In the summer of 2010, I never imagined I'd have a portfolio of over 1,000 illustrations on Dreamstime. It's been an amazing journey as a part-time illustrator. My advice to anyone starting out at Dreamstime is to find your own style and be unashamed to create what you want. My other advice is to tell a story whenever possible.
My full-time job is photo retoucher and owner for Photo Grafix. One of my clients is a big Dreamstime contributor known as Creatista.
Working on over 5,000 images of his 10,000+ portfolio on Dreamstime inspired me to give a try with my rarely-used illustration skills. I admit, I'm not a great cartoonist. However, I just accept myself for what I am and try to make fun and interesting cartoons. I think I've have greatly improved over the years. I've even written and illustrated two children's books (a courageous feat that would never have been done had I not ventured into microstock illustration).
Dreamstime is a tough site on which to get approvals. Yet, I've noticed that over the years, that has improved. Most likely it is because I have gotten better with my skills and understanding what they need for buyers. It's been a tough road. I hope to have portfolio as large as Creatista. That would be grand!
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Theblackrhino
Wow! Thanks everyone for the inspiring words and kindness! Glad to know all of you!
Davidwatmough, for over 50% of my work, I use a hybrid system of pencil and india ink on sketch paper. Then I scan the originals and clean up in Photoshop. Then I trace and expand the clean black lines with Illustrator. Then I make a separate layer for color (sometimes more than one). From there I export an EPS and JPG versions for DT.
A growing percentage of my work is based on simple sketchpad drawings (pencil) and then making a rough and final black line right in the computer with Manga Studio 4 EX. From there, I export into the above workflow.
Perstock
Great Eric! Congrats!
FabioConcetta
Congratulations!!!
Davidwatmough
I love your image entitled ' sleeping like a log '.......... you've a great portfolio. David.
What package do you use for drawing ? please blog about that, techniques, ideas etc !
Debspoons
Congratulations on 1,001! You have been working hard!