Posts tagged: work
Exactly.
Fantastic.
:D
Here are the two states in which you may exist: person who writes, or person who does not. If you write: you are a writer. If you do not write: you are not. Aspiring is a meaningless null state that romanticizes Not Writing. It’s as ludicrous as saying, “I aspire to pick up that piece of paper that fell on the floor.” Either pick it up or don’t. I don’t want to hear about how your diaper’s full. Take it off or stop talking about it.
All of this applies to drawing too
Confessions of a Designer - Quotes from the world of design (by Anneke Short )
All of these.
Might I add two of my personal faves?
“What. Pay you for a simple illustration? Can’t you do that, like, in between your other drawings?”
- Fuck you?
“I have a friend who has a friend who knows someone who would do this for free, you know?”
- Then let that person do it for you because I definitely won’t.
I know all of these painfully well. :T Design work. Lulz.
The only change I’d make to these would be to remove that idiotic looking faux-crease thing. I understand it’s supposed to be a posted without that crinkle texture added, it doesn’t add to the comprehension of the design.
From Daily Kos, a former Walmart manager recounts a weird experience, showcasing WM’s insane anti-organizing stance:
We had a week-long schedule of anti-union sessions. They didn’t call them that, but essentially it was how to spot uprising employees.
We had an entire day devoted to word phrasing, looking at how employees use words and what key words to look for. A computer test consisted of a “what’s wrong with this picture?” game. You were shown the area near a time clock, and different handmade and computer-made signs. One sign said “Baby shower committee meeting Jan. 26, 8 pm.” Another said “Potluck Wednesday all day in break room.” Which one of those signs should raise alarms with management?
“Baby shower committee.” Because of the word “committee,” a manager would have to find the person who made the sign, find out why they used that word, then determine if the action got a warning or a write-up. If it was the store manager who found the sign, a write-up was almost guaranteed. They called it unlawful Walmart language, unbecoming a Walmart employee—words like “committee,” “organize,” “meeting.” Even “volunteer” was an iffy word, and they would raise an eyebrow at “group.”
Go fuck yourself, Walmart.
Most of the people I know have this weird dietary condition where they can’t digest exposure and have to buy food instead. I’m sad that artists’ jobs have been so devalued that people are essentially paying to work.
I’m gonna go to the store, get some free groceries, and ask the manager for fifty bucks. The manager will be happy that they had customers at all. That’s how the world works now, right?
THIS. A THOUSAND TIMES.
Don’t undervalue yourself, artists! You deserve to be paid for your work, just like any other professional. If someone asks you for free stuff, politely tell them your commission charge (if you accept commissions.)
But nobody’s buying, so lately I’ve been giving some art away on GaiaOnline for virtual currency… which is almost like giving it away for free. I work my butt off and half of the time, these ingrates don’t even thank me, and some have cheated me out of the VIRTUAL MONEY they owed me.
Yamino, I want to properly value myself, but nobody buys my art when I price it super-low. How can I raise the price on them when they don’t want to pay $2? I really want to know this so I can earn money for my art. :( I don’t think I’m that bad of an artist, really, so why no earnings for it?
Start charging more. If you undervalue yourself, so will everyone else. Potential clients don’t take you seriously if your prices are so low. They want to feel like they’re getting something of value, and if you only value it $2, they’ll think they’re only getting $2 worth of art, and most won’t bother.
Think of it like grocery shopping. There are the shoplifters who want all their groceries for free. Forget those guys. Now, you’re looking at the milk case. Most of the milk is $4/gallon. It’s a little steep, but you need milk, so you grab it. But next to it, there’s a gallon of milk for 50 cents. Your first thought is probably going to be:
“What’s wrong with it?”
Things that are drastically undervalued make people wary. The milk might be just fine. It might be a special promotion for a new brand that wants to get its name out there. But what grocery shoppers are going to think is that it’s about 5 seconds away from the point where you have to chew it it’s so spoiled.
True story: my dad used to charge way less for his construction work than what it was worth. He got a fair amount of clients, but a lot of them were horrible, and a lot of them refused to pay even the little amount he charged them. He was hit by a semi truck, and had to stop working for a while. When he returned to work, he decided to raise his prices. By a lot. (Getting hit by a semi gives you a kind of IDGAF attitude.) Not only did he actually get more clients than before, he got better clients. He had more work than he knew what to do with. Because he valued himself what he was worth, and suddenly, so did other people.
(Also, don’t give a client the finished work until they’ve paid you. Get half the money up front, and half upon completion. Keeps you from getting cheated.)
Good luck!
Jesus christ the OP and the commentary just listen to it please omg. Don’t be “deviantart” artists, be professionals.
That link about praising children got me to thinking about how we treat artists. Well, everything leads me back on to art eventually.
I often hear people talk about how artists either got it or they don’t. An innate talent that they’re born with.
What a bunch of crap, says I!
Anyone with the inclination can draw. This is how I’ve always felt. You just have to put a lot of hard work into it, and learn to get into the mindset of it. 99% of drawing is all in the mind and in the practice.
When one says that art is a thing you can be born talented at what they are saying is two things.
1.) insulting me, and implying that what I do is not a thing that I work hard at to get better at (mostly this is used by non artists to devalue what I do so they don’t have to pay me very much money or to occupy my time since what I do isn’t important. Afterall, this sort of thing comes naturally and easy to me, right?)
2.) making it easier to tell themselves that if they’re not good at drawing immediately that it’s okay, they don’t have to try, because they just weren’t meant to be artists.
I guess it comes down to self esteem. If you’re a mediocre/bad/beginner artist you probably don’t want to hear from anyone or yourself that it’s your own fault for not putting in as much work as others. Or perhaps you find the long road ahead daunting. It’s okay! It is daunting! But it’s a fun daunting, right?
(also another factor is those better artists may have been drawing for a much longer amount of time. You do need time to improve, it won’t be overnight.)
Anyway, I find it easier to improve when you own your faults. I know I would be a better artist if I tried harder/focused on things outside my comfort zone or if I hadn’t stopped drawing for years.
There’s also no point in bemoaning that. I know I will improve, because I know I will keep trying, because I know there’s no such thing as innate talent.
And personally, I’d rather be praised for my hard work than for some intangible idea of some thing I’m supposed to have been born with. I’m not a magical unicorn, I’m a person who tries very hard at something they’re interested in.
Jeanette Winterson
(via lazysmirk)
If you want reliable, clear communications (in love or networking), there are a few simple things you have to do.
Listen more than you speak.
Never assume that what you said is what they heard.
Agree on how you’re going to say things in advance.
Ask politely for clarification when messages aren’t clear.
- “Is the government now creating hobos?” (The question was rhetorical.) — Rep. Dan Heller (R-Nevada)
- “You know, we should not be giving cash to people who basically are just going to blow it on drugs and not take care of their own children.” — Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).
- “We shouldn’t turn the safety net into a hammock. It should actually be a safety net.” — Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa)
- “[W]e have put in so much entitlement into our government that we really have spoiled our citizenry and said, you don’t want the jobs that are available.” — Sharron Angle, Republican Senate candidate in Nevada
- “[C]ontinuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work.”— Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Arizona)
- “You know, there is an argument to be made that these extensions of unemployment benefits keep people from going and finding jobs. In fact there are some studies that have been done that show people stay on unemployment compensation and they don’t look for a job until two or three weeks before they know the benefits are going to run out.” — Former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas)
- “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans [after Hurricane Katrina]. We couldn’t do it, but God did.” — Former Rep. Richard H. Baker (R-Louisiana)
- “If you’ve seen one city slum, you’ve seen them all.” — Former Vice President Spiro Agnew
- “You know, people are poor in America … not because they lack money; they’re poor because they lack values, morals and ethics. And if government can’t teach and instill that, we’re wasting our time simply giving poor people money.” — Radio personality Bill Cunningham
- “[Y]ou gotta look people in the eye and tell ‘em they’re irresponsible and lazy …. Because that’s what poverty is, ladies and gentlemen. In this country, you can succeed if you get educated and work hard. Period. Period.” — FOX News host Bill O’Reilly
It’s pretty windy sometimes.
Look what my friend linked me! I kinda want to print it out for easy reference.
If you are any of my comic drawing buddies this is pretty awesome reference
I’ve considered using some of these, but it drifts in an out of my attention so I tend to forget about it.
Every time I read a story from somebody in class mourning a death I consider the character weak for mourning and being so depressed after a few years. I don’t have much patients for people unable to take charge of their lives after a difficulty, but writing a weak willed character seems insulting. In the story I’m reading right now the character hasn’t don’t anything proactive to not be a pissy bitch.
This dudes girlfriend is either in a coma or is dead, it isn’t well defined, and has been in such a state for about 2 years. He works to not think about her or what happened but all he seems to think about is what happened. Throughout the short story we don’t know what the accident was, we don’t know the extent of her injuries, we just know he’s depressed because she’s (some type of) gone now. It’s not really an interesting protagonist, he doesn’t seem to want anything and nothing seems to happen in the story.
This story isn’t the first case of the narrator/protagonist not wanting anything or having a motivation, it’s not the first case of the story not going anywhere that I’ve seen in class, and it’s still not interesting. I hope that for people’s second and third stories we review and critique they work harder at keeping the audience’s interests and have something happen, have the character want something. This guy just seems to want to forget, but doesn’t think through fixing his life, so he’s a whiny bitch, and I can’t care about him.
Written Tuesday
a thousand times this
