Green Ink

I'm guessing people find it insulting to be called a hobbyist rather than an artist. It's probably quite glamorous to consider yourself an artist. Anyway, it's a skill that people work hard to learn, and I'm convinced by the argument that people working for free (even those who don't consider themselves "good enough" to charge) undermine those who mean use these skills in their profession. The bread and baker analogy is good! I'll remember it.

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pondweed

Thanks, and anyone who is an actual illustrator knows it isn’t glamorous.
As for working for free; take it away Jessica Hische! http://shouldiworkforfree.com/
Also, don’t forget that amateur originally meant doing something out of love for it.

I thought I’d wade into this conversation, as it got my dander up. There are several issues here that require a little untangling, but it seems to me that we have a confusion here about the concept of art.First off though, when it comes to asking artists of any stripe to make something for free, please perform this little mental exercise first; replace the word ‘art’ with ‘loaf of bread’ and replace ‘artist’ with ‘baker’. Now do you think you can walk into a bakery and ask for a free loaf of bread? It doesn’t quite seem like a viable business model.Now you might say, ‘but we’re not talking about business, we’re dealing with art’. Yes, good for you, art isn’t like gross business. Please go tell your politicians to increase arts budgets, so artists don’t have to behave like businesses.Because the fact of the matter is that artists, do have to make money.That is artists who make art for a living. Here the waters get a little muddy, as everybody likes to call themselves artists and because we live in a very inclusive culture where just about everything gets called art these days.Not to mention the confusion, when people can blog everything they do and their professional work gets mixed in with things they do for their own amusement.Or when professional artists do fan art. Things were so much simpler back when we had very distinct high and low culture.
Personally I’ve always been very hesitant to call anything I do art. I prefer the word illustrator over artist, and I generally use drawing or illustration instead of art.I also believe that art is anything you want to call art though, it all remains ridiculously subjective.
There are plenty of people who create great stuff simply for their own pleasure in their time off. Then there are illustrators who work 80 hours a week to meet deadlines.You could call them all artists, and you could call what they make art.But the problem is that the words get so vague then, that it can lead to the idea that all of it operates at the same level. That people who chose to pursue drawing as a job get seen as snobbish, simply for pointing out that it is demeaning to ask them to work for free. Because that is what drawing is to them; their job.Nobody is entitled to the fruits of their labour for nothing (Never have I sounded more Randian) because for other people it isn’t a job.
This does not mean however that I’m simply in it for the money. I chose to become an illustrator, because it was something I loved doing. That doesn’t mean one can simply ask me to do something because ‘you know, you said you love to draw’.Any professional artist has invested significant time and money to get where they are.And if you like their work enough to ask them do make something specifically for you, it’s simply disrespectful to ignore that investment.
End of rant, I’m going to go back to drawing stuff for money.

By the way, this is also available. (Still with free shipping worldwide on everything!)

Here’s a new print I put in my store today. You can get it, and everything else over there, with free shipping this weekend. Just click here: http://society6.com/greenink

groeneinkt:

Happy Krampus nacht everyone!

I drew a thing a propos of nothing! That doesn’t happen very often anymore lately.

groeneinkt:

Tidying up the studio, came across an old drawing.

groeneinkt:

Going a little overboard with this sketch.

I needed some files from a hard drive and came across a lot of work from my art school days. Here’s a very old sock puppet.

groeneinkt:

Well, this looked a bit better on screen.

Oh gosh, the last striped book. I’ll say more about that later. For now though, I had hoped that the text would pop out a bit more. But really it’s my fault for not rethinking this illustration when I got the lay out for the text.
Also, I should retake that photo, shouldn’t I?

groeneinkt:

Going to try something new in mixing gouache and photoshop.