What Not To Wear

2007 © Bob Eckstein
Traditionally, freelancers need not wear anything behind their computer monitor so I’m the last person who should be pontificating on fashion but Full Frontal Fashion Week is upon us and the VCR is already warmed up. It was the subject of my latest TimeOut cartoon but not without a lot of hair pulling with as many revisions as changing hemlines last season. I kept on fighting for jokes no one else got including a joke having the fashion police make models do weigh-ins by having them sit on and pop balloons before they’re allowed on the runway. Instead the editors wanted to run a sketch I doodled in their office that I thought was pure crap. I was actually in there pitching a piece about Superbowl halftime shows including a parade of floats called A Tribute to Erectile Dysfunction. Here are some of the rough sketch outtakes.

Another halftime idea was to have a midfield demolition derby of New York City cabs with miked-up drivers to broadcast obscenities in 8 different languages.
2007 © Bob Eckstein

Who Needs a Timeout?

2007© Bob Eckstein


This week’s TimeOut cartoon is about plaNYC [sic], New York City’s plan on how to deal with our growing population problem and the strains it has on our infrastructure (until August 2006 I didn't know [sic] meant intentional misspelling). The report stated that by 2030 rush-hour would last all day and just walking midtown could take days (I provided 6 different solutions for sidewalk congestion including double-decker cafe tables. Please let me know if you spot any in your city.). Before any cartoon is published it gets looked over by a few editors and comes back with changes and concerns – often legal ones when using real celebrities and such. In the case of this cartoon, I had one panel where I suggested we speed up sidewalk traffic by making it mandatory for all slow walking seniors to wear online skates.

This blog will focus more on freelance writing once my illustrating binge ends and time allows (I’ve been working on assignments until sometimes 4 or 5 am – and not sleeping late but starting at 9 am the next day). A couple of nights ago I began work on the cover of my snowman book, creating 35 covers in 8 hours, many with original artwork and typefaces. There's a really helpful, entertaining website called Book Covers where published covers are critiqued by visitors, many who are presumably in the biz. My creations covered the full gamut of moods and styles. Here are a couple of examples;


2007© Bob Eckstein

Freelance Illustration Lesson 6; The Elements of Style

While I was a student, and later when teaching, there was an understanding that illustration students should (or must) embrace one style as to not confuse clients (and reinforce the work’s sincerity...among other reasons). Art directors don’t want surprises and anticipating ahead what the finish will be like makes their job a lot easier.

That practice is not very practical today…nor necessary. The same thinking applies now but it’s possible (and actually wise) to create other careers parallel with different styles. Clients don’t need to know you have other styles – as long as they know what they’re going to get when they hire you. The argument, “be true to thyself and work, blog, blog, blog” is a romantic notion that has nothing to do with business and applies to artists but this is about freelance illustrating.

Above is a good example of what I mean. From assignments I had over the holidays (top left; detail of a parody of a 19th century illustration for Trader Magazine, top right, a logo for a London “outsider art” bakery, bottom left detail of a cartoon about overpopulation in the Big Apple, bottom right piece about taming wild portfolios for Money Adviser). OK, if no one is going to say it, I will – you’d never know this was all done by the same hand.

(By the way, this was why Freelancer’s Lament was not regularly updated in December as I was working around the clock. I even missed my annual Vegas trip.)

Christmas without Vegas feels strange and eerie. Speaking of style, here's a shot from last year’s Fremont Experience Holiday Musical. I watched this R-rated spectacle with stunned silence among a handful of Mexican families who bopped along to the traditional Christmas classics sung with untraditional lyrics, unaware of the double entendres and the improvised lyrics.

This week’s TimeOut cartoon had my favorite item cut from the final but here it is to be enjoyed…for anyone you knows the reference and knows who disgraced gossip columnist Jared Paul Stern is. Thanks for taking a look and visiting my blog.

Stephen Colbert Ushers in the New Year

Welcome back to all visitors. For most freelancers the holidays are pretty grueling – editors and art directors give assignments before they start their vacation with the intentions for having finishes waiting for them when they return. Each year I do a full page editorial for Newsday. This year's was made up of 48 celebrities who made the news in 2006. Due Christmas day, I take on this particular job each year because of the gratitude I have for this art director – he gave me my first break letting me draw in this haphazard style (twenty years ago when I started at Newsday as a "kid").

So I worked late Christmas eve like Bob Cratchit (heck, the Newsday art director was working Christmas day). I spent two days drawing the likenesses going directly to final and redoing only those who looked nothing like the person. I decided 50% was going to have to do considering the pressing deadlines of the other 9 jobs I was juggling.

From the "Foot-in-Mouth" float


From the Divorce float

For an interview about my snowman collection click here.

School Closed

The School of Freelancing is out of session for the holiday break. Have a Merry Christmas. I look forward to complaining in the new year.

Children’s Books

I’ve gotten a couple of e-mails asking about children’s books and I thought it best to answer them at once. I’m not an expert in this field but I’ve been in negotiations with more than one big children’s publisher so I believe I have insight to share. I, in no way, mean to discourage or demean anyone’s writing aspirations.

I have just three short points to make.
1) Most new parents (I know) have entertained thoughts of writing a children’s book. I get asked by someone if I’d be interested in illustrating their book at almost every party or get together. Or if I can recommend an illustrator for them. It’s not necessary to pitch an idea with illustrations. If you find an illustrator willing to work for spec (free) to illustrate a book not signed to a large contract yet then that illustrator probably doesn’t have the clout to help you land a deal. Often it just makes you look like an amateur. Publishers would rather assign “their” artists to books instead of the writer insisting on anyone in particular (especially a friend or cousin).

I truly believe everyone has a good book in them. But publishers want to hire writers, not someone who is interested in writing one book. You want and need to demonstrate your desire to go pro and produce books. My children book friends create multiple books a year. So if you’re serious, you’re thinking many books. Toward that end;
2) Find an agent, then
3) Write convincing, professional book proposals, which show an understanding of the current market.

Courses and/or books can teach you how to accomplish number 2 and 3. Hope this helps get your book ideas published!

(In a similar vein I often get approached with the “perfect joke for The New Yorker.” The New Yorker has no interest in buying a singular cartoon from someone who may not write another decent punch line for another six months. They cultivate regulars they can rely on. For that reason they only hire cartoonists who prove they are prolific. Cartoonists for the New Yorker submit up to 40 cartoons a month in hopes of getting 1 out of every 10 cartoons accepted.)

The Average Day of a Freelancer

For me, each day begins by waking up at 7:30 am. By 7:45 I am sound asleep again. I wake up a second time around 9ish and immediately turn on channel 152 (NYC), the Black Family Channel to watch Bullwinkle and the King Leonardo Show while answering e-mails and doing bills.


"You'll find the funniest things happening on the show..." the theme song goes and they're true to their word.

Tomorrow; What I Do By Ten; Not Alot