How to treat your artist / content creators 101

[nio kasgami]

Hi!
my name is Nio Kasgami and I am a professional freelance artist. and I thought of writing this article to explain to the community how to treat well the artist you decide to work with (both commercial and non-commercial). here a list of do and don't

(I wasn't sure where to post but I think since it's related to art it would be a good section)

Artist will include programmer, musician etc to lighten the text
non-commercial hiring (NO PAID)
Not everyone has money to hire artists, but there's nothing wrong to ask for help from the community. There are many artists that will work gladly for free to help people in need.

here's a list of do and don't :

Spoiler: DO

Do :

1. Check if the artist offers their services as free (in the request offers threads) if you unsure message them kindly asking if they do.
2. Be patient and understanding of their time.
3. ask a simple request first. If the artist is more interested to help you more after. Then you can proceed.
4. Be reasonable
5. Credit them.
6. If you can donate a little to them or offers them an equivalent exchange of services if you are also an "artist". Even a fanart for them is a big thanks.

Spoiler: DON'T

DON'T :

1. Spam the resources thread of the artist with your requests.
2. Spam the artist with messages asking for updates remember that they work for free and you should respect their timeframe.
3. Ask for a giant list of requests. Remember they work for free and you should understand that there are not your art slave
4. Get angry if they refuse to work on your request. You are not paying them so they are all in the right to refuse any of your requests.
5. Ask the artist to not distribute those resources saying it's your copyright...you don't have any copyright on a free product the copyright stay to the artist.
6. Get mad if the artist has no longer time to works on your project. Remember, you not paying them so you have no right to complain if an artist is slow or unable to finish the request.
7. forget to credits the artist OR use the assets of the artists they told you not to. Remember they own ALL copyrights on the assets they made for you, you don't.

Commercial Hiring (PAID)
It's the general approach in game dev. You go in the commercial resources thread and your commission the artist.

here's a list of do and don't :

Spoiler: DO

1. Make sure that you are over 18 or at legal age. It avoids any trouble for us artist as most of use Paypal as a way of transactions.
2. Make sure your financial situations is enough stable before commissioning. It's the most annoying thing for us artists to do hard work for you then you suddenly say you can't pay us. (Situations happens where you can't afford anymore which is understandable be sure to warn your artist beforehand, maybe they can offer a payment plan).
3. If you can't afford the pricing you can always ask if the artist offers payment plans.
4. Pay upfront or half of the pricings
5. Always ask for an invoice. It protects the artist and yourself. (in case the artist scam you or the artist decide you not worth their time anymore and refund you.)
6. Make sure to be clear and concise in your message. A lot of us artists don't have time to read your essay.
7. Be patient with the artist. They are humans like you and me.
8. Credit the artist properly
9. Be respectful in your message
10. It's optional but Tipping the artist after the job they did for you is a good way to develop a respectful and healthy work relationship with your artist.

Spoiler: DON'T

1. Spam the artists of message asking for updates. (generally, two or three times a month is a good timeframe unless there's a deadline)
2. Work with Minor for commercial projects. It's fall into a lot of Legal issue and will make your life hell if problems ensue.
3. Don't get angry at an artist if they refuse your request. They are in their own right.
4. Try to pay using a Gift card. It's useless and annoying for us artist. We can't pay rent with a gift card.
5. DO NEVER TRY TO HAGGLE ARTIST PRICES. It's the most and I put emphasis on this Insulting thing you can do to an artist. We are an independent worker and this is our salary we are not your Grocery shopping.
6. Ask for Bundling prices. It's equally insulting of trying to haggle us. As repeated we are not your grocery shopping. If you can't afford the prices say so and ask if you can do a payment plan. If they don't then don't get entitled and just save for the money or consider another artist.
7. Beliritle an artist for their prices messaging them: Your prices are expensive. You are free to your opinion, but your opinion is just offensive and should be kept for yourself.
8. Ask for change after the products are done or asking corrections that force the artist to redo a whole process.
9. Ask for a refund when the work is done. You asked for something and you followed the processes. It doesn't fit what you asked? Don't be a dick and ask for a full refund when the job is done. Artists will anyway only provide you with half of a refund. The only exception is when the artist is intentionally ruining the results. Which falls into the scam area.

To conclude, I hope you like it! That's my overall thinking when I commissioning artist and tbh it's should be common sense.

 

[HexMozart88]

This should be pinned.

 

[RainbowGrenade]

 

[Kupotepo]

Thank you for sharing the article with us. Yeah, the professional people are assuming that laypeople know the inner working of the professional people. I agree with you that professional people should speak up more to clear things. When people do not really understand something, they will assume.
I am just going through 2 pencils for the sketch. I really suck at drawing human anatomy.

I hope you and other content creators speak about themselves to light up the atmosphere.

 

[nio kasgami]

Thanks, Although I do see some artist having a very unrespectful or unprofessional attitude towards things.

IMO as customer should treat us with respect some artist are plain unrespectful toward their customer and treat them as trash
it's an equal balance between artist and customer relationship.

 

[Kupotepo]

@nio kasgami, agree with you that every member of the society should treat with respect. I will assume you see the customer too demanding and you see some artists with fun language.
My point is that some customers just think that he or she tells you ideas and it is just happening magically.
My point is education.
[By the way, I agree with you completely. I am just seeing it as a bigger issue of toxicity over time.]
The customer should know that you have draft drawing, fixing the draft drawing, tracking the line, and try coloring, and commit to the coloring to the drawing. I think that is the artist's operation lol. But some customer does not know that. So Funtime, on the artist part gets upset with people who do not understand in the first place of how the procedure works.
Vice Versa with the paid programmer and his/her client. I agree it is a sad social problem that people do not understand each other like they ought to be.

 

[Amysaurus]

Bless! I agree with everything you said, cat-bro.

I really don't have much I can add, but I will stress the importance of being mindful of a creator's time, especially with free artwork.

If you see someone has a load of requests on their plate already, consider holding off on yours, or spacing them out. Most of us that make free resources are just doing so as a fun hobby, and the last thing we want is for it to become stressful.

 

[nio kasgami]

well it is also the job of the artist to guide the customer through this process. Since of course NOT every artist have the same workflow

 

[hayahay]

Thank you for this Nio.

Some people likes to compare your work to others saying "Wow really? I know an artist who is way better than you and he/she charges less (which most of the time is made up lol)", just to lower the price.

 

[Andar]

very nice write-up, and all of it is correct - but it is also incomplete, because it doesn't mention anything that the artist could do wrong.
Over the years I commissioned a lot of artwork, usually through deviantart. And the answers I got on paid job offers were sometimes as bad as your experience with bad customers.
Ten years ago I wrote something from the other perspective as a result:

How to answer job offers by rpgAvarion on DeviantArt

www.deviantart.com

 

[nio kasgami]

Thank you for this Nio.

Some people likes to compare your work to others saying "Wow really? I know an artist who is way better than you and he/she charges less (which most of the time is made up lol)", just to lower the price.

I know the feeling! I got told that in the past as well i had to reduce my prices to a mere 25$
Then The perso goes : its better i will think about it. Then they never answered back

@Andar actually i was thinking to make one as well for the artist just not in the same thread since it was pretty lenghtly thanks i will take time to do the one for the artist since its also refers for "if you ready or not to be a freelance artist"

 

[hayahay]

I know the feeling! I got told that in the past as well i had to reduce my prices to a mere 25$
Then The perso goes : its better i will think about it. Then they never answered back.

That is just sad to hear. Glad it didn't demotivated you and continued to create amazing arts. We all had a bad experience, but for me I'm lucky enough that 90% of my clients are actually pretty nice.

 

[Andar]

There is one point in the "commercial hire do's" that I don't agree with:

A lot of us artists don't have time to read your essay.

If the artist is hired commercially, then the time to read that essay/description is also paid for by the person writing it.
Of course both sides have to be reasonable - no one will read ten pages of description for a 5$ job.

But if the commissioner wants something very specific that can't be easily referenced (needing several pages of descriptions) and is willing to pay extra for it, then after that the artist has to decide if he wants the commission under those conditions.

A general "I don't read long descriptions" is never a good answer, but the artist may state things like "I only do humanoid portraits" or "work without references may need extra payment" in his ads.

 

[hayahay]

very nice write-up, and all of it is correct - but it is also incomplete, because it doesn't mention anything that the artist could do wrong.
Over the years I commissioned a lot of artwork, usually through deviantart. And the answers I got on paid job offers were sometimes as bad as your experience with bad customers.
Ten years ago I wrote something from the other perspective as a result:

How to answer job offers by rpgAvarion on DeviantArt

www.deviantart.com

Just read your post, and wow this is also a must read for all artist. I'll be sure to keep them in mind while answering inquiries and commissions. Thanks!

 

[nio kasgami]

There is one point in the "commercial hire do's" that I don't agree with:

If the artist is hired commercially, then the time to read that essay/description is also paid for by the person writing it.
Of course both sides have to be reasonable - no one will read ten pages of description for a 5$ job.

But if the commissioner wants something very specific that can't be easily referenced (needing several pages of descriptions) and is willing to pay extra for it, then after that the artist has to decide if he wants the commission under those conditions.

A general "I don't read long descriptions" is never a good answer, but the artist may state things like "I only do humanoid portraits" or "work without references may need extra payment" in his ads.

I think this is here i badly explained when i meant essay it was the one who convulte with unnecessary information. (Which some artist experienced here me included).

Its when example you ask me to draw a cat but you go on a whole paragraph about how the car flies into the sky.

What i meant is dont bring unrelatef information into the request.

If a "essay" is necessary it should be formatted in a way that if I need to find a specific informati9n i dont need to press control + f a keyword lol