For years I haven't done illustrations. All this contract/rights nonsense came along and it started to feel it's not worth of the aggravation. And then I also lost interest. For the many years I was doing illustration I only once had a regular spot and that really made all the difference. Although it only paid 50€ for an illustration (300FiM that time ) it came every week and it was regular income. After that thing I never got a spot to work regularly and just before I more or less stopped doing illustrations I was doing maybe 2 or 3 in a year, which wasn't very much. And teaching just seemed to work better for me. It was steady and it wasn't draining energy from the same source as my own work. So teaching and the grants provided for me a better income than illustration.
Now I still wouldn't mind to have a steady spot to draw for. At this specific stage of time I would be quite eager to do some portraits or reportage drawings for the press. But it seems illustration is not needed so much anymore. Maybe I should go out looking.
This anecdote from two years back pretty nicely sums up my feelings towards illustration:
I was on a holiday in Rome when I get an e-mail from NY Times (web version) asking me to illustrate a text. Sketch was needed the same day and the illustration by the next. I imagined that they wanted my scraperboard work since that was what I was known for. I mulled it over: I didn't have any material with me and I didn't have access to a scanner. So I wrote back telling that this time it would be impossible for me to do this. They never answered my mail.
Yes, for sure someone would've interrupted the holiday and found a way to do something with whatever there's around. I however never felt sorry for not doing this. I still don't see it as an missed oppurtunity to a new career in US.
That was the second or third time I said NO to a job offer. This is probably something you're not allowed to do when you're a freelancer.
But now, if you have a spot where you need portraits of people or some more realistic sort of drawing of landscape or scenery, I might quite well be interested. Just contact me. mattihagelberg@gmail.com
Now I still wouldn't mind to have a steady spot to draw for. At this specific stage of time I would be quite eager to do some portraits or reportage drawings for the press. But it seems illustration is not needed so much anymore. Maybe I should go out looking.
This anecdote from two years back pretty nicely sums up my feelings towards illustration:
I was on a holiday in Rome when I get an e-mail from NY Times (web version) asking me to illustrate a text. Sketch was needed the same day and the illustration by the next. I imagined that they wanted my scraperboard work since that was what I was known for. I mulled it over: I didn't have any material with me and I didn't have access to a scanner. So I wrote back telling that this time it would be impossible for me to do this. They never answered my mail.
Yes, for sure someone would've interrupted the holiday and found a way to do something with whatever there's around. I however never felt sorry for not doing this. I still don't see it as an missed oppurtunity to a new career in US.
That was the second or third time I said NO to a job offer. This is probably something you're not allowed to do when you're a freelancer.
But now, if you have a spot where you need portraits of people or some more realistic sort of drawing of landscape or scenery, I might quite well be interested. Just contact me. mattihagelberg@gmail.com
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