I’ve been a big fan of Jill Calder for a while now and
recently had the pleasure of attending a lecture, where she spoke of the
lessons she has learned over her prolific and successful career. A career which
began in 1993, with her first commission from ‘The Scotsman’ (a £65 editorial
job) and has gone from strength to strength ever since.
She started by discussing the business side to
illustration, and began with her first lesson: ‘Get Paid!’ It may sound like an
obvious point but as Jill went on to explain, there are certain commissions
where the job is the easy part but getting the client to pay you can be a long,
arduous drawn out affair. To illustrate this point (no pun intended) she cited
the following quote:
“The
freelance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.”
Although the quote was made in relation
to writing, the words ring all too true when describing the world of freelance
illustration; some clients will do anything to avoid paying and it can often be
up to the illustrator to be insistent and persistent and chase up payment.
Jill found this out the hard way and
had her fair share of difficult clients. She is now however represented by the
CIA (Central Illustration Agency) who handles that side of things, giving Jill
more time to concentrate on her work.
Of course, the pros and cons to agency
representation could be a whole blog post unto itself; Jill finds that the
agency she is with is right for her, she has a good relationship with them and
the arrangement is one that works well for her. She feels the same way about
her American agent ‘Friend and Johnson’, she said that with both agencies she
has received, interesting and exciting high profile and well paid commissions
that she might not have had otherwise.
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