All art, no pay

I just had a discussion with an aspiring writer and manga artist at the convention last week. He told me he has good ideas for a story he's writing, but as he's terrible at drawing, he needed a manga artists to draw the actual manga for him. As he seemed to be pretty serious about it, he tried already to make contact with several artists. But as he doesn't earn money (because... hey... there's no manga yet) he didn't actually pay an artist for the work. As a result, most of the artist gave up after a few pages. Either that, or the art quality was (in his eyes) not good enough.

As a teacher for the mangaschool organisation, I see a lot of this kind of people. More than I'd like to, actually. This guy was a case book example of the young, aspiring, wannabe manga writer that doesn't understand that you have to invest in something, before you can actually get something from it. Especially when it comes to art. 

He kept on ranting about how people didn't draw stuff for them, or how they weren't as good as he wanted them to be... when I told him: You don't pay them, so it's voluntary work for them. They don't have a single obligation to stay and make your shit -- so you could earn money for THEIR freakin' work!!! Needless to say... he wasn't really convinced by my words. He'll probably keeps trying to find a free artist for the next 5 years, keeps getting disappointed, and keeps ranting. Oh well... 

Still, it does make me feel a bit sad for those in the graphic industry. 

I recently stumbled across this website: allartnopay.tumblr.com/ . Very harsh and confronting, but this is basically how people see art, nowadays. And this is the reason why people always talk about the typically 'starving artists'. Because really, there's no pay in it. People expect you to do shit for free, and start bitching you around when you don't meet their expectations.

I'm in computer programming myself. Web programming, to be more specific. It used to be a business similar to art, in the early days of the internet. Similar in a way that you, as programmer, was seen as some child with a hobby and people expected you to do stuff for free. I did stuff for free, when I was 14 years old, or something. I stopped doing so, when I got sick of the ungrateful reactions of people when things didn't turn out as expected. I mean... I was doing stuff for free... in my FREE time. Why would you be ungrateful if somebody does something for you, all free? 

As the years progressed, web programming became less childish and more complicated. While it used to be very easy for kids to master, it's now a serious business and it'll take most people a few years to actually master it. People started to see us more as technical expert, than as the child hobbyists we used to be, so the pay got better. Sure, there are people that still expect me to do stuff for free, but I laugh at them and tell them that I ain't gonna do work for free that I can earn a lot of euro's from when I do it for a professional company.

The reason that the whole art-thing bothers me, is that I've seriously thought about becoming an artist, at a certain point of my life. Yeah... I've always had a bit of drawing skills, and I've been designing from years. My school was a combination of graphic design and technological stuff. While I really liked the designing and drawing part, I chose to take the more technical path at that point of my career, just because I felt it was nearly impossible to earn money with just design. And I wasn't wrong. Many of those that did the designing course, and that I still speak to, have been jobless many times, and get pays far under my level... while they can actually design really nice stuff. Hearing that made me realize I was lucky to like the programming as well, but it makes me somehow feel sad for those that chose to do what they love, but don't get any appreciation for it.

I feel the same about all those artists on DA, that are offering their commissions for 10 point.

Do you have any idea how much 10 points is worth in money? No less than 9 cents! You're selling your valuable time and skills for a lousy 9 cents!!!

So to all artist that are reading this now. Let's stop this madness.

No more commissions for 9 cents. No more doing stuff for free (unless it's an art trade or collab). 

No more allowing people to abuse your skills for their own good.

You are better than that!