Chewing Pencils

The business side of the cartooning craft was so important that it took two tips to cover it all. Nearly two years after writing this post originally, I find that the business end of freelancing is taking up more time than I thought. But it has paid off for me as I get paid more […]

Recently I was discussing with a non-cartoonist some of the aspects about drawing for money. It seemed that the idea of cartooning being a business was totally foreign to them. “Isn’t it just drawing silly pictures?”, was what they thought!
Of course, drawing is part of what we do, but like everybody who works for […]

Tip #6:- Look for the niche markets.
I’ll say this just once - if you want to make some money from your cartoons, forget about the newspapers!! Yes, the papers are a potential market, perhaps the most obvious market, but the chances of you ending up there are slim.
Sorry to be so blunt, but they are!
So […]

This arrived in my inbox today…I’ve not heard of them before nor can I vouch for how good they are, but if you’re looking for something to display your online folio, this group might be worth exploring.
To help you find more Illustration work, you should sign up for CreativeHub.com
– we’re an online network focused on […]

Tip 5: Develop a Web Presence
This almost goes without saying now - if you don’t have some sort of web presence, then you’re simply not going to get too far with your cartooning career.
But since I first wrote this post, the web has changed dramatically. Simple, static web pages no longer make the grade. […]

Tip 4: Develop a Folio
Sometimes this feels like the only link we have left with traditional cartooning. There’s just no way around it - you HAVE to have a folio. But how that folio is presented has changed dramatically. When I originally wrote this post, it seemed that the big black folio was still the […]

Characters should never be forgettable. Your readers should either love them, hate them, feel sorry for them, empathize with them, be repulsed by them, cheer them but never, ever forget them.
Character development is hard work, but when the time is taken to do it properly, your work seems to take on a life of it’s […]

Tip 2:- Develop your drawing style.
While storytelling is the main part of the cartoon trade, the drawing still plays a part, so it pays off to put some work into your drawing style. My style has changed (hopefully for the better) since I wrote this original post and in a couple of years time it […]

Tip 1: Become a Good Storyteller
We kick off our trip back into the top ten tips with storytelling. Funnily enough, not much has changed with this tip - and I doubt it ever will. Just yesterday I had a young guy raving to me about a web based comic that he read every day. He […]

You’ve surely heard or even used the phrase, “A Penny for your thoughts”. An I’m sure some of the more enterprising of you have even collected the penny for sharing your thoughts.
Now if I offered $250 for your thoughts, I’m sure the comments of this post will be full. Sadly, I’m not here, to pay […]