I really caution artists from working with clients who need their passion project to be your passion project. Like, they want you to be extremely excited and emotionally invested in it. You're being paid to do a job. You have a responsibility to draw what they are paying you for. And thats it. - ThreadSky

jabberwick.bsky.social • 15 days ago

I really caution artists from working with clients who need their passion project to be your passion project. Like, they want you to be extremely excited and emotionally invested in it.

You're being paid to do a job. You have a responsibility to draw what they are paying you for. And thats it.

Comments

trevorpk.bsky.social•15 days ago

They’re the ones who get upset when you won’t work for free or very little.

jabberwick.bsky.social•15 days ago

exactly.

jabberwick.bsky.social•15 days ago

Clients can sometimes struggle realising that while this might be a big and important-feeling creative endevour to them, it's the fifth of its kind that you've worked on that week. You can still undestand to them that it is special! But you need to get through the work so you can move onto the next.

jabberwick.bsky.social•15 days ago

I focus my vocabulary around being excited for THEM, and hoping that THEY have success. If you need to distance yourself from expectations of emotional investment, you can say "I wish i could linger on the excitement this project is bringing you, but unfortunately I have other clients to help!"

sabattons.com•15 days ago

It took me a while to learn this. Especially with independent creators, I wanted to be just as excited for their project as they were, and be as accommodating as possible. Unfortunately, there’s a large percentage of these people that are the most demanding and will try to eke more art out of you.

sabattons.com•15 days ago

It took me a while when I was starting off to realize that they didn’t actually hate my first drafts. They just wanted more art. Revision after revision to match their ideas and excitement only to realize that they were still using my drafts. I was making 5-10 illustrations for the price of one 😭

jabberwick.bsky.social•15 days ago

YES! I've had the same experience! I think its one of those things that so many of us have had to learn the hard way.

laundrymom.bsky.social•14 days ago

Setting boundaries is really important, especially when they start considering you "their artist." Those clients tend to forget about the transactional nature of our relationship when they need a logo or text additions.

dsandy586.bsky.social•15 days ago

Speaking from experience, this is very true. Also be aware of "liability/responsibility creep", so to speak; and never agree to do anything you didn't initially agree upon from the start.

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