Man on a Commission

And no, before you all start again, it's not a cat blip.

Euan received his first commission this week, to produce an illustration (of a ginger cat, drawn from a pretty ropey black and white photocopy)) for a book being published at school. It's all hush-hush apparently - or Euan just zoned out when he was given the info 'cause he couldn't say what the book was, when and where it was likely to be published or, most importantly, what his fee was. Still, it's that first step on the ladder, and it took me back to an almost carbon copy of my first paid illustration job.

At the same school as Euan attends, back in 1984 when I was a spotty-faced oik, we had a world renowned expert on Esperanto who, as far as I was concerned at the time was just a rather ruddy and rotund deputy rector who always had a cigarette in his hand. I was called into his yellow-stained office one day to be asked if I wouldn't mind doing an illustration for his translation of 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. I remember being pretty chuffed at the time, and cobbled something together with my best Bic Biro and returned later with the sketch. He took it from me, held it at arms length in his fag free hand, squinted at the small drawing and asked how much I wanted for it. Kind of taken aback that I was even being offered money for it, I said a fiver would cover it (pretty much still would) and he reached into his wallet and passed me the note.

I never found out if the image was ever used though as I left school, went on to college and then went on to become a graphic designer. Bill Auld retired not long after and went on to become the only writer of Esperanto to be nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. I'd like to think that little commission set us both up for greater things.

So Euan, make sure that if you're put on the spot like I was, you ask for a fair fee for the three nights of work you put into this great wee drawing (better than my effort with the Bic by a long shot). This small step may just be the one that starts you on your own big bad voyage; just don't shoot any Albatross on your way.