Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of…Genres?
An important part of illustration marketing is knowing which genre or genres you are going to market yourself to. It can be a genre you specialize in, one you admire, or one that your style is tailored to. This is something I’ve always struggled with in the past because I wasn’t sure what direction I wanted to go it. My Creative Diva wanted to freely throw herself at whatever felt good at the time. The Business Diva wants to run toward whatever genre was going to make the most money. Over the past year I’ve settled myself into where I wanted to show off my work, so of course I have to share my train of thought here *smile*
My initial thought was pursuing the children’s market. I admire the bright colorful feel of children’s book illustrations, and it’s something that has always influenced my own work. And goodness knows I have tried to condition myself to draw and paint in a kid-friendly way. But everytime I’ve tried, my illustrations and paintings always…well, they always end up like this…
“Adornia” started out as a demure little mermaid-like creature, but then she ended up like this. I think it’s pretty obvious why this would never be appropriate for a children’s book or magazine. Sometimes I can pull off a decent children’s piece, but most of the time my work leans more closely to the adult genre. I blame my love for comic books and graphic novels and manga. Those always have a slight sexual undertone to them. I also enjoy creating full fledged adult themed/erotica art, where the presence of sex is artistic yet obvious. For these reasons, I realized that the children’s market would not work for me. At first I felt kind of silly for giving up on the pursuit of that market. It’s incredibly lucrative and extremely popular, and the amount of money that could be potentially made in that market alone made my Business Diva tingle with glee. But my Creative Diva gently reminded Miss Business that there’s only so much she can adhere and bend to certain standards. And there are a lot when it comes to making art for children. So while it’s something I will happily dabble in, it’s not something I can pursue because there are just some rule Miss Creative will not follow. It isn’t an intentional thing, it’s just the way she is!
So leaving that genre alone leaves me with several others to play with, and that Miss Creative Diva quite enjoys indulging in. I adore all things fairy, dragon, mythical creatures and fantasy worlds, so Fantasy/Sci-Fi Art seemed to be an obvious path to take. There’s also of course Adult/Erotica art. I’m not sure how the illustration of sexual situations and fantasy speaks of me as a person, and I wish I could say it’s something that concerns me. But it doesn’t. The human body is a beautiful thing, and physical intimacy is a beautiful act. As crazy (or dare I say perverse )it sounds, it is something that inspires me. Then I can tone it way down with Young Adult Art, the kind of art made to appeal to teenagers and young adults. In that market you still have to play it safe, but it isn’t as restricted as Children’s Art. I’ve been a voracious reader all of my life, and the few Young Adult novels I’ve read that had an illustration here and there made me squee with delight. Finally, there’s Afrocentric Art. I generally don’t like to “pigeonhole” myself as an African American artist(I’ll write a more detailed entry about that at another time). I don’t knock the ones that do, but I feel that my work is and can be so diversified that it’s wrong of me to put myself solely in that category. However, it would be a great injustice to my “my people” if I didn’t express my illustrative opinions of Black beauty, Black social and economic issues, Black love, and Black life in general.
And what does the Business Diva think of this? Well, at first she was none too pleased, but then she realized that not pursuing the biggest and most popular(and most competitive really) market didn’t mean career suicide. When I really sat down and thought about it, my opportunities didn’t shrink that much. There’s tons of magazines, books, comics, graphic novels, ad agencies, etc that I have intensely researched and discovered that my style would work for. At the end of the day, it boils down to the basics of hardcore marketing, networking, and making sure your art is seen by as many people as possible. That holds true for whatever genre your work falls into. With that persistence comes work, and with that work comes a paycheck, and with that paycheck comes a happy Business Diva, because she is sewing her seeds for a successful career.
So that’s what I’ve been rolling with as of late. I’ll probably be a bit sparce until the month of April, seeing how I have several things going on at the moment, such as a trip to California, a visit to the Met to see the new exhibits, catching the Tim Burton show at the MOMA before it closes, and of course, making my final transition from Virginia to New York by mid April. It will be great to be back home and be back in an “empire state of mind,” like the song. Until then, good night all!
