Hi Everybody !
Been some days with some problems in my tiny adventure called life. But I am not here to tell you about these, but to tell you a tiny not funny story.
(All the images are my own creation and so I own the rights of them)
Let's go simple.
This is a painting I did for a guy from Iceland as a test for his book project... not the best I've ever done but it s something.
He asked for strong story-telling on his characters. The main one would be a troll or something like this (even tho' in the end the troll was the guy) that had to be horrible, but still be nice and an innocent girl, wtf.
After I presented it he proposed to me 20 dollars per illustration... And just to make it clear, 20 dollars is even far from being a joke. But that wasn't even the end: after I shown this illustration he even wanted iterations.
BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE!
After that, as the beautiful cherry over the ice cream he said that the quality of the painting was too low for his standards.
In the end, the best of all... he never paid for this very first (and fucking last) one.
Faith in humanity lost.
I even remember that since it would be a long-term project, I put an extra effort on this.
...I drew few different propositions for the style of the character and even these were rejected (before they said the disrespectful budget they had in mind).
Just think about this: each artwork, to be done properly and beautifully should take around 10 to 20 hours. let s say 15. At 20 dollars each artwork (and without counting the whole administrative time an artist has such as replying e-mails and answering questions), it would mean 1,5 dollars the hour of work.
I don't know what you think, but I want to believe I am worth way more than that.
So remember: always make yourself worth and sometimes you just have to say fuck off no.
Be brave my fellow artists! Value yourself as you deserve!!
Bye!