How to draw a bear

in this how to video, I show how to draw a cute cartoon bear. In a later video I will be showing how to take the hand drawn bear and draw it digitally for web art.

May-June Earnings Report

Well the numbers are in for May-June. You can see a pretty big difference between last month and this month The numbers on the charts are percentages. Once again shutterstock has been the biggest contributor to sales followed by dreamstime. Canstock didn't bring much in, crestock didn't bring anything in, and a new site 123rf brought me a few sales.

Assessments:

Shutterstock - I am very pleased with the site. Every time I upload images I get instant feedback from the site via email letting me know my images are being processed. Lately the wait time is a few hours to a full day before they are fully on the site. The upload process is still the best out the other sites making it easy to batch process images with similar keywords or descriptions. My daily number of sales on this site are not matched by the other sites

Dreamstime - The waiting period on processing images is still the same making it harder to have images put in during peak periods. For example, if I wanted something put out for a certain holiday to make many sales I'd have to submit it more than a week in advance. For artists like myself who make illustrations on a whim and don't sit there and force themselves to make a certain amount of holiday illustrations to get the rush of customers, it can be pretty aggravating to have to wait for a perfect select time to upload certain images to make it in time for the rush.

The pay however, is much better on an image to image basis. Once your image has been downloaded a certain amount of times, the site raises the price. This has led to more money per image than any other sites. However, sometimes you'd rather have more people with your images than less people.

Canstock - Not very interested in the site as a whole, though I don't mind updating my portfolio on the off chance that something sells. I don't believe they have nearly as much traffic as the other sites.

Crestock - Same as canstock

123rf - New to me, found it while searching blogs from other illustrators. The site seems customer friendly which automatically made me want to contribute. The contributor controls are good, though I don't think certain aspects of it are clear.

Fotolia - Just set up an account and have gotten a few images accepted and ready to show. The site it hard to navigate through, I've seen a variety of results from other illustrators so I'm going to give it a shot.

Here you can see step by step of I made this bear. I didn't add how I made the clothes or flag as the video was already pretty long, but you can see how I use Serif Drawplusx4 to make my illustrations. Just like at any drawing school, always start out with basic shapes and work from there.You'll learn to see everything in its basic form, and once you do there's no limit to what you can draw. Some people like to sketch it out first, scan it, then draw over the scan, however if you have a clear vision of what you need to do, you can just jump in and start.

April - May Earnings Report

So I've been on a few sites this year, some longer than others. I thought I'd see how well I'm doing on certain sites compared with others. So far, I've been on Dreamstime the longest... since January 2011. Then comes crestock, I've been on that site since March 2011. Canstock and shutterstock I've only been on since April 2011. As you can see from my chart, Shutterstock has been the highest contributor to sales showing 58.12%, then follows Dreamstime at 30.67%, canstock 10.18%, and finally crestock at 1.01%

I still think it is too early to decide which site is better. Each has it's pros and cons.

Shutterstock- 52 images in portfolio. Excellent upload time, I might have to wait 1-2 days tops for my images to be fully online. The main page is not too friendly like other sites, but the contributor pages are very helpful. A map showing you where your images are downloaded and charts showing your earnings gives you the boost you need to keep uploading.

Dreamstime- 93 images in portfolio . I started out loving it, however the long sometimes 2 week waiting period to see if your images have even been approved is brutal. Not to mention the site bugs out from time to time making it harder to sell your micro-stock. However, the site is very friendly and you don't have to stray too far from the main site to see your stats. They are also getting a bit too picky with their approvals. I submitted 5 images that were all airplanes doing different things, and one was rejected because it was too similar, yet the one rejected was the most dissimilar of them all, and yet still on their site (even the editor's,who reviewed my images, portfolio) is full of similar images. I've seen many images of one figure in the same position but different color on the site. They just haven't got a clear definition of what a duplicate image is on their site. I do like how once your image has a certain number of downloads they raise the price on it, but probability of getting a lot of money from one main image on that site is not high.

Canstock- 36 images in portfolio. I put my work here just to put more eggs in other baskets. Honestly, I haven't given the site too much of a glance. I don't think the site is too professional, but in the site are the same artists from the other sites online... probably doing the same thing I am.

Crestock - 10 images in portfolio. I haven't really uploaded all of my images here. The upload process is not so well thought out, however I haven't really given it a good chance yet.

I'm guessing you're asking yourself where istockphoto is on my chart. I have an account with them, however they only allow vector. I had to go through a long test which involved reading articles upon articles just to be able to submit work. I also don't like how high their prices are, they have set their prices based on how exclusive the site is, not really the actual image. I plan on contributing to the site later this year, however I don't think I will have as many images on there as vector images have to be done in a specific way so that the site approves it, which is more work, so I think I'll just have some exclusive images up there.

"You're using WHAT?!!

When I had first gone over to the digital world of drawing, I was not too familiar with what programs were available to me. Of course I had heard of the obvious Photoshop and actually had used Corel Draw before, however I was not about to pay a ton of money for a program which I wouldn't use. At the time, I had learned through my older brother that you can draw in Microsoft Powerpoint... yes, Powerpoint. Now to the common person Powerpoint was only to be used for cheesy business or school presentations, however to me it was a drawing program with no limits.

I figured out early on that with my drawing skills and know-how of the program tools, I could replicate the same look and style that someone with a high end program could make. This is some of the early icon work I was able to conjure up using nothing but Powerpoint:

I'm not kidding, these were made in Powerpoint 2007. Many people kept trying to push me away from the program claiming that professionals use ONLY photoshop, and I just knew that wasn't the case. I think that the program does not make the artist, you use what you have and work with it. Sure once you are at a certain level and you are able to upgrade you should, but just because "everyone" uses a program, doesn't mean it is the best for you

Nowadays you can't be an illustrator without working in certain file formats, and this is probably the only reason that I progressed forward. I now submit my work to sites which sell my graphics, and of course the quality of the image is the number one selling point besides the overall image. Vector is a format thrown around way more now than when I started, and as the times change, so do the programs. Unfortunately, Powerpoint is not able to save in such formats, but I still love showing people how I used it. For kids or people who really just want to test the waters of the graphic world, it is a fantastic program in its friendliness and tools.

Hello world! I'm Alejandro (Alex) and I'm a graphic designer. I've been designing for quite some time now and have just recently decided to start selling my work online. This blog is intended to showcase not only my work, but my findings along the way of different aspects new or old to the stock photo world.