May the muffins be forever in your favour.Deep Thoughts: Why free art requests are important · 4:26pm Sep 17th, 2019
I had one of those rare moments today when my thoughts go really deep about something. I shouldn't be sharing them here, right now, because I actually don't have time for that. I'm also worrying that publishing these thoughts could be seen as lazy on my part, since I talk about them, but don't say anything about my active stories that are still in a place of temporary stagnation.
But these thoughts resonate with me so much right now, that I feel pushed to publish them. So, here are some deep thoughts, if you feel up for that.
I was talking to someone on Derpibooru, under a picture. The conversation mentioned an unfinished comic series by AnibarutheCat that got discontinued because it was a commissioned work and the commissioner died. It was said that Anibaru doesn't have an interest in continuing the series, paid for it or not, but the conversation still evolved into a discussion about Free Art vs. Paid Art.
I was arguing for it that art shouldn't be created exclusively because of money and that free art is important. Someone else said that asking for free art is insulting to the artist. I followed this up with a longer response after reading their answer today. Among other things, they were using the examples of mowing someone else's lawn for free and doing someone else's job for a few few weeks without getting paid as comparisons to the question "Can you draw me something for free?", so I'll be referring to those two examples below.
Mowing someone else's lawn for free does not benefit anyone, other than the person who owns it. Granted, one can still do it if they want to do a good deed, but in the end, mowing it will only benefit (in a practical way) the person who owns the lawn and who would have done it otherwise.
The same goes for working someone else's job at the cash register without getting paid for doing that.
Art is different than such tasks. The creation of art has always been a process of change and of development. When you mow your lawn once a month, nothing changes. It will always stay the same, always the same process of mowing, the grass grows back, mowing again. It will continue like that as long as your lawn exists. But art constantly changes and develops, takes on different forms. And, since it is all about creation, art strives from it that there is more and more of it.
If you mow your lawn more than once a month, there will be no benefits from that. It would be pointless work. It won't look better because of that. But the more and the more often art is created, the better the overall artistic environment becomes. Even if an art piece doesn't turn out as particularly good, it still contributes something to the pool, as art is subjective. Every piece of art contains something beautiful or worthwhile and every piece of art is able to inspire other artists further. Art is self-sustaining. It fuels itself.
But for that to be possible, it is necessary that art gets continuously created. If no one would ask for free art anymore, regardless if they are friends with the artist or not, the cycle of the creation process would not collapse. This wouldn't even happen if art were only created for money and if free art wouldn't exist anymore. But then, the amount of art would be extremely reduced and everything would look a lot bleaker.
This is the most important reason why free art needs to exist and why asking for free art is not insulting or wrong. Every time someone asks for free art and the artist decides to draw that free art piece, the artistic environment gets enriched with another piece, a piece that fuels the process of artistic creation and contributes to keep art itself alive.
And every artist, whether they are aware of this or not, strives to fuel this process. It is the literal reason why we create art, to keep the spirit of art and inspiration alive.
Asking for a free art piece is not insulting. It fuels art further by prompting an artist to draw a little more than they normally would. To draw an art piece that could potentially inspire hundreds or thousands of new art pieces. Or, inspire even just one person to pick up the pen and become an artist themselves, an artist that might get so experienced and popular that millions of people will see their art and feel inspired themselves. All that, because someone asked for a free art piece and the artist honored that request.
But even if the results happen on a smaller scale, the art that was drawn for free will have purpose and create an effect in the artistic environment. Everything creates an effect at some point down the line.
Asking for free art helps to keep the cycle of creation alive. And that cycle is far more important than the personal feeling that makes any given artist think the question is insulting.
Of course that doesn't mean that creating art for money is wrong. I ask for the same with my Patreon account and hope that I will prove worthy of financial support from patrons (and/or coffee-givers) soon.
But free art is more likely to come from true inspiration and from actual passion for the craft than art whose creation was prompted by money. And, as I said, without free art in addition to paid art, the entire artistic environment would look a lot bleaker. Far fewer people would get inspired to create art themselves if people were to stop asking for free art.
There is also a second angle to this, so maybe I'll write more about that subject someday.
Stay easy as a filly!
~ Fluttercheer
I agree. Not everyone has money for commissions and often, it's just the happiness or good deed that is the payment. I mean, look at the drawings my friend Patch made for me, free of charge and me being happy about it/liking them is enough for him.
And speaking of free art, I hope you like the cover I showed you
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The argument wasn't that it's disrespectful to request free art, but rather that if you do so, you should:
1. expect the answer will likely be no. Artists have a limited time with which to art. Being paid for said art means they can justify not going out into meat space to earn a living the old fashioned way. Not being paid means they are using what free time they allow themselves (during which they were likely planning on working on fun things, or playing videogames, or trying to have a social life) to work on your passion project instead of their own. Unless they are being charitable, or really like you or your request, they may not bother.
2. expect to wait. When asking someone to work for you, you can pick fast and expensive, or cheap and slow. Offering no money means you can have no time expectation on the end result, results are paid for. You're not paying, you're asking for a favor, and favors are done on the givers time. Now, you can ask for a given timeframe, but only the artist can decide if that's doable. The more popular and talented said artist is, the more likely you'll run into this problem. If they are being paid for all of their available time, and don't wish to just give their precious free time away, it may take a long while.
In conclusion, no, it's not disrespectful to ask an artist if they will grant you a free piece of art. It's only disrespectful to assume they will say yes, and that they will do it quickly. Don't be an entitled little prick and most artists will at least entertain your request, and will often make it happen for you.
5122917
Indeed
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Sadly, it was. The one who prompted me to think more deeply about this subject and to type out this lengthy response, Aasha, argued it would be "insulting" to ask for free art. It made an explanation necessary, to show why her stance on this subject is an extreme and harmful one.
As I just said in a new response on Derpibooru, conditions and factors can happen that make it impossible for an artist to create something for free. Time is finite and every artist/author has personal projects that are important to them.
But outright labelling a request for free art as something insulting brings its very own problems, that would, if a lot of artists did that, be far more devastating than this innocent question could ever be.
5122500
Exactly. That is another aspect. I'm feeling like a lot of people would call this "cheesy" nowadays, but if you earn yourself a smile with art drawn for free as a good deed and brightened someone's day, or maybe even solved someone's problem with that, then this is the biggest reward you can get. A reward far more important than money.
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Agreed. As such, i Hope you like the Cover i showed you
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So, I'm going to throw in my two cents as an artist who does indeed do a lot of free art and has since stopped taking requests from strangers:
I love gifting art to my friends, I love hearing them smile and be happy at what I've done for them. And you are correct that in order for any artist to grow, sketches and passion projects are our creative bread and butter. Overwhelmingly, the times I've done free art for strangers, do you know what I got?
A demand for more.
No thank you, no nothing, just: "Great, do this next."
Ask most artists, they will tell you the exact same. I still do free art, but for my friends and family. The initial argument was not that requesting free art as a whole is disrespectful and rude; it was that you worded it like this:
"Everyone has a birthright to the entertainment of their choice. And all people have the means to acknowledge, respect and fulfill this right. Whether you do this or not is your choice. But it’s also a choice between light and darkness. Choose carefully. "
We don't owe you anything. Art is by definition a luxury, not a need like food, water, and shelter, and if we don't have the time, inclination, or energy to do your request, that does not make us pen-wielding Sith. Your perceived birthright does not mean that artists are chained to creating for strangers until they burn out.
I sincerely hope you didn't intend this particular message, but that's how it reads to someone who actually does art and has dealt with exactly this attitude.
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The famous greed of humanity. That happens, too. Just like artists can get greedy for money and start to think of money as the only worthwhile thing about creating art, people who are offered free art can also get greedy for more free art.
It's not a reason to cease making free art for strangers, however. As an artist, you have a certain responsibility for how you handle requests. Carefully pick the strangers you're drawing a request for. If they are being ungrateful about it and lack the necessary manners to say thank you for it that you spent your time to gift them with a drawing, then you don't have to pick them again in the future.
You said there is an overwhelming amount of requesters who are like that, but not everyone. Only choose the right strangers for a request. If someone thanks you for the effort properly, you'll know the people who really need it and can separate them from the people who just want to snag something for free because the opportunity is there.
Secondly, have request slots in the same way as you have commission slots. If you go and say "I draw for free, so send me your requests!" then you will, of course, get a thousand requests for everything under Luna's moon. And people will come back after you drew them a picture and be like "Okay, can you draw that, too?", "Awesome, I have one more idea, can you draw me a third picture?", "Great and now this one!".....
If you appear like you're offering unlimited requests, then people will use that opportunity and keep approaching you. That's why it's important to show that your time is limited and that you have other things to do by letting people know just how many requests you are going to draw.
People being greedy about getting free art isn't a good thing, but that doesn't free you of the responsibility to deal with that greed in a way that doesn't overwhelm you, stress you or burn you out.
My words might read to you like artists are slaves who have to draw for free all the time, but since that view of my words merely comes from a couple bad experiences and an approach to accepting requests that was too bold and idealistic, it's not what I actually said or implied.
You just need to go about accepting requests from strangers in the right way and it will work out.
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Tried that for a while, didn't work.
Again: We don't owe you anything. You continuously saying that we should doesn't change that fact. You see it as a continuation of art into the world, what it actually is is me mowing your lawn for you. It only benefits you. Certainly not me or any other artist, and not really anyone else if it's a niche request.
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If you tried what I said and it still didn't work, then you did something else wrong that further hindered a positive request experience. I cannot tell what that was because I was not there when it happened, but condemning free art requests (for strangers) because you had bad experiences that prompted you to stop accepting requests does not devalue the overall purpose and benefits from free art requests.
It merely means that your mood for accepting free requests got soured and that you have developed a negative view of them, which is not a very good place to be in when judging the general concept of free art.
5123453
I did not say that artists owe free art, only that even if they don't owe it, it doesn't mean they can't draw free art for someone anyway. But I recognize a strawpony argument when I see one. I am letting this incident of putting words into my mouth slide, however, I removed your most recent comment for the insult in it.
If you want to continue this conversation, then do it in a civilised way or don't do it. I'll only give you one warning.
Artists do free art, it's called personal projects. If you want something specific from an artist you are actively seeking to employ their skill. To ask for that employment without payment is insulting since you're taking time away from their personal project without offering just compensation.