So hey here’s something I never thought I’d had to talk about every again, but here we are, so let’s talk about this because it’s important and I want y’all to understand how important it is, not only for established artists and industry professionals, but for new, young artists who are just getting on their feet and trying to figure out how to go about making a name/living for themselves through what they love to do.
First off, if you’re a commissioner, do not ever try to haggle with an artist. If you can’t afford their work, don’t buy it. When you go to Best Buy, do you try to haggle down the cost of a TV? When you go grocery shopping, do you try to haggle down the cost of that pound of ham you’re buying for the deli? No, you probably don’t. The same concept applies here. If you want to buy something from someone and they tell you that it costs a specific amount of money, don’t get mad at them because you can’t afford it. You’re paying for a fucking luxury service. Being able to buy custom art or being able to hire a private artist for a project you have in mind is a luxury and if you can’t afford it then you need to move the fuck on and not blame the artist for your not being able to afford their work. Like, I’d love to be able to have a closet fucking FULL of haute couture clothing custom tailored to my body, but I know full fucking well that Dolce & Gabbana is not going to do that for me for 50$, so I don’t have a closet full of haute couture clothing and I don’t blame Dolce & Gabbana for it.
Second off - when an artist does work for free or for friends, that’s their fucking prerogative. If someone does something out of the goodness of their heart for someone else that they like, or if they want to do it as a gesture of affection, or they want to show appreciation to their followers, they are doing that because they want to. You know what most artists don’t just randomly *~*~feel like drawing~*~*? Your commission. Because chances are your artist of choice has absolutely no desire whatsoever to draw what you want them to draw for free. So don’t you dare ever presume that because an artist likes to draw for themselves now and then (because hey guess what, we aren’t fucking machines! How about that.) that you are at all entitled to their effort and skill for free or for an extremely discounted price because you want it. Get real, you clod.
The most irritating thing is to hear or read “Well, you did x thing for x person for free, so why not me?”
Chances are is because you have no personal connection to us. You’re a client. You are a customer. While your business is appreciated, we have no emotional attachment to you. You’re not our friend. We have zero obligation to you outside of a financial one, and when you treat us like you did us some major favour by offering us fucking peanuts for what is a hundred or thousand dollar job, you can honestly get bent because we have no time for that.
The above message in black (in the images) is nothing more than an insult coming from a whiny crybaby who doesn’t value all of the years of hard work, passion, dedication and struggle that an artist of any medium goes through to hone their craft and price it at a reasonable, liveable rate.
Listen dude, I’m sorry that you can’t afford more than ten bucks for a commission - it sucks for me and you, but what sucks even more is when you try to guilt trip an artist into feeling bad that they aren’t going to accept your ten dollars for what is a job that would cost around, if I calculated correctly, a hundred dollars, which, IMHO, is still RIDICULOUSLY underpriced for OP’s skill level and professionalism.
SO YKNOW, maybe have a little consideration before you treat an artist like their skill and hard work isn’t worth a pack of fucking gum.
