My portfolio has grown considerably over the last year at several microstock sites, but I can’t say that my profits have increased at the same rate. Have I hit a point of diminishing returns and is it worth it to keep submitting?

This has been something that I have been thinking about recently, then I saw that other people on the Shutterstock forums were thinking the same thing. You can see their posts here. The good news is that most of the microstock sites have been raising their prices or royalties, so my income has benefitted from the increases. The bad news? That dream I had about making a full time salary with microstock may be just a dream.

This has all lead me to taking a break from microstock and experimenting with Zazzle. The experiment is still in its early stages, so I can’t say anything definitive. It looks promising though. I still have hundreds of stock illustrations just waiting to find a new profitable home. Hopefully, they will end up as products on Zazzle.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.

In case you didn’t know, IllustrationFriday.com has a weekly topic to illustrate for fun. This week’s topic was Homage. I had several classic movie monster illustrations that I thought would be nice to show. I also have a tutorial for the Mummy illustration here.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.

I thought it would be a good idea to review some of the different services I use. This review is for Fotolia, a microstock agency.

A microstock agency is basically a stock art site that lets artists post their artwork on the site and sell royalty free licenses. Artists retain all the rights to their work and collect a percentage of the royalties when their artwork sells on the site.

I see many photographers that have a fair amount of success on Fotolia. It seems to rank fairly high in percentages of their earnings. As an illustrator, I can’t say I’ve had much luck on Fotolia. I earn money every month on the site, but I don’t think I’ve ever made more than $20 in a month.

Other than not earning much, the only real complaint I have about Fotolia is their vector format. Fotolia accepts vector files, but they want them as svg’s. Most sites use eps format, so converting images is a time consuming process. Setting up an action script in Illustrator is probably the best way to convert the files.

Overall, I can’t really recommend Fotolia, but I wouldn’t really discourage anyone from trying it out. Your images may sell better than mine. For me, I’m just not sure it was worth the effort to upload my files.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.

It’s not always easy to find work as a freelancer, but there are several places on the web that cater to freelance work. Here is a list of places to look:

Guru

eLance

iFreelance

GoFreelance

Freelance Switch

Get a Freelancer

Authentic Jobs

Krop

ODesk

Hopefully, this will help you in your search for freelance work.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.

When that dreaded moment comes when I have to design a new portfolio site, I usually work on my design ideas in Illustrator. Once I get everything sized properly, I import the whole thing into Photoshop and slice it up into seperate images and HTML. Here is a quick Photoshop tutorial for slicing up a design for the web. You can find more of my tutorials here. Start by pulling out guides where you want to have seperate images. To pull out a guide turn your rulers on. Go to View > Rulers or Command/Control R. With the Rulers on, move your mouse over to the left or top ruler. Click on the ruler, hold and drag a line out to the proper spot. When you release a blue guide line will appear. These guides aren’t pixel objects and can be cleared by going to View > Clear Guides. You can also adjust Guides by using the Move Tool on the Tool Bar. Move your mouse over the guide until your tool tip changes, then click and pull the guide to a new spot. You may need to zoom in close or use your rulers to make sure your guides are in the right spot. Here is what my guide lines looked like. See all the blue lines on the image below. I left space for a menu bar at the top and the bottom.

Next, use the Slice Tool from the Tool Bar and draw out boxes that snap to the guides. Photoshop labels each slice with a number.

If you’ve got all your slices right, then go to File > Save for Web. I usually like to save a .psd version too. If I need to make changes later, it’s easier to do on a Photoshop document.

A dialogue window will appear. Use the slice tool on the left to select all your slices. Then, choose your image options and click Save.

The save window will pop up. Choose HTML and Images from the options at the bottom. This will create an HTML file that looks like your design plus all the slices will be saved as seperate images. That’s it.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.

In case you didn’t know, IllustrationFriday.com has a weekly topic to illustrate for fun. This week’s topic was Heavy.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.

I do most of my work in Adobe Illustrator. I think it is a very useful program for any artist to learn. If you haven’t seen my Illustrator cartoon tutorial you can find it here.

If you have seen my tutorial, then you might want to see how other artists work. I know I always like to see how other illustrators create their illustrations. Jim Snyder has a nice Illustrator tutorial for a cartoon elephant here.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.

I wanted to review some of the different services I use. This review is for StockXpert, a microstock agency.

A microstock agency is basically a stock art site that lets artists post their artwork on the site and sell royalty free licenses. Artists retain all the rights to their work and collect a percentage of the royalties when their artwork sells on the site. There aren’t any membership fees for artists to join.

I think StockXpert is one of the better lesser known agencies. It flew under my radar for a while, but when I joined I was pleasantly surprised. It quickly became my fourth best earner. It left Big Stock Photo and Fotolia in its dust and never looked back. I don’t think it has the consistent traffic that iStockphoto and some of the other bigger stock sites have, but it has nice royalties when you do get sales.

Overall, I think StockXpert is worth the time to upload to. My question is whether the site will continue to grow and become a bigger player in the microstock industry or stay right where it is.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.

Here’s a tutorial for halftone text. I took my halftone pattern from the vector halftone tutorial and added text to it. I start out with the halftone pattern. I modified it by flipping a copy of it.

Next, I type out the text I want to use with the type tool.

With my type still selected, I go to Type > Create Outlines. This will turn my text into shapes.

I take my outlined text and Ungroup it. Go to Object > Ungroup. The reason for this is you need to Ungroup objects to use the Add pathfinder on them.

The next step is to use the Add pathfinder to make each letter in your text one shape. The Add is first button on the Pathfinder palette. Click Expand after you hit the Add button. After your text is one shape, you’ll need to select your dot pattern and make that one shape with the Add pathfinder. You may need to Ungroup it to use the Add pathfinder.

Now, you should have two shapes. The text shape and the dot pattern shape. Position the two over the top of each other.

With both shapes selected, use the Intersect pathfinder on them and click Expand.

You will be left with dots in the shape of your text.

I copied the text, changed the color and offset the new version a little. I thought it gave it a nice Pop Art screen printed look.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I joined Zazzle and I just sold my first product. My ice cream cone t-shirt sold. I’ve done a little promotion, but not very much. I put an announcement link in the Zazzle forums and a few links on some Squidoo lists.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.