1. Is the economy impacting freelancers' ability to land jobs?
It might have an indirect impact. Upwork added more than 2 million freelancers over the past year or so, which means more competition and lower hiring rates. The uptick in freelancers is due to a variety of things, but I think the biggest reason for the increase is related to the pandemic and the number of people who began working from home. Some of those people never returned to their traditional employer-employee jobs.
2. What is the average hourly rate for a freelancer with 5 years of experience? I have gone anywhere between $18/hour-$25/hour.
This depends on your speciality. For example, Data Entry Specialists might average $5/hour - $18/hour, while Data Scientists might average $80/hour - $300/hour. For a Digital Artist with serious illustration skills, I think your rate is too low. Most digital artists/illustrators I see are between $25/hour - $85/hour. So, don’t sell yourself short in this area—quality means everything and since you have it, you should indicate it in your hourly rate.
3. Is there a way to get my artwork evaluated to see what improvements might be needed?
Only other digital artists/illustrators can do that. There may be sites online where you can upload samples of your work for review.
Eons ago, I was rooted in paper and digital illustrations, but I drifted away from it. I’m a graphic designer now (among other things) and I think your illustrations are great. With the number of jobs I see for children’s book illustrations, I can imagine that, for you, this type of job is a specialty within the hand-drawn illustration niche.
Continue to submit proposals to jobs for which you are qualified--you will eventually win more work!
