The basics of self promotion?

[Jason Rainville]

I'm posting this here because what I want to discuss is far too basic for the thread Richard Solomon created.

I'm very ignorant about self-promotion. I've never been paid a single dime for my work and have never been sent a message from a potential employer saying that I was shortlisted/considered. To start off this is what I've been doing:

- signed up at guru.com and apply to pretty much every applicable project
- apply for projects listed here and at da
- keep searching online for local projects (IE anything to do with illustration in Ontario) of which there are none. Ever.

I have no real contacts nor know how to get any. I'm stuck in a small town, the nearest large center is about an hour and a half away. Basically I'm at a loss. My prof was very encouraging about online promotion and was confident I could 'make it' so to speak, but it turns out I'm too socially retarded to get my foot in even the smallest door :)

So what am I missing? Should I be searching for companies that could possibly use my work and spam them with my website? Should I be getting out to local galleries more often? Any help is appreciated, even if it's a suggestion to look in another thread. Please beat me over the head with the stick of knowledge.

[Maidith]

Post your art at more places. For example, where's the link to your web portfolio in your sig? ;)
Where's your Deviantart gallery? Gfxartist? Epilogue? CGportfolio? CGchannel? Shadowness? There are dozens of online galeries for art, and employers DO browse them, knowing that there might be the artist for their project. Get your art out everywhere. Make it SEEN. I got a bunch of jobs this way.

[J Wilson]

I'm not an expert on this, as I still have a lot to learn about self promotion. It's probably true of every artist that isn't already swimming in work and offers.

Some basics however:

-Make sure your portfolio is consistant. Work in the medium you are strongest or have the most interest in. Make sure the quality is as good as possible and weed out weaker ones even if that means your portfolio is smaller than you'd like it to be. A good portfolio is job one.

-Get it seen. Whenever you post online, or wherever there is an appropriate place to show your work, get it out there.

-Network. In even a medium sized city there is likely to be some sort of artist organization. Go to figure drawing classes and talk to other artists. Go to art show openings. Travel to conventions or other events that interest you. Use your art to support other interests (for example if you are into music, offer to do posters for music venues you enjoy, and treat them as paying jobs). I've done free posters and logos for my local Roller Derby girls because they are cool and fun, and that has gotten my work out there. When the girls get asked who did the posters, they pass the job leads on to me.

[RyerOrdStar]

If you have the money, there are lists of e-mail addresses of art directors you can buy. Then you send them a promo.

Or, go to a bookstore, look in all the magazines you'd want to have your work in, look at the back and find the art director.

To get somewhere in this industry you gotta be less "socially retarded", as you call it :P YOu have to call your ass off, go to every event where you could meet someone in the industry, bring business cards, promos, and shove them in their hand. Have to push yourself to overcome your fear.

And yeah, get your art out there everywhere and anywhere. Enter contests.

[cmalidore]

Best thing I ever did was go to conventions and sell my work. Got to generate some print sales and keep the income up - and got to meet all sorts of individuals. We have a local comic convention every spring - not a huge one, but it grows every year and it's done wonders for not only my idea of what people want to see, but for my networking. I've generated a large amount of clients and list of illustrators that I can ask advice from these shows.

I know of many artists who go through big art collections like Spectrum and say, "hey, I draw that sort of subject, who's the client?" and then go get into contact. So a resource is pretty much anything that tells you about anybody you haven't contacted yet.

But yeah, to promote your work, you gotta get out there. Make people familiar with your work, force yourself to be social when it comes to business.... if it's your bread and butter, it gets pretty easy to go shake hands and genuinely sound grateful to meet people.

[DavePalumbo]

If you have the money, there are lists of e-mail addresses of art directors you can buy. Then you send them a promo.

if your style of work is for mainstream illustration, this might be a way to go. If you're looking at niche markets like sf/f illustration, gathering your own info is really the way to go. Your first stop should be the most recently published Spectrum, where they conveniently give the company and name of the AD next to nearly every piece. Buying a list of 1000 ADs isn't going to be helpful if 975 of them have no use for genre work.

[Elwell]

- signed up at guru.com and apply to pretty much every applicable project

Guru, elance, and similar "bid for freelance work" sites are WORSE THAN USELESS. Don't bother.

[Elwell]

Also, check this (http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Business-Illustration-Steven-Heller/dp/1581153864) out.

[Qitsune]

Well... it sounds like you are shooting really all over the place, in addition to all the good advices you already got, I'm going to sound like a broken record and tell you to think about the audience you want to reach. Like Dave already mentioned, genre illustrations cater to a specific audience of art directors, but there are many niches in art and all these niches need to be reached in a different way. I have friends who make a living at art in small cities by doing murals for individuals and businesses and cartoons in the local paper and small illos for adds for local businesses. If that is your focus, joining the local chamber of commerce would be a good idea, it opened some doors for them. But don't expect to get rich that way, it's more of a way to build a portfolio and gain experience.

[arttorney]

It does kind of look like you have a passion for a specific niche genre. These people ( http://www.artists-market.com/ ) make a book you might be able to find at your library that breaks down publishers by genre and then the editor or AD of each of the publishers have a specific blurb in there about what they are looking for in the way of submissions. There are also articles about the general process of self promotion. On this webpage itself, it looks like the blog is out of date and the links are to sell other books but at least you can see how to find the book identifying the markets.

[bhanu]

Dropping in at places/ offices/agencies helps a lot. That gets you an instant rapport.
Even if the company doesnt have a job for you now, they will remember a face and portfolio later when they need to get a job done , rather than an email portfolio.
SEO is a way to have better results online. Its how you set up your website and content that gets you in the top results for keywords like "illustrator in India" "illustrator of children books" and such, not the art ...google doesnt give much fuck about the art, only how you setup the site.
Try having as many backlinks as possible.

And you have to stop being a social retard, if thats how you put it. Noones a social retard according to me. Its just people make a certaing image of you or themselves and cling to it. Grow out of it NOW.

[MiniGoth]

Come to NY Comicon and start painting for WotC. You can do it.