the-puppetplayer-of-milmingroy:
I’m tired of getting these stupid offers to work on people’s “passion projects” for free, usually with the promise of compensation when/if the project takes off. Guess what? I don’t care that you’re passionate about it, I care if you’re competent. When you knock on my door asking for free work, its a clear sign that you aren’t. You might have hopes that your project hits it big and that you’ll eventually get rich off of it, but if you REALLY believed in it, I feel like you’d be more willing to put your own livelihood on the line instead of asking an artist to do it for you. If I do a bunch of free work hoping it’ll pay off, I’m not doing other work that could actually feed me and pay my bills. And what happens when the project doesn’t get funded or some important factor blows up or everyone decides to quit out early? I get screwed. So, no. I don’t want to work on your passion project. Not unless I get paid up front.
WONDERFUL ADVICE for artists. Please don’t undervalue your art, your time and efforts are valuable and deserve fair compensation.
Please don’t work for free. You wouldn’t expect any other skilled craftsman to. Art too, is a profession and a craft. Don’t let other people exploit you because they think of your work either as a hobby, or as not worth the money, or think that exposure will be enough for you. It never is. Work out the hours you work and ask for reasonable pay.