Kagamisky -鏡空-

Sorry if it’s a little cramped- had to make this all fit in ten photos. Hope you guys like it….. and again…. sorry Andrew

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Happy Valentines Day!

Owls Are Flying Cats

I’m going to get hate for it, and I’ve been told it’s looked down upon if you want people to take you seriously, but I’m not ashamed of how expensive or inexpensive I am.

and then explain/give some tips for artists and clients…

COMMERCIAL ART

My standing commercial rate starts at $500 an hour.

Shazam that’s it.

That’s not unusual. If you hire me as a commercial client, you’re buying the right to resell. So if a piece takes me 20 hours, that’s $10,000 for me, but limitless potential profit for you.

That rate varies if your profit potential varies. If a company hires me to illustrate a promotional poster, I lower my rate because a promotional poster isn’t earning profit directly. But if you want to sell my art on a poster, then my rate will go up—because you could potentially make millions selling that poster.

How did I figure that rate out? 1) My experience (25+ years) and portfolio (amazing), 2) my uniqueness and style, 3) my time, 4) my cost, 5) industry demands/what other art related professionals earn, 6) my clients (big!).

This is not a salary rate btw. This is a commission rate.

The difference? Let’s say I do five commissions a year (we dreamin but ok!). Let’s say that’s $70,000. Once you knock off taxes, it’s more like $50,000. That’s pretty middle of the road for earning in the US.

PRIVATE ART

This is y’all.

I don’t price private commissions by hourly rate. Instead, I price them flat. It’s less intimidating to folks and simpler for me. 

A drawing from me comparable to what you see here starts at $1200. 

Shazam again.

That price might vary if you want something complicated, but I do a very specific kind of art, and you know what to expect. Other artists (for example an artist who develops a concept rather than paints a portrait) have more complicated pricing because they do more complicated, varied stuff.

Now, let’s say I do two of those a month. It works out to just under $30,000 a year. So it’s not much! And if I want to be a full time freelance artist, I have to work hard. Commercial is sweeter, but private is easier.

HOW TO PRICE YOUR OWN SELF AS AN ARTIST

1. Start with minimum wage. Do not charge less than this for absolutely anything. (Likewise, if you hire an artist who charges less than this, and you don’t tip them the difference, I’ll know, and I’ll crawl out from under your pillow at night and yell at you in your own room.) 

2. Add your experience, schooling, and portfolio. How long have you been doing this and what have you made to show for it?

3. Add your clients. If Frito-Lay or Google or Beyoncé wanted to work with you, it means your work is as valuable as those clients.

4. Add yourself. Can anyone else do what you do? Does anyone else’s art look like yours? Can anyone else tell your story as a (queer woman, indigenous man, disabled trans person, older black mom from Michigan)?

TIPS FOR INQUIRING ABOUT WORK/PRICES

1. Look for inquiry instructions. This is important because many artists can’t check every platform all the time. They may only accept texts or filter everything through an agent. If they tell you to send an email, they may never check DMs.

2. Be polite and brief: Say who you are, ask if the artist is available to work, ask what their rates are. If they have a price sheet, look for instructions on how to contact them/check for availability.

3. It’s not necessary to fully describe your idea at first, but definitely say the idea! “A portrait of my cat, a portrait of Kristen Bell, a cover for my novel.”

4. Ask if they accept Paypal. Ask if they accept installments. Ask if they require a downpayment. Ask if they do trades. Ask if they can do anything for $X that you can afford. Hint: Most artists want to work. We’re good at finding ways to work with people who want to support us.

5. If a price is too high, simply say it’s not what you can pay right now, thank them, and move on. If you tell an artist they’re overpriced, I will eat your ears off your fat head don’t think I won’t.

6. A good professional artist will NEVER expect you to hire them after you’ve inquired about pricing. We are delighted to earn your interest! Don’t work with any artist who gets upset or gives you a guilt trip if you don’t follow through.

7. Expect to pay for art. I report your “exposure” emails as spam fyi.

OTHER TIPS

If you can’t afford an artist but still want to support them, ask if they have a ko-fi or a website you can share. Client-directed feedback is also great. For example, telling a comic company how much you liked a particular artist’s cover.

What white people hear: never use sage ever, don’t ever buy it, don’t own it, don’t even look at it.

Look, y’all. There’s a couple of facets to my talk today.

1) Yes! You can buy sage! You really, truly can! Buy it from either native sellers (go to a powwow! Eat our food, buy our stuff, watch some dancing!) Or buy it from a seller who sources the sage from native people. Pick one. And no, buying it from 5 Below doesn’t count.

2) you CANNOT smudge. This isn’t just you “shouldn’t”— this is a YOU ARE INCAPABLE OF SMUDGING. Waving a sage stick around your doorways IS NOT SMUDGING. It is smoke clensing. Smudging, depending on the tradition and tribe, could easily have dancing and drums involved. You, as a white person, do not have the cultural BACKGROUND to even know how it works. At all. Period.

3) please, for FUCKS SAKE, stop making posts here on tumblr where you tell other white people about cultural appropriation and what they can and cannot do. Please stop, your license has been revoked because none of you bother to get the facts right. We native people are FULLY CAPABLE OF DOING IT OURSELVES. Consider instead: a) reblogging our posts where we talk about it! We’re here! We have made posts!! b) Making a post that states what we said and then LINKS BACK TO US. Screenshot with a link if you must. Stop centering your own voices in these conversations. You are already centered in everything, stop centering yourselves in a native space.

I’m tired of this nonsense, y’all.

human: uh, that’s a rat. They’ve been showing up ever since we started harvesting grain. We don’t eat them, they eat our food.

cat: free game then. Cool.

human: be my guest.

cat: hey is this spot free? It looks warm and I need a place to have my litter.

humans: this is my house. Feel free, I guess, just don’t get stepped on.

cat: hey can you watch my kittens for me? I need to hunt and I don’t want predators finding them.

human: holy shit these buggers are cute. Nothing will happen to them.

cat: I am going to climb on your lap now and you are going to love me.

nonexclusive - so you can post it elsewhere and potentially sell it.  If anyone asks for exclusive access be very very sure you are getting paid.

transferable - If they get bought by another company they don’t have to wipe all content.

royalty-free - They are not paying you to use their service to host your content

sublicensable - so they can have a 3rd party (like Amazon EC2) do the actual hosting, or provide another service with that content, like chat bots, giphy, etc.

worldwide license - They don’t have to geolock it

to use - Blanket right to use in their app

to host - Otherwise everything has to be externally linked

reproduce,  publish, translate, distribute, perform, and display - Every time someone views the content it is being reproduced because that is the nature of the web.

modify, adapt, create derivative works from  - Resize, transcode, change formatting, make thumbnails, etc.

in connection with operating and providing the Service. - Limits these abilities for the sole purposes of being used in the app.  Excludes their use in advertising, selling their own copy of stuff, or claiming any sort of ownership outside of the Discord app.