For those who don't remember me, know me, or care (of the three, the people who don't care are my favorite. Don't bother asking why, I have no idea) – my name is Chris Malidore, and I am an illustrator. I am not a fantastic illustrator.... and I'd like to think that I'm not a horrible illustrator. I am an average illustrator with experiences and the urge to guide some people who may not otherwise know or understand some of the inner workings of the illustration industry.

So anyway bear with me if parts of this end up a little scattered. My art journals are now being written while I'm at work in between files... hopefully it won't force me out of my train of thought too much. You need to understand that these are in no way going to be a permanent installation, I don't have enough material in my head to do that - however when I can, I'll do these limited runs of tips, tricks, and general advice. Hopefully even an interview or two occasionally will pop up as well.

Let's get started. We've talked portfolios before, so I won't quite go back to that yet, when I do, I'd like to talk about how to approach variety yet an overall flavor that ties things together. Right now I'd like to talk about the life style of an artist as requested by the fantastic *danee313 a few months back.

The hardest thing for me as an illustrator has been how to manage between personal and work time. It sounds easier than it is, I assure you. If you freelance, you generally work from home, this means that wherever it is that your computer or paper is -is now your work environment.... and if you sleep in that same space, and eat in that same space, watch tv in that same space, whatever - you now have these worlds colliding. This is how I became a work a holic and have a hard time escaping the mindset now..... sure, it sounds nice to be completely dedicated to something, but it strains relationships, can affect your health greatly, and can even affect your mental attributes a bit.

Say you want to work at 10am, put in an 8 hour work day, and then stop. Cool. So, you wake up at 9:30 or so, eat some cereal, maybe watch some tv, and then get started, this is if you're working from home obviously - traffic shouldn't be bad . So, 8 hours on that has you working until what, 6pm? 6:30 if you take a half hour to eat? Well, idealistically that's not bad. Here's what begins to happen though, you start to eat your lunch while working, you don't get up and take that break, so that right there keeps your mind focused without that important breather. Soon 6pm approaches and you're not done. What do you do? Well if you're like a lot of artists, you keep going. My girlfriend probably has a billion horror stories of "why don't you stop?" and my answer is "I can't.... it's not done yet". So, around 8 at night, maybe you stop. This'll be with minimal breaks probably, no hardcore lunch, just snack food often enough, and so on. You go watch tv, maybe get some dinner, whatever people do in the evenings y'know? So that's like the first few days. Eventually though the hours shift with the work, it happens. We have fluctuating work guys and gals – it's the nature of the beast. A little over time isn't THAT bad, right? But you have no employer telling you when to go home, now do you? So you start working a bit later.

So now you're nocturnal, and you never see your significant other, you've probably eaten very poorly, and your sleep is now fractured. This begins to affect your health heavily. Artists as a general whole get sick very often because we don't have an active job. The immune system can decline if you get no exercise, and assuming you aren't eating like a saint you probably aren't getting any real proteins or vitamins. Now this isn't exactly a medical drama where you end up with cancer or something because you ate too many twinkies, but it is bad for you regardless - it drags you down, often in a depressive way. The body needs those nutrients and now doesn't want to do anything to conserve what little energy you gave it to work with.

So this is a problem. Does it happen to everyone? Hardly. But go pull one week of a tight deadline and tell me that you can't feel any of that lurking. Now imagine a full time schedule of tight deadlines as all of these clients realize that you're actually dependable. Dependability is great for work, but in the end if you can't say no occasionally (and it's hard to decline a gig, truly) you over work yourself and those health issues, lack of social activity, etc problems will inevitably pop up - and they're hard to get out of.

What's an artist to do? Try and create a routine, a schedule, and general good habits. Take some time to work out a little, whether it's just jogging a little, lifting weights, or whatever it is that gets your jollys. Try and turn off the TV while you work on art, so that your work world isn't tied in with your home world. Set your alarm to go off at the same time each day for lunch, save your image if it's on the comp - and then walk away for however long. Remind yourself that the picture WILL be there later, it can't get too far on its own. What I found to be important was to pay special attention to how long it takes me to do my work. I know that I can get a sketch to a client within an hour if I NEED to, and that about 6 hours of painting can get me a good looking image. From there I can give more time if I can, ask for input, or whatever I need.... but basically I do what I can to stay current on my time limitations. This means that you don't overwork yourself in times where you don't really know what's happening. By knowing what you're capable of, you'll know when you can take those breaks and when to say no to work - so that you can spend time with those loved ones.

On top of this, pay attention to your organization - knowing where your files are creates a very professional environment and further keeps you from seeing things as a home session. It's good to be organized regardless of where you are anyway, I know exactly where to find all of my contracts, and even have my client sketches separated from other sketches. Final PSD's are separated by clients, and years, and so on. Makes it easier to do prints, get people files that they need, and generally get to work as needed.

In closing, the more you focus on organization and separating yourself from work while not working, and separating yourself from the home life while working the easier a time you'll have balancing the two out and ultimately not over complicating things. Force yourself to get out occasionally, stop eating nothing but cup o noodles, and watch the time management

Next week we'll be covering “figures in motion”. Y'know, something actually artistic.

-CMalidore