mc-the-lane

www.livestream.com/mcleankendr… come hang out!

Edit: I'm happy to say that freelance has been going well, and since Big Huge was picked up by 38 Studios, I've been on as a remote contractor with them. Good stuff!

Well, its been a bit since I've written an update, and plenty has happened since the last one.

I was unfortunately laid off at my job at Big Huge Games, along with about 50 others. Upsides include that I had to bite the bullet and get a new laptop (its niiiice), and also my artwork got featured on the Kotaku website when they did their story on the game that we will no longer be making. I guess that's life though, roll with the punches and take the good with the bad.

Freelance has been picking up, and recently I got the attention of a client that I'm REALLY excited about (its one of the big ones!). I'll spill more beans on that when things are set in stone, right now its all looking very positive, but I haven't actually been given the assignment yet. I'm also working on a few different art tests for studios, so hopefully one of them will be a fit, I'd be happy to work at any of them.


So I was thinking, in light of losing my day job and kicking the freelance machine into high-gear, having a strong portfolio is only half the battle in this industry. I mean, if your work is great, well great, but you hafta be able to relentlessly pursue studios and clients with your work, and keep your ears open for potential match-ups. I mean, its a lot of work that doesn't yield immediate results.

My keeping up a blog mcleannews.blogspot.com , making the trip to NYCC 09, having a presence on www.conceptart.org, sending out postcards, and emailing are all part of the same game. I had professors in college say that postcards were a waste when it comes to self promotion. Well, if ALL they were using was postcards, then I would agree. But if you've been interacting with a potential client at conventions and on their blogs and periodically sending email updates, a postcard can be "the straw that broke the camel's back" in getting them to consider you for work. I'm serious about this! Its all the little things that add up, there's more to being a successful artist than simply making good artwork.

Ah, I think I'm done with my tiny rant for today. But if anyone knows of any studios who need a concept artist, feel free to point me in their general direction.


EDIT: I got rollin' on some related stuff below in a reply, so I thought I would just add it up here to keep it all consolidated.


If you're having trouble finding new clients to work for and don't know where to look, its actually kinda simple when you stop and think about it. Check out professional illustrators' sites where they list their clients. Sure, there will be clients like Marvel or WotC, generally tough nuts to crack. But you will also find smaller companies that are easier to get your foot in the door. Fantasy Flight Games was one of the first companies that ever gave me a freelance gig (still do, from time to time). So look everywhere where you'd expect to find the names of new companies. Even in Spectrum you can find out what some of the artworks were done for, and once you know the name of the company it was done for, its simply a matter of tracking down that company online and finding their contact info.

Once you do have clients, one of the best ways to prevent your freelance stream from "dying" is making sure you find every excuse to email them every two months or so. "Hey I want to share this new piece I recently did" or "Hey I'm free for the next few months to take on more work, got anything coming up?" can work.

So yeah, I think its all pretty common-sense once you get the ball rolling and get into the groove.


Also, my other bit of advice is to keep on contacting professional illustrators who you look up to, and ask them how your portfolio could be better tailored to get freelance work. Even if only 1 in every 5 respond, if you email 25 artists, thats 5 good opinions you can chew on.

This is a good blog to keep tabs on too, artorder.blogspot.com/ loads of helpful self-promotion advice.

Good Luck!

And as always, visit my blog: mcleannews.blogspot.com and feel free to subscribe, even!

First of all, the big reason I am writing this journal is to encourage anyone interested in conversation/debate about "fantasy art" to check out my most recent post at my blog: mcleannews.blogspot.com I'm trying to treat my blog as a combo eye-candy/food-for-thought type of situation. This is the first time I've written something like this in a while, and its short, but I really kind of enjoyed it. I am going to brainstorm on some different ideas for the coming months. We'll see how it goes.

Nextly: I gotz a job a little over 2 months ago! I'm working up in Baltimore at Big Huge Games under THQ. Its nice, we're working on an undisclosed RPG project, and I can't really say any more than that for now.

Spectrum 15 finally came out, and my work is in there! I'm pretty stoked about it, but the deadline for the next Spectrum is already around the corner! I've been reworking some previous images, so if you go back through my gallery you may notice that some of my images are possibly a little better than the last time you saw them.

Lastly, I'm excited to be attending the James Jean gallery show this coming weekend in NYC at the Jonathan Levine Gallery, with friends from Virginia Commonwealth University. We saw some pictures online of the gallery itself, and its not terribly huge. This place is going to be SWAMPED. I wonder if I'll actually be able to see any of the art.

Thanks for reading peeps! Blog at: mcleannews.blogspot.com

So wow, I got a Daily Deviation on my Sirius Black painting. I sold it a couple months ago at Megacon in Orlando, FL, so its kinda neat to be reminded that I did this and its awesome to see that people like it. I have to announce a crazy-huge thank-you to Dragonwinter ( dragonwinter.deviantart.com ) who suggested my piece and wrote up the dramatic description of it! And thank you to everyone who has commented on it and faved it and everything!


Now the disclaimer part, which is related to something else. I have been adding a lot of people lately and every now and then another devart user might not really understand why I put a watch on them. The thing is, other peoples' opinions are really important, and by hearing what others think about my work, it helps me better understand how i should be working and what works in my pieces. I have friended a lot of people to put myself in direct contact with those who may have a strong opinion that they might share. Be it positive or negative.

If I've added you, I'm not going to treat it like an obligation for you to add me back. But the people who have an opinion will share it, and the people who don't care much for my stuff will ignore.

So in closing, if you have any kind of constructive opinion or reaction to my work, that's why I added you. I am grateful for all the feedback that people go out of their way to give me. Thanks a lot for reading, I appreciate it!

well, I've got an in-progress portfolio up in the form of a blog now. Its a lot cleaner looking than devart, which is great for professionalism.

check it out at mclean-kendree.blogspot.com and give me some feedback. Well, I guess you would've already done that on devart if you were going to, but check it out anyway!