carles

carles Pierre Carles

Illustrator • www.pierrecarles.com

Pierre Carles is a free-lance fantasy illustrator who first started painting fairy-tale creatures for his older daughter, when she was still a young girl. His models and themes have expanded since that time, but his lovely daughters and wife remain his greatest sources of inspiration.

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  • Kayness

    Kayness

    Hey Pierre, how do you get your jobs??? I mean, I obviously don't have the experience and network of clients that you do and my current jobs are being kind of slow due to delayed pipelines and such, so I'm finding something else and searching websites and stuff, and damn is it intimidating :(...
    I just don't particularly like sending out applications and such...I mean, all I want to do is just stay in and paint !!

    Jul 30th, 2011 Reply Subscriber
    • carles

      carles

      Hi Kay.
      Sorry it took me so long to reply, I am in a terrible rush these days, and I did not want to rush this particular answer.
      "How do I get my jobs ?" ... well, the answer will probably be disappointing to you, but I think that I started looking for commissions at a luckier time than now. In the good old times when Epilogue was a great place, I got introduced to many people who gave me precious advice, and also to a few clients. These first commissions helped me fight my shyness and be more outgoing, artistically speaking. So first step was: a lot of networking.
      Second step was the help of a wonderful lady you know probably too: Ellen Million. At the time, she had this wonderful gift shop where she licensed original products, and a few of my illustrations were selected. That was NOT the way to earn money, but it was an interesting step in terms of visibility. The place where I did make a bit more money though, and which still exists, was Ellen Million's Portrait Adoption website. Check it out, it is a really neat concept, and I sold many character portraits there.
      And through that networking, finally I reached a few "returning customers", mostly small companies selling d20 RPG on places like RPGnow, and those have been longer-termed projects I have worked on for the past years. That, and also a few books covers from people who approached me after seeing my work for RPGs.
      Now, the sad part of it is that this wonderful jumping board of a service Ellen Million provided suffered a really hard blow from the 2008-2009 economic crisis. She had to close the gift-shop, and Portrait Adoption has been much less active since. People are getting poorer and, most of all, more anxious of the future, so money spent on art gets scarcer.
      I have obtained a few gigs from answering calls for artists on various websites (DA among them), but the rate of success was so poor that I found it not really worth the effort. My time online was more efficiently spent online networking, which brought me several private commissions out of the blue.
      Right now, I am in the middle of that biggish project called Torn World RPG with a small company called Kolyana (it is biggish at my scale, but would look very small to the top dogs around !). So most of my artistic time is devoted to that, with the odd individual commissions here and there.
      And finally, I try to get as much exposure as possible by submitting pieces to published contests. I have not made it to Spectrum or Expose so far (crossing fingers for this year's Exotique 7), but I will have a few pieces published by Harper Design in september, in a collective book on vampires called Vampire Art Now (Jasmine Beckett-Griffith is the art director for this one). I hope that the exposure will bring me extra credit and contacts.
      And now, my goal is first to finish the Torn World project I mentioned above, and then to build as strong a portfolio as possible to start going out to "bigger fishes" out there like Wizards of the Coast or Chaosium. Not sure I am up to the task, but I will know only by trying.
      So ... I am not sure this longish description will be of much help to you. The one thing that I have learnt is that networking IS the best route to getting commissions. You should not do networking (online or IRL) JUST to show you around, because this is utterly upsetting to people. But discussing with fellow artists, attending exhibits, asking for advice or giving them when asked, all this slowly makes you a "presence", somehow, in that little world of illustration (or, I should say for me, of fantasy illustration). And once you are a presence, then your art speaks for you, and clients do come.
      The way I see it, you definitely have the skills to build a strong characters' portfolio and try to reach the DAs of big publishing companies (among which those I mentioned above). Your style is clearly "trendy" (in the good sense), you work digitally which is a great technical help (I work mostly traditionally which slows me down terribly), and ... you are young !
      So really, the only sensible advice I can give you (assuming I am in a position of giving any sort of advice, which I doubt), is to be as outgoing as possible, online and in real life. And, as I said, not outgoing in the "bugger" sense, but in the "kind and open" sense. I am sure you need no more than that.
      I recently read a fantastic article on the 10 things one should have in mind when attempting a career as an artist. Here is the link:
      http://www.austinkleon.com/2011/03/30/how-to-steal-like-an-artist-and-9-other-things-nobody-told-me/
      I think you will find there more useful tips than all my mindless ramble above.
      Keep me updated of your progresses, I know that in a couple of years, I will be asking you for advice.
      Be well,

      Aug 14th, 2011 Reply
    • Kayness

      Kayness

      WOW that is such a long reply! I didn't expect that, but that's very helpful thank yoU!

      Aug 15th, 2011 Reply Subscriber
    • carles

      carles

      You're welcome. Insomnia has its good sides, you see !

      Aug 19th, 2011 Reply
  • wolfcreek50

    wolfcreek50

    Thank you for the follow my friend...

    Jul 22nd, 2011 Reply
    • carles

      carles

      Most welcome. Hope to see more of your B&W photographs soon.

      Jul 23rd, 2011 Reply
  • matthughesart

    matthughesart

    Good to see you here! Nice stuff ;-)

    Jul 11th, 2011 Reply
    • carles

      carles

      Thanks a lot again Matt. Did you join a long time ago ? I for one just discovered this place, so far I like the atmosphere here, and the variety of art you find.

      Jul 11th, 2011 Reply
  • kolaboy

    kolaboy

    Pierre, beautiful work you have here. Look forward to seeing more ;)

    Jun 23rd, 2011 Reply
    • carles

      carles

      Thanks a lot. I will do my best to upload new pieces soon.

      Jun 24th, 2011 Reply
  • KaterinaArt

    KaterinaArt

    welcome pierre i'm so happy you joined !! congrats on the DF

    Jun 20th, 2011 Reply
    • carles

      carles

      My pleasure. I like the joint feel of friendliness and professionalism found in this site.
      Thanks for the compliment, which I can easily return.

      Jun 22nd, 2011 Reply
  • imike

    imike

    Welcome to Shadowness! I hope you have fun and enjoy your stay here. :)

    Jun 11th, 2011 Reply
    • carles

      carles

      Thanks for the welcome. It had been pleasant so far, and I already discovered a few artists I did not know before.
      Best wishes,

      Jun 11th, 2011 Reply
    • imike

      imike

      thanks for your good wishes , Glad to have you here!

      Jun 11th, 2011 Reply
  • Maliciarosenoir

    Maliciarosenoir

    Thanks for the favs :) !

    Jun 9th, 2011 Reply
  • SuharLeonheart

    SuharLeonheart

    Welcome to Shadowness Pierre

    Jun 7th, 2011 Reply www.GregoriusSuhartoyo.com
  • wolfcreek50

    wolfcreek50

    Thank you very much for favoring Battered...my friend...

    Jun 7th, 2011 Reply
    • carles

      carles

      You are welcome. I love these old wooden barns you photograph, they kind of tell a story.

      Jun 7th, 2011 Reply
    • wolfcreek50

      wolfcreek50

      I feel as if I am saving a part of our history on film before they are no more...at least a quarter of all the buildings I've photographed are now gone...

      Jun 8th, 2011 Reply
    • carles

      carles

      I hope you keep a record of where and when these pictures were taken. I am sure that, beyond their artistic value, they may be one day of some use to an historian's project.

      Jun 8th, 2011 Reply
    • wolfcreek50

      wolfcreek50

      You know your right...I know in my head which state they were taken in and probably get the dates pretty close but I should keep real records just in case...

      Jun 9th, 2011 Reply
    • carles

      carles

      Do that indeed. Memories of a vanishing past is a treasure, do not let it fade away.

      Jun 9th, 2011 Reply
    • wolfcreek50

      wolfcreek50

      Thanks for the heads up my friend...

      Jun 9th, 2011 Reply
  • mintyy

    mintyy

    Hi Pierre ! Welcome to the land of Shadows !

    Jun 6th, 2011 Reply
    • carles

      carles

      Hi ! As I said to your fellow admin Joseph, it feels great to have admins welcome a newcomer. I will keep updating my gallery here (once I get a better hold on how the site works).
      I love the general layout by the way, it gives out a very professional feel.
      Best wishes,

      Pierre

      Jun 6th, 2011 Reply
    • mintyy

      mintyy

      That's great to hear ! I and I think the whole staff appreciates critics like yours ! And I cannot wait to see your best works !

      Jun 6th, 2011 Reply
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