Advice - Bad Clients

Stemming from the previous post:

I have the privilege of getting some pretty fantastic professional advice on a regular basis. This saves me from stumbling along, into and only barely around the pitfalls of the industry; I'm grateful to these friends I have (that often double as teachers), and I feel the need to pass advice on to anyone who might read these posts.

I recently had someone pitch a large project to me at 1/3rd of a reasonable price. Now, when I pointed out exactly how much work would be involved in the project (an undertaking that would span the better part of a year), I was given tales of other artists who were content to work for very little, if anything at all. I know that they intended those stories to cast a pitiable light on them and their financial situation, but it only made me angry. As an artist, those stories told me that since other artists were fine with the exploitation, I should be okay with it too.

Not budging, I was then offered exposure as a form of payment. However, a promise of exposure and a client's appreciation does not pay the bills. I spent far too long with dollar signs in my eyes, trying to see if the deal was salvagable, when I should have just walked away.

You can always decline offers, even if they are big offers. Hell, if you're getting big offers, be confident that more will come in time. If you don't like how the client treats you, if you don't like the offer, and even if you're not feeling the creative pitch, you can decline and that's okay.

You can also fire bad clients. I was surprised to learn that it's not a one-way street! It is perfectly okay for you to develop the self-respect to not take shit from people before you make a big name for yourself. This will save you a lot of time and frustration in the long run. Respect needs to go both ways in relationships, and business relationships are no exception.

Most importantly, pay attention to your gut feeling. This is the greatest piece of advice that is being (lovingly) hammered into me right now. I am fortunate enough to have savvy industry art friends that see the potential in me to get fucked over - by both others and my naivety to be distracted by dollar signs, because I'm just starting out and want to make this my living.

In the realm of freelance commission/contract work, you are your own boss. Bad clients come and go in any business - I used to work in retail, and the difficult customers still stand out in my mind. The only difference is, back then I had to take their bullshit.

Advice - "Exposure"

I have some advice that was given to me, which I must now pass onward, which has to do with the subject of art as a profession - and this is to all the artists like me just starting out in their field;

"Exposure" is bullshit.

If someone offers you "exposure" as payment, walk away immediately. I've been having a lot of trouble with this concept, but in the end, my gut tells me not to do these projects. This is a GOOD thing.

Yes, people go "but it'll get your name out there!" but I want you all to know that they're buttering you up to ensnare you in either working for free or working for slave wages. You will be surprised at how many people out there want to get your work, for free, and will say almost anything to get it without having to shell out for it.

Never work for these people. They are exploiting you. 

They see young artists with no confidence in their work, and they prey on that. Exposure becomes a nice carrot on the end of a stick, but just like a carrot on the end of a stick, working hard and doing your best to chase it won't get you any closer to it with projects like that.

I have had large companies try to hose me out of hundreds of dollars worth of hard work. You might not believe it with the quality of my work, but if they hear - even from word of mouth - that there's an artist out there with even some skill, they'll take free from an amateur over having to pay a professional almost every single time.

Set your prices. Don't budge. Before you ever, EVER open yourself up to paid work, figure out what your work is worth - not only to other people, but to yourself. Have confidence that, when people pay for your skill in the profession, that you are, indeed, skilled. Every artist works hard to get where they're at; people mistake it for natural talent, which is why they don't want to pay for something you make look so easy. 

Let me tell you: ballerinas make dancing and looking graceful look so easy, but they spend half their day every day training to have that skill and keep that skill up.

If the buyer walks away from the offer, good riddance. There will be other job offers.

You work honestly for your art, there's absolutely no reason a patron can't pay honestly for it.

I refer you now to Fuck You, Pay Me.

The Importance of Reference

If there's one thing I have to emphasise, and emphasise again, it's the importance of using visual reference when you're designing.

Lose the ego, you're not as creative as you think you are, you're not going to be able to pull an entire world out of your head (or ass). Sure, you have a blurry general idea of what your world looks like and what its aesthetic is, but that's all it is; a suggestion of a design.

You've got to nail this shit to the floor, bro.

Exhibit A: The dog.

It's not a bad design of a dog, per se; it's just... unremarkable. It's the idea of a dog, jotted down on paper. You think dog, you think of that particular shape. There is nothing about it that really defines it as one particular breed or another. It's good for laying out the kind of design you want sort-of, but not much else.

And here it is, improved. Using reference of the Xolotl dog, the lines are more confident, and it's been given more of a defined shape; it's a far more solid design, because it has anchors in reality. What I was going for in the previous design is now realised; a mangy, malnourished, thick-necked fighting dog. This is my final design for the dog.

Exhibit B: The camel.

Again, the general outline of what I want is here; a bachrian camel. All of what will make the final camel design stand out is here; hair over the eyes, big curvy neck, puffy front shoulders, high hips...

With referece, the whole thing still works, except now it is exponentially better looking!

If you are going to design without reference, let that never be your final design for that character/item/layout/whathaveyou. Caricaturing from a general idea is good for figuring out what will make that character/item/layout/whathaveyou special and stand out, but it must never be the definitive.