacob Kobryn]

Hi.
I'm trying to get some jobs doing album artwork and other music related things like posters and such.
If you're not comfortable in answering this question or what ever then don't but I would REALLY appreciate some help here. I have a lot of trouble getting work. I mean a lot of trouble. On average, I'd say I'd get about 3 job offers per every 4 months or so. And I post ads on sites about every month or so and the link to my blog is in my signature on every forum I'm on. The truth of the matter is that more than half of the offers I get end up falling through or I never get paid, etc. I've tried doing free art for bands and such. That seems to do me no good at all. I live in an area with a TON of bands and labels and such. The bay area has a long history of music especially metal. Yet I get no work.
Can you guys PLEASE lend me some advice on marketing my art? It's just not funny anymore...
Don't think of this as supporting your "competition" as we all live far enough away that I don't really think I can be called that.... and if you knew me better you definitely wouldn't consider me competition.
Thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU!
Jake
http://jakekobrin.blogspot.com/

[Musselfarmstudios]

You may want to try to meet with bands the "old school" way . . . in person.

Way it sounds you live where your potential clients are. If that is the case then you should put your boots to the ground and try to meet them in person and not over the internet, go to the clubs and make sure you have business cards with you and some cds or dvds with your portfolio to give out. They'll respect you more if they meet you. It will be a lot harder to turn down an artist in person, one of the problems about posting on the net for work is that you can't express how passionate you are about your work with just words and images, in person your able to connect and that will make a huge difference in getting work.

You gotta make that physical connection.

Good Luck

[paramnesia]

Do you have an online and real life portfolio?

Although your blogspot contains some of your work, it's not easy, in my opinion, to find what I'm interested in other than going post by post. It'd be nice to be able to see all your black and white, your color, your photo manipulation, etc. sorted. While it's true a good artist may not be a good webdesigner, when I see a nicely -- it need not be fancypants -- designed webpage I get a positive first impression about how they present themselves, even if it's just online.

Having something printed to show the bands face to face is also useful. Let them see how it looks on paper.

[v4606]

I would try to sign up with an agency.
I would not try to get work directly with a band because they are probably too busy on focusing on becoming sucessful themselves.

I did a quick search for illustration agencies in San Francisco and I found these three
http://mauxi.com/flash/mauxifl.html
http://acesdesign.com/index.html
http://www.changethethought.com/category/illustration/
A good agent would do the foot work for you, in finding you a job and most importantly making sure you get paid.
and i would also try contacting the record labels themselves. try to find the marketing department and find a way for them to see your work.

[J Wilson]

I've tried doing free art for bands and such.

Free work usually doesn't get you any where. That's why when ever someone says "great opportunity" I ask "how?" What exactly do you think this free work will get you? I've done free work for friends with good or interesting events. Some of them are relatively high profile in my area (CT Roller Girls - a roller derby team that is getting a fair amount of attention because roller derby is catching on in the area). I get GREAT responses about the work. I hear tons of praise, and I run into people that have seen my work all over the place. Better yet, it supports a friend and a just plain fun event. But have I gotten paying work out of it? Nope, not even once. And that's fine, because I didn't expect otherwise, however if I had done this purely hoping for exposure I'd have to ask myself hard questions like "how is this supposed to help? Who do I expect will see this, and can I expect them to get excited enough to give me a call?"

Building up a rep in a community might be a start, but I think you'd get better luck by being active in the scene, meeting people, making connections, and trying to talk to the people who actually BUY the work. Maybe do a few free logos or covers so you can say "Do you know Acid Reign? I did their cover and logo." But you need to be selective about the free work you do, and you need to make sure you know how you will capitalize on it.

Also, bands themselves are often broke. And if they aren't broke it's because they have a decent label and someone likely taking care of things for them.