BLOG : JULY WEEK 1.3 Life as a Freelancer

This week has been so busy I've been really struggling to balance a bit of contract work with my own personal work! So it's got me a bit down.

There's been a client who's been very slow at providing me with the resources of a video they want produced and have left it to the last minute. And where as I scheduled them for a months worth of man hours they now want to work to be delivered within a week. This has seriously eaten into my time to draw, so sincerest apologies for the lack of an illustrated image this week!

The problem I find that as an artist is that people just assume what you do is just really easy.

But its really not.

It requires a lot of planning and thinking. In fact I recently got a bit annoyed with my BF who sometimes asks me to do a favour and make some art assets for his work place - for free.

I told him that I will need to charge his company for the work to be done. 

And he said "but its only a small favour and its not really for work its for a person who's retiring from their work." 

So I said well it doesn't really matter who or what it's for. Work is work. 

And he said that but I don't think i can ask my work place to pay for it.

So I said well if it's not work related and it's just your colleagues pitching together for a leaving present, then really maybe you should get your work colleagues to all chip in instead, to pay me to do the work. You'd would have had to pay someone anyway to do it - why should I be the one that does it for free? 

And he said well if that's the case then he'd would rather pay me instead of asking his work colleagues to pitch in. He's worried that his work friends would feel its not worth it ( even though they can't find anyone to do it for free with the skillsets required, and do a professional job of it.

I literally facepalmed so hard!

Work is Work never ask a friend or freelancer to do anything for free or give mates rates. You undermine the years of study and experience they've had to go through to do their craft! not to mention the cost of equipment and software as well as time they had to spend on your job.

I don't know why people feel it more appropriate to ask artists for free work - you couldn't get away with it if it were a Doctor, Solicitor or Mechanic.

What are you views on this matter? Leave your thoughts and comments below!

More to come real soon!