Microstock report for July, 2009

It seemed like it was going to be quite a disappointing month in Microstock. Shutterstock

took quite a hit because, once again, we didn't really upload any. We really have been losing out on ODs (which are $2.49 downloads) which have really dropped off from the last couple of months. My gallery show is over, so when I have some spare time, I've been trying to do some small things for these sites...

Anyway - Shutterstock still leads the pack (with $117). They're still the easiest to upload to, and have the easiest acceptance of all the microstock sites. And it seems like you get more downloads from Shutterstock than from any other site...

Coming back into second place was Istockphoto. With $65 it was Istockphotos best month ever. It's actually quite impressive (to me) because of how small our portfolio is (37 images).

In 3rd place - and it was expected to drop - was Dreamstime - http://www.dreamstime.com/res1220499-high-resolution-pictures - Last month we had our first EL (extended license) which accounted for 25 dollars all by itself...this month our total was a bit lower...but the downloads were constant (a couple every day or so) for a total of $29 for July.

What was surprising was how much we made on Bigstockphoto ! Last month we were at an all time low of $7 (for the entire month!). It came roaring back into 4th place with $25.50. And it wasn't just one or so images, but a bunch selling throughout the month.

On Fotolia - we got our second EL - it was a vector EL this time - so it only accounted for 12 dollars, but made for a decent showing on Fotolia (which seems to have slowed way down from the first couple of months)...but we still ended up with $23. http://www.fotolia.com/partner/200987314

And finally - the last one I'm going to talk about is Stockxpert. I was surprised that it ended up in 5th place on the list with just over $20...because we always got downloads on this site...the only thing is that a download or two a day (and consistantly) at 30 cents a clip doesn't add up to that much. Once again we got an EL (our third total for all sites...I've heard it's hard to get ELs for illustrators...people usually reserve that pricey download for photographs) for Tracey's Chocolate Strawberry.

It wasn't such a bad month because some of the sites picked up the slack of some of the slower ones. I expect Shutterstock to pick back up because of some new uploads...and Istockphoto, even with a small portfolio has been very consistant. We were only off the pace of last month by a couple of dollars ($4.27 to be exact)...so all in all, not so bad for the 3rd month in a row where we didn't really upload anything. It's quite nice to make 300 dollars (almost) for not doing a bit of work (mostly)...! I'll report again next month!

IF: Idle panda

This is a rough for a new illustration I'm doing with the panda (one of my little square animals):

I did a quick rough drawing in Photoshop - very rough because I was using a wacom (it's easier with a cintiq)...and then I copied it over to Illustrator and cleaned up the lines and adjusted my perspective.

Hopefully I'll be able to get to the color and have it finished by the weekend.

IF: Idle

lil' bloody Jason Voorhees

This works a couple of ways. Jason just sits idlely around waiting for kids to stumble into the creepy campsite...and then he kills them. Secondly - Jason has been around so long and even though his movies are hard to take serious, he's a horror icon/idol. And sure it's the wrong spelling of Illustration Friday's topic (idle), but the second sentence of this paragraph explains all.

This is one of the pieces I had in my Nickelodeon Animation Studio art gallery show. I previously posted that picture earlier this year (when I did it) but I had a couple of people interested in this print - I had done a 'clean' version of this picture (which I was inspired by the old mcfarlane toys...where they'd sell a clean and regular version of a movie monster...basically it means with or without blood.). The clean version was for the studio...I knew that Nickelodeon doesn't let you put up images of guns and violence...I don't think they would have protested too much about this illustration, but just to be sure I had my 'innocent' version for the gallery.

I thought the people interested in this print would get a kick out of the bloody version, and when I showed it to them on my computer, I had two sales! I thought I'd take the piece a little bit further and bloody up the machete as well.

July Art Gallery at Nickelodeon

On July 10th I finally had my art gallery open at Nickelodeon Animation Studio in Burbank. I interned there on Dora the Explorer (in it's first season) in 2000 and have been working there full time since 2002.

It's an incredible place to work...and one part of that is the art gallery they maintain in the main hallway. It's the hallway everyone walks through (from production, to artists, to celebrities. As I put my illustrations in the gallery Alfonso Ribeiro asked me for directions to the security desk to sign in) and I've always wanted to have a solo show there.

In 2007 I came back to Nickelodeon after a small hiatus (between the cancellation of Danny Phantom, the non pickup of Splattapus, and the renewal of Fairly Odd Parents, which had been originally shelved in 2005), one of the first things on my mind was to schedule a gallery. I figured in the few months between signing up for it, I'd have plenty of artwork to show off. They like to plan things very far in advance which meant the gallery was booked up through the end of 2008...and the first date available was July of 2009. It seemed like forever away, but at least it would give me plenty of time to work on my art.

the oldest piece in my gallery - from 2006 - it's a watercolor of a chinstrap penguin

Cut to April of this year - I've had the gallery on my mind on occasion, but I usually didn't think about it - and by April it was the furthest thing from my mind. Luckily for me, I happened to wake up one morning and it struck me like a revelation. Did I have a gallery still? I hadn't heard anything in all these long months, so I figured I'd better check into it.

The very last piece I did for the show (finished on Thursday morning)

What's nice is that I haven't been wasting my time. I had two different areas of interest that I wanted to explore - vinyl toys and children's books. I switched back and forth between ideas and when I checked with the person in charge of the gallery, I had over 35 pieces that I was confident I could use in the show. And since it was only April, I still had three long months to draw like mad.

The gallery right before they announce the opening

The next thing I knew it was June, and instead of drawing and painting (digitally) I had to turn my attentions to finding a color printer place and finding matts and frames for all the art. It's quite a daunting task to accomplish, so I'm glad I had my wife there to help me out. Some time in the next week I'll upload each illustration individually, and you'll see how much of a help she was (everything not in a black frame and black matt is her choice...I can do the art, but I'm terrible at being creative with frames).

Here's me in the gallery after having finished putting up all the titles and prices.

Here's the food spread (thai food and fruit)

The full gallery - wine on the right and thai food on the left

Zebra Berries for Mommy (cover) and other children's book art

A few of my early Adelia pieces

Igor Penguin and a couple of (older) penguin watercolors

Some of my early Penguin watercolors (from 2006-2007)

.

Some of my square animal children's book (style) illustrations

Some of the newer Adelia pieces I've done (between late 2008 - early 2009)

It was a pretty great show. I spent half the time leading up to the show wanting it to be over and then in eager anticipation. On one hand I just wanted the art up but didn't want all the attention, but on the other hand I was looking forward to seeing people enjoy the work that I've spent the last two years producing. The thrill part of it won out and I had a good time.

Drawn by all the free food and the chance to hang out (as well as all the nice art, or so I was told) - there were a lot of people. The food was all gone before 6 (but there was alcohol until the very end...so they had the important stuff covered). It was a lot of fun and I was completely flattered by all the positivity and compliments.

One of the pieces that sold on Friday night.

.

It was nice to see it all come together after all this time. I ended up with 52 paintings - between my watercolors and digital illustrations.

IF: Shaky and wobbly swing

I don't know if you've ever done this when you were a kid - but when someone was deep in thought on a swing....you charge at ramming speed and push them up and over. Now, when they're on board (or paying attention) they just start swinging and everyone has a good time. But when you catch them off guard, the swing goes all shakey and wobbly as they freak out and try to stay on (sometimes you just end up pushing them to the ground, and that's even funnier). That's what shaky said to me and that's why i drew this picture...

This is the finished version

Short Stumpy Giraffe: Revision

I changed a little bit about this piece - it was pretty much done, but just needed a little push. I added tears to his eyes to make him a bit more pathetic - and then I set about the time consuming task of self coloring the lines - it's not such a hard thing if you're doing the entire illustration in photoshop - but I like to keep my vector lines (that I draw in Adobe Illustrator) in tact, which means that any changes to the lines have to be done in Illustrator.

So here it is - in all it's finished glory - I just have to print it out and frame it...and it'll be ready for the gallery show (all the artwork is due this thursday morning at 10:00)...after two years of waiting, and forgetting, and working very hard...the show is finally here!