Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wolv0rine" data-source="post: 634204" data-attributes="member: 9045">For myself, this has always been a very hard thing do deal with.  When I try to put a price on my art, my mind boggles.  "How much do you want for it?" is a question that can send me into mental fits of confusion, because I never had any clue.  My best answer was always "What do you think is fair?".  My father always said it's because, since I can do it, it's hard for me to understand that others who don't have the same skill are willing to pay for it, and I think that's very true.  I always feel just a little guilty about getting money for a piece, even if I've busted my hump over it.  That's one of the things I've loved so far about the freelancing deal in the RPG industry; I contact someone and let them know I exist, if they like my art they tell ME what they can pay for my work/time.  I don't have to pull a number out of the air, I have a basis to work with.  Otherwise, if I really had to figure out a way to do the [Materials + (Wage * Time)] thing, I'd be pooched, if only because I almost never sit down and finish a piece the same day I start it.  I do a sketch, maybe a few, if the sketch turns out right, I slide it under tracing paper and start working on the first draft of the final, clean, ready to turn in piece.  At that point, I might have a few lines, come back to it in a day or two, add some more, etc.  Ideally, I'm doing this process with a handful or more of pics at a time, of course, so it's not all down-time (which also allows me to keep from getting bored with any one piece, a time-honored writer's block technique -- keep multiple projects going, so you don't burn out on any given one).  So, how long did I work on Piece X?  I'd never be able to tell you. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />This is true, really, and it's one of the things I truely hate about our society (which, I think, knows no national boundaries in this respect).  I missed out on college right after I graduated high school, and I've never been able to manage to go since, although I've thought about it many times.  In so many cases, this bars me from a lot of things, or at least from a better wage.  In most cases this is alright, because I don't know anything about those jobs, but with art it's so much different, because there are, really, no set things you can be taught about being an artist, save for some very simple techniques and rules (such as 'what is perspective?' or 'light casts shadows').  I did actually learn one thing from my old high school art teacher (a crusty old woman, but I liked her).  She told the class the first time I was in her classroom (paraphrased from memory) "In this class I will teach you to see.  Most people look, an artist Sees."  This goes back to an earlier post that Barsoomcore replied to about 'how do average people see things', this is what I meant when I said that.  But otherwise, an artist has to learn by doing it, by forming an understanding.  There's no code to learn, no step-by-step to be taught.  And so the college degree becomes less and less practically useful.  I'm not saying it's useless, but I've done fairly well without one.  But you are correct, most of society refuses to think that way.  I was actually chuckling to myself when I was replying to your post earlier at this point, thinking how real life does mirror the d20 system in that way.  Drop-out?  0-level nobody.  High School Graduate?  No higher than 5th level, next.  College Grad?  10th level cap.  Got a certified degree?  Well now we're talking levels.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />(Thank you, by the way)I've actually been surprised by that.  I started making the distinction between "Artist" and "Illustrator" toward myself before I'd ever had a conversation involving another artist, it was a difference I came up with a vacuum, and it's just mind-blowing that so many others make the same distinction, I think that's grand.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  In my own mind, it was the difference between "high-brow, nose-in-the-air Arteest of "Fine Art", and what I do -- illustrate.  A character portrait is an artistic endeavor, and can be as beautiful as any other art, but there's no posh snobs standing around gazing at it as it hangs on a wall trying to interpret the illustrators emotions and the social message he's trying to convey; instead someone looks at it, maybe says "Wow, that pic is SOOOO WICKED!", and I find that so much more fulfilling. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification