Serpentine
2014-09-17, 08:17 AM
I have a friend who makes polyurethane resin sculptures, seriously amazing ones, at least as good as I've seen in any comic book store. He's sold a few, including a couple of commissioned pieces (which he finds difficult to do, as clients have a very specific idea but not the language to describe it so it tends to not be exactly what they envision), but is having trouble working out how to get a career out of it.
He's got a Deviant Art (http://michaeleastwood.deviantart.com/) account and is looking at an Etsy one. I've suggested getting a simple but professional-looking website, but his craft is already pretty expensive without adding the cost of website upkeep. This is something he'd really like to make a career out of somehow, and I genuinely think he should be able to. But I don't know enough about that field to help. I'm hoping you lot do.
So, I see two main (not necessarily mutually exclusive) ways he could do this:
1. As an independent artist. I expect he'd have to be careful of licencing issues with making sculptures of copyrighted characters (which we can't talk about here, just wanna make it known that it's been taken into account). Aside from that, with his own creations, what's the best way to get your work out there? How do you market yourself, and price your own pieces fairly (for yourself and your customers)? Etc etc etc...
2. Working for a company that makes things like this, like the places that make the action figures and figurines you can buy in comic book shops. How do you access places like that? What sort of circles do you need to watch to find a job opening, or who do you send your portfolio to? Especially in Australia...
Unfortunately he doesn't have much of his work, especially his original creations, on his Deviant Art yet, but he tells me he intends to do so soon. I shared the link up there if you wanna have a look, anyway.
He's got a Deviant Art (http://michaeleastwood.deviantart.com/) account and is looking at an Etsy one. I've suggested getting a simple but professional-looking website, but his craft is already pretty expensive without adding the cost of website upkeep. This is something he'd really like to make a career out of somehow, and I genuinely think he should be able to. But I don't know enough about that field to help. I'm hoping you lot do.
So, I see two main (not necessarily mutually exclusive) ways he could do this:
1. As an independent artist. I expect he'd have to be careful of licencing issues with making sculptures of copyrighted characters (which we can't talk about here, just wanna make it known that it's been taken into account). Aside from that, with his own creations, what's the best way to get your work out there? How do you market yourself, and price your own pieces fairly (for yourself and your customers)? Etc etc etc...
2. Working for a company that makes things like this, like the places that make the action figures and figurines you can buy in comic book shops. How do you access places like that? What sort of circles do you need to watch to find a job opening, or who do you send your portfolio to? Especially in Australia...
Unfortunately he doesn't have much of his work, especially his original creations, on his Deviant Art yet, but he tells me he intends to do so soon. I shared the link up there if you wanna have a look, anyway.