Inside the Business of Illustration Paperback – Illustrated, October 1, 2004

If after reading this book you still want to be an illustrator, then you may have enough drive to make it. This book doesn't paint a rosy picture, nor should it. Talent, business savvy and realistic goals are all part of the equation. Understanding the difficulties and learning how to deal with them and staying creative is a challenge. Find your niche. Strive to be the best at it and understand this career will consume you. And if you want a life outside of illustration make sure you have an understanding partner and friends who support your career!Having worked as a freelance illustrator for over 20 years, I can say from experience that there is a lot of truth contained within this book. I definitely would recommend it to anyone starting out or wanting to learn more about illustration and the history regarding this profession. I wish something like this was available when I was starting out, because it would have saved me a lot of time.4 stars because it doesn't cover other pertinent business matters such as copyright registration, self-employment issues like healthcare, taxes and such. This is not a bible for illustration, it is more of an overview. I wish it had covered more categories in depth but there are other books available out there.

This cover of this book is quite a contradiction: interesting designs, almost like a sketchbook, but with the dullest, driest title ever.The book actually makes its way through the potential desert of business information through conversations between an art director and illustrator, so it's actually a very entertaining read.The material covered is very helpful.The 4 star review is because of a number of typographical errors (typos) and misspellings that I found while reading it. Not just one, but multiples, including one or two of the artist's names that they were discussing!! I'm not an editor but apparently I could have edited this book better. I expect higher quality.Five stars for making business interesting, 3 stars for their editing skills so that makes an average of 4 for the book.

I purchased this book for an online class I am taking for my Master degree. I started reading the book and it gave me a very bad light on the program of study that I have chosen, and after the class began I found out that I didn't need the book! I have read most of it now, and after the first chapter the book mellows out and it has helped with my evaluation of other projects for this class.

I was thinking of going back to school to become an animator. My real passion is illustration. I bought this book to explore and learn about the industry. Overall I felt it painted a very real, but fairly grim picture of a career as an illustrator. 'Starving artist' is what I pictured...I wasn't interested in starving so maybe the book did it's job...

For all the talking in this book, when you're trying to break into any business, there's no substitute for self-promotion. And as I learned, painfully, that includes cold-calling art directors to make sure they received your carefully designed mailer, and to keep mailing. Gets expensive, but that's just how it is.

This book is wonderful. It interviews several different working illustrators and shows how different everyones' path is as a freelance illustrator. I recommend for those looking into illustration as a business.

I purchased this book because it was required for this ART class I am taking. It is rather boring but it's OKAY.

:)

Got through a fair bit of the book and it's really interesting and learnt some new things. And I know how you shouldn't judge a book by its cover but if you are okay about reading then this is a good book for you and if you are interested in Illustration. And I'm doing Illustration at university so it's a handy book.

Not a real analysis of how one -as an illustrator- should construct a career, but more a bunch of dispersed topics displaced through Q&A sessions with different insiders.

Mi aspettavo un libro un po' più schematico.L'intervista che domina il libro è interessante ma alla lunga un po' noiosa.