Very. I have well over 15 years experience. I'm on time all the time and I have a full range of rendering ability from realistic to cartoon. I work on all types of illustration. Sketches, storyboards, editorial, anything that needs a visual presentation I can do.
Every job is different and price has to be evaluated for time, talent, and experience. A job can range from fifty dollars to thousands of dollars depending on what is needed. All prices are negotiated before a job is accepted.
Again It depends on what is needed. It can take from one hour to hundreds of hours. When discussing a job my experience allows me a pretty good assessment of how much time it will take and If I see any variables that may not give me an accurate time line or price, it will be discussed before the job is started.
It's creative, fun and self rewarding. It's always different and I get to deal with many people who are passionate about what they do.
I'm better, faster and more experienced than most other commercial artists. Just view my samples and compare my work to others.
Be honest. If your hurting for money and you really need some visuals for your business don't hire someone and then not pay. Smaller payments can be made over a period of time that will satisfy both parties.
A large amount of my work is commercial storyboards, which takes a great deal of skill and has to be done in a very short amount of time. It's not something every artist can do. There's a lot of visuals to be done and each rendering has many elements to consider. Storytelling, lighting the scene, clothing (fashion), expressions (both face and body), ethnicity, buildings, cars, animals, landscapes, color, figures, etc. These are things that an artist has to be able to render in all his jobs, but in storyboards it has to be done very fast. You're lucky if you get an hour per drawing (color). So it's very specialized. But that makes me a much better artist and it's all applied to every job I do, storyboard or not.
How difficult it really is and how much study and work goes into becoming a good artist. Most people think you're born with this talent and you can just naturally draw wonderful pictures. Although talent is needed in the beginning, the artists who become professionals love what they do and spend their entire life perfecting their craft. The amount of knowledge needed to do what we do is enormous. Look at the credits to a movie sometime and you will see all these different categories such as lighting, fashion, cinematography, casting, locations, it goes on and on. An artist has to master all these things and more to render a good visual or tell a story. In movies many of these artists are specialized in one category because so much is involved, but you can bet everyone of them studied like crazy to master what they do. It's not just natural talent, it's hard work that makes an artist good.