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So this is a thing! www.deviantart.com/commissions…
So. Your friendly neighborhood Auntie Toerning is going to step in for a second here. Firstly, I think it's very groovy and awesome that DA is establishing their own marketplace. It's a scary world out there of work for hire and it's totally awesome that DA artists now have this stepping stool to practice professional habits in the same way that we practice artistic skills!
A
BIG
FAT
HOWEVER
I would like to take a moment to discuss the rates here. I was just exploring quickly, and saw on the navigation on the left "price," and, like every other human on the planet, clicked on the most expensive first, thinking to myself "wow, good for DA to promote work that costs $1,000!" and wanting to see what that work would be.
Well. Boy was I wrong. In fact the prices are organized by Points. Remember when you were a kid, and the dog peed on the Monopoly box, and so you drew dollar signs on a bunch of scraps of paper and used that for the money? Points bear more resemblance to those scraps than to actual currency.
Quick conversion here: 1-29 points category? (prices are organized in ascending categories.) One Honest American Dollar is about 80 points. Meaning the entire 1-29 points category is work for under a single dollar. UNDER A SINGLE DOLLAR. On the other end of the scale (not really,) the highest category is 1,000+ points. 1,000 points is, pardon my math, about $12.50. This is not the maximum an artist can charge, no not at all, but it IS the HIGHEST CATEGORY, meaning it's setting a precedent and boundaries that no one's going to want to exceed.
Let me reiterate. The most DA is suggesting you pay for a commission is $12.50.
If this system works for you, if it gives you joy and you are producing work and getting paid and being happy, there is NOTHING wrong with that, I mean that completely honestly. If it works, that is fantastic. I just needed to state for the record, for the sake of my conscience, that I think DA has a responsibility to its artists to set an example. This is going to be the first encounter with art as a commodity for a lot of artists, and it is going to give them ideas about how this works and teach them habits and every other thing. And I think that the example being set is, frankly, shameful.
I'm not going to go into a lecture about pricing your art. I just wanted to have a "let's be real" moment. My inner goddess of indignant vitriol is satisfied.
Be safe; be happy; get money; get paid.
So. Your friendly neighborhood Auntie Toerning is going to step in for a second here. Firstly, I think it's very groovy and awesome that DA is establishing their own marketplace. It's a scary world out there of work for hire and it's totally awesome that DA artists now have this stepping stool to practice professional habits in the same way that we practice artistic skills!
A
BIG
FAT
HOWEVER
I would like to take a moment to discuss the rates here. I was just exploring quickly, and saw on the navigation on the left "price," and, like every other human on the planet, clicked on the most expensive first, thinking to myself "wow, good for DA to promote work that costs $1,000!" and wanting to see what that work would be.
Well. Boy was I wrong. In fact the prices are organized by Points. Remember when you were a kid, and the dog peed on the Monopoly box, and so you drew dollar signs on a bunch of scraps of paper and used that for the money? Points bear more resemblance to those scraps than to actual currency.
Quick conversion here: 1-29 points category? (prices are organized in ascending categories.) One Honest American Dollar is about 80 points. Meaning the entire 1-29 points category is work for under a single dollar. UNDER A SINGLE DOLLAR. On the other end of the scale (not really,) the highest category is 1,000+ points. 1,000 points is, pardon my math, about $12.50. This is not the maximum an artist can charge, no not at all, but it IS the HIGHEST CATEGORY, meaning it's setting a precedent and boundaries that no one's going to want to exceed.
Let me reiterate. The most DA is suggesting you pay for a commission is $12.50.
If this system works for you, if it gives you joy and you are producing work and getting paid and being happy, there is NOTHING wrong with that, I mean that completely honestly. If it works, that is fantastic. I just needed to state for the record, for the sake of my conscience, that I think DA has a responsibility to its artists to set an example. This is going to be the first encounter with art as a commodity for a lot of artists, and it is going to give them ideas about how this works and teach them habits and every other thing. And I think that the example being set is, frankly, shameful.
I'm not going to go into a lecture about pricing your art. I just wanted to have a "let's be real" moment. My inner goddess of indignant vitriol is satisfied.
Be safe; be happy; get money; get paid.
Teaching in Boston
Hey All! As some of you know, I've been tutoring via skype for some time, but this winter I'm expanding into the REAL LIVE WORLD of teaching classes! For the month of December, I'll be doing a trial and seeing if this is a tenable arrangement, so I get to teach WHATEVER THE HECK I FEEL LIKE.
So I wanted to A) let those among you who are Bostonians know this was going on, and B) ask you for feedback. What classes would you be most interested in taking? Have you taught/attended independent arts classes before and you have suggestions or anything? What days/times would you be most likely to go to? All RIGHT!
P.S. this IS connected to the
Comic Composition Geekout
SPECIAL GUEST STAR (against his knowledge) IS ~Andrew-Ross-MacLean (https://www.deviantart.com/andrew-ross-maclean)
You guys know when I get really excited about art geekery, I JUST CAN'T KEEP IT IN. I also feel like composition is a really hard thing to learn, and all you can really do is try to learn "what is good" in composition, and then try to find examples until you can recognize it. In addition, composition for comics is extra hard because you have to worry about the overall flow of the page as well as the composition of each individual panel.
So I was doing my spring cleaning of my message center and came on some new comic pages he uploaded, all of which are awesome, but ta
Shared Studio Spaces
This is something I've been thinking a lot about. The fact of the matter is, as much as it's awesome, I don't work my best from home. I want to be able to "go to work" in the morning, see people, do my thing, and then come home. There are too many complications and distractions working from home, and too few opportunities to participate in the world as a human being. And I know of co-working spaces, to be sure there are loads of options in San Francisco, but having visited a bunch of them, there aren't any just right. I've always had a fantasy of starting a shared studio space, a small one, not a big vaulty warehouse style thing, maybe a
Drawing Giveaway
THANK YOU ALL for your amazing comments!!! I had no idea so many of you were going to be so enthusiastic! I am going to close responses now, and give myself a chance to thoroughly read every comment. It's been an absolute treat reading them so far -- not only is it fun to read effusive compliments, but I LOVE hearing your personal stories about Harry Potter. Makes me SO HAPPY!!! I'll let you know by note if you have won a drawing- and I will do my best to get back to all of your lovely comments!
I sold some drawings earlier this year, and hearing feedback from the people who bought them and even in some cases seeing photos of the art on
© 2013 - 2024 toerning
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Thanks Auntie