I've been working on a biggish project the last six weeks of so, a series of spot illustrations for a book. I'm about 3/4 of the way through them, but unfortunately, I discovered today that the client has filed Chapter 11 and the project (and more importantly, any hope for compensation) is dead in the water. It's not a
catastrophic amount, but it's big enough that it's gonna make things pretty damn difficult for the next few months. I'm frustrated because I feel like I probably should've demanded 1/2 or 1/3 of the payment up front before even beginning to work on the project. I used to do that, but I guess I was lulled into a false sense of security after having had no problems or issues with clients over the last ten years. I suppose I need to stop worrying about putting prospective employers off with a slew of upfront demands. This is why I need an agent...deep down, I
know I suck, and that I'm lucky to get any work at all, and that, if challenged, I'll back down and admit it. A representative would keep fighting, not paralyzed by my lack of self-worth.
On the plus side, I finally got an illustration into
Entertainment Weekly...sort of. They placed
Make Magazine on their hit list of notable music, books and games in the bonus "Listen to This" section (in the Steve Carell issue), and the cover they reproduced featured one of my illustrations. The cover is reproduced at only about the size of a postage stamp, making my drawing infinitesmial (I missed it myself, to tell the truth), but it's there on page 12 if you wanna take a gander.
Here's a closer look, in case you don't have a loupe handy.
4 comments:
Hey! We get Make Magazine, and have been looking at your elves for quite a while now. Great work, R.
Dude, I can't believe the day after I talked with yoy about that project they filed Chapter 11.
Is it anything you can publish yourself?
Nahhh, not really. Hopefully someone else picks up and publishes the book eventually, but that does nothing for me in the short term. Boo.
Wow, seriously - your probably isn't SUCKING its standing up for yourself. It has nothing to do with how you feel about your artwork but your self-freaking worth when it comes to sustaining life! What are you going to write the mortagage company,"Oops, sorry I can't pay you this month cause someone I spent hours workign with went chapter 11 and won't pay me. Here's an IOU." JC, don't just rant - learn from it and get some balls to ask for 1/2 up front on jobs over $1000 or 20 hrs - whichever is greater. My Gawd man! I'm going to put a freaking rant on my baord about this...
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