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Fuck you. Pay me. -- A masterpost for artists.As an artist, you probably will be approached by various people over time. Some may be looking for commissions, others will most likely be looking for free art.
Here are some handy resources concerning the "free art"-people. First of all, there's this handy flowchart called "Should I Work For Free?.
If they say they'll pay you with:
-Exposure
-Eventual cut of the profit when profits are made
-No pay, since artists "shouldn't be sell-outs, but draw for fun"
Then run for the hills and get away as fast as you can.
Because if it's for a game, a comic or another for-profit project, the most normal response should be "Fuck you. Pay me." (worded politer, though that goes without saying).
Spec-work? -- Fuck you. Pay me.
"We don't have the budget for 20 sprite-sheets, but we'll sell this game and your name will be in the credits!" -- Fuck you. Pay me.
"We need 10 sprites / full paintings by tomorrow,

ART: A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO PRICING YOUR ARTA BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO PRICING ART
There are several reasons why an artist will make the decision to sell their work. For some artists, it is almost accidental that they are discovered doing what they love by someone who is willing to pay for it. Often these scenarios lead to a decision to go public, but not all artists sell their works so easily. There are artists who study and practice and build up an inventory of works with the full intention of selling those works for income. For these artists who depend upon sales as a means of income, and possibly survival, pricing art is imperative. Then there are the artists who slowly venture into the arena, one piece at a time, testing the proverbial waters and gauging whether or not their works will compete well in the art world. Regardless of the beginnings or the motivations, pricing art is a task which has confounded the best of artists.
Common Sense Guide To Surviving The Art World: http://fav.me/n141460
ART:

Amazing Blog on Commissions and PricingI love this blog from :iconshadow-wolf: It hits everything spot on. This is a must read for people who offer commissions or are thinking about doing it.
Why is undercharging a bad idea?
Now, here are my thoughts on this topic as well:
I might seem like a hypocrite, since I tend to keep my commission pieces low and affordable for all, and I don't see my artwork worth as much as certain artists', but I do know that it takes a long time to create art, and I feel I priced it reasonably enough, according to me and my current talent level. Many of my followers know, I have raised my prices in the past to help compensate for the amount of time I was spending. Compared to what they were and what they are now is VERY significant, but I hated raising prices because every time I did it resulted in a huge cut of fans' opportunities to commission me-- temporarily or permanently. Dreams get crushed each

Commissions Contracts: A Must Have. Yes, there is a lot to read and Yes you should read it. Copy it, paste it and edit it to suit your needs as a commissioner or commissioned artist. Protect yourself by drafting a contract and understanding it.</a>
It has come to my attention that many deviants commission their work and hold proceedings entirely over deviantArt. In the case that your client/commissioned artist begins to use and distribute your work illegally you will need to have a greater standing than simply a bunch of e-mail print outs if you are to go to court over the matter of misuse. Often the matter is over misunderstanding, which a contract will also help clarify for both parties.
I cannot stress how important it is when doing commissions to have physical signed copies of an Artist/Client Commission Agreement or at the very least a signed confirmation of engagement. It takes longer to organise, especially with overseas clients, but it protects the rights of both parties to the work and is worth the day or so

PE: Interview with =Arichy:iconarichy:
An inspiring, friendly deviant that provides loving help 'till hell freezes over!

Stasya is such a wonderful friend, and a talented artist and community leader!
Thank you for participating!

Tell us a bit about yourself!
First, thank you so much for interview!
Hello! I'm Stasya, 19 years old, living in Russia, in great city Saint-Petersburg.
I love making photos, pixel art, drawing in muro, cooking, eating
And dedicated to deviantART community forever.
How did you find deviantART?
Well...I can't remember ALL things! Maybe I was looking for a wallpaper or some
inspirations for myself or something else I was inactive for 3 months after
joining dA, but then...I became a bit more active, more and more, and now I don't know
what would i do without deviantART.

The 365 Photography Challenge - How to Stick at itBefore I start with this article, a little disclaimer. I just finished the 365 photography challenge - known as a 'photo a day' but I blogged and took more than one photo on most days, so it was that little bit more challenging. So I'm feeling pretty smug right now, that I achieved it. But I am by no means toting myself as an expert. This is just my humble advice on how to keep going when it does nothing but rain, or when you feel like giving up.
Before 2012, some weeks would pass when I wouldn't even pick up the camera, let alone think about shots, or how to compose one. Photography still excited me, but I was lacking inspiration. So on the 2nd of January last year I decided to throw everything up in the air, and let go. That is to say, I stopped being precious about the camera (because you can't when you have to take a photo a day) and I forced myself to take rubbish shots, as well as half decent ones.

Start as you mean to go. Don't over-set yoursel

Celebrating Deviousness - OctoberDeviousness Award
Congratulations to `JCROXAS
Noah's Ark
The new deviantART HQ
The Child of Venus
What is this Awesome Achievement?
The Deviousness Award is an accolade which is traditionally handed out on the 1st of every month to one truly outstanding deviant.
JCROXAS 2011
Dreaming Mug

Graphic Artists of dA, Behold: A Pricing GuideHello, all. My name is Kellan Stover, a budding professional illustrator close to finishing up his time at the Savannah College of Art and Design, achieving my BFA in illustration. I felt the need to create this news article for the benefit of every artist on deviantArt who intends to make money from their talent.
When one visits the deviantArt 'Employment Opportunities' forum, they should be shocked at what they find. Startling low prices abound. These are both offered by the clients, as well as quoted by the artists. The sad truth is most people aren't shocked at all. The perceived consensus is that it's business as usual. A lower price means an increased likelihood that a client will do business with you, right? In some ways yes, but not at this extreme. You must remember that 'you get what you pay for'. It's widely accepted that the more demanded your talents are, the higher skilled you are, the more you can charge. If a client wants, no needs, your work over someone else, they wil

June 2012 Cosplay DD Round Up
June 2012 Cosplay Daily Deviation Round Up

June 2012 Cosplay daily deviation features from the past month, in case you missed them, all in one condensed and costumed space.

If you come across anything in the Cosplay gallery that you think is amazing, please feel free to drop me a note and suggest it. Suggesting is fun!

You can find my suggestion guidelines on my front page.
A list of all Community Volunteers can be found right here<

PE: 5 reasons to believe in yourselfSuccess is not a measure of how much money you earn or how popular you are, rather, it is being able to find your passion - one that makes you happy and ultimately, one that you would be happy to leave as your legacy. To make a step forward to reach your dream takes smarts and guts but why couldn't you? Here is five reasons why you can.
1. Everyone was born equal
More-less, this is true, some people are born more challenged than others but we all possess skills and ability to learn. It is possible to build something out of nothing if we really want to. It all comes down to our preferences and decisions.
"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent."
Eleanor Roosevelt
2. Overcoming your fears
By constantly challenging yourself, you can get rid of fears that used to follow you. You will no longer be worried, you'll know you can count on yourself.
"If you think you can, you can. If you think you can't, you're right."
Mar

PE Daily Deviations- Presentation of your workHello all!

Well we’ve had a fascinating week so far; a week which hopefully has provided some insight not only to the process of DD selection but helped you understand what we look for in DDs as CVs. As we draw to the end of this week, I bring you an article which will whet your Saturday with thoughts that don’t just apply to the DD feature, but something which should be a consideration to everything you submit to dA. I am talking about deviation presentation.
Why is Presentation important?
Art isn’t always about just being “creative”. There are techniques and skills which develop over time which contribute to the quality of the work you produce and alongside this comes a developed understanding of good presentation.
Good presentation could be anything from cropping a photograph, to spell checking your literature. These are common sense things that in the rush of wanting to show off your creativity can sometimes be

PE: Getting Noticed in dAGetting noticed within dA
Everyday, millions of users from all over the world use deviantART, and it is really hard for new users to get themselves noticed. Oh yes, it is HARD. It can actually be a really disappointing experience for some of us. But, if you show some patience and work for it, you may just be able to crack through that wall standing between you and exposure to the community. Remember, all it take is patience. Lots and lots of patience. Oh, and you also need to trust yourself. Just because you couldn't get a huge fan base in several weeks or months doesn't mean that you will never get them. But, there are some really important stuff you need to follow first before getting there.
dA is also a community, just like any other community in the world. The only difference is dA is and online community and the others, well they are totally offline

. So, this means there will be some standards to be held in there, or else it

PE DD Week: A DD is not an award, but a feature.
A DD is not an award but an art feature.
There. I said it. A DD is not a prestigious award that will change your life drastically, it's just a 24h feature.
But why is it so important to make this distinction?
It's just a way of naming something and therefore should not be of great importance, yet it makes all the difference in how people perceive a DD.

On the importance of terminology
As mentioned in the intro, the biggest problem when it comes to Daily Deviations arises with the choice of words used to describe what a Daily Deviaton is. When you call it an award, people will automatically assume that the Daily Deviation is the cream of the crop of every deviation posted ever on this site and that no art featured after it should be able to be perceived as "worse". However, when you call it a feature, most people are fine with the picked deviations and don't even hold them to the high standards of living up and

PE: Daily Deviations - The Myth and the LegendDaily Deviations, or DDs . . . for some deviants, receiving one is the epitome of awesomesauce in the deviantART world. For others, they are a nice way to show off the work of lesser-known artists. Still others treat them as a special way to bring attention to great art that exemplifies works being done by a particular gallery or community.
Perhaps because there are so many different ways of conceptualizing DDs, there are also many myths and misconceptions. I would like to address some of those myths by responding to the ones most frequently heard. Please note that these opinions are mine and reflect my experiences with the photomanipulation community, but perhaps they will be informative nevertheless.
Myth 1: DDs should always be perfect.
To many of us, the ideal Daily Deviation goes to an artist with amazing talent whose work draws you in and makes you think, "Wow, everyone needs to see this!" A DD should move you, inspire you, and provoke you to think, b

Spirit Day 2012"Ultimately, I want Spirit Day to make just one person feel little bit better about his or herself, to feel safe enough in their own skin and to be proud of who they are" - Brittany McMillan
In memory of the young LGBT people who lost their lives to suicide, Brittany encouraged her friends to wear purple on a day in October -- a day that came to be known as Spirit Day. Since then, GLAAD has helped turn Spirit Day into a global event that inspires millions of individuals, celebrities, TV personalities, media outlets, companies and schools to wear purple in a stand against bullying.
While Spirit Day does focus on the LGBT community, I believe that it's anti-bullying message is relevant to every community. It only get's better, if we take the pledge to make it so.
Practice compassion and understanding, and treat others how you would like to be treated and we can make a difference.
Show your support for this anti-bullying me

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Your art is worth more than you think.

Journal Entry: Sat Aug 25, 2012, 8:18 AM

Gallery | Sketchbook | Commissions FAQ | Note Me

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a person in possession of a good fortune must be in want of art.

If you've ever taken a look at the job-offers part of any forum or site, you'll notice two tendencies that occur online. The first is that a lot of people look for art, some for the cheapest possible price at the best possible quality. The other is that a lot of people are willing to low-ball even more than the initial offer simply to snag the job.
Because if they don't offer cheaper art than the rest, they wouldn't be getting the job, or so the line of thought most likely goes.

You see people selling full-body, detailed renderings for $10, or people who sell pixel art for 50 points. But why?
A reminder should be sent out telling people that their art is worth so much more than they think. And this is why I can highly advise these journals if you plan to price and sell your art.

Interesting info

Tumblr: "Eskiworks-Why is underpricing a bad idea?"
Flowchart: "Should I work for free?"

Graphic Artists of dA, Behold: A Pricing GuideHello, all. My name is Kellan Stover, a budding professional illustrator close to finishing up his time at the Savannah College of Art and Design, achieving my BFA in illustration. I felt the need to create this news article for the benefit of every artist on deviantArt who intends to make money from their talent.
When one visits the deviantArt 'Employment Opportunities' forum, they should be shocked at what they find. Startling low prices abound. These are both offered by the clients, as well as quoted by the artists. The sad truth is most people aren't shocked at all. The perceived consensus is that it's business as usual. A lower price means an increased likelihood that a client will do business with you, right? In some ways yes, but not at this extreme. You must remember that 'you get what you pay for'. It's widely accepted that the more demanded your talents are, the higher skilled you are, the more you can charge. If a client wants, no needs, your work over someone else, they wil ART: A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO PRICING YOUR ARTA BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO PRICING ART
    There are several reasons why an artist will make the decision to sell their work. For some artists, it is almost accidental that they are discovered doing what they love by someone who is willing to pay for it. Often these scenarios lead to a decision to go public, but not all artists sell their works so easily. There are artists who study and practice and build up an inventory of works with the full intention of selling those works for income. For these artists who depend upon sales as a means of income, and possibly survival, pricing art is imperative. Then there are the artists who slowly venture into the arena, one piece at a time, testing the proverbial waters and gauging whether or not their works will compete well in the art world. Regardless of the beginnings or the motivations, pricing art is a task which has confounded the best of artists.
Common Sense Guide To Surviving The Art World: http://fav.me/n141460
ART: 'Free Book' doesn't count as payment anymore.Well, it's been about three years now.  Still waiting.
I was checking my Email tonight, and needed to open some space in my inbox, and sorted it all by size.  Of course, all the commissions I sent off lined the tops of the inbox, so I started finding and clearing out old stuff.  A couple large covers from 2007.  A string of Emails back and forth about album artwork.  Then I found the Email from 2007 with a full-page coloring for a self-published anthology of pin-up work.
I scoffed for a second at my skill level from 2007.  No doubt that same year, I told others 'Yeah, I'm like a really big thing now,' total bull.  Lighting inconsistencies.  Half-assed shading.  Awful post-processing color oversaturation.  I distinctly remember thinking I was super hot stuff back then, how wrong I was, and my precocious arrogance always got the best of me.
'Happy to grace your book with my talents,' I say
Amazing Blog on Commissions and PricingI love this blog from :iconshadow-wolf: It hits everything spot on. This is a must read for people who offer commissions or are thinking about doing it.
Why is undercharging a bad idea?
Now, here are my thoughts on this topic as well:
I might seem like a hypocrite, since I tend to keep my commission pieces low and affordable for all, and I don't see my artwork worth as much as certain artists', but I do know that it takes a long time to create art, and I feel I priced it reasonably enough, according to me and my current talent level. Many of my followers know, I have raised my prices in the past to help compensate for the amount of time I was spending. Compared to what they were and what they are now is VERY significant, but I hated raising prices because every time I did it resulted in a huge cut of fans' opportunities to commission me-- temporarily or permanently. Dreams get crushed each Finding Freelance work: pricing and self doubt!Why don't I get enough freelance work? Are my prices too high? I see these types of questions on Deviant Art a lot. Whether you are just starting out or you have been freelancing for a while, there is a good chance that you can improve your workload and income by applying a little bit of self confidence and assertiveness.
1) Don't wait for work to find you. Go find work. Read job ads. Find jobs that suit your skills. Also adapt your skills to match the jobs you find... That's very important. If you can provide a style or service that other artists can't match, that gives you an advantage. Make a list of freelancing sites and other sites with job advertisements. You can find some of them here: http://friendlyhand.deviantart.com/journal/#/d52v4i3 Keep track of which sites provide the BEST job leads for you and visit them regularly. Be prompt when applying for jobs. Some clients will take days to pick an artist but other clients will choose from the first few applicants.
2) Alwa

And to end on a humorous note

46 Comments

Your art is worth more than you think.by `Hardrockangel

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*XMedullaOblongataX Sep 13, 2012 Traditional Artist

I agree with your journal entry completely, but there are a loooot of low-baller buyers out there. I enjoy paying well for good artwork, and I pay tips too (if the artist allows it). I recently paid for a commission, and was astounded by how low her pricing was. I tried talking her prices up, but we both settled on a tip for her good work.

`Hardrockangel Sep 16, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

There are, but the trouble is that often when you have prices that are semi-fair, people will make backhanded comments like "Your art is good, but artist B is better and charges less". And thus people will start to doubt and lower their prices if they are told this enough.

It's a shame, really.

~Twoohten Aug 28, 2012

Nothing will make me change my mind about the worth of my art.

Ever I say!

`Hardrockangel Aug 28, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Fine.

$namenotrequired Aug 27, 2012 Student Interface Designer

Thanks a lot for the info

`Hardrockangel Aug 27, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

No problem!

*Black-Feather Aug 27, 2012 Professional Artisan Crafter

I even ran into this with certain handcrafts I sell. I do all of my own beadwork--even down to seed bead necklaces that have kids names in letter beads. Those I sell for $3.00. I do multiple threads and make sure everything is done well.

One store I had my jewelry in had a weird range of customers. Sadly, most of them were cheap. I had one lady complain "I can get these cheaper through so-and-so..." to which I responded that those are made in china and are not strong with extra time and care. She insisted that I should be selling my necklaces for $1.00 anyway. I'm sorry, but handmade goods are just that. They are done by hand. They are not mass produced.

Artists are not garage sales. We should be charging what we are worth. Unfortunately most of us don't.

`Hardrockangel Aug 27, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

With handmade items especially I can't understand that cheapskate-attitude.
On top of hours of work, there's the material cost, shipping and handling.
To think it costs the same as some mass produced item is ignorant from a customer at best.

^3wyl Aug 26, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

Hmm... it's a losing battle there, I feel. Like there will always be some people gunning for low prices, and.. yeah, everything else then follows? =/

~Reidakk Feb 3, 2013

People might always look for stuff at lower prices but sooner or later that little plan will backfire cause one way or another whatever it is they buy will come with one major flaw or too many that make a big one. Like they say "You get what you pay for."

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