benevolent kitten overlord

raikari:

mythicbeast:

stainedpaper:

robcham:

(click for a better view)

Freelancing isn’t the best thing, often clients will hire you, frustrate you, confuse you, and then maybe fire you and sometimes the pay isn’t that good, but it isn’t the worst thing either. I love it for all the problems it has, and the better rewards it has, like doing something you love.

It’s been getting better for me.

Recently I joined Create.ph with friends, CSJ and Kasey and so far I’ve found a sort of spark again to draw more. I still have freelance projects, some projects in Create, but that feeling of despair and from the start, not having initiative to do anything is gone.

I feel like making more comics and illustrations is all I am saying.

I’m grateful for my current work (Copywriter/Graphic Artist hybrid for GMA) for the most part. While it’s not inspiring, or doesn’t involve illustration, comics, or conceptualizing anything related to my interests, it does give me a sense of security with the payroll and benefits, and my true passions (illustration, comics, storymaking etc) are protected from hell-bound clients. On the other hand, it leaves me only few precious hours for what I want to do, and to develop what I have, and it leaves me the feeling of lagging behind artists my age and younger (I’m looking at you Rob and Patrice).

I guess what I’m trying to say is that: I envy freelancers sometimes, but most of all I admire them, for being able to cope with the weightlessness that comes with the territory. It’s not fun and games and it’s not slacking off and I wish people who think otherwise will come to understand that.

Good luck, Rob. If it’s any encouragement at all, I admire your resolve and I’m sure many others feel the same.

I chose not to pursue art (or writing) as a career because I never wanted to grow to hate the things I loved by making my life have to depend on it. Relationships often go sour because of money— I would have a completely different attitude towards writing and drawing if I thought it was the only way I could get food on my plate. I admire people with the guts to freelance. I could never live with it.

That said, I once wrote an essay in high school that basically amounted to “first I’m going to get fucking rich and THEN I’m going to draw/write whatever the fuck I want for the rest of my life.” That’s still the game plan.

I get this—and for the same reason, I’ve always said I don’t have any intention to get by on making art /for other people/. I’m more okay with the thought that maybe I can get people to start paying me for art I’m making anyway, but if that never happens then I am dodging “art careers”. Even though I went to art school. I mean, I just did that to get /a/ degree, so that I could be hired at other miscellaneous jobs.

I would also LOVE to get rich and have no more cares afterward, but I haven’t got as much confidence as the previous poster. ^ Plus I’d be a little afraid of my soul getting sucked out along the road to riches, too.

The idea of not wanting to do a thing you love so that it doesn’t start to feel like work is kind of alien to me - why wouldn’t you want to spend all your time at work doing something you love, instead of spending all your time at work doing shit you hate and having no energy left over to do the things you love? At least I know that I’m getting better at writing tight scripts every single week when I turn in my work, I’m honing my skills and they aren’t getting rusty.

Yeah, it does mean I have less energy to devote to my own baby projects… but the only time I’ve ever felt I really had “enough” energy to devote to my projects was the summer I was laid off and coasting on a large severance package. I wasn’t doing anything else. Working is always going to make me feel tired and things are always going to distract me, so I might as well have a job I’m passionate about.

Maybe it helps that I’m not technically a freelancer though. I have a regular writing gig and a team of people around me who are great. I can see how a string of writing clients and rejection letters would get to be soul-sucking. And in the meantime, I sure as fuck am not getting rich.

(Source: robcham)