Chewing Pencils

Here’s a list of professional cartooning organisations from around the world. If you know of any I’ve missed, please add them in the comments section or email me privately. I will endeavor to keep this list as up to date as possible, but keep in mind that URL’s will often change. I have also included […]

Tip 9:- Join a professional organisation
I’m not sure what it is, but people still laugh when I tell them I’m a member of a professional cartoonists’ association. It seems that for many, the words ‘professional’ and ‘cartoonist’ don’t belong together in the same sentence! However, like many industry organisations, the role of cartooning clubs/societies/organisations is an important […]

If you’re a brave soul and don’t mind a bit of public speaking, then your local school may be an untapped source of income. A few times now I’ve taken a deep breath and stood in front of groups of 20-30 ten year olds to talk about what I do, draw a few pictures on […]

If you’re submitting cartoons to an editor or are publishing work on your website to generate some traffic, it’s always good to think in advance. By this I mean, think about the events and issues that are likely to be prominent in a few months time.
For instance, the time to start submitting Halloween cartoons is right […]

Tip 8:- Become business minded (Part 2).
In the previous tip for becoming a professional cartoonist, I began to explore what it meant to become business minded. I briefly covered tax considerations, business plans, copyright law, marketing, contracts and comunication. In this entry I continue with the same theme by looking at a further six points.
8. […]

Knowing how much to charge a client for a piece of work is always difficult. We don’t want to charge too little, but at the same time, we’re scared that if we charge too much, we’ll scare the client away and miss out on some work. However, the process is made a little less daunting by some […]

Cartoonists and illustrators around the world are watching what happens with the bill before the US government at the moment regarding ‘orphan works’. Basically it states any body can publish a work without the author/artists permission - all they need to do is demonstrate that they made an unsuccessful, reasonable attempt at locating the owner. The definition […]

Chewing Pencils is not a “how-to-draw” site. Mainly because I don’t know how to draw…(grin).
Fortunately, there are plenty of people who do know how to draw and are happy to share their knowlege.
Von. R. Glitschka has started a blog at www.illustrationclass.com which is designed to, “Equip the creative in their pursuit of artistic excellence.” The tutorials […]

Tip 7:- Become business minded (Part 1).
The difference between a hobby and a profession is pretty simple. The professional has a goal of making money from what they do. I don’t mean to sound like some greedy capitalist, nor do I wish to belittle those who produce wonderful works of art for no remuneration. All […]

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