Read Me First

I'm a full-time freelance digital illustrator and I'm so up to my ass in work that I can afford to share all my secrets.

Way back when I first got on the internet I joined Myspace and thought I'd check out some alumnists from Columbus College of Árt and Design and see how other artists are fairing in this business.

Was I surprised!

Almost every post I read was some poor sap crying about how they have paid all this money and studied all these years at one of the top art colleges in the country and when they got out of school there were no jobs for artists anywhere.

At this point, I had been working a part-time telemarketing job and shipping color xerox prints of my fantasy paintings (as signs, numbered prints) to gaming convention art shows all over the country, halfway to being a full-time freelance artist.

It occurred to me that traditional methods like going to college and using that degree to find a job don't necessarily work in the art/illustration world like they do in other fields. There really aren't that many jobs waiting for art-college grads, which sort of made me glad I never fell for the student loan trap.

Being poor, like most artists who put the honing of their skills before making money, I had the foresight to know that I'd most likely never be able to afford to pay back a student loan, even with the college education. To me, that was a gamble, and I just never liked gambling. I figured I could do this without the college education.

Also, my interests were leaning towards sci-fi/fantasy art and realism. CCAD didn't teach that. So I decided to find my own way.

After all, what exactly does college do? I went to one year of CCAD on a scholarahip from my high school. After that one frustrating year of feeling like no one was teaching me anything, that one year of professors who tell you to paint, then tell you that you did it all wrong, without ever really explaining what exactly I should do, I came to this conclusion.

You pay a shitload of money to a big corporation-funded institution who hires people to give you a book, tell you to read the book, then when you come to class they explain what's in the book, then test you to see if you understand the book and if you don;'t, you fail and have to give them more money to do it all again and if you do you get a piece of paper saying you read the book and passed the test.

Why not just read the book?

So I figure I'll take the information I learned from experience and write my own book. I'd give it away but I have to give up a lot of my creative time to write it so I want something for my time, even if it's only a few buck a month. 

So if you want to learn, send me an email and I'll send you lesson 1 for free. if you want more, you can subscribe to my lessons for $4/month. You pay as you go. If you want to pay $4 and study your ass off for one month and wait a few to order another month you can do that. I'll update the Lessons as I learn new things. Mostly links to good tutorials. 

While you're subscribed you can leave comments on the lessons and if they are questions I'll answer them. They'll be public so you can read other member questions and answers.

Stop your subscription any time, or continue by paying each month, whatever you want to do or can afford.

Feel free to email me here

daleziemianski@gmail.com