To put it plainly, I believe this has been a uniquely bad year to be a freelance illustrator. I can only speak for myself, but I suspect that many other folks are going to agree with me here. Like a lot of creatives, I find it hard to put distance between my work, my career, and my personal identity. As a result, and in combination with overlapping challenges in my personal life, sitting down to write an essay on the business or practice of illustration feels especially daunting. It leaves me feeling I have nothing to offer. Talking about esoteric photography concepts or process tips feels like equal parts “fiddling while Rome burns” and “aren’t there 100 other artists who could say this better?”*
This is a heavy topic, so I’m populating it with some recent paintings of cute animals that live outside my house. Look at the little chipmunk. So tiny! So Adorable!
But I’ve generally tried to make a practice of writing about the topics that I’m actively interested or struggling with. I also believe that this must be a shared experience, and shared experiences are always interesting to the other folks living through them. I have a lot of thoughts to sort and resolutions to make and maybe that can be of value to others too.
Why Does It Feel So Bad?
When I try to pin down exactly what is making 2023 feel like such a brutal year for illustrators, I find myself careening between several concerning problems. Which in and of itself is probably the overall answer: multiple disruptions are happening at the same time. The fact that many of us have yet to fully shake the fatigue of Living Through The Pandemic might make some of these feel bigger than they really are. But from my perspective:
A.I.
Might as well start with the biggest bad. Generative AI smashed like the Kool-Aid Man through our collective wall of mental health late last year. It had been around before that, but somewhere around November of 2022 there was an escalation that could no longer be ignored. I should probably look it up so that I can seem well informed on the subject, but an even bigger part of me recoils at the whole thing so I’ll just assume it was a new roll out of Midjourney or something. I am not a reliable source for identifying what caused the tipping point. All I know is, I started seeing a trickle of images showing up and that turned into a deluge. There was a feeling of freefall by January that prompted such a collective wail of anguish from the art community that I actually left social media for most of this past year. I just could not function in that firehose of anxiety. While this might have been necessary for me at the time, I can’t help but view it as a potential mistake and I’ll talk more about that shortly.
But how big of a problem is AI? It is truly impossible to say right now. My earlier answer of “existential threat, both to our industry as well as human creative expression” was probably going too far. Probably. But this one is moving fast and it is hard to see the shape of the storm from inside the storm. While there have definitely been some concrete negative impacts (studio layoffs, AI turning up in major product releases), there have also been some rays of hope. Wizards of the Coast put out a “No AI” policy. The Writers Guild successfully carved out protections from AI. The US Copyright office has consistently maintained that works produced by generative AI are not eligible for protection. I’m certainly not saying “it’s all good,” but the signs of resistance are a life raft I will gladly cling to.
This is a baby frog! He lives with his family in a little pond. Normally they’re pretty chill, but ever since the tadpoles grew up, they’ve been extra skittish. I have to be really sneaky to get a peek.
Social Media
Remember when I said it might have been a mistake to peace out from social media? Yeah, it turns out that going full hermit while the industry suffers a major contraction is actually a BAD idea. But the point might be moot, because social media is also a hot mess. While I was never a Twitter user personally, it’s the most vivid example of how closely tied our fortunes can be to a platform. And while I do greatly enjoy watching a billionaire publicly and spectacularly fail through his own hubris, the fallout is hurting many creatives who are losing a key means of promoting and earning. My personal flavor of socials has been Instagram and Facebook though. Unfortunately, organic reach is a joke now that these platforms have fully embraced monetizing posts. It’s possible that only 1-3% of my followers actually like the work I’m making, but that seems like suspiciously poor engagement. But how about youtube? Tiktok? One of the 20 various “we’re the new Twitter” platforms? I’m not sure, because I don’t have the capacity to be running that many parallel accounts and starting from zero on any platform is a slog. It broadly feels like there is a population wide fatigue and building an audience is harder than ever before. I wish I had a note of optimism to add, but I don’t. Social media in 2023 truly feels like screaming into the void. But what are you going to do, NOT scream into the void? We have to scream someplace.
Less Work
This is what it really comes down to. To be clear, I have no facts to support this statement. Only vibes. So you can definitely dismiss this. All I can say is that it sure seems like there is a shortage of work to go around based on the vibes running through my irl and online communities. Whatever the case, I can certainly say that 2023 has been a dry, dry year for me. Upside, it’s been a wet, wet year (why does that feel not correct?) for me rediscovering personal projects.
This sparrow doesn’t come down to say hi very often. That’s a smart move though, since we don’t really know each other. Watch out for strangers, sparrow!
I wish that I had more data on this, but I honestly do not know what is happening. Some companies appear to be rolling out more product than ever before, but assignments are still thin and project cancellations seem to be more common. Of course, this might entirely be an “it’s just me” situation. My style of work may be out of fashion and my lack of visibility and promotion absolutely do have a part to play. I don’t know, leave a comment and tell us if your workload is up, down, or steady? Genuinely want to know.
A Bad Economy
So the news tells me that, actually, it’s a good economy again! Or maybe a less awful one. So relatively good? I’m not sure. I tend to notice that public feelings are always on a lag from whatever the economists say though. And I feel like, going by public opinion, people are still feeling cautious right now. Which means less private commissions, less sales of originals, and I have to assume less of any other direct support that fans can give to artists. Anecdotally, I recently had a buyer committed to a major purchase only to back out due to changes in their own finances, while others are many months behind on pieces being paid over time. And I get it, because I’m feeling pretty tight with my own spending.
I do want to thank the collectors who have kept me going though the year though. I saw a lot of folks buying at IX just a couple weeks ago, so I’m hoping that we’re hitting the upswing again.
This fox showed up one morning and scared all the deer away. Which, you know, not cool. But also, I was excited to see a fox passing through all the same.
What to do right now?
I think that all four of these problems are real and that they are significant. But they are not permanent. Pendulums swing and fortunes change if we can hang in there long enough.
Reassess
Situations like this are a perfect time to step back and reassess. Reassess everything. Personally, I’ve been taking a look at: the focus and direction of my work, sources of income, how I promote, how much I promote, and what do I want to be doing that I’m not doing?
My past few years have been a blur of gritted teeth and frantic motion just dealing with, well, life. When I was working, it was similarly frantic jumping from project to project. And a ton of that work is still tied up in NDA limbo including four, yes FOUR, illustrated novels. And now that I stop and look back and look forward, there were a number of things I wish I’d done differently if I’d had the wherewithal to do anything other than reflexively keep moving forward.
Value Current Relationships
If you have good clients that you stay in touch with, good. Keep doing that. Same with good collectors. Hard times are a reminder that this business really benefits those who maintain good relationships. If there’s folks you haven’t connected with in awhile, no time like the present to reach out. I personally don’t always feel comfortable with this. Especially with collectors, where the line between friendship and money is often blurry. But maintaining relationships is essential for sustained success.
This Carolina Wren actually built a nest right under my window! She was a good mama bird too, constantly bringing food to her beebs, then back out again to look for more
Personal Development
The biggest positive improvements in my career have resulted from personal projects. Of course, a lot of personal projects have also lead nowhere. But I see this as an unparalleled opportunity to explore and experiment, to build, to rebrand. It’s the best possible way to discover and hone your voice.
Be Visible, Stay Visible
So much of this business is about momentum. That means that work and sales are built on an accumulation of folks seeing and connecting with your work. Even if social media is hot garbage right now, finding and being active in online platforms or groups rewards you the more you do it.
Seek Community
Very easily, the highlights of my year have been the times I was able to be around other artists. Most recently, that was at Illuxcon, and it truly felt like I was coming alive to be there. I fell into a habit of very very few convention commitments over the past several years, but I aim to change that going forward. Even just reconnecting with my art folk on Facebook feels like a lift and I hate Facebook.
Fight Back Against AI
If you have the means, a contribution to the gofundme to legally combat AI helps keep our interests as artists represented.
Additionally, I recommend adding Glaze protection to any new work posted online, especially on any social media platforms. The same team is also soon to launch an even more aggressive tool called Nightshade which actively poisons train data, so keep an eye out for that. These tools can help force developers to stop using images without authorization.
Take Care of Yourself
A lot of these actions can be fairly taxing. It takes sustained emotional and mental energy to be diving into personal work, revising your career goals, connecting with clients, and posting and socializing regularly. All the more so when many of these tasks don’t yield immediate rewards. Some of them might even increase feelings of alienation or despair if they seem in vain. That’s ok, it may also be time to take a breath. You can only be effective if you also take care of your physical and mental health. So be kind to yourself and recognize that what is happening is extraordinary and, if your career is suffering, it is not a reflection of you. This is happening, in parts if not in whole, to all of us.
*My difficulty in engaging like that right now is purely a reflection of my own headspace, and I want to note that I’m grateful that other folks are keeping this blog full of inspiring and educational posts.
“aren’t there 100 other artists who could say this better?”* – No. Thank you for your open honesty. You continue to inspire and push me, and I’m sure you do many others. We’re all on different paths, and it seems, all still figuring it out. But we’re also one big community – one of my most important families. And the background on that fox painting? Yes!
Thanks Michael, appreciated!
I don’t have any crazy insights to add, but thank you so much for writing about these topics. I’m so grateful for this blog and its contributors.
I. Love. This. Thank you for sharing this Dave and while I’m not an artist, I can relate to much of this as I’m in a … fulcrum of reassessment? Is that a thing? Necessarily so for me, and it’s hard. 2024 has GOT to be better surely?
man, somehow I’m still able to hope so despite the trends of the past several years
A non-artist made the point that it’s not just artists who are having a rough year/decade. Collectively, we’re all going through it. Economy, politics, climate change, COVID… it’s exhausting everyone.
Where it got interesting was when she pointed out that she was interested in some of my work because she felt it spoke to that moment. That work – cartoony household objects with too many teeth – isn’t really political or topical or serious but it spoke to her about what we’re all going through.
Point being, I think there’s value in engaging artistically with the hard stuff just like there’s huge value in this blog post. We all want to keep our heads down and and get the work done while we ignore the outside around us, but that may not be the right decision for all of us anymore. Maybe it’s time to confront our surroundings and do some art about it. The only way out is through, and all that.
Thanks very much for this. It’s refreshing to hear the top of the heap acknowledge that it’s still hard, it’s still uncertain.
Man, this entire post is my headspace summed up for this year.
I’ve always prided myself somewhat on being an art cockroach and finding ways to keep from being stepped on but this year has stretched that further than I was comfortable with and it’s been draining.
I was hoping in the back half of this year to take a step back and explore some more personal work, but it’s been just a dash from one fire to the next with not much to show from it. Maybe I’ll finally do that.
To paraphrase a Tolkein quote – I’m stretched thin. I may not look it, but I feel it. Like too little butter scraped over too much bread.
That is a perfect quote for this!
I had not heard that term before, “art cockroach”, but that is exactly how I have operated several times throughout my lifelong career as an artist. I do whatever art thing it takes to survive. I’m thinking now back to 2008 with the mass layoffs at the advertising firm I worked at then. I managed to stay a full year longer than my colleagues by working half the day in the art department, and the other half in accounting. (I don’t even balance my own checkbook, so you can imagine what a reach that was for me.) After getting laid off in Oct 2009, I went back to my frantic Freelance Artist days, and rebuilt my clientele.
JSS – As Enid in TWD would say, Just Survive Somehow.
Thank you, David, for this important post.
I don’t want to bring people down about the generative AI, so stop reading here if you don’t want to feel down.
The microsoft bing gAI that released about a month ago is so much of a step up from what we saw last year, I’m convinced it’s over. With SD and Midjourney it was still easy to tell when something was gAI. Now it can be very difficult- the hands look fine, there aren’t as many weird details, and the plastic-wrapped look can be avoided with the right prompting. Non-artists have an even harder time telling gAI from real art. Using the gAI is more convenient than hiring an artist and waiting around, and so far it’s free or nearly free. I hate looking at the gAI images, and try to avoid seeing them, but it has become unavoidable unless you stop using the internet. Book covers, youtube thumbnails, people proudly showing off “their” creations on social media as if anyone cares. I was looking for an artbook by a famous artist on Amazon and the top result was scammers selling a book with a gAI generated cover in the artist’s style. Anti-gAI voices seem to have died down, maybe from the same exhaustion and defeatism I feel. Artists are going to start using gAI in their work, because the temptation is so great (“I don’t feel like drawing the background. It’s not a big deal if I use gAI to fill it in”).
I don’t see any realistic path to victory. Even if 90% of the population was against this crap, it wouldn’t matter, because gAI slop can be churned out so fast by a dedicated minority that it will swamp real art online very soon. I remember reading that China made a law that all gAI must be watermarked. That would be help but it would take a long time, and tech companies are doing their best to shove this down everyone’s throats and normalize it before the law can catch up.
It mostly bums me out because of the tone of resignation, which I certainly understand. But none of it is surprising. The speed of advancement made it pretty clear that to tells of late 2022 ML images would get ironed out fairly quickly. And the public responses have made it clear that “good enough” is actually genuinely good enough for most folks. But none of that spells out what happens next. Copyright issues continue to be a significant deterrent for many uses, and I don’t see any reason to believe AI will go beyond a render machine any time soon. It can not think or feel and is exceptional at mass producing mediocrity. Yes, it might drown us. And yes, I’m worried. The choices as I see them is to seek a completely different career (many others of which face similar disruption), or adapt in ways that offer what AI can not. My hope is that “human made” will continue to be meaningful to people when it comes to directly supporting artists.
As to if other artists will adopt AI, that’s not my business. I won’t. I don’t know what dire circumstances would cause me too, but by that point my soul will already be dead. As I’ve maintained from the first time these conversations began popping up, AI truly honestly can not help me do what I do. The greatest asset that I have is the sum of my personal views, flaws, outlook, taste, and interests. That I’ve spent my life learning to think and feel and make art from those thoughts and feelings. AI can’t help me do that better. It can only make it easier for me to do it worse. Most other artists I know hold the same view. It’s the generation that grows up with this that I worry about.
The best way to fight against AI longterm is to have aggressive and robust laws regulating its use.
All AI should have to come with the disclaimer that it is AI, and something like a QR code showing the database and prompts it used to generate the image. Prompts using specific artists names should be considered copyright violations. No AI should be trained by any artwork not specifically submitted by the artist for training. Any image generated by AI should be easily located via reverse image search at the company who generated it’s website. Any company using AI and not identifying it as such, or not adhering to the rules above should be heavily fined, and if a specific artist’s work was used as a prompt, they should receive recompense.
These rules might see impossible, but we just have to lobby our elected officials to make it possible. AI isn’t randomly generating images, humans are always involved, and humans have to follow the laws of our respective countries. Luckily for us, humans still make those laws (even if sometimes those humans are idiots).
“Non-artists have an even harder time telling gAI from real art. ”
And that’s really my concern, because companies know that most just don’t care so long as its ‘pretty’ so why bother hiring a real artist? If people aren’t trying to change their spending on unsustainable retail (to actually try to their best ability), how less so since we don’t get ‘hurt’ like warehouse workers.
people more than ever consume just to be distracted and not actually taken in what they are seeing.
You aren’t alone over on the freelance side: video game studios have done a record number of layoffs this year, which has affected staff concept artists, character artists and animators. Budgets for outsourced illustration like splash art and marketing art is also being affected by these contractions and cost cutting. I’m hoping things will calm down before next year. Its going to be grim enough dealing with the election year we are facing.
I’m not a freelance illustrator, I make a living doing art fairs and I’m so glad to know that I’m not alone in feeling like this year has been exceptionally rough. It has brought me to the brink of quitting and left me re-evaluating my art and future career.
This whole scenario is sickening. To think that an established excellent artist such as you, David, is having a bad year in the illustration business is disheartening. As you surmise, I also think generative AI is the main catalyst. Too coincidental. During the rise of AI last year, the consensus was it would impact many professional’s livelihoods, and unfortunately it is coming true. Hopefully this will just be a phase, and real human-created artwork will rise above this fake-art we are witnessing. At least you work with traditional materials- I think original art made with physical media has an advantage, as far as being appreciated, as opposed to digital art in this conflict. At least in the long run.
Seeing the rapid improvement in the quality of AI images makes every artist wonder about what it really means to be an artist. Each artist needs to do some soul searching about this. I know I have.
Regarding Glaze, I tried it out. Although I like the concept of poisoning the AI well, it does have some issues. My computer is quite powerful with a lot of ram, yet relatively small images take an hour to process! But the bigger issue is it tends to make weird anomalies in smoother areas such as skies, changes from the original art that are not acceptable to me. Also, images for the web should be carefully compressed in file size, to enable reasonable page load speed. There is no option for that in Glaze. Indeed the instructions say not to do any further processing of the images that Glaze outputs, as it may alter the Glaze effect. So, not quite there for me. Maybe the upcoming Nightshade will be better.
Thanks for the great thoughtful post David!
Ive felt like this is a rough year, but Im biased as I work in the film industry and what a mess thats been. Beyond that though, I agree with all points. Less spending on ‘nonessentials’ due to economy and just general exhaustion. Feels like every penny ought to be put in for the rainy day (probably 2024) fund. Godspeed.
Have a friend who went to LightBox Expo and same vibe. Things are rough. I’m also on many art fair FB grounds, also the same issue. Online, small businesses are all talking about just how low sales are.
For me, I was never good on social media and even that, I can see my new posts get less than handful views compared to before and more platforms are pay to play.
I do have a full time, so bills are paid, and like you, I’ve been more into working on personal projects.
While the article is very serious and well written I’m currently more meserized by the greatest frog painting I have ever seen.
I spoke with a number of artists, lecturers and ADs about the AI issue at IX. I saw you around, and am sorry I didn’t get a chance to speak with you, too. In the course of the five days I heard everything from artists declaring the death of commercial illustration, to Seth lecturing about the legal aspects of AI, to Art Directors saying they still have plenty of work for artists who can distill the narrative and create powerful images that hold up when viewed small online, to a college educator who said they are teaching their students how to responsibly use AI and see it as a tool to make what we do more valuable, and that the college is getting word from ADs that they are lacking enough new SFF artists to do the work.
The question may be how much time and money will go into any new work being commissioned. Will AI push the turnaround times and budgets lower for any “real” artist still trying to make a living at it?
Seems like we faced many of the same questions when Stock Photo/Art sites emerged.
If AI can be limited in what it can sample and be trained on, then the work from AI may all begin to look so much the same that eventually people will tire of it. But if it can continue to rape the internet of imagery and reassemble it continually, then that may not be the case.