Work Smarter Not Harder

More gems of wisdom from the YouTube world. Maria Brophy reiterates
that it is best to start with a collection of similar styled pieces. Its especially helpful for an artist to focus on one market. Niche markets mean you become more recognizable and recognition breeds popularity.

Daria Jabenko - Words Of Wisdom

I stumbled across this Illustrators YouTube videos the other day and I thought I should share her links with you all. Daria has been very kind to tell us about her techniques for getting illustration work. Its all very simple and truly worthy of viewing. Daria hits on the most basic of principles for illustrators and that's do what you love and have plenty of examples. This should be the easiest of things to do while you have time on your hands. She suggests You should have a port folio of work with loads of different examples in your main style. Not only is this good for showing off your talent but it will hone your skills. Good stuff Daria I hope you post more.

Apps Online

Not only is it possible to find free software for most operating systems. It is also the case that there are apps that are exclusively online. You can create objects and images for your projects without the need to buy or download software. A great example of this is Sumo Paint. Sumo Paint is a Photo Shop look alike that allows you to create images straight from the browser. The great thing about this is you can rock up to a clients office get them to load the URL, start working on the job and then save it to your eyeOs account to then work on it back in your studio. You should check it out http://www.sumopaint.com/app/, if you know of others please let me know because I really love these tools.

Mind Maps

Since I learned how to mind map things, I have been really finding this process of thinking awesome. I easily sort through ideas and processes in a few minutes. I can realize a project and convey my views to clients and co workers allowing for input and new connections. The organic nature of thought is well represented and the structure of a job I am doing becomes apparent in a matter of minutes. I generally like to Gantt chart everything later to be sure of timings and resources.

The best online and free software for this is Mind Meister. I have been using this to work through the Freeware Illustrator process for you all to follow. Check out the mind map for freeware illustrator here http://www.mindmeister.com/56145848/freeware-illustrator .

eyeOS Is My Cloud

Well I have looked at several free cloud operating systems online. But I have decided to go with eyeOS. It seems very simple to set up and use. Remembering that I want my clients to be able to pick up finished work from this cloud and I also want to be able to upload files easily etc. So far eyeOS has shown me that it is flexible, I can share my work with groups and I can store 50 meg of data up there. All good attributes for someone looking to only use his illustration box to create clients jobs on

The Compaq Failed !

Well, given that it was a very old computer it was difficult getting the BIOS to accept a larger hard drive and therefore be able to load Ubuntu. I have given up on this and am now settling on a box I scored for free from a work mate. Its still an older model but at least it can handle a 40 gig hard drive. Thats plenty for my freeware studio box.