Help a Comic Book Colorist Out? Owen Jollands has a question for you.

We love Owen Jollands' story. How many people originally trained as a scientist can say that they became a comic book artist and colorist? Today

Owen leads an exciting career as a comic book colorist, taking on new, broader challenges as he goes. We wanted to soak up everything we could about Owen's path to his lucrative, fulfilling career as a self-employed artist. 

And in return, Owen has a question for all of us :-)  We'll let him take it from here...

Name: Owen Jollands

Job: Comic Book Colorist

Started: 2010

Q: You are a professional comic book colorist. How did you get this amazing job?

A: I started out practicing in my spare time with line art from the Internet and coloring it in using Photoshop with a Wacom tablet. I also took a comic book creation class with a tutor who had strong ties with Markosia, a leading publisher of graphic novels. From these connections, I landed my first gig coloring for the Markosia team on an as-yet-unpublished set of three comics.

Q: What makes you standout from other comic book artists?

A: I studied science in school and only started down an artistic path much later on. I think that has a lot to do with how I've learned to work my way up in this industry.

Because of my background in science, I tend to analyze my current position frequently. I'm always thinking about where I should be going with my career as a freelancer and how I can get there faster. I assume nothing is impossible, but some skills take longer than others to develop to a useful level. This mindset helps me improve myself and my portfolio every week, so I'm landing the jobs that I want.

Q: What are your secrets to a great portfolio?

A: I've learned to keep my portfolio focused, relevant and lean. If you're looking for work as a comic colorist, there's little point in putting together a portfolio full of pinups and covers. Coloring pages for comics requires a different skill set.

A great portfolio showcases your best work. I use three-page chunks of story and split the story elements to a quiet scene, a low character count action scene and a higher character count action scene to show the range of what I'm capable of creating. Then I add three more of my best pages.

That's my basic recipe. 

When I target a specific publisher, I make sure my portfolio is customized to what they want. I want to reflect their taste, both in content and style, and maximize my chances of working with them.

Q: How do you find and close new projects?

A: I take a risk/reward approach to new gigs. If I'm working for free, it is by myself or in collaboration with my friends. When I see valuable alternative rewards, such as top tier contacts or a step up in publisher recognition, I may work for a lower rate. In all cases, working for free or a lower rate has to be thought through carefully. 

I'm fortunate to have built a network of professionals who work as pencil artists and they often bring me work. These contacts primarily come through my work with Markosia, as well as searching for opportunities on Twitter. I tend to simply follow people on Twitter that work in my industry and keep my eyes out for interesting opportunities they may post.

On my own Twitter feed, I focus on sharing parts of my portfolio rather than post random thoughts. I think work speaks louder than tweets, and coming off as random is not my goal. 

Q: How do you price?

A: Larger publishers with mainstream books generally have established rates per page an artist can take or leave. For my independent freelance projects, I set an hourly wage and multiply this rate by the hours I estimate for the project. 

My approach may price me out of some projects, but I reserve working for free or less than my normal pricing for personal projects I'm passionate about. 

Q: Tell us about your typical day.

A: I get up around 6am and start working on personal development. I define personal development as the skills I want to get better at. In the past,

I've spent this time on coloring. Right now I'm refining my drawing skills. I spend between one and four hours focusing on the fundamentals and and pushing my knowledge of a specific subject or developing my portfolio.

Then, I workout for an hour and break for lunch. After lunch, I tackle new or open color projects for my clients. I continue working until 7pm or even midnight, depending on volume and deadlines.

Q: What do you wish you'd known before you started out?

A: I wish I'd known how much staying healthy, eating right, exercising and sleeping would benefit me in the long run!

It may feel like your projects will take longer if you set aside the time to take care of yourself, but I try to stay on top of it.

Q: What would you like to learn from a network of small business and self-employed professionals like you?

A: I'd like to learn which areas of a business are most valuable to get help with as you grow. When is it worth having someone else to do your accounting? When should I hire help for managing my social media accounts? I bet members have great ideas and experiences to share!

Let's help Owen out. 

How do *you* manage *your* social media accounts? 

How do *you* manage social media. Do you use a firm or do it yourself? 

Inquiring minds want to know below in the comments.