Berkley Illustration Takes It Back to the Drawing Board

Vanessa

Story by Vanessa

Published on June 02, 2010 in Make

Photo by Berkley Illustration

After hearing that Berkley Illustration would be presenting at ICON in July, I snatched up the opportunity to glean some professional tips from Ryan and Lucy and get out the word about this illustration conference that travels the U.S. If you’re in LA, check out this year’s fabulous line-up.

Did you go to art school, Ryan?
I never went to art school. I am mostly self-taught. I think I learned about blending pencils with a blender in high school art classes, and how salt can create cool patterns with watercolor, but that’s about it. Quick high school art class story: Every year, we published an animal calendar where each art student displayed their pencil animal drawings on a huge wall, and the school would vote 12 of them in. Of all four years of high school, I never made it in the calendar.

If you didn’t go to art school, you’re glad because of ____ and regretful because of _____.
Hmmmm. College debt?

And I am regretful for many reasons. I feel like I could have learned how to properly draw the human figure, rather than learning from comic books. I also feel I could have an actual understanding of color theory, which would be nice. I would have loved to learn some painting techniques. I was always jealous of my friends being in college in general, and in other cities, living on their own. I think that would have been fun. Especially with a bunch of talented art kids.

Berkley_otter.jpg

How do you two work together, both artistically and as a business?
Ryan: While I didn’t have a college experience, Lucy has a BFA in Photography so her expertise and “trained eye” factor into a lot of my work as a whole. She’s so good at conceptualizing projects up front and also is honest with me when things aren’t working exactly right, so we brainstorm together about how to fix things.

Lucy: It has just recently occurred to me that we have a definite pattern to our artistic work. I am always thinking of projects and coming up with new ideas, but then I’m terrible about overthinking and then actually following through. Ryan is so great at taking those ideas and just putting them to work right away at his drafting table. His creativity is just instinctive when he starts to draw. His big hangup (and I think he’d agree with this so I’m not getting myself in trouble!) is that he is often stuck with where to start. As a result, our brains work well together.

Ryan: As a business, Lucy deals with most of the day-to-day operations. This is partly based on our schedules, but she also is much more organized and efficient in that area. We both work on packaging and shipping, and I try to do as much customer service as I can get in.

What 3 things should an illustrator know before attempting to sell online?
  1. horse.jpgDon’t expect instant success. It comes with a base of talent, lots of hard work and tenacity, a bit of networking, and although it’s no help at all as advice, luck.
  2. Keep your audience in mind but don’t create your art based on what you think will sell well. What sells for us online is often very different from what sells in galleries or at shows. That’s where the luck plays in. Inevitably the thing you think won’t be popular is and vice versa. (For instance, we thought we were so smart to make a horse in our line-up. People love horses, right? Aren’t people “horse people”? Well, he’s one of our least popular animals — even though I think Ryan did an amazing job of drawing him. So yeah, who knows!)
  3. It doesn’t hurt to have a range of products in different price points. Some people only want original art and some people are looking for a deal. If you can, have a few things spanning the price spectrum.
Any advice for expanding one’s illustration services/business?
We think it’s important to continue to update and offer new art on a regular basis. It’s never a bad idea to have many arms of your business as well. Online sales, gallery shows, art/craft shows, and commissioned work for both private and corporate clients are all part of our business. Think creatively about how you can use illustration.
Get more tips from Lucy and Ryan Berkley at ICON, an illustration conference in Los Angeles, this July. Here are the details:
Etsy and Beyond: Practical Lessons for Finding Fans and Selling Illustrations Online
Thursday, July 15, 1:00-3:00 p.m. Ambassador Room $45.00
Ryan and Lucy Berkley, Entrepreneurial Artists

Roundtable Lunch Hosts and Topics
Piece of the Pie — How and where to sell your goods online

Friday, July 16

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