Posted

Nov 28th 2009

Mood

Offended

I keep getting "requests", aka demands, from people to draw things for them. Here's the proper way to get a free art request. FREE as in "I'm doing it out of the goodness of my heart."

1. NOT ALL ARTISTS TAKE FREE REQUESTS. I sometimes do. It depends on the request.
2. DON'T EXPECT THE ARTIST WILL DO IT JUST BECAUSE YOU ASKED AND LIST YOUR INSTRUCTIONS IN THE SAME BREATH/MESSAGE/E-MAIL. I emphasize this because this it the most common kind of request I've gotten.
3. ASK. DON'T DEMAND. Politeness gets you farther than "GIMME GIMME GIMME".
5. I, THE ARTIST, AM NOT THE RUDE ONE IF I DECLINE. Especially if it was one of those demanding messages.

Look. An artist creating a piece of art is like a chef cooking a meal. So if you walked into a restaurant, sat yourself down without a reservation, called over the chef, expected a free meal, and began to list your desires? NO. You'd get kicked out. Realize this: People are being selfish when they expect artists to do their stuff FOR FREE. And then when we don't, they call us rude. US. RUDE. Who is the one trying to take stuff without paying?

I don't know if people have noticed this, but uh... ARTISTS ARE POOR. We pay out the nose for our art supplies. It's like $30 for a basic set of paints! $70 for a set of nice markers! $100 for a graphics tablet! $20 for a pound of clay! $4 for ONE sheet of nice paper! We have to prep our own canvases, mix our own colors, sketch our own drawings, ink our own lines... It's our blood, sweat, and tears! And people just want to TAKE it away without giving something in return??

THE ARTIST OWES YOU NOTHING. You need to give something to get something.

And if you understand basic economy, good and services are exchanged for other goods and services. There needs to be compensation, whether it's an art trade, money, or advertisement. And appreciation is NOT compensation. The free stuff that artists actually do? They're usually for FRIENDS. Or are GIFTS. Or are PRIZES. They're all EARNED.

Stop being so rude. We are NOT your drawing servants. PAY us for our work!