My First Paying Gig

Cheryl Michalek the Artist

I’ve been following a thread on one of the online discussion boards for a professional designer group I belong to, and the question came up “What do you charge for freelance work?” The posting caused quite a buzz among freelance designers and some of the entries got me thinking about my first “paying gig” as an artist.

My first paying gig came when I was a senor in high school. I attended what at that time was considered the County’s premiere “High School for the Arts” which offered specialized curriculum in Music, Dance, Theater and Fine Arts. For the most part of my high school years, I was enrolled in the Art Specialty program that featured drawing, painting and art history.

I had a knack for drawing caricatures, and I guess that talent caught the attention of Leslie, one of my classmates. One day, Leslie approached me and asked if I would be interested in doing caricatures for a free children’s fair that was being held at her church. Outside of doing self-portraits, I had never drawn from a live model before. All my sketches of people had been done from observational memory.

...resulted from first gig!

More detailed drawings...

I was hesitant at first, because outside of goofing around with friends, I never really shared my sketches en masse. But Leslie insisted it would be easy, it would only be for a couple of hours, and the children­—being fairly young—wouldn’t have too much expectation of my abilities. Thinking about it for a nano-second, a voice in my head said: “why not?” So I told Leslie, yes, I would do it.

Then came the question every artist dreads: “How much do you charge?”

How much do I charge?  A professional artist could charge per project or by the hour. I was hardly a professional, I didn’t have a set rate. I was just a kid really. I didn’t know what was appropriate for spontaneous art…the teachers didn’t cover that in Art Specialty school! Still, I had to come up with an answer. I babysat the neighbor children for $2.00 an hour, so I stammered, “uhmnuh…five dollars?”

“Great!” Leslie smiled cheerfully, “I’ll let my dad know you’ll do it!”

Personalized for each kid.

The day of the Children’s Festival at Leslie’s church arrived. I remember it was a warm sunny Saturday morning. I wore a multi-colored pastel striped blouse with short sleeves and a lavender colored wrap-skirt. When I arrived at the church, Leslie showed me to the lower hall where the festival was set up. There were a vast array of fun games to play, crafts to make, candies and treats to eat, and a clown who made animals out of twisted balloons.

In one corner of the church hall, a card table and two folding chairs were set up. There was a handmade sign “CARICATURES” hanging on the wall above the table. I brought a sketchbook and several types of drawing media: pencils, pastels, charcoal, and conté crayons.

Customized as a "Precious Moments"

I was a bit apprehensive. Scores of children arrived and scattered in every direction, naturally drawn to the bright colors of the balloons, games and candy. Largely ignored, I sat waiting. Finally, a little girl came over and inquired what the sign said. She couldn’t read, and she didn’t know what a caricature was. “I draw pictures,” I explained. “Would you like me to draw you?”

She sat down on the chair opposite me, and I looked at her face. “Its okay to smile,” I said. When she did, the curves of her face were more defined, there was a twinkle in her eye, and her personality came through. That made it easier to SEE her…and draw HER. The strokes on the paper started out slow and deliberate, but I soon realized that I could get better results with quicker generic strokes. Switching from one medium to another, I finally got a feel for my preferred choice for quick sketches: charcoal. It was easy to manipulate on the paper and create light and dark contrasts as well as fast shadowing.

Caricature used in a birthday greeting.

I remember one boy who sat for me, but refused to smile. No matter what I said to try to make him smile, nothing worked. “Okay,” I sighed, “You win. It’s your picture,” and I drew him with the scowl on his face. When I showed him the finished drawing, his face lit up with the smile I was trying to coax from him! He went around showing the art to his little buddies and soon, there were many children lined up waiting to sit for me. I had to work faster. I drew girls and boys, chubby faces, freckled faces, big smiles with missing teeth and bright eyes that peeped out expectantly behind eyeglasses. Some personalities were easy to discern, while others I had to squint my eyes a little bit to see.

All told, I think I may have sketched two dozen kids that day. Time passed quickly and the festival was over before I knew it. I was unable to draw all the children, and had to turn some of them away at the very end.

Cha-CHING! $10.00 was a lot of money back in the day!

As I was getting ready to leave, Leslie’s father came over to settle up payment with me. He asked me to remind him what price was agreed upon before hand. I told him, “Five dollars.” He smiled and said, “You did a wonderful job, you deserve more than that.” Then he handed me a $10 bill!

In the years that have since passed, I have done caricature drawings at several events, including a local high school “Senior Lock In”, and corporate Christmas parties. I’ve also been commissioned to draw many caricatures as gifts for other people. I've honed my craft, and learned to charge accordingly. I’ve also learned that many clients expect “freelance” to be “free.” Putting a price on talent can be difficult, especially when that talent is your own.

Whenever the negotiation of a fair price and livable wage gets rough, I think about my first “paying gig” when my “client” valued my work TWICE as much as I did.

Inspired by the perceived value of talent. 

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The drawings here were done years after that first gig. Unfortunately, I don't have any of the charcoal sketches I'd done for the children to share with my readers today.