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One for the Money, Two for the Show

Posted on November 20, 2021November 21, 2021 By Hey You

Those of you who know me are well aware of the fact that there was never a Marc Ericksen style. I was wildly all over the map when it came to accepting commis­sions. Beyond that I worked in every medium and with every agency and design firm creating illus­tra­tions for any and all appli­ca­tions: complex cutaways, and tech­nical art for tech compa­nies. I was commis­sioned to do Video Game cover art for 30 different compa­nies, and Toy Pack­aging for 6 different major compa­nies, including Marvel and Tyco Toys.

Marc Ericksen: The 8 Bit Artist | Presented by Chex Quest

Marc Ericksen: The 8 Bit Artist | Presented by Chex Quest

There was adver­tising art in pen and ink, acrylics, gouache, oils, brush, airbrush, pencil, markers, water­colors, dyes – – you name it. Story­boards, compre­hen­sive sketches, brochures, logos, and prints, edito­rial art for maga­zines and book covers and major newspapers.

My career covered 40 years, from my days as a student at Art Center in L.A. (where I needed to free­lance story­boarding at agen­cies while a student to supple­ment my meagre GI Bill funding.)

All that said, you might think prob­lems with one illus­tra­tion would not stand out. You would be wrong.

As much as I loved every moment of my career, and nearly every client, I would like to tell you the story which was the single worst expe­ri­ence I ever had as an illus­trator. As far as I can remember it occurred around mid-career. I cannot say clearly because I looked without success for days for any residual infor­ma­tion, but I would guess: 1995 or so.

I was contacted by Letraset to do an illus­tra­tion that they wanted for the cover of that years’ cata­logue of all cate­gories of the prod­ucts offered by the corpo­ra­tion. I of course was familiar with the company, as I had used their numerous prod­ucts in various ways since art school. In a face to face meeting with their adver­tising team, we conferred over their wish for an illus­tra­tion that was exciting and perhaps in the vein of a number of my video game pieces. They also requested that their prod­ucts not appear. It was a terrific oppor­tu­nity because the client was releasing me from the need to clutter the compo­si­tion with devices. As we continued conversing, I was sketching ideas and came up with a sketch of a robot hand sweeping across back­ground of stellar space in close prox­imity, and on each fingertip of the robo-hand there would be the form of an indi­vidual tool that referred contex­tu­ally to the various Letraset basic depart­ments. The tips would be in the forms of an exacto-style blade, a rOtring style inking nib, a paint brush, an AD marker nib, and the busi­ness end of a rub-down tool.

They loved the concept and I was excited to get started. The budget covered execu­tion and buyout for $2,500.

The process I used was to mount (with two sided tape) a cold press 20” X 30“ illus­tra­tion board (work side up) to a slightly larger foam core rigid board. I placed a light acrylic sheet and its atten­dant (very light). Then, in the form of a large flat book, I attached a foam core rigid cover board over the illus­tra­tion board. I did this to all of my airbrush pieces.

A day later, I had care­fully drawn the graphite illus­tra­tion and attached it over a large piece of frisket which covered the entire surface. Then I care­fully cut the entire drawing into the frisket. Finally, I spent the next few days airbrushing each deli­cate frisketed area. Then a day of removing all of the frisket and cleaning up edges. And the day following, metic­u­lously painting edges and spots that could be consid­ered rough.

Ready to deliver the illus­tra­tion, I called the client. On the planned day, I showed them the art. My routine in deliv­ering art was to place the art on a table before the clients, and first to lift the top foam core cover, then, to lift the the clear acrlylique flap, allowing the art to be seen for a moment through the tissue sheet, The art was greatly enhanced by lifting the final tissue sheet.

The client loved every­thing about the piece! They were ecstatic. I was very pleased, and they loved every aspect. When I left the meeting I was walking on air.

Two days later I received a call from the group. In our conver­sa­tion they were very clear on how great they felt the art was for their appli­ca­tions… they simply wanted to confirm that I had used the corporation’s own Letra Max illus­tra­tion board. The blood drained from my face… Hadn’t I? Certainly I must have done…. Asking for a bit of time to look through my supplies, I came upon the box from which I had drawn the illus­tra­tion board…It was Crescnt Board!!

My only course was to own up to my error, which I did in my call that day. The client asked for a day to consider our plight. Next day’s call was as I suspected. The team was not angry, explaining two aspects: they reit­er­ated their love of the art, – – but clearly, if leaked, that their illus­trator had preferred Cres­cent board – – it would be catastrophic!

I assured them that I had always used both Letra Max as well as Cres­cent, usually buying in bulk boxes…but I knew I was doomed. I prepared to return the fee.

They called me a week later, asking if I could paint the piece again, and they were willing to pay $2,500 a second time, due to their feeling that they had had a respon­si­bility to make clear to me that LetraMax be used, and that they had, in fact, stated that their tools were not desired in the illus­tra­tion. I felt their kind offer required my accep­tance. I felt they were being more than generous.

The result was my require­ment to repaint this illus­tra­tion, which was a thing I had never ever done, The next week was agony. Despite my frus­tra­tion, I had to insure the art was (if possible) even better than the last. I couldn’t cut any corners and it was a week of frus­tra­tion for which I could only blame myself. I was so frus­trated with myself, I didn’t eat or sleep until it was finished. The art began as one of my favorites – – – and then began to feel like a bone stuck in my throat.

LetraMax proved them­selves to be a fair and consci­en­tious client, but I swore to be more aware, hope­fully never to have to ever repeat having to do a repeat piece again.

I do not recom­mend it.

Marc Ericksen

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