e-Pulsar - Jun

e-Pulsar Jun - Jul 98

SO, YOU WANNA BE AN ARTIST??

Okay, buy some paint and shove it around on a canvas - now you're an "artist." But how do you get other people, especially those with an open check book, to call you an artist? With the Kudos Korner increasing in size each issue, I thought this might be an interesting subject to discuss, and plenty of the membership had something to say. Ever verbose Bob Eggleton started it off with the following missive.

"The need for astronomical art - like the kind defined by Chesley B's stuff - is very small. The SF field would welcome anyone doing this, and probably pays better than the science magazine field. National Geographic pays good, I'm told, but be prepared to feel humiliated the first few times you show them your stuff: they are totally insane about accuracy, but when you are "in" they are willing to pay for that kind of time spent. Other European mags use mainly slides and pay pretty decently. Astronomy & S/T over here pay little and virtually nothing, respectively. It's not that they don't like art, they do, they just only use it when a photo won't do, and it tends to be more diagrammatic, especially Astronomy, which has a much slicker look and design than it used to with lots more computer art. Sky & Tel has upgraded it's newsstand look too, but doesn't have much more art content or money.

"Also: be persistent. Try educational publishers, textbook and 'science paper' publishers. They can run either way on money, one I know tends to pay 'up' while others tend to pay enough to cover your effort - like $25 - $50. "It's interesting: in the SF/Fantasy field, I get lots of questions like, 'What ever happened to astronomical art?' It was the question raised about books like SPECTRUM and Infinite Worlds. I have told them time and again about the IAAA and it's like 'Well, these people should put more stuff up at SF cons.' (Might be a BIG hint here folks! - Jon) In that biz, it used to be Rick Sternbach, Ron Miller, Vincent DiFate and myself that were known for displaying such pieces and all of us have either left the SF fan/con biz or have, like me, changed their style and content."

Dave Hardy had a short, yet simple answer: "Send it in! Never originals, slides are best, or prints/colour copies if you must. If they like your work, they'll soon tell you." Joe Tucciarone, who has been fortunate enough to get into Sky & Tel and some other publications every now and then, has similar advice. "I have no secrets or tips. All I do is send a few samples of my best art in slide form to the art directors. Once I get a response (whether positive or negative) from her/him, I wait awhile and periodically send new images, either in slide form, as a small color photo print, or on a floppy or zip disk. Of course, I always offer to let them keep the material 'for future reference', otherwise many publishers send it back, even at their own expense."

God Eyes...
"God Eyes His Creation..." By Joe Bergeron
The "eye" in the background is based on a Hubble image of a planetary nebula.