Blue Moon Blog

Having lunch with a fellow artist a couple years back, he described to me his working schedule. He had the same job all year, storyboarding a cartoon, doing about four-hundred drawings per cartoon each quarter, four cartoons a year. Given that, he could schedule his working time, balance it with home and family life, and basically work nine to five, easy as pie, just the way he liked it.

I then gave him the rundown of how things are in my studio, at our house. I work for a variety of clients during each year, sometimes juggling five-ten active jobs at once, oftentimes not knowing what I’ll be working on exactly next month, let alone the next week or next day. Our family has gotten used to being flexible, ready to adapt to a new schedule at a moment’s notice.

“That sounds awful!” he said.

And I had to laugh. I like it this way, and I think I’d get a bit antsy were I in his situation, which he obviously preferred.

And that’s the trick, really, when you’re a freelancer, artist or otherwise. You can get all kinds of advice about what kind of work you should do, what pays the best, that you should specialize in this or that, what’s the best schedule, etc. But when it comes down to it, you have figure out yourself what works for you. You need to think about and choose what you really want to do, how and when you want to work, then put it into action. If you’re not doing something you love, it makes everything that much harder. You have to like what you’re doing, and pinpoint when and how you best you perform, then put yourself in those situations more often than not so you’ll excel and succeed. For me, it sometimes took a while to learn about myself and my preferences, and I’m still learning, after freelancing now for twenty-three years.

Early in my career, I worked in the comic book industry, having spent years dreaming of doing exactly that. I met my goal fairly early, at age twenty-two, and drew hundreds of pages over several years. I started out by self publishing, drawing my own characters, then drawing superheroes for other, large publishers like DC Comics. Over time, I became less interested in putting in the many hours it takes to do comics. I realized I’d already achieved the dream. And the kind of comics I really wanted to create weren’t necessarily the type on which I could make the kind of living I envisioned. It was time to set new goals, find a new dream.

So I began searching for other kinds of work. It wasn’t easy at first making the transition, but I’ve found a nice balance between doing finished illustration, comics in other fields, and storyboards. Balancing between these three, I can work on long-term projects and those with a quick turnaround. Plus, working fast on storyboards helps me keep loose and think on my feet, not sweat the details, while finished illustration helps me keep that work tight and polished. And with it all, I’m applying the skills I learned in doing comics, what I love the most: telling stories and composing pictures.

Now, there are nights I put in time when I’d rather not, and there are weekends I’m working when I’d hoped to take it easy. But in every case or situation, I make the call. There are times when I’m bushed, would prefer to take a pass, and do. But after a busy weekend, I can always take a break in the middle of the week if and when things slow down. Juggling this way mixes it up, keeps things interesting, and helps me stay creatively fresh. I can also take on certain kinds of work that pay well which allow me to do others of interest that pay less.

I understand some would find my working situation chaotic and make them crazy. Some might prefer more stability and a better expectation of what’s coming their way the next day, week, month or year. The key is to find what suits you best.

What’s your preference and temperament?