How to hire an artist
Scroll down to see the original article
Since this has gotten a ton of exposure I’m going to try an explain myself a little. I’m leaving the originally article 100% in-tact so people can continue to read it. Please stop flaming me, I don’t mind if you disagree with my viewpoint, but please give me constructive criticism rather than telling me to die in a fire. It makes you a hypocrite to make death threats at me for not treating artists how many of you want.
I would like to start off by showing you this great comment made by Kathryn:
UPDATE
It seems most of you have a problem with how I worded the article rather than I what I actually said in the article. When I originally wrote this it was intended for developers to learn how to get the best art for good prices so it sounds very condescending to artists. I realize that now and I apologize. I greatly appreciate the work and effort that goes into each graphic an artist makes.
We unfortunately live in a market that is determined by supply and demand. Most businesses with the intent to make money will not pay more than they have to for a certain product. I am not trying to “scam” or “rip-off” artists, I’m letting them quote their own prices for what they believe their work is worth. I am not forcing, or tricking anyone into working with me. All artists I work with seem to be very thankful.
Some of you complained about the way I deal with payments, which actually surprised me to a great extent. There have been several times I’ve been working on a game with an artist only to have him/her walk out on me halfway through. Paying after guarantees safety for both parties.
Alright, now about the part the majority of you are most upset about, my “Keep them in the dark” comment. My wording on this was poorly thought out. Many people claim about this being unethical, but in reality it’s how all businesses work. When a company makes a profit, does it take that profit and evenly split it up among all of it’s employee’s? No. The most it ever does is sometimes gives bonuses which I also do when a game performs very well. As I’ve said before, I pay artists based on what they believe their work is worth rather than the estimated value it increases a game by. I’m sorry for anyone that finds capitalism to be the devil.
Please continue making comments, I will try to explain myself more and continue updating this post. Sorry for any poor grammar, I typed this up fairly fast.
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Original Article Starts Here
I’ve hired a bunch of people to do art for some of my largest games, I thought I would give a little insight on what do when hiring yourself.
How to find an artist:
I recommend looking through art sites such as Deviantart for an artist which suits your taste, or any other site that has a decent art community such as Newgrounds. There’s a few reasons you want to find an artist this way. First of all, they’re cheaper. These guys aren’t used to making a lot of money for their work so they will be more appreciative of the chance even if they are being payed slightly less than what professionals are payed. Second of all, they’re better. The quality of art you can find through this method is pretty amazing, and the vast amount of artists guarantee you will find something that suits your tastes and needs. Unless you have a specific price you want to pay in mind, ask THEM what they are willing to charge for the project. This usually causes people to give offers that are lower than what you normally pay, and will make them happy.
How NOT to find an artist:
Do not look for either professional artists, or an artist that has done a lot of game design work in the past. The problem with artists who do this as their full time job is that they’re usually expensive. Compared to what you can find through art sites, these guys tend to cost an arm and a leg. Artists who have done a lot of game design work are also bad for a similar reason, they know how much flash games can earn so they expect a decent percentage of the profit. It’s ridiculous to pay something 50% of a sponsorship when you can find someone else who would accept $500 for the same job. When your game sells for $10,000, the difference in cost is a multitude of 10.
Artist payment:
Make it clear to whomever you hire that they will not be payed until ALL the work is completed, unless it is completed by a predefined date, and unless it matches or exceeds expectations. Sometimes I have an issues getting all of these things, but if you give someone a job they’re expected to treat it as so even if they’re just a hobbyist. Paying prior to the completion of the project is a bad idea for several reasons. Only paying for the finished work encourages the artist to finish their job faster, if you pay up front the artist has no motivation to finish quickly. Similarly, if you pay up front the artist could disappear and you may never get what you payed for!
Keep them in the dark:
This relates back to what I talked about earlier. If an artist knows how much their artwork will increase the value of the game they will then feel they deserve that amount of money. This is not how a market economy works, you hire whoever is able to do the best job for the lowest amount of money, anything else is a loss of money on your end.
Timelines:
Give strict dates about when you need the art done (even if you don’t) and give consequences by deduction in pay if the art is not completed by the date. Unless the person you’ve hired happens to be very punctual, you will need strong motivation to make sure they finish the art in a timely manner. Try to only hire people ages 18+ (I may sound a little hypocritical here), kids are generally less reliable and have more IRL things come up that they can’t control. I’ve had several bad experiences with this.
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Update: Look at this. All businesses function around it
I’m xdragonx10 on reddit by the way.
idiot
So, you admit that the quality of the art enhances the value of the game, yet you deny that an artist has a right to be paid what he or she deserves?
Then you write a blog about how you methodically exploit said arists on an open forum.
I hope every artist you’ve ever hired sees this and comes looking for the back pay you owe them.
From the social point of view, you all are right if you aggreviate. But keep in mind the guy who wrote this was either being sarcastic OR, even worse, a marketer without ethics. All he says is logically sound…sadly.
You, sir, must resort to scamming artists because you have no talent of your own and so you suggest that others do the same? That’s nice. Though I suppose I’m being unfair–you do have massive talent, if you consider being a giant douche a talent. And in your case, it must be.
I’m so glad that this is now doing the rounds on various art sites and Twitter and such. You’ve made a wonderful example of who to avoid and who to warn others about!
@come on people.
Interesting name choice… I’d say it’s quite apt, in the right light.
So basically, you’re whole argument boils down to:
“Well, it’s fine. This is well within his rights to run his business however he wants, but he just shouldn’t have told anyone about it.”
If it’s all legal and fine, then why would the public have a problem with it? Aren’t secrets usually secret for a reason? Maybe, because… this is a behavior that’s widely accepted as BAD.
Nobody was arguing about the legal nature of any of this in the first place. Many laws exist to stop humans from acting like raving beasts. Ethics exist to inspire humanity in one another.
I have a feeling the reason this was posted was some convoluted attempt to unburden himself. Maybe that meant publishing this with a “no big deal, right?” kind of attitude, simply sharing it with the world for catharsis, or out of complete and utter naivete. Regardless I hope this post, for all its slime, can help young artists understand the situations they may face when working for hire.
You’re a horrible person you know that? How could you write all of this, like it’s a good thing?
This is the biggest ignorant bullshit I ever across my eyes! You really think people want to help you when you’re all acting like that? We artist are not just some low trash cans.
With that attitude, no artist is willing or wants to help you.
The only kind way to respond to this blog post is to wonder if your site has been hacked by your worst enemy, trying to discredit you professionally with any potential artists you might have worked with in the future. If that’s true, they must be really horrible.
What dickery is this? I am spreading this around to expose you for the horrible person you are.
People like you are the reason people like me are afraid to start doing commissions.
Anyway, by posting this and trying to show off how savvy a businessman you are, you’ve destroyed your (admittedly rather small) reputation and made yourself look like an idiot in the process. Congrats, ya douchebag.
It may be best to just quietly disappear.
“If an artist knows how much their artwork will increase the value of the game they will then feel they deserve that amount of money.”
because games these days don’t count on the visuals … ho wait.
Enjoy your downfall. Don’t try to back peddle its not going to work in this case.
Just to reiterate… A thousand Pregnant ferrets, Die in an orphanage fire, on christmas morning.
Wow. Justify this all you want with any fact about your continued salary, but at least realize how much of a fucking horrible human being you’ve become doing this. Just, wow.
This just hit livejournal, twitter, and everyone else like a bomb, good luck ever having ANYONE do art for you again and not sure what state you live in? but there are some interesting laws about deliberate underpay across state lines for certain types of service work…any artist that’s been ripped off by this asshat might want to chat with an attorney at the legal aid office.
Thanks very much for this post, now I know who to avoid when I’m offered work.
son, I am disappoint.
seriously it’s nice and all that you go by unrestrained capitalism ethics but uh 1. that’s not how employment works and 2. people deserve to get paid a fair price for their hard work
It’s just the ramblings of an idiot with no social skills. We can console ourselves with the fact that he probably has the same attitude towards friendship, and thus spends the fact majority of his time sitting in a corner thinking about the meaninglessness of his existence, crying and wanking.
@redhaired hellion
He’s situated in North Carolina
“If an artist knows how much their artwork will increase the value of the game they will then feel they deserve that amount of money. This is not how a market economy works”
Hadurp yes it is.
You pay them what they are worth, you’re not walmart, kid.
You Sir are a moron
Prick
@redhaired hellion
who did you hear about this farce from? I got it from Ben Templesmith… just curious how far into the twtter art comunity this has spread… it appears to have gone off hiroshima style as my first post is on the first page and that was only a few hours ago… this guy is swine.. like Orwell’s napoleon…
@Jim
win
Wow. This has just left the realm of stupid and went right into nasty mother****er. I can only hope I missed the huge sarcasm sign somewhere.
Wow, if you’re gonna treat us dA artists just like shit because we’re not experienced, you got another thing coming. We’re not just n00bs, we KNOW how the artworld works.
Get your facts straight and hire an artist properly, and stop caring about money. And We are ARTISTS not TOOLS
You sir are the biggest mooron on this planet
Sir you make me laugh.
Many dA artists ARE professional artists.
I just tried out some of your games. You may want to consider paying your artists more considering that most of your games are the same game with swapped art assets.
Hopefully though, no artist will ever work with you again when they google your name and find all of the places where this article was mentioned.
This is a TERRIBLE guide! What in the bloody hell is wrong with you, man? Sure, it’s cheap, but still.
You’re basically saying, “Hey, be a dickwad! Make a ton of money and pay the people who helped you almost jack shit, and do so knowing that you’re screwing them out of their potential profit!”
Y’know what? Get cancer, you asshole.
As an artist, I laugh in your face.
You sir, are disgusting. I hope no artist will want to be hired by you in future. :3
I hope you enjoy going by different names online from now on, because you’re going to have to. Every art community is now out for your blood.
Asshole!
thanks for taking advantage of us hobbyist/non professionals!
really appreciate it! not.
you are disgusting. artist are people too. people who work continuously to get better to get jobs and to MAKE MONEY. people like you, who expect us to work for nothing are disgusting. asshole.
You, sir, are a fucking douchebag!
Good luck trying to find new artists now…
Wow, what a jackass. Thanks for giving game developers a bad name you greedy, selfish, ignorant fucktard. Advocating unethical practices like this is simply beyond the pale. I hope you’re driven out of work and go homeless. Maybe then you’d gain some perspective. Asshole.
Hey guys, don’t forget!
His name is Christopher Gregorio, and his handle on most game sites is xdragonx10.
Be a pal, leave these comments on his games!
I feel that if you take this advice, your products will actually suffer. As a small company or sole trader you want to start good professional relationships with your artists. After all, their success is yours. True, your advice makes financial sense in the same way that using cheap overseas labor does. As you may be discovering however, reputation in the arts field is very important. A good one will mean that you can stretch your small budget to a higher standard of artist. You’ll be known as a good employer and promoter of your talent. Your talent, as they move upwards in the arts field, will return to your company or suggest upcoming contacts that are prepared to work for your budget. These people are likely to be of a better experience and professionalism than the average talented Deviantart user. This professionalism and experience makes your job easier. Good professional relationships are the best way to get the highest quality work out of your artists. Artists are much more prepared to dip their prices when your reputation speaks highly on the benefits of being associated with you and your company.
Hey ppl,
i understand that you are all mad and want to flame this guy (pls go ahead)
but dont forget to post this on ur DA/newground/facebook/ect so you can get this fukker even more down.
and for the idiot that posted this stuff, tnx for showing who not to trust.
All I see is a plagiarist with a plan who will inevitably know pain.
I myself am a bit of an author, an artist of the written word, so I side with all the others who feel that this is utter idiocy. One should be payed what they are worth, not what another FEELS they are worth. I wouldn’t even spit in this ‘How to…’s general direction.
Obvious troll is obvious.
You make me sick! I hope no one ever works for you again after reading what you wrote.
Now that you’ve fucked yourself by revealing what a dick you are, why don’t you see how well your games sell when you have to do the art yourself in MS Paint, you sadistic, egotistical, conniving son of a bitch.
I bet this asshole works for Activision or something
Whoa, for a person who deals in game design without actually drawing or designing anything you really have abhorrent writing skills. I see it’s still unnecessary to possess anything but hypocrisy and the willingness to manipulate, deceive and exploit somebody to make money.
Welp, looks like I’ll never be taking commissions on DA in the future, then.
So… you, writer of this “How to hire an artist”, are named Christopher Gregorio, right? And this entry is completly serious and not sarcasm, right?
Ok.
I hope that your name go far and away in every artist community made so they know about how much of a scammer you are.
@Fupa
That’s okay hun. No one wants to work with people like you anyway.
makes one wary now, doesn’t it?
And you wonder why unemployment strikes.
You’re basically, given in a low metaphor; digging through a trash can to find something you need rather than pay for a new product cause just it’s cheaper.
Good job exploiting people there, buddy. How about paying people for the work they do (and that they love to do) rather than trying to save as much cash as you can.
As a company, you stink.