Making Changes

Hi, comrades. I just posted this on the DRAWN! blog. I figured it belonged here, as well.

-Elwood

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I have been in the business of freelance illustration for a zillion years and you'd think I would be resigned to my clients making changes to my work.

Nope. Sadly, I am just as prickly and dismayed every single time a sketch comes back with changes. Here's the kind of e-mail you'll get:

"Elwood, WE LOVE IT! Just one or two minor changes. The Editor (or, if it's an advertising job, the Account Executive or Our Client) would like the pig to lose the hat. The duck would be more convincing if you removed his shoes. And he's too fat--could you trim him down a bit--the editor has weight problems. Fat ducks make him nervous. Also, you've put the monkey on a motorcycle, which is hilarious, but perhaps sends a dangerous message to teens. Better to play it safe and put the monkey in a Honda Civic. And be sure it has side airbags.

"Oh, and one more little tweak--while the elephant is PERFECT, we don't want to get into politics here, so please change it to a snake. We realize it'll completely alter your composition, so if you want to add some other animals in that space, you might want to make them moles--the editor is allergic to cats.

"Can we see a new sketch by this afternoon? Again, Elwood, we LOVE it!"

Then I do my usual rant, Maggie (my wife/rep) rolls her eyes, I calm down, but require a brief nap. I awaken depressed and swear to the gods of commercial art that I can't take it anymore. I make a cup of tea. I'm hungry and eat a almond butter sandwhich. And a banana. Maggie rolls her eyes. I return to my drawing table and make the changes. The client is delighted. They tell me it's a GO with only one small change--they really loved that elephant. Would it be too much trouble to dump those cute little moles & bring back the elephant.

Sometimes Maggie convinces the client that the changes are arbitrary and they weaken the art. Sometimes they have the ability to see my brilliance when it is pointed out to them. Sometimes the Word Experts honor the highly honed skills of the Image Experts. And sometimes it snows in July.

I gotta go. Client made some changes on that last job.

-Elwood