The
newly renamed, restyled and reaffilliated Long Beach MacGraphics Group
of WOCMUG had an extremely informative first meeting August 3rd. Illustrator
David Brooks was our speaker and his discussion ran the gamut from his
initial sketching of his illustrations to marketing his business. We overcame
not having a projector very admirably because David was able without using
the computer to articulate what he does and how he does it. Special thanks
go out to Jack Miller who gave it his all and drove from Culver City to
Santa Ana in quest of the elusive projector for our meeting.
David started out in the corporate world, but tired of the lifestyle and
began illustrating in Maine. He moved to Southern California three years
ago. He specializes in illustrating for the children's market, but also
does corporate identity work for clients such as Southern California Edison
and TrinityCare Hospice.
When he starts a project, he generally sketches his ideas on paper in
tiny sketches (1" x 1" or 2"x2"). He scans the work
into his computer and enlarges the images 300-400% through scanning. He
thickens the lines by using the median filter in noise filters in Photoshop.
He colonizes the illustration on separate layers until the client is satisfied
with the colors used and flattens the image for printing while saving
a layered image for possible reuse with revisions in the future. He sends
color comps of his images to his clients from his Epson 740 printer. He
uses IBM matte coated inkjet super white heavyweight coated both sides
paper that costs about $11 a package of 100 sheets from Staples. Right
now he is not wild about the less expensive inkjet cartridges that he
was recommending at our meeting so they will remain nameless. When the
job is being printed, David oftentimes tells the printer to make the image
look just like his Epson color comps from the digital file that he supplies.
Besides sharing his illustration techniques, David also shared how he
got his business going by choosing a field his style best fit and was
also challenging and satisfying——illustrating for the childrens
market. He went to the bookstore and looked at stories that could have
been illustrated with his style and contacted them by phone. He followed
up by sending that person a direct mail package of his work. He also purchased
The Childrens Writers & Illustrators Market book that lists all the
children books publishers in the country and their art director.
Also in the early stages of his business David researched which businesses
would be most likely to use his style of illustrating and offered a one
time half price offer with a sample of his illustrations.
David is also a member of the Graphic Artist Guild and follows their pricing
guidelines. He advertises nationally in the Directory of Illustration.
David markets corporate identity proposals himself locally and has a
representative that markets his illustration portion of his business
worldwide. Also
that representative is a little more aggressive in getting a fairer price
for his services than he would ask.
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