IF: Instinct

I've been sidetracked by this whole shutterstock and microstock and world of stock illustration/photography that I've just recently joined. I've been spending all my time creating images for them.
Click here if you wanna join shutterstock yourself!


Anyway - it's a weird line to be walking - do you draw things that, in your opinion, are going to be popular? Or do you draw what you like and hope people will also like them. It comes down to instinct. I've now put up about 130 images on Shutterstock - that's 130 different illustrations - about 80 of them were created in the last 3 weeks (I said I was obsessed). But what is purchased from my uploads is always a surprise. I did about 10 different drawings for valentines day and the one I spent the least amount of time on and just threw up on the site because I finished it turned out to be my most downloaded image so far...by a longshot. I guess it was my instinct to do the image in the first place - and I trusted my art background and composition instincts to lead me towards a successful piece...but it's unpredictable.

Last week my instinct led me to do this image:

I thought, "people like cars...this is a popular car...or at least a recognizable one" and figured it would sell. I had previously drawn an ambulance, a fire truck, and a police car (all which are doing well), but what about some real cars!?!? Turns out I should have read the fine print. This image was turned down at 5 of the 6 places I put up stock illustrations. It's a copyright issue. The image looks too much like a hummer (because it is a hummer). Sadly, there went 2 solid hours of work.

This morning I did this image -

It's more of a clipart and possibly boring illustration. But will it sell? I'm still waiting for approval (it will be approved as long as I don't use the word post-it note, which is a copyright infringement) but it's probably going to be a more popular image...or will it? Time will tell...my instincts lead me all over the place...some have been very successful, and others had answered with a hollow silence...in the meantime, it's been a lot of fun.

I've been doing more drawing now than ever before - and even the 'boring' illustrations of post-it notes have been a lot of fun to create. Anyhow - if you want to join in at all -
Submit Photos or art to Shutterstock and make money!
and vector images are the most popular type of illustration...