Posted at 00:00h
in
Art & Business
Recently I was approached by a potential client to illustrate a coloring book. The artist she had originally chosen had backed out, so the deadline was now very tight. Since I was already committed to several projects I wasn't available to help, but I gave her the name of a talented, up-and-coming illustrator whom I happened to know was in-between jobs.
A few days later, I received an email from the illustrator asking for advice. He had started writing up ideas for each page of the coloring book, and even did a few thumbnail sketches. The client liked his work and decided to hire him, but said she could only pay $10 per page! (A laughable sum, considering it would take the artist several hours to illustrate each page. She was essentially asking a skilled professional to work on a rush job for a fraction of minimum wage.) The artist was understandably upset and asked me what he should do.
I felt awful for having handed him a lemon, but decided the whole experience would make a nice springboard for a blog post. It's an extreme example, but it illustrates the difficulty many artists have (especially those just starting out) when negotiating a freelance project.
