Freelance: Sink or Swim

Recently, I have been freelancing on several elements of an upcoming book publication, and that got me thinking back on many of my previous freelance pit-falls. I have had quite a few hard earned lessons over the years as a freelance illustrator, lessons that I hope you will heed; learn from my mistakes, and save yourself a heap of future frustration.

My hope is that through this article, and the additional postings to be available over the coming weeks, I will ease your transition from virgin finger-painter to a professional illustrator. **FYI, "Virgin Finger-Painter" sounds sorta dirty when you read it back to yourself... too late, not changing it!**

As an illustrator, freshly hatched from the nest with a College Degree under your wing, you will be prey to many of the more devious clientelle. People, whom you would least expect to screw you over, will do so with the greatest of joy if they can get away with it. Now, that is not said to scare you off from freelance work, because there are quite a few wonderful clients and projects out there. However, a fresh-faced illustrator is easy prey, and you need to protect yourself against the innevitable sour client.

First and foremost, you should always keep written proof of all the nitty-gritty details and a formal contract, regardless of who your client is. I have made this mistake when working on a project for close friends and family, and it has always come back to bite me in the butt in one way or another. If the idea of a contract terrifies them, fine... send them a payment invoice with a short-hand version of the details at the bottom of the invoice. **Paypal invoices are a good starting point, as they allow you to customize an invoice, but it still maintains a professional look to it. Also doesn't hurt that you can keep track of what payments are still due via Paypal.**

In fact, the composition of the contract and how it is presented is quite important, and will be the topic of an upcoming Blog Post. So, stay tuned for a detailed look into Freelance Contracts in: "Clients and Contracts: The Evil Within".

Saving the in-depth details of Contracts for the next blog post, I will give you the basics:

(1) Yes, you need a contract or a detailed invoice

(2) No a phone call or verbal agreement isn't good enough

(3) Why aren't you listening to me, seriously get a contract.

(4) Go Read my Blog Post on Contracts!

Have you finished reading the Post on Contracts? No? I'll wait......

Now that you are caught up on contracts lets delve back into the basics of freelance safety:

One particular issue that always seemed to appear in previous freelance projects has to do with indecisive clients and revisions. Now, naturally you should provide a fair amount of revisions for your client for no additional costs. However, I am not talking about what we would deem "A Fair Amount" of revisions.

Normally, in the process of submitting thumbnails / inks / color comps etc a client will respond back with small revisions such as "Can you please change color of the gloves to red" or "I would like a closer crop on that image please" or "I am not sure I like that frown, can you please give character A a sneer instead". Small revisions are to be expected, and almost every project you tackle will have a handful of them sprinkled throughout the whole process.

The problem clients are the ones who either:

(a) ask for 1,000 small revisions, and the project is never ending

(b) The client approves and agrees on various phases, and once you pass a crucial stage of no return they decide they want something completely different.

Unfortunately, as an artist you will get quite a bit of both. You see, non-artists, whom I will refer to from now on as "Muggles", think that artists magically wave their hands and a new piece of work appears. In reality, extensive revisions are time consuming and tedious. Muggles like to do what they call "Sleep-On-It". It is an evil process where perfectly fine artwork descends into the dream realm of the muggle, where it is torn to shreads and picked apart to the smallest detail. Thats why the perfectly fine Pony you just spent two weeks painting must now be scrapped and turned into a machine gun toting, cigar chomping toddler. Why? Because your muggle client Slept-On-It and had time to think. About what? I am not sure...But if the end result is a baby with a mini-gun than they have deeper issues than you as a freelance illustrator have time to deal with.

A simple way to avoid alot of this is to put into your contract ~See, it always comes back to the contract!~ a clause that prevents rampant abuse of revisions. Usually in my contract or invoice there is always a clause stating something to the effect of:

"A fair and reasonable amount of revisions, decided by the illustrator, are given free of additional fees. All revisions seen as excessive or unreasonable will incur an additional fee on a per item basis, as deemed appropriate by the Illustrator. No fees will be charged, nor will the progress of the piece continue, until the client is made aware of the fee, and agrees. All additional fees will show up on the invoice and adjusted contract as needed."

This basically means: You are allotted a fair amount of revisions. If you lose your mind and ask for an unfair amount of revisions and the project drags on forever, as the illustrator you can request further revisions will incur a fee. You do not begin work on the "Extensive Revisions" until the client is made aware of the fees, and agrees to them. That way you avoid doing work for no compensation, if they decide to not pay for the added work. You then record all added fees and their amount on the invoice / adjusted contract.

sometimes if needed I may even include:

"If the client has approved X phases of the project, and decides for a revision that involves the removal and recreation of over 40% of the original artwork, the illustrator is due for the appropriate amount of fees for prior work completed BEFORE the start of the new extensive revisions. This clause only includes pieces that have progress beyond the Sketch stage, and are in the final stages of inking and/or coloring"

This means: If the client has approved your artwork up to this point, the artwork is beyond the sketching/thumbnail stages, and then suddenly asks for a complete revision; you agree for the revision pending the payment for the work you already completed.

So if you are 60% done with the project, and have already finished inking and just started the color phase, you are to be paid for the equivilant of around 60% of the work you have already done before starting their new revision. In my eyes, a drastic new revision should be treated like a brand new project, and thus you pay for your old project before you are allowed to move onto a new one. This of course only applies to pieces that are out of the designing and planning phases of rough sketches and thumbnails. Complete reworks of rough sketches are to be expected, as you are still trying to pin down the style and feel of what the client wants.

Just be forewarned that the longer a contract gets, the more terrified the client will become of actually signing or agreeing to it. Short and Sweet, can't be beat!

Well, this Freelance 101 tutorial has rambled on for quite a while, so I will leave you with one more tip before we close up shop for the day.

Your final tip is to watermark your work. Clients have and will steal your work part way through the process or before payment and then disappear. When I submit anything beyond sketch phase, I try to always put a watermark (A Faint Logo, My Name, A Signature, Etc) somewhere on the pieces.

That way, if they decide to skip town before paying after I have submitted my almost finished color comp, (1) My name is all over it so it's easier to prove they stole an unfinished work (2) It will obscure some of the image, so if they want an image they wont have to clean up and fix in photoshop, they had better pay me for my work. Yes of course if they are skilled enough they can easily fix both, but lets be honest with ourselves..If they were really that talented digitally, do you think they would commission someone else to do the work, instead of just doing it themselves? Of course not.

You cannot protect yourself 100%, as something will eventually slip through the gap. In that instance the best you can do is try to minimize the damage, and not fret too much over it. In my early days I had a T-Shirt Printing company make money off of one of my designs, and refuse to pay me even though they were clearly using my work. For months I harrassed them, threatened legal action, and basically gave myself a stress ulcer. I lived and breathed anger for months because I could not understand how someone would cheat me out of payment for my hard work.

Instead, what I should have done was realized that he simply wasn't going to pay, and I need to move on. In all the time I spent badgering him to pay me, I could have lined up several other nicer clients and already gotten paid. Learn that lesson from this article, and not from personal experience, folks. As an artist you make or break your own prison.

I hope you found this article informative! I look forward to seeing you all in a future posting. Keep an eye out for Freelance 101: Part 2, which will cover Safe Payment Methods, payment management, and more; and Clients and Contracts: The Evil Within.

**These articles are in a state of continous revision. Are you an artist as well? Have something to add? Did I miss something? Does the irony of endless article revisions in a post about avoiding excessive revisions make you giggle? Feel free to put it in the comments or private message me. I will add to these articles as needed.**

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