Welcome to The Friday Five, a weekly digest of 5 things that caught my attention in the past week. Welcome to Issue No. 8!
01 Industry-ish News
Wait, There Was an Illustration Contest for Pokemon TCG?
This week, the winners for the 2024 Pokemon TCG Illustration Contest were announced. While I heartily congratulate the winners (who, by the way, had to be re-selected because of an AI-based cheating scandal), it’s bigger news to me that The Pokemon Company (who earned US$431.8M last year) runs an illustration contest at all.
My beef with illustration contests is that they trivialize the profession and devalue the work of the artists who enter them. While winners of this contest do receive cash prizes and get to see their art on a real Pokemon card, there are thousands more who will never get any credit or remuneration for their effort.
Contests like this are exploitative in that the companies running them will usually get more value from entrants than the other way around. While the 1st and 2nd prizes ($5k and $3k respectively) are are more than most people will ever earn from their art, neither approach what an established illustrator could ask for, especially in this situation, where they are required to give up moral rights to the work1.
On the other hand, maybe this is just a fun reason to make some fan art. As a marketing tactic, art contests have been around for a long time, and some have even helped launched artists’ careers (case in point: Lucian Bernhardt’s poster for Priester Matches in 1906).
What do you think? Do you think illustration contests unfairly exploit artists, or are they mutually beneficial for company and artists alike?
02 Worth a Follow
Andy Rementer
I love the wooden characters of UK-based artist Andy Rementer, whose creations are “fun on the outside, [but] slightly dark on the inside.” I discovered Andy’s work on Pinterest when looking for inspiration for my own wooden figurines, something I have dabbled in but hope to take more seriously at some point.
03 Something I Learned
Why Won’t People Buy My Art?
There is so much wisdom in the answers to this question, posed by Threads user @teatimecreative. If you’ve ever wondered why your art isn’t selling, 1) you are not alone, and 2) there are ways to improve your situation!
Here are some great tips that I found in the responses:
Have set prices — People are very uncomfortable when you ask them to name a price for your work. Don’t pass this responsibility onto others.
Show how people would use or display the art — People may like your art, but they may not know what they’re supposed to do with it. Help them with mockups or photos.
Make good work — Quite a few comments mentioned how the original poster’s work was “mid” and lacked stylistic consistency. (FTR this tough critique was always very kindly worded).
On a Personal Note: Kudos to the OP for bravely asking such a vulnerable question, inviting honest feedback, and actually hearing out the honest answers (some of which are really honest!).
04 Unsolicited Advice
Make Art First, Make Sense of it Later
Art is deeper than words or logic can define. Sometimes you have to make it first, and only later try to make any sense of it. This is admittedly opposite to what I often say to illustrators: don’t try to make art until you know what you’re making it for.
Both are true, though. We need to make space for experimentation, which is the Art that transcends words. Then, when it’s time to turn words into Art (a.k.a. Illustration), we have a visual language to work with.
In my own practice: I make my sense-less art in my daily drawing practice. While there may be all kinds of reasons drawing every day, a huge side-effect is the possibility discovering new techniques and ideas to bring into your professional work. I’m looking for ways to re-invigorate my commercial style. Trying to find my style too directly always seems to fall flat. I’m only thinking about this colour or that line quality, when one’s true style is really just the tip of a deeper iceberg. It’s only by chipping away at notions each day, in my daily practice, that I have a chance to find clues to what this next thing can be for me, outside the pressures of a deadline and current client expectations.
05 Caught My Eye
Tips for Artists who Want to Sell
Fellow BC-based illustrator, Sebastian Abboud, recently shared these handy-tips from the late artist John Baldessari. Actually, Baldessari was a conceptual artist (a.k.a. art charlatan? 😜), who, according to The Broad, “never touched this painting. He did not write the text”, and this “painting” was Baldessari’s challenge to the notion of art that was popular at the time it was made (1966), ironically quoted from “an art trade magazine dictating what content should be.”
On a Personal Note: John Baldessari is a revered patron saint of my alma mater, NSCAD, where his words, “I will not make any more boring art” echo throughout the institution — even in Latin inside their Karen Konzuk-designed alumni ring.
What did you think of this week’s Friday Five? Please let me know in a comment!
Tom Froese is an award-winning illustrator, a Top Teacher on Skillshare, and host of the Thoughts on Illustration podcast.
The official contest rules (https://www.ptcgic-cr.com/2024/en/agreement) forbid entrants from exercising their moral rights. Do a text search of “moral rights” on the contest rules page to see for yourself.
This was an interesting piece Tom. I'm always wondering what the special sauce is that makes some work sell, and other work sit on the shelf (or the wall). A thing I've definitely noticed in my own work is that when I try and analyse why a print of mine sold well, and create something new on that basis, it invariably falls flat. Trying to produce commercial work, as outlined in the Baldessari painting, is (at least for me) a non-starter, as I'm sure was his feeling in making that piece.
I have a pet formula for art which is: capturing/sharing experience + invention/inspiration/original thought. For me, the IDEA is king. Maybe something of that is important not just in making art but also in making art that sells.
As an illustrator myself, I'm not sure I agree that illustration contests 'trivialise' the profession. Illustration certainly is a profession, but drawing is also something lots of people who aren't illustrators do in their spare time, for fun. Some other things, like singing, are similar - do Pop Idol contests trivialise the profession of singing? I'm not sure, but it doesn't feel like it to me. It feels like they might help encourage people to bridge the gap between dabbling and deciding to make a career of it. But I hadn't really thought about it til I read your piece, so I'm not sure :)