Edition of 20/08/2026 · Twelve entries A working reference for digital illustration

1. 14/08/2026Tools and formats

   Software for cartoon animation

   Rechecked the licence tier of two engines after both changed their indie pricing.

2. 30/06/2026Practice and business

   Building an online art portfolio

   Tightened the advice on edit order after reviewing a batch of student portfolios.

3. 22/05/2026Characters and caricature

   Designing funny cartoon characters

   Reworded the silhouette test and added a note on the head count dial.

4. 09/04/2026Craft: painting and space art

   Creating space art in Photoshop

   Added a short note on limb darkening as it applies to gas giants, not just moons.

5. 18/02/2026Tools and formats

   Flash animation and the SWF file

   Added a line on how far Ruffle's coverage of old SWF content actually reaches.

6. 27/12/2025Characters and caricature

   Hiring a digital caricature artist

   Clarified what counts as a usable reference photograph for a live event booking.

7. 11/11/2025Craft: painting and space art

   Digital painting in Photoshop

   Reordered the section on flow against opacity to match the actual brush setup order.

8. 30/09/2025Practice and business

   Designing a logo as a freelancer

   Added the embroidery needle test to the list of checks a mark has to pass.

9. 14/08/2025Craft: painting and space art

   Space art techniques: surface and light

   Rewrote the falloff section so it reads as a lighting problem, not a colour recipe.

10. 03/06/2025Characters and caricature

    What shapes a caricature quote

    Added a worked example that walks through the six variables on a real quotation.

11. 19/03/2025Practice and business

    Pricing illustration work

    Updated the day rate worked example against current freelance overheads.

12. 05/02/2025Practice and business

    Becoming a freelance illustrator

    Revised the three stage outline after several readers asked about the middle stage.

1Practice and business

Four entries

Becoming a freelance illustrator the trade, stage by stage Ref PR 01

Freelance illustration is commissioned image making: a client buys a picture made to a brief and, with it, a defined right to use that picture. What separates the trade from the hobby is the paperwork around the drawing, not the drawing. the three stages, and what each one costs you

Pricing illustration work day rate and licence fee Ref PR 02

Two models cover almost every commission: time sold by the day, and use sold by the licence. Mixing them up is the single most expensive mistake in the trade, because a licence fee answers to the size of the use, not to the hours spent. how a day rate is built from your own costs

Building an online art portfolio what to show, in what order Ref PR 03

A portfolio is not an archive. It is a short argument that you can make a particular kind of picture on request, which means every piece that does not support the argument weakens it. the edit, the order and the technical checks

Designing a logo as a freelancer a mark, not a picture Ref PR 04

A logo has to survive one colour, a stamp, an embroidery needle and a sixteen pixel favicon. Illustrators are often hired for marks precisely because of their drawing, then lose the job on reproduction. the tests a mark has to pass before delivery

• What to settle before the first invoice
• The five variables of a licence

Digital painting in Photoshop a beginner's order of work Ref CR 01 · method

Digital painting is building an image from brush marks on raster layers, in an order that keeps every decision reversible for as long as possible. Beginners rarely struggle with the brush; they struggle with the order. flow against opacity, masks against the eraser

Creating space art in Photoshop the build order for a scene Ref CR 02 · method

Space art is astronomical subject matter painted so that it reads as physically possible: star fields, gas, a lit body, a shadow with a hard edge. The order of the build matters more than any single brush. star colour, nebula colour, and the terminator

Space art techniques: surface and light emissive materials, falloff, passes Ref CR 03

Once the scene is blocked in, the work becomes a lighting problem: how a self lit material behaves, how quickly its light dies with distance, and how to keep the passes separate so the grade stays under control. why a lava field tints its own shadows

3Characters and caricature

Three entries

Designing funny cartoon characters shape, silhouette, flaw Ref CH 01

A comic character is a drawing solved for reading at a glance, for being redrawn without drifting, and for carrying a joke in its stance. The design carries the flaw; the writing only names it. the silhouette test and the head count dial

Hiring a digital caricature artist brief, reference, rights Ref CH 02 · brief

Caricature exaggerates what is already distinctive in a face, so the whole job depends on the reference photographs and on a brief that says what the picture is for. Live event work and studio commissions are two different trades. what to send, and what to put in writing

What shapes a caricature quote the variables behind a figure Ref CH 03

Number of faces, level of finish, background, revision rounds, deadline and intended use: those six variables explain most of the spread between two quotations for what looks like the same drawing. reading a quotation line by line

Software for cartoon animation twelve programs compared Ref TL 01

There is no best animation program, only a best fit between what you are making, what it has to export to, and whether you draw every frame or rig a puppet and move it. the comparison table, by approach

Flash animation and the SWF file 1996 to 2021, and after Ref TL 02

For fifteen years one plugin carried most animation on the web. The format it published, the SWF, is still readable, and knowing how it is put together is what makes an old file recoverable. the dates, the file signatures, the emulators

Most delivery arguments come down to three questions: does the format keep transparency, does it throw pixels away, and can the client open it. This is the short answer for the formats an illustration job actually uses.

Wide table: scroll it sideways.

• Export settings for a painted file
• The delivery set for a logo

• ActionScript
• Anchor point
• Blackbody colour
• Blend mode
• Bounce light
• Clear space
• Clipping mask
• Cut out animation
• Day rate
• Deposit
• Emission nebula
• Exclusivity
• FLA file
• Flow and opacity
• Frame by frame
• Inverse square law
• Kill fee
• Layer mask
• Licence term
• Limb darkening
• Lottie
• Model sheet
• Onion skinning
• Pixels per inch
• Publicity rights
• Rigging
• Ruffle
• Silhouette test
• Spectral class
• SWF file
• Terminator
• Turnaround
• Usage rights
• Vector outline
• Working file