One important skill budding illustrators overlook....

When drawing anything narrative we all find or write things to work on while building our portfolios that we like. In some way the story we illustrate is enjoyable to us and inspires us to do our best work. Makes logical sense. Ok for portfolio building that's pretty much the way it's done and really should be. When however you get out into the real world and start landing freelance or jobs with publishers/agencies, the nature of stories you work on will be a bit different sometimes. Suddenly you are getting paid to work on stories that you can't alter and you have someone else who has never drawn a thing(sometimes)telling you how to change what you produced for them, in ways that suit them and not you, and not always for the better. Suddenly you are working on some pretty bad stories for money and have to make them look great which can be as painful and sitting in a dentist chair when he forgot the Novacaine. This is the skill you need to practice. Find bad scripts online(there are plenty of them if you search) draw them, and do your best to make them look stellar. It doesn't matter if you like or enjoy them or even if they end up in your portfolio. Do this for yourself to prepare yourself for dealing with the inevitable, because you will be doing it sometimes when you are hired by someone else. Some publishers or writers will simply not budge on a bad story and sometimes, they are even right! Don't always draw in your comfort zone or chosen genre, search and seek out stories that challenge, broaden you and your artistic repertoire. This will help you become a more flexible and dynamic artist in term of the subject matter you can handle and allow you to engage clients from a much broader pool. I've found it worthwhile. For example being more of a sci-fi/fantasy guy I never wanted to draw superhero comics until I drew some, and even though I didn't particularly like the scripts I was drawing from, I found the end result to be something I really liked and learned a surprising amount doing them, which I think contributed to a healthy broadening of my illustrative horizons. Don't shy away from anything, new old, off the wall, draw it and spin it your way and see what you come up with. You'll surprise yourself and come out the other side a more competent and confident artist. Well friends that's all for now....until next time...same bat time...same bat channel.... IIId