[lawlu-week]

10 Days of LawLu Feedback Survey

Hello everyone! In case you missed our last post, the feedback survey is live right now. We’d really appreciate your input on this event as we want to try to make it something everyone can look forward to and enjoy.

Thank you everyone who’s already responded and shared. We’ve gotten a lot of helpful suggestions and comments already. A few of them we’ll be addressing in another post, and some we may ask for more in-depth information with another detailed survey.

As for the theme/prompt list, all ten have already been chosen and we’ll be announcing them either tomorrow or Friday. That way regardless of when we decide to do the event, you already have access to them. The only thing is, the order might get rearranged when the dates are determined.

LawLu Event Feedback Survey

Please share this with anyone who might be interested in the event, and we look forward to hearing from you <3

[dearartdirector]

Tonight! Join Mallory O'Meara, author, filmmaker, & co-host of the podcast Reading Glasses (WFH 7 years) and Lauren Panepinto, Creative Director of Orbit Books & Art Biz Educator at Drawn + Drafted & Make Your Art Work (WFH 3 days) in a discussion of best practices & tips for building a sustainable & productive work from home routine. Good for the newly quarantined as well as the career freelancer. Log in ahead of time and post questions, and chat will be live during the crowdcast. Will be recorded & available to watch immediately after.

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/so-youre-working-from-home

[dearartdirector]

Lately I've had a number of potential clients ask me to do "trial projects" for them, before they decide to hire me or not. Small tasks, hypothetical branding or an ad for a fictional product. This work is unpaid, and while I fully understand the implementation of such aptitude tests, I am still quite averse to producing work for free. What is your experience with such projects? Do you issue them? Ought I challenge potential employers about it? Thanks gang.

These things get complicated, so let’s break it down to 2 categories:

1) Doing work on a project until a client knows they want to go with your direction. Many “art contests” fall under this category too. This is bullshit. It’s called “working on spec” and feel free to forward them this website: https://www.nospec.com

2) Doing work on a fictional project that definitely is not going to be used by the company in order to show your ability. This is called an “Art Test” and is frequently used in many industries — but for long-term projects or staff jobs, not for single project freelance. For that, a client should be able to tell from your portfolio how you will work and to what quality. That’s what a portfolio is for. If they’re asking you to do as much work to get the job as you will be doing ON the job then that’s also bullshit. You can definitely push back. Start politely, of course, but say you stand by your portfolio work. If they want to hire you just for sketch/idea stage first, they can do that, and then decide whether to go further past that, but you must prioritize paying work.

Protect yourself!

—Agent Negative Space

[dearartdirector]

Hi AD, don't know if this question was answered in terms of animation, if so where might I find it. I am a recently graduated animator and was approached by a company that wanted to hire me to do an approximately 1 minute 2D animation and they asked for my rates. I don't know what to charge and don't want to charge too much as to miss out on this opportunity but I also don't want to charge too little and cheat myself out of being paid for the amount of work I put in.

We have discussed pricing many times here, and the industry doesn’t matter because pricing is so specific that we can really only talk about it in philosophy and in generality. There’s too many variables and you’ve given us so little information that we couldn’t give you an accurate estimate. For example, we don’t know where in the world you are. We don’t know how big the company hiring you is. We don’t know if you mean an hourly rate or a project rate. 

Regardless, here is what you need to know about pricing:

When you are asked to quote a price and you don’t know what it should be you:

1) Ask peers doing work in the same industry

and/or

2) You respond to the question with a question. Something like “I can work with all kinds of budgets depending on turnaround times/complexity of work. Can you tell me more about your project and what your budget is?” That way, you sound professional, and you are signaling to them that they can toss out a number that you can then start to think about. Negotiation is a dance, and there’s etiquette and proper forms involved. We’ll be doing a Negotiation crowdcast soon (like our previous Confidence crowdcast you can watch for free) so stay tuned for more.

—Agent Moneypenny

[dearartdirector]

Dear ADs, thank you for you wise words, this blog is super helpful! I've been trying to follow your advice, have dusted off my google-fu skills and got on with sending out illustration samples. One of the publishers I was interested in for cover art requests that artists send portfolio, expected $ rate and 2 references from other art directors. Is that normal for a freelance job? I would feel very rude to email a busy former AD client to ask for a reference, especially for a one off cover job!

That’s…not…..how it’s done. Honestly that’s a sign to me of a publisher with either no art director or an AD who is not connected to their field. ADs gossip about artists and give each other references. That’s part of our job. Ignore them and move on. Here’s a great list of resources of how to find publishers: Muddy Colors/How to Get Into Publishing.

—Agent KillFee

[dearartdirector]

Dear AD, I recently finished a large editorial project that included a series of full-page illustrations. I am really proud of them and it's the largest editorial project I've ever worked on. I just saw the final publication and realize I was not credited alongside the work. I've worked with the AD before and they've always credited me in the past, and other illustrators in the publication are credited, so I assume it's an oversight. But I'm beyond sad and frustrated. What should I do?

Well, that sucks. If they credited everyone else in the issue and not you, then I would say it was definitely an accident. I would send a polite email to the AD and say something like “I couldn’t help but be disappointed that I wasn’t credited in the issue, was there a problem I wasn’t aware of?” and I’m sure that will spark an apology, and maybe an extra job to make up for it!

This is a good time to remind everyone that you shouldn’t be afraid to communicate with your AD! They are your collaborator. Why wouldn’t they want to know? If they noticed THEY probably are having mega anxiety wondering whether YOU noticed. Or maybe they didn’t notice at all and alerting them would make them check in on the designer whose mistake it was, potentially helping it not happen again. Remember that professionally polite emails are always points gained for you. We then know you are the kind of artist we can count on to communicate even when there’s problems. That’s a bonus!

Also, why suffer in silence assuming the worst? Just ask!

—Agent KillFee

[valtsv]

pirates: mostly men, allowed gay marriage, attack sailors

mermaids: mostly women, not usually interested in men, attack sailors

conclusion: pirates and mermaids are sea mlm/wlw solidarity

[valtsv]

pirate crew, calling out to the mermaids watching on the rocks as they hoist the jolly roger and direct their course towards a nearby vessel: arr, let's go lesbians! let's go!

[wizardlyghost]

the horse has been caught at last

[tragedyposting]

Hospital Board To Vote On Letting It Back Into Hospital, Not Certain His Presence in Hospital was as Bad as We Thought

[dignity-not-intact-deactivated2]

Hospital Board Revealed To Be Made Entirely Of Horses

[vacuously-true]

It's Not Even A Reveal They've Been Yelling "We're Horses And Horses Stick Together" For Weeks

[dearartdirector]

Hello, I have a question? Would you happen to know why animators draw certain parts of characters in red or blue? Like in rough or uncolored animation, for instance?

Excuse me, I need a minute to pull my decrepit bones out of the grave they reside in. Ok. Gather round, kids, for a tale of the pre-digital world, where everything was hand drawn and photographed or photo-copied. The “blue” you refer to is called “Non-Repro Blue” or “Non-Photo Blue” and in comics and animation it would not Reproduce when copied in Black & White. So you could use it for all the sketching, and then inkers would ink over it in black, and only the black would reprint, and you don’t have to go back and erase all your under sketching after you ink.

Some artists still prefer to use blue (and, as an alternate, red, or any other color) in the modern world even in a digital workflow because then those colors are easier to select all at once after they’re scanned in and different areas might want to be separated later (foreground, mid ground, background, etc). They’re also not as reflective as graphite, so it’s easier to scan in without breaks. Some people also like the waxier texture of how colored pencils glide across paper. You could use any color to do this, but blue & red pencils are the most common and the furthest apart on the spectrum, so easier to separate.

And now I shall shuffle my bones back into the coffin.

—Agent Negative Space

[pens-swords-stuff]

[tacticaltaxonomist]

[thefakerachelray]

Someday I’ll make something for them…

[whitepeopletwitter]

[brainless-out-deactivated201812]

This is so relatable, I’m dying.

[systlin]

LOUDER FOR THOSE IN THE BACK

[deadindeathvalley]

For those of you who aren’t going to vote in the 2020 election because Bernie or whoever didn’t win primaries.

[asneekyfatcat]

Not voting is in of itself just as powerful as voting. Fuck this rhetoric.

[systlin]

No, it’s not.

All that does is let other people…who may hate you and want you dead…decide your future for you.

No one gives a shit if you didn’t vote as a protest. It accomplished nothing except to further the interests of the people who hate me and folks like me. Not voting isn’t powerful; it’s rejecting a civic duty that people fought and died for and saying ‘well I don’t care.’

Being able to not care in politics is a privilege in and of itself.

[saiyanqueenreads]

This is important! 

[caffeinewitchcraft]

Yeah, I can’t stress this enough, especially in US politics. Like…the government doesn’t just go “Oh no! Not enough people voted so I guess we gotta do the whole thing over again!”

Lol, no, that’s not how it works! Instead, the people who do vote–the ones with easy access and/or a monetary incentive to vote– get to decide who’s going into office even though they’re not an accurate representation of the people overall.

 If you and five of your friends don’t vote, all six of you are worth less than Jeff Bezos getting paid a trillion dollars a second while voting.

For every person that doesn’t vote, the voters who are incentivized by classist, sexist, racist politicians level up.

[ofdirtandbones]

Guys the dark season doesn’t end at the end of fall or at the end of October

In the old French folklore it lasts til the end of winter, the spirits of the dead being banished with the return of the sun at the spring equinox. But it’s called the dark season for a reason, it lasts until the return of the sun. Winter being the darkest time of the year, let’s be spooky til spring.

[wutz]

or we can jus,, b spooky til the e-end of t-time??,,, haha jk,,

,,unless?

[ofdirtandbones]

Autumn and winter is spirits of the dead spooky time

Spring and summer is monsters and faes spooky time

[reasonstoloveonepiece]

Reason: 54 Luffy knowing Law’s name the whole time.

[yumenofude]

This fanart was inpired by a combination of Given, @miyu-v‘s artworks on Instagram & Twitter (she’s a wonderful artist please follow her) and a fanart of France (Hetalia) I saw and cannot reference correctly in spite of 1h of research, which is exactly why people shouldn’t repost.

[rei-the-rat]

Hello everyone, yes I’m still alive. Just haven’t been on tumblr much because, y’know

But I am on twitter and ao3 as rei_the_rat, I still post to ao3 and I’m a lot more active on twitter

I’ve also opened up a Patreon account, you can find out more details about that here on twitter

Signal boosts are greatly appreciated, thank you

[rei-the-rat]

Posted a few LawLu WiPs to my Patreon, some of which I hope to start working on and posting around December, as a old creative writing assignment for some OCs I want to expand more on

My promotion is on going until the end of November for a free small request to anyone who signs up as a Patron

Thank you