Today is my brother’s birthday. I totally forgot to send a card. But in my defense, my brain is overwhelmed and I’m doing a lot of stuff not the least of which is getting my postcards together. They’re done, I just need to send them out. It’s an old school way of getting an AD’s interest, but according to most of them, it’s the preferred way they’d like to be introduced to our work. So why then, if we want to be hired by an AD, to create art for say, greeting cards, or picture books, would we send ecards to our friends and family? If we want to make a living in illustration, then we may want to think about also putting our money in illustration. I’m not saying don’t buy ebooks or ecards sometimes. It’s a great alternative to be able to send an ecard to someone you don’t know well, or an animated card to a friend’s little one, who would totally get more out of that than a tangible card. I was just having a think about it as I was ordering a roll of stamps from USPS for my postcards, and I couldn’t believe they’re up to 32c. It makes sense, with fewer people using their services, they’d have to raise prices to make ends meet. But I was also thinking it was rather nervy of me to think I should be hired to create images, yet I wasn’t willing to also buy images regularly. So, buy some stamps. Buy some greeting cards, and magazines with art in them…Not instead of, but in addition to, eproducts. We have to protect our industry too. If we collectively buy so much art businesses can’t use enough stockart to keep up, then more of us should get hired, right? Okay, it’s not as simple as that, but maybe think about it the next time you send an ecard, or send an Amazon egiftcard through email. Take the time to send something tangible, so we have a little bit of insurance that we’ll still be creating something tangible… I think I’m going to send my brother a belated card! : )