10 Artbiz uses for your smartphone

Ok I admit it. I'm a bit of a technophobe. Im a gen-exer. I My family didn't get

a VCR til I was 12 years old, i got my first laptop last year, I and until two

months ago, I still had an old flip phone.

I decided to get a new iPhone when I was promoted to marketing director of

caricature cinema. But even though I knew I needed one, I still balked through

the entire process.

I hate salesmen and their transparent manipulations. I have severe anxiety about

trying to learn how to use new technology, especially when it's on something I

USE every day like my phone. (I mean, I put off learning to use my new laptop

til last month).

Let me tell you something. If you're actechnophobe like me, (and in my

experience most artists are not only afraid of technology, they're by and large

a bit neurotic. Not a good combination when it comes to this stuff), and you're

still not using a smartphone, it will CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

I mean, after you get one you'll waste every waking minute of the next month

farting around on it and figuring it out, but that's a small price to pay for a portable hand held laptop.

Which is exactly what my iphone4 is.

 You can do all kinds of amazing things on this thing. In fact, I'm typing on it right now. Below, You’ll find some cool things you can do with a smartphone. I HIGHLY recommend you go get yourself one – or you could always ask santa ;)

10 ways to use your iPhone for your art biz:


1. Sketch photos of kids during downtime at your stand to pull in business. I
find kids work best because of the "cute" factor.


2. Find celebrity pics to draw from and bookmark them.


3. Write your next blog post (like I'm doing right now)


4. Update your social networks with actual news about your biz(not just pictures
of your cat). Facebook and twitter, of course, but also deviantart, linkedin, and photobucket are important to update periodically.


5. Sign up for http://www.caricature.org/ if you haven't already. It's worth the $50 fee.
It's always astonishing to me when I meet a caricaturist who isn't a part of ISCA,
but it happens all the time. The ISCA is the INternational Society of Caricature Artists. It's open to anyone who loves the art of caricature (not just professionals - but it may well open the door for you to become a pro!) They have a forum where you can post your work and get critiques, as well as an annual convention held the second week of November. This may well change your life, especially if you go to the conventions. It changed mine - I married a caricaturist I met there!

6. Broadcast yourself drawing live. At least have someone recording you draw. Use this for publicity on your website or blog or even just to show the guy on the subway what you do.


7. Take pictures of your best drawings to use as samples
8. Create art with apps such as MyPaint Free.


9. Use it to market yourself when networking with people. When they ask about
your work, just whip out your phone!


10. Use your maps function to route your gigs. Make a wrong turn? No problem!
Just press "edit" and then "route" using your current address. It'll update your route
immediately. No more mapquest or gps blues! And you'll Never be late to a gig again!


If you haven't got a smartphone yet, seriously, go get one! It'll change the way you do business.

Your Number One Marketing Tool

For those of us who are  self-employed as artists, even if it's only part time, business
cards are our most important marketing tool. It's what gets you noticed - or not. It's really imperative to your business that your card not only stands out from the rest, but that it also advertises what you DO in a clear concise manner.

There are a number of ways to ensure that your business card stands out. In this
article I've taken some ideas from Writers digests' Illustrators guide as well
as from Guerilla Marketing and applied them to caricature.

First let's consider format.  Vertical format stands out simply because most
professionals use horozontal. And who says your card has to be stock sized
business cards? You can get 500 postcards custom printed for $63.00 here:
http://www.printplace.com/printing/cheap-postcard-printing.aspx. I recently met a professional who handed me a CLEAR business card. Wow, did that make an impression!
It's DIFFERENT that is key. How many boring business cards do YOU actually keep? I guarantee you, I k ept that clear one.

Another way to make your card stand out is Artwork. It goes without saying that you should use your own artowrk, and your very best at that, although it should be easily reducible to postage-stamp size and yet still retain its visual integrity.

The Artwork you use on your business card should be indicative of your style. If you do  illustrations or use alternate media as well as parties and those styles are vastly different,
consider creating two business cards with different artwork.

I highly recommend using a "selfie," (self caricature) for your logo. This helps
to "brand" you to your business name. The drawback is it will need to be updated
as your skills increase.
Using celebrities, even dead ones, can be tricky. For instance, using Elvis as a
logo could subject you to legal action by his estate, and there are plenty of other dead celebrities who are just as tricky to use..

If you've done a really great caricature of, say, brad Pitt, and you want to use
it as your logo,   you CAN do it, but the rules are a little tricky. Check out
this site first to learn about copyright law when using a celebrities image.   
http://library.findlaw.com/2003/Dec/1/133182.html.

So your very best, preferably color (unless you only do black and white) selfie
that is easily reducible is preferable. I used a black and white line drawing for my selfie for years. THis worked really well for me because I specialize in parties, and black and white is generally what I do.

Underneath your logo (or sometimes over it, you can get creative with the
design) is the Header. This is your business name. (read my article on naming your business for more info on this),. Your name alone can catch you a lot of attention, especially if it's funny, so choose carefully.
When placing your Header, make sure your font is
legible. Many fonts don't reduce well, and some printers (such as Staples) only
allow certain fonts.

Tag lines sometimes go underneath your Header. Tag lines are a good way to incorporate humor into your cards. Mine read "squirmy kids are my specialty" underneath the Headung of my business, Making Faces. Gets a lot of attention!
Next, make sure you include ALL of your contact info. Name, cell, email, blog, website and how to follow you on fb and twitter. great to get people following you who aren't artists, and let's face it, that's how to get sales.

The copy, or the advertising portion, of your card is the most important part.
This is what sells you. Sadly, many artists just place their name and
"illustrator" underneath. Or they don't even explain what they do. If you're doing this, you're missing out on using  business cards to your best advantage. If you do parties, SAY SO. My
cards read " perfect for parties, great as gifts." Others list their services. Figure out what makes you the most KA-CHING (parties? Illustrations? Murals? etc) and PUT IT ON YOUR CARD.

Finally, Consider using both sides of your business card. Printing isn't much
more expensive and you can put a coupon on the back for next time or a percentage off
parties. You can also use it to quote your speeds and rates.

Whatever design you choose, get them made and HAND THEM OUT TO EVERYONE. I'll be
posting some guerilla marketing ways to hand out cards in my next post. Til then, happy
designing!

Preventing the "I worked extra time didnt get paid" Blues

We've all been there. I was there today, in fact. I'll tell you what I did at the end of my post, but in the meantime, read on to see what you can do to prevent this syndrome:

1. Know how fast you draw. This is imperative when booking your own gigs. The first question you should ask your prospective client is "How many guests do you expect?" then you can give them an intelligent estimate for how long they will need you, and if you perhaps might need to recommend another artist.

2. When booking your own gigs, explain beforehand that the above is an estimate, and if they want everyone drawn at their event you might go over, especially if more guests show up than expected (or if adults demand drawings when it's supposed to be kids only). Tell them nicely you'll be glad to pro-rate to the nearest quarter hour, and that they are paying for your time. Then put it in your contract (you do have a contract, right?). More often than not, as long as you explain this beforehand, your client will be happy to pay you for your time if you go over.

3. For agented gigs where you're slated to work for a certain amount of time: Again, knowing how fast you draw is imperative. I know that at most gigs where I'm drawing the public for "free" that I need to cut off the line about a half an hour before I'm scheduled to stop drawing (this happened today). Sometimes it's more if I have a huge line, it's a good idea to keep an eye on your queue for this reason.(It's also a good idea to take a headcount). Whenever I'm ready to cut my line off, I like to enlist the help of a big strong-looking guy at the end of my line. The more tattoos, the better. Briefly explain the situation and ask him to hold a sign that says "I AM LAST IN LINE." If you can get him sympathetic with you, he'll act as your bouncer. Again, I did this today.

But today, I STILL wound up drawing because people were cutting in line AHEAD of my "bouncer".  If you see this happening, you can always take a piece of paper and number it from, say, 1-10. Give the remaining people in line a "ticket" and you won't have a problem refusing people who don't have one.

I didn't see this happening because I was too busy drawing today.

So instead, I got shafted.

Which happens.

And when it does, the professional thing to do is keep drawing til you reach the "end of the line" sign. Which I did. And boy, was I glad I did, because the last customer was one of the shop owners for the grand opening I was working. She was happy with my work (even though I was going faster than the speed of light at that point), but more importantly, she was happy with my PROFESSIONALISM. And she said she'd pass on a good word to my agent for me.

You never know when this might be the case. I find a lot of times organizers for an event go last because they were busy during the event. And although it might be a pain, it's still good business. Good word of mouth is priceless, especially in a specialized field like ours where people judge what we do by the one or two artists they stumble upon.

So do yourself (and the rest of us) a favor,  be professional, smile, do those last few drawings as fast as you can, and leave with a smile.

Then go home and bitch about it on Facebook :)

Catching a likeness: Expressions

I drew a guy last night who wanted to look "sexy." "Sexy," he kept saying, "make me look sexy." Aside from the fact that he was really drunk, I also thought that was rather egotistical of him. But, I set out to make him look sexy because I thought it would make him happy, and that would make my agent happy, which would in turn get me more gigs.

When I turned the drawing around for him to see, he said, "Oh! You made me look... smug."

Yeah, I guess that was what I was looking for. Sexy and Smug. I laughed and said "Yeah, well, you want to look sexy, that's kind of smug of you." He laughed too and it was all good.

People throughout the years have told me that I really can capture a likeness well. It's not that I'm a great artist. It's a secret I'm more than happy to share. Here's my secret:

As soon as a person sits down, I think of ONE WORD that describes them. Sometimes, the word is "smug." Sometimes, "Drunk." Sometimes its wallflower, or hippy, or happy, or intense, or sadsack, or even Irish or Italian. Sometimes its cutesy, sometimes it's twinkly-eyed or troublemaker (my personal favorite). But I always think of one (sometimes more than one) word that describes them to a "T."

Once I figure out that ONE WORD that describes the person, I set out to give them an EXPRESSION that exemplifies this.

As soon as I figure out how to post pictures to my blog, I'll post some examples.

I remember a few years ago I was at a seminar where Joe Bluhm was talking about caricature. He said that the person's personality has nothing at all to do with the exaggerations in his drawings. While I am nowhere NEAR the artist that Joe is, I respectfully disagree. Years of studying people's features, expressions, gestures and body language have enabled me to peg a person the second I meet them (or the second they sit to be drawn). And this is what has enabled me to catch that likeness almost every time.

It doesn't cost anything and it's worth a try!

8 TIPS TO MAKING MORE TIPS

I've experimented a lot over the years and here's my best secret Tips for making Tips. Please feel free to add yours to the end of this post! I expect about 10% to 15% in tips at gigs or at my retail location. If you make more than that, you're doing great! If not, try some of these ideas below:

1. Give Better Service. (see previous post). I've gotten as much as $200 in tips for a three-hour gig because of my SERVICE skills set, which, I'm sad to say, is much higher than my art skills set. Service skills includes your salesmanship,  professionalism,  and ability to entertain. Your service skills are JUST as important as your artistic skills at gigs, retail locations, and to a degree, with illustration work.

2. Put out a clear cup with a while sticker label that says "Tips are Very Appreciated" on the side. You can also write something funny such as "Starving Artist Fund", though I've found the former to be more effective. "Seed" the cup with money. Higher bills tend to get customers to tip more. The last gig I worked was a "rich" crowd (entrepreneurs) so I put out a twenty. I received three twenty-dollar-bills in tips and many more tens and fives. My drawing partner was aghast.  Why? It WORKS.

3. Draw faster. More drawings = more tips.

4.On the back of your drawing board, which customers are staring at anyway, is the perfect place for writing advertising for yourself. In thick black marker, write " Tips Are Very Appreciated." Or pre-print a sign on your computer and tape it to the back of your drawing board. Be careful you don't do this at gigs where tipping is frowned upon - you can always tape a piece of paper over it if necessary.

5. Everyplace you have "Tips are Appreciated", draw a SMILEY FACE AFTERWARDS. It might turn your stomach, but it has actually been proven among marketers to put people in a better mood, and if they're in a better mood, they're more likely to tip. Believe it or not, This actually works.

6. At gigs where youre allowed to take tips but asking for them is frowned upon: Near your tip sign on the back of your easel, place a line of double-sided tape down the back of your easel. Place a twenty on the tape and watch the seed grow!

7. At festivals or small retail locations: Set your pricing so that people are more likely to say "Keep the Change" (example: Charge $17.00 and people will likely give you the extra three in change).

8. Show some Cleavage.

Just kidding. Actually, the point of that was to make you smile. And if you can make people laugh, so much the better.  LAUGHTER = TIPS.  So use your drawings, your patter, and your OWN laughter to make people laugh. Isn't that the best part of what we do? People will love you for it and you will DEFINITELY see returns in your tips.

A word of caution: Some agents frown on the practice of taking tips. If you're working for an agent, make sure you find out their policy on tips before you take any.

Good Luck! And remember... TIPS ARE VERY APPRECIATED :)

Increase Your Service Skills, Make More $$$

You can slave away all night and day striving to get better as an artist, you can win award after award at conventions for your art, you can get published on magazine covers... but how does this translate into better retail and/or gig sales?

Mostly, it doesn't. Most people out there think of us as magicians, in a way. They think this about ALL of us, even the beginners and artists who haven't worked much to improve their art. (for tips on improving your art, see my previous post). They'll buy it even if it's not the best because to them, it's MAGIC.

If you want to make more money as a caricaturist (and who doesn't?), you need to pay AS MUCH ATTENTION to your Service Skills Set as you do to the quality of your artwork. If you do, you'll have a leg up on the competition, because many caricaturists don't bother with this aspect of our business.

What, you ask, are "service skills?" Well, I'll tell you, since you asked.

Service skills for what we do can be broken into three major categories:

1. Professionalism (showing up early, being dressed for the event you're working, coming prepared, etc.)

2. Salesmanship (learning more about the art of selling is a key part of our job. I read everything that comes down the pike on sales, which is why I'm consistently the top salesperson on our crew)

3. Entertainment (Laughter=Moolah. But you knew that. Didn't you?)

In future posts I plan on touching on each of these subjects thoroughly, but for now I'll give you some tips to enhance each of these areas immediately.

1. Don't hate on your customers. The first time I heard Adam English sing "The day I killed all the customers," I blew soda out my nose with laughter, but I don't really feel that way. My customers enable me to make a decent living doing something I love. Yours do too. They are your bread and butter, so give them what they want. That's not to say you cant exaggerate, but gauge first whether the person can take it. You can also prevent hard feelings (and a loss of sales) by WARNING PEOPLE AHEAD OF TIME  that you re going to mess them up! Do so in a humorous way and you're framing your art for them so that they aren't insulted but instead find it funny.

2. SMILE. SOOOOOooooooo important! Bell telephone company did a study back in the day and found that when the operators smiled when they talked, they had significantly less complaints. Your smile even shows through in your voice on the phone! When talking to ANY potential customers, even over the phone, SMILE.

3. Introduce yourself. People have anxiety about getting caricatures drawn. Introducing yourself sets them at ease. I always state my name, shake their hand (even kids), and ask their name. Then I use it when talking to them. I've received MUCH fewer rejections since I started doing this one simple thing. It connects you to the customer and allows you to form a RELATIONSHIP with them. And people are reluctant to reject my drawings once I've done that.

4. Don't "force" the sale. Don't you hate it when salespeople haunt you at clothing stores? If you've set up your pricing and advertising at your stand correctly, you can just point and then back off. I find backing off to work really well if your pricing is right. If not, experiment til you get it right. Your work should SELL ITSELF. That doesn't mean you shouldn't ASK for the sale. You should. Just don't be pushy. That sets you up for rejections because you're convincing people to sit who didn't want to sit in the first place.

5. Be personal. Ive seen artists  barely speak to customers. Sometimes you get a dud who doesn't want to talk, but mostly if you can ask a few questions and get them talking about themselves, you'll have something to talk about.

6. Use Humor. Memorize a few dumb jokes. Ask kids if they're married, or what they do for a living. USE ZINGERS ON HECKLERS. This works really well. Gets the audience laughing and gets the jerk off of your back. I have quite a few that I'll be compiling for another post.

7. Explain what you're going to do. In his book, "The Accidental Salesperson,"author and Sales guru Chris Lytle states that this is paramount to good salesmanship. It puts the customer at ease. I just simply say "OK you can have a seat. Look right at me, and Ill tell you when to smile. This ll just take a few minutes".

8.If you love someones hair or dress or shoes, tell them so. Tell them what celebrity they look like (but not if the celebrity is Wilford Brimley... eck). Everyone loves a sincere compliment. That's the catch, though - its gotta be sincere.

9. This may be controversial, but ALWAYS flatter young teen aged girls.  Word of mouth from making a little girl cry is bad business and gives ALL of us a bad name. This holds true for anyone that you can plainly see is either a stickler for details or vain. Mess them up and you'll get a rejection and complaints. Just do a quick flattering sketch and get them out of your chair as quickly as possible.

10. Be on time, better yet be early. Dress professionally. Have everything you need. In short, be prepared. If you do screw up and are late to a gig, own it. Apologize, and then offer a pro-rated discount for the time you were late, or stay later to make up for it.

11. Don't take rejections personally, they happen to all of us. Even Joe Bluhm, author of "Rejects," a book full of rejections he's received on his arawrd-winning artwork. DO NOT TEAR UP THE REJECTION. Not only is it unprofessional, it is rude, and it will guarantee that person never gets drawn again and will give you bad word of mouth. Instead, try this trick taught to me by NCN founder (not to mention my husband) Buddy Rose:

Say "I'm so sorry you don't like the drawing. Honestly, I didn't much like it myself either. Here, it's on the house." Nine times out of ten you'll still get paid. THIS WORKS. Of course, some people are out to scam you, but there really are very few people who do that. For those people (and you know who they are as soon as they sit down if you've been doing this long enough), tell them you can redraw them if you can stomach it, or just give them back their money AFTER they've given you the sketch. If they balk, its a scam, and you can compare yourself to Walmart, Would you get money back from walmart without returning the merchandise first? Of course not. They cant expect any less from you.

12. Being nice goes a long way. Treat people the way you'd like to be treated at a store. Answer questions even if you've heard them 10,000 times ("wheres the bathroom?") Watch salespeople and use techniques you like.

13. Have fun! If you're having fun, the customer will have fun. And you'll make more $$$!

How to Work with Agents

You've seen it yourself: artists who come to gigs unprepared. Maybe they're dressed inappropriately, maybe they give out their own business cards. Maybe they even (gasp) EAT AT THE GIG. Or maybe this is YOU.

If it is, you're in trouble. Because agents won't re-hire you if you behave in an unprofessional manner. Below is a list of DO's and DON'T's to keep in mind when working with agents:

DO Follow your particular agents rules. Not all agents have the same rules. Make sure you know what they are before you work the gig. They should be enumerated in your contract.

DO get a contract. It should have the name of the event, a contact person. place, time to start and end, what to wear, and HOW MUCH YOU'RE GETTING PAID.  IMPORTANT. Most agents are honest, but not all. And you want to make sure that you get PAID.

DO some homework. If you're unfamiliar with your gig site, do a test drive a day or two beforehand. Make sure all your gear is packed in yoru car along with emergency supplies such as duct tape (this has saved me more than once when an easel has broken on me), extra paper, rubber bands and markers.

DO Dress to impress. You're the entertainer for hte evening. Jeans aren't usually acceptable unless it's a company picnic, and even then you're on shaky ground. For event bookings, my company always requires that the artists wear all black, no matter what the event, unless something else is requested by the client. Check with your agent, and when in doubt, dress UP, not down.

DO Arrive early. Here in las vegas, we have something called a "call time", which is anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour beforehand. You don't usually get paid for this time. Be there by call time, or in the case of a gig that doesnt have one, at least fifteen minutes before the gig is slated to start.

DON'T Eat or drink on the job even if the client offers it unless you have permission from your agent. Drinking of alcohol is ALWAYS prohibited. Often an agent is ok with you eating during a break as long as it's out of sight of the clients. When in doubt, DO NOT EAT. Eat before the gig, or sneak a granola bar and eat it on your break in the restroom.

DON'T act in an unprofessional manner. Smile. Be Polite. Don't swear. Brand yourself as a pro and agents will use you again and again.

DON'T give out your personal business cards or contact information. THis is HIGHLY unprofessional and could get you blackballed. Word of mouth moves quickly. You CAN however give out your agents cards. Some agents even have a slot for you to put your name so clients can request you again.

DON'T take tips unless you have approval.

DON'T take more than about 5 minutes per drawing at gigs. THe client will be unhappy and it reflects porly not only on you but on your agent as well.

DON'T take breaks unless the agent gives you the go-ahead.

and finally,

DO ask the client to give you a good review to your agent if you've done a good job.


More ideas? Add yours below!