Richard Solomon Art Rep on You Tube

I came across the You Tube profile of probably one of the best Illustrator Reps out there: Richard Solomon Artists Representive. He has about 33 short videos of professional illustrators talking to illustrator students about school and the biz. Very enlightening and helpful! Take the time to watch them.

Here is just one with Gregory Manchess talking about determination.

Senate Committee Approves Orphan-Works Bill

May 15, 2008
"The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill today to make it easier for scholars, archivists, and others to use orphan works. These are books, films, and other creations whose owners cannot be identified. Those who redistribute the material risk incurring penalties for copyright infringement. The legislation, The Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act, S.2913, would make it less costly for people to exploit orphan works.

A companion bill was approved by a panel of the U.S. House of Representatives last week."

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Maybe now it is time for artists to ask why has the Graphic Artist's Guild told artists to not write letters?

This is very disappointing news for artists but hardly a surprise. Even though 60,000 letters were sent to Congress opposing the bill, it seems that many artists were told not to worry about this bill and remain neutral by one artist's group who was promising negotiations were going on. In fact the billed said through committee with no changes. I wonder if there will be any uproar or will all of this just go quietly unnoticed...

Jay

James Jean Interview from SCAD-Atlanta

While James Jean was here at SCAD in February, he was interviewed by Sidebar Nation for their monthly podcast. Click here to listen to the interview.
You can also subscribe to Sidebar via iTunes.

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP

Both House and Senate versions of the Orphan Works Act of 2008 can be downloaded from the IPA homepage:

http://illustratorspartnership.org/

Many groups are coming together to oppose this bill. We’re preparing letters you can customize and send to your representatives through our push-button link. Please stay tuned and we’ll give you the tools we need to make our voices heard.

For additional background on Orphan Works, go to the IPA Orphan Works Resource Page for Artists.

Marcos Chin Interview

Most of you know Yuko Shimizu, our recent star guest at the Art Forum this winter, but you may not know that her studio-mate, Marcos Chin, is also an amazing illustrator.
Penelope Dullaghan interviewed Marcos as a feature on Illustration Friday, the website she created as a place to offer a weekly illustration challenge to participants worldwide (if you haven't created anything for Illustration Friday yet, you should). Please take a moment to read this insightful interview with Marcos Chin, one of the Young Guns of contemporary illustration.

©Marcos Chin 2008 All Rights Reserved

Illustration Contract templates

Illustration Students!

* Do you do freelance work on the side?

* If so, do you have the proper contracts set up to protect you and the client?

* Do you not want to get bamboozled with a commission or contract job?

* Well, you need to have a signed estimate/confirmation form stating all the terms of the job.

* You say, "Yea that's what I need, but where do I find that and how do I make it my own?"

* Well, I have been working hard on that solution and here it is.

I have created a PDF template for an Estimate/Confirmation Form and Invoice Form specifically for freelance illustrator students and recent grads. These are two page PDF files that you can add your contact info/logo at the top of each page. It includes a functional calculating form, and tips for what to write in each field. To modify and use these forms you need the Acrobat 8 Professional which is on all the computers at SCAD and apart of the Adobe CS3 Design Premium software package. Be sure to follow the steps listed in the "Customize_Your_ILLU_Contracts.doc" exactly. There are some advanced techniques explained in there, but once you do it once it's quite simple to get. These are the same forms and instructions that will be given to you in the ILLU 409 Self Promotion class taught by me. So I go over how to use them in that class. But if you need them before that class here they are. If you have any questions or problems feel free to contact me.

You can find these on my links page here.

or directly here:
Customize_Your_ILLU_Contracts.doc
estimatetemp.pdf
invoicetemp.pdf

Thanks,
Jay Montgomery

Orphan Works Outrage!

Our beloved representatives in Washington have in front of them a rancid piece of legislation that could shake the Creative world to the core. All us us who create images must educate ourselves to the law as it pertains to our business and our livelihood.
Brad Holland and the Illustrators Partnership have struggled mightily over the last few years to safeguard our creative work, but Congress is about to yank the rug out from under us all unless we quickly come together and demand our rights as the rightful owners of our own creations.
This article sums up what's going on, so please take the time to read it and call or write your congressional representatives and let them know how bad this legislation is.

Go here to download sample letters to congress, bullet point letters, and a list of lawmakers to e-mail them to. The more proactive we all are in this, the more likely we are to be heard. Our futures as artists and illustrators depends on it.