Where do you start?

[Zesiul]

I'm about to finish college in the winter and need hit the ground running by having some sort of freelance income by that point. Other than living expenses there all the tuition I'll owe, and my part time job an't gonna exactly cover it. So I setup one of my Deathline goals to get some form of a job by November, right now I'm building up some sort of a portfolio but I have no clue where to even begin.

So those of you who have jobs, or had, I ask you. Where is a good place to start?

[brianjohnson]

Hey Zesiul,
I am no pro, so please feel free to disregard everything below...

The first thing I would do is start looking for something that may provide a steady income stream that will support your living expenses. If your part-time job doesn't cut it, start looking for something that will, unless you feel that sporatic freelance gigs will get you by in the near-term.

Trying to find a steady stream of freelance work within a four month window is an EXTREMELY tall order, in my opinion.

If you are solid in graphic design, that may be a place to start, as this will provide you with the peace of mind, and a bit of additional time to flush out your portfolio, and build a name for yourself.

Just don't lose sight of what you really want to do. I stopped drawing for almost 10 years, and now there probably isn't much of a chance that I will ever truly be able to transition into the art field...too many expenses to take the pay hit...

Best of luck pursuing your dream job.

Regards,
Brian

[dracken]

People looking for tattoo designs could be a place to get some money. Just a thought.

http://www.createmytattoo.com/

[DK]

Maybe we can have a list like the resource thread linking to job areas/opportunities? Don't know if that will offend some people. I feel your situation though, and there's really no easy answer that I can give.

Only basic advice would be to get a portfolio on your blog or wherever that shows exactly what you want to be doing and to the BEST of your abilities. Illustration? Have a load of illustrations you spent a lot of time on. Character Design? Have a bunch of character designs you spent a lot of time on. And etc... Also, have all your contact information on your images. Then just start applying everywhere for the kind of work you're looking for. But, that's easier said than done.

Also, it might be wise to go out and look for what kind of jobs people are hiring for right now, just so you can have an idea of what kind of portfolio you can work towards.

[Zesiul]

Hey thanks for the advice. Yeah everyone I've asked just go with the "do great art" route. Which just seems to me the best option. I mean I know I'm not going to get a steady going in 4 months but even some cash would just be really nice.

So I guess right now I'll just stick to doing illustration work until it gets me noticed. It's a realistic thing to do. If anyone else has suggestions I'll keep reading 'em.

[Heliux]

**just my opinions and what I've thought out to stimulate more conversation**
This is something I've been trying to figure out as well and come to similar extenuating ideas; just do great art and have a killer portfolio.
-and though I'm in the same boat (not being a professional) I thought I'd share kinda what Ive come across and see what you guys think. -I'm working hard to become so. The first kinda idea that I had was to create passive income generators, money you make with little effort. This looks like merch on a website or royalties of some kind whenever your work is used, say for a t shirt design. Bruce Lee-ing my personal finance; "most amount of output for the least amount of energy."
A lot of the money I've made has been doing portraits or landscape-murals because what I think is because of a face-to-face holistic interaction, plus most of the work I have is what I'd consider study paintings. I think a lot of us consider a job as commercial freelancers when there's other artistic opportunities out there for $$ where you don't have bag groceries, make coffee, or do landscaping for 8 hours a day. (which I all do-lol)

On making a killer portfolio,
My day jobs are all orbiting my desire to get better as an artist. That means I've chosen to work the least amount of hours possible (covering rent and food) to make to most amount of time for studying. This means not going home and blowing hours on video games or hanging out with friends, but hitting those books and tablet hard. Some of those jobs even helped me to get my name out there, putting art in coffee shops, networking where people asked to see my stuff, having a gallery showing during a posh wine and cheese party on a house boat, ect. Plugging into various painting groups and communities online (The Guardians) and around town (Figure drawing sessions) really helped for full immersion as well and getting that name out there, but if you don't have multiple accounts on art networking websites I'd make it happen.
Anyhoo, for whatever that's worth; hope it helps somebody! Here's some online shtuff! :]

http://cghub.com/jobs/
http://jobs.conceptart.org/
http://www.threadless.com/
http://www.rvca.com/s/anp
applying in other cities and telecommuting:
http://craigslist.org/
-knowing what studios are out there:
http://www.gamedevmap.com/

-lemme know what you guys think!

[SINED]

I'm trying to figure out right now how to get some jobs so I don't have the right experience to suggest anything, but I imagine that you have to be as good as you can, be everywhere and look for companies that might like what you do.

Some links for searching various freelance jobs, mostly little projects...

http://www.donanza.com
http://www.freelanced.com/
https://www.elance.com/

Hope it's useful for someone. :D

[EduardoGaray]

I work from time to time on sites like Elance, mostly because i dont consider i´m ready to apply for companys and stuff, but those sites with little projects are useful to get some money if you dont have a day job.