im very curious to know where people get their freelance art jobs from. please share. fiverr? indeed? tumblr? twitter? upwork? guru? linkedin? im just curious and dont know
@wennovane Job sites are a cesspool of underpayers who don't care what you're good at, it feels like. I don't use them at all anymore. Fiverr is specifically built around underpaying.
The good jobs for me have all come from/via friends and from non-job oriented communities. I guess that's what people mean when they stress the importance of networking.
Participate on relevant forums and such, have your portfolio linked in your signature/profile, maybe check their jobs section if there is one.
@eishiya thanks! what forums are you talking about?
@wennovane I can't recommend any illustration/comics ones, I mostly hear of those jobs via Twitter/friends. You can find shitty comics gigs ($1-15/page) on any webcomics forum, and I've never personally seen the mythical good offers outside of a couple on Twitter (which were filled by the time I saw).
I'm on Pixelation a lot, which is mostly for pixel art, but there are occasional non-pixel art character art and illustration jobs too. There's the TIGSource forum for small game art jobs as well.
@wennovane Er, I should clarify: I'm not really into illustration, so I've never really looked into illustration communities. They're probably out there, I just don't know!
With comics though, the situation's pretty dire if you want to do freelance. Anthologies are often better pay, but it's not a steady income. There's webcomics.com which probably gets the juicier job offers, but you need a subscription to use the forum. Can't vouch for the quality of the community since I don't use it.
@eishiya i see, thanks for all the info! ive never done any freelance work so i'm don't even know where to start. just trying to figure out what's considered good, what maybe is a straight up scam or not considered good or w/e.
@wennovane Red flags to watch out for:
- jobs with no clear ending
- pay that works out to less than minimum wage. This is the big problem with freelance comics, they're such big projects that people try to get low page-rates despite how much work comics are
- payment contingent on crowdfunding or publisher interest, but you have to do work first
- no up-front payment. Always take part of the payment before you start work if the total amount is more than a few bucks.
(1/2)
@wennovane
- "I want this to be your project too", expecting you to co-write/design/fund the thing. Run like hell.
- Refuse to clearly answer questions about the work, or seem unprepared for the job.
- Expect you to do the job without asking them any questions. These are gonna be the people who want 50 revisions after you're "done" and then blame you for not reading their mind.
- "I have interest from N publishers" before any art is done. No, they don't.
...so much can go wrong ;_;
@eishiya ohh thank u
LB
hearing stories of experience similar to mine in different genres (I'm primarily a musician and writer, work/gig-wise) adds to my "either a form of UBI (and other services/means) that actually work, or beyond" feelings.
My strong preference is "beyond" -- "full falgsc" (as an actual thing) more than "useful falgsc lite", but this is probably a good time to share this again:
http://beautifultrouble.org/principle/use-your-radical-fringe-to-shift-the-overton-window/
#forexposure #falgsc #anarchism #socialism
"socialism will never work" trolls: -> /dev/null
@wennovane It's important to actually participate, to make connections with others instead of just hunting for work. If you're visible on the forum, you're visible to the people posting jobs (including BEFORE they make their job post! early offers happen), and they can see that you're a pleasant and knowledgeable person from your posts.
When you see a job you don't want, pass it along to a friend who might! That stuff can come back around, and it's awesome when it does.