Tuesday 21 September 2010

I am Represented!


I am very happy to announce that I have an illustration agent! I am now on the roster for Inky Illustration. Inky are a relatively new agency with a diverse range of artists to it's name and I'm very pleased that they considered my work good enough to want to represent me. I hope it's the start of a productive working relationship.
I've emailed several agencies over the last 6 months with the old "Thanks, but it's not what we're looking for" response, which is fair enough as my work doesn't fit in with a lot of the more popular commercial illustration styles. Of course, getting 15 emails with the same response plants the seeds of doubt and I went through a whole maybe-I-need-to-change-my-style-to-fit-with-what's-popular thing. But as much as I want to make a living from being an illustrator, I've never wanted to give it to popular trends and have always stuck to my guns in carving out my own style. I'm very glad that it's paid off at last! :D
Of course, there's also the question of whether having an agent will get you more work. I've heard a lot of positive and negative things from illustrators with agents so it's always hard to gauge if the one you finally get will help your career. From experience, the fact that you have an agent seems to make potential clients more inclined to hire you anyway. The awesome blog, Escape From Illustration Island, has a great collection of articles about Art Representation which are well worth a read. Has anyone else got an agent, and if so, how is it working out?

4 comments:

  1. That's awesome! The reason I love your work so much is because I love hand drawn illustrations. I do appreciate good vector/illustrator work but I will always love hand drawn stuff.
    I'm glad that you haven't suddenly decided to try and fit in with what is popular but it seems to me your work is popular enough! I don't have any experience with agencies unfortunately but it certainly won't do any harm to see if more work comes your way. Good luck!

    Louise x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh wow, congratulations :D That's fantastic!
    (ps. I'm glad you stuck to your guns, please keep your style please. I love it! There's something quite special about your style that just endlessly amuses me. Plus, now when I read Lovecraft all the monsters pop into my head as your drawings...I'm being serious).
    Thanks also for that link. I might take a gander over there. Apparently I learnt nothing of any practical use at all in my years at college in terms of Life After Degree.
    But congratulations again, and good luck!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is brilliant news go you!

    xxx

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congratulations Jess!

    You are truly living the dream and I for one am jealous as anything!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails