Author: Cedric

Yesterday I listed some of the "Con's" of freelancing. Please read that first if you haven't already. Now that that's out of the way I want to focus on some of the "Pro's", the terrific and exciting aspects of freelancing which, in my opinion, far outweigh the negatives and make the whole adventure worthwhile. If they didn't, I wouldn't have stuck at it for ten years and counting: Pro #1: You are your own boss. You decide when to work and when to take a break. You decide which projects you will work on. You negotiate the deadlines. There are no superiors to report to (just make sure your clients are happy). No boring meetings. No annoying co-workers. You enjoy a great deal of freedom compared to your cubicle-bound counterparts. You can buy groceries at 10 am when there is no traffic and no lines at the checkout. You run your own show! I can't think of a career choice that offers you more personal freedom.

Recently I wrote a two-part post entitled "How To Bid Out A Project" (Part 1 and Part 2). One of the first things I mentioned was that, to cover expenses, a freelancer needs to charge much more per hour than he/she would normally make as a salaried employee. There has been some discussion of my article on another website, and someone apparently misunderstood my comments to mean that freelancing is a great way to get rich quick. I can assure you, it is not. That got me thinking, there are probably a lot of misconceptions about freelancing out there. So I've decided to list a few of the pro's and con's of freelancing, straight from the horses mouth. I've been freelancing for over ten years, so I know of what I speak. I don't want to start positive and then end on a negative note, so I'll cover the "con's" first. Tomorrow I'll touch on some of the "pro's". If this post is a bit of a downer to read, I don't mean it to be. I enjoy freelancing very much! In my view the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. But I want to paint a fair and honest picture for anyone who may be considering freelancing as a career.

For the most recent episode of 3-2-1 Penguins! (titled "Pratical Hoax" and directed by Tom Bancroft), the script called for photographs to appear in various scenes. Since the show is built and animated in 3D, and since each photo would only be seen on screen for a few seconds, and since television deadlines are so brutal, rather than to build...

On Saturday morning NBC aired another episode of "3-2-1 Penguins!" which I was fortunate enough to work on. For much of the series my job was to design various aliens which the Penguins would encounter as they hopped from planet to planet. If the script called for a prop or gag that would change a character's appearance, it was also...

After viewing my last post, artist Robert Miller wrote me and asked:
What do you use to ink your art? These are cool rabbit illos!
I thought his question would make a good blog post, so here goes. Earlier this year I bought a Cintiq and started inking everything digitally (more on that below), but for many years I experimented with various inking methods on paper. Pen and Ink. I first learned how to ink by using a dip pen with Hunt 102 nibs and a bottle of good-old India Ink, and inked my drawings on smooth bristol board. This was back in the late 80's, before computers, when cartoonists were still using rubber cement and x-acto knives to create layouts, and inkers used white-out to fix their goofs. I used the Hunt pen tips for many years, and with them I was able to get a clean, cartoony line.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I recently illustrated the new book Chasing Skinny Rabbits by John Trent. Here's a few of the final illustrations for the book. Each illustration required a different rabbit character, but they let me use the original rabbit design to add some humor to a chapter on marriage: Chasing Skinny Rabbits can be purchased here....