The question of whether someone should go to art school or not is a smaller conversation in the bigger “Is Higher Education Worth the Cost” debate raging everywhere (especially in the US). Student debt can be crippling to someone starting out in any field, but it is often extra hard to bear as an artist because most artists will not come out of school able to pull in enough money to support themselves solely off…
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I want to bring up a complicated issue here that has been coming up very often lately in my conversation with artists, and which I deal with often in my role as a creative director in publishing: What is cultural appropriation, and how does it affect what artists make? As media becomes more and more diverse, the question comes up: who has the right to tell which stories? Can an author write a character that…
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Happy New Year everybody! January is a month of good intentions and fresh starts. And the best way...
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Look, I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news right at the start of the new year, but…you’re going to die. I don’t know when, I don’t know how, but we are all going to die. We spend our lives avoiding thinking about it, but it’s the one true unavoidable event. And we don’t really prepare. Those of us who have children tend to be better about doing at least a…
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My column this month is smack between a ton of holidays, and regardless of your national and...
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Ladies and gentlemen, it’s crazy deadline time for our Focus sales meetings at Orbit, so my post tonight will be brief. However, since it is my post closest to Halloween, I will leave you a treat. (Like when I gifted you all with the Supernatural Art Director post. Or the Dune post.)Behold…FREELANCE WARSpic.twitter.com/LxsSGpdOdY — Freelance Wars (@FreelanceWars) January 22, 2018pic.twitter.com/Ma5BtkQQM8 — Freelance Wars (@FreelanceWars) February 5, 2018pic.twitter.com/s0lMtz4dKq — Freelance Wars (@FreelanceWars)…
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If you’re not a designer (and typography nerd) you might not have heard of the Type Directors Club. The TDC is based in NYC, but holds the most prestigious international typography competition every year. The TDC is a great organization and it holds seminars and talks all year, as well as bestow student scholarships. There’s a great archive of talks and videos on their youtube channel. Every year the TDC also holds a Book Nite,…
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I’ve been working at Orbit Books as their Creative Director for 10 years! Which means that...
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I talk a lot about art business and art careers here on Muddy Colors, and if I had to pick one...
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I don’t often do review posts, but every once in a while I see something that knocks my...
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Welcome back to my Magic for Artists series. If you haven’t read the previous two posts, you should probably do that (I’ll wait here). First there was an intro post, Magic for Artists Part One, that discussed why I think it’s valuable for artists to think about magic and how it can be used as a tool to access our subconscious & our inspiration. After that head to Tarot (and other Decks) for Artists,…
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Welcome back to my Magic for Artists series. If you missed Part 1, go back and read it now,...
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A long time ago, at a Spectrum far, far away, Marc Scheff and I presented our first Art Business...
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Before we begin, let me just say I did try to write this as one post, and there’s just simply too much information. So we’re starting with an intro, then the next post will be mostly focused on Cards, because artists love doing card decks! (I mentioned on Facebook that I was thinking of doing a Tarot for Artists post and I was overwhelmed with the response.) So in the next post we’ll be breaking…
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A few months back I had the opportunity to take a 2-day training seminar to become an Arts Mediator, and I wanted to write a bit about the experience here for two reasons. First, I want to make sure you guys know about the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, because they have some amazing programs and not enough artists know about them. Second, I wanted to highlight some mediation skills that you can use for…
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