Foundry

If you read my article on How to Build an Art Portfolio, and you already have your shiny, clean and organized portfolio in hand, you might be wondering what to do next. Since youre on Dream Foundry, Ill assume youre an artist whos interested in illustrating books or short stories. And since Im an art director for a short story magazine and have experience in comics, my focus here will be on how to get started as building illustrator, and, potentially, comics, since both medias are focused on art with storytelling. Together with your portfolio, you will need a payment option: most hiring magazines can pay in cheque, but if youre not based in the United States, its important to have a PayPal account, since its the most popular payment method for illustrators worldwide. I also recommend having a separate email for art-related business, and linking said email to your PayPal account. Paper Cat Press is your new best friend. Paper Cat Press is a weekly curated collection of opportunities for illustrators, comic creators, and even writers, run by fellow comic artist and illustrator Leanna C. Most of my first gigs were found through their weekly round up, neatly organized in categories like Awards and Contests, Animation, Comic & Illustration opportunities, all with their respective deadlines. If youre focused on comics, another great resource is Comic Oportunities , run by S.W. Searle, and Find Anthologies! , run by Stephanie Cooke. Both of them are curated lists on Twitter of comic anthologies. Cooke also maintains Creators Resources , a website providing tools and resources for comic book freelancers. As an art director, I use Twitter a lot to find artists that might fit a specific story or thematic issue, and I use it by browsing specific hashtag-based events. The broadest of those is #PortfolioDay, an event that happens every three months, and where artists can link their email and portfolio and share a sample of four illustrations, in hopes of landing potential freela