From the Inbox: Markets for Caricaturists
Published by Matt Glover February 8th, 2007 in From the Inbox
This arrived from Rob Reid:
I found your e-mail on the chewing pencils site.
I used to draw editorial cartoons for my university newspaper. Now that I’ve graduated I’d like to continue drawing the occasional cartoon. I can’t resist new subjects (targets?) like Kim Jong Il.
I’ve sent submissions to local newspapers but they don’t show much interest. Have you any suggestions for submitting cartoons over the internet? I’ve attached some samples (above).
Caricature is one of those areas of cartooning that I would love to be able to do, but really suck at! So leep in mind that what I tell you is taken from observation only, not personal experience. Hopefully some of the caricaturists that drop by every so often can add a bit of weight to what I say!
There are markets out there for your work. The problem is finding them! Keep trying the papers if you like, but I’ll think you’ll find them a bit of a dead end for now. Maybe some of the more independent publications would be worth a shot.
But given that your style is caricature, I’d suggest going straight to the public. Offer your services over the net and charge a decent amount for each piece you do. Get people to send you a photo and you do a caricature of them in a cartoony setting.
If you can do your stuff ‘live’ consider offering your services to corporate clients for their Christmas functions. Don’t discount a side walk stand at a carnival either. If you can do a decent caricature in 15 minutes and charge around $50 you’d be looking at some good money for a days work.
Hope that helps a little!
As a professional caricature artist for over ten years, I hae a LIttle something to say abotu how to make money doing this…..
If you are going to submit work to publications you must first familiarize yourself with current events. Political caricature artists, like Steve Brodner, here in NYC where i am are VERY astute politically and are voracious readers of current news events. It helps to have a particular point of view as well. As a general “rule” Political caricature artists are not reallly neutral. They have a particular party they support, and point their poisoned pen at the other party! LOL! If you decide to go this route you may want to start small with local news papers, lampooning local officials! Its great fun.
You can also make lots of money as a party artist. But you MUST be fast. Can you make a decent likeness in 2-3 minutes? I can. And every top party artist MUST be able to do this as you will have to be able to draw groups of 20-50 people in the course of a party, taking anywhere from 1-3 hrs depending on the client. Work on your speed and accuracy the skills take time but the rewards are worth it.
Finally you can make money doing caricature on the street at fairs and such . Again, speed counts. The public is very fickle, and will get impatient if you are taking too long doing a face. 15 minutes is really a long time in my opinion. You should be able to knock out a face in color in five minutes. Enough to dazzle em and go on to the next person. On one is going to pay you 50 bucks for a street caricatue. Its an impulse item. charge 10 buks for blk and whit and 15-20 for color , bolks arre more receptive to that.