Illustrator, comic and concept artist
Age 30, Male
Freelancer
Joined on 7/20/13
- Level:
- 5
- Exp Points:
- 210 / 280
- Exp Rank:
- > 100,000
- Vote Power:
- 4.23 votes
- Rank:
- Civilian
- Global Rank:
- > 100,000
- Blams:
- 0
- Saves:
- 2
- B/P Bonus:
- 0%
- Whistle:
- Normal
- Trophies:
- 1
- Medals:
- 235
- Supporter:
- 3y 5m 14d
Posted by BazookaBonsai - September 7th, 2016
COme and join in as I work on my AfterEffects Animation.
Posted by BazookaBonsai - September 2nd, 2016
Hello fellas,
It has been some time since my last post like this. I'm happy to say that I finally got things back on track and things can go on going.
There are a lot of exciting things to go through, so lets get going.
___________
Get paid
I've been a bit on the fence lately about this subject. Should I talk about this or something a bit more uplifting. After careful evaluation and a couple of "events", most notably being allegations against VICE magazine for exploiting freelancers, I decided to write about this one first.
If you are a creative content creator of any kind, being visual artist, motion artist (animator), musician, author, journalist etc. , you probably already heard of (or ran into) people asking others to do work for them for free. They make forum posts or send direct messages to artists pitching a vague idea of their project and hope to hook some unsuspecting or inexperienced practitioners. A general trend with them is that they never offer any payment for your work. They may offer things such as exposure or procedural monetary compensation once the project has been completed and financially successful, but never upfront payment or an actual working contract.
I may be just preaching to the quire, but it is a thing that cannot be stressed enough: If you are an artist of any kind and a complete stranger is asking you to do work for free, reject it!
No, the promised exposure is not sufficient payment for your work. It sure as hell will not bring any food on the table.
No, no payment after completion. This may be a viable practice for commissions for your fans, but not in mayor business contracts
No, the prospect of a future possible employment is not enough. Promises don't pay the bills and even then, nothing is guaranteed.
No, "experience" is not enough. Experience does not keep my house warm and it may be completely arse anyways.
Your work and talent is valuable. Every artwork you work on does not take 30 minutes, 2 hours or even 20 hours.
It takes these 20 hours plus all the years before!
You do not just spontaneously suck out talent out of your fingers. Your state and skill as an artist are the result of hard practice. Without the previous studies and projects, your current projects may not even be possible ability-wise.
You never ask a carpenter, plumber or construction worker to do his job for free. Hell, even people at MC Donalds are getting paid. There is no debate about wherever of not they should be paid. They do a job and they receive compensation. Full stop.
Art is the same deal. At least it should be.
Unfortunately, people (either young, naive and obscurely selfish or shady talent seekers) have a certain degree of success with hooking artists into such exploitative business relationships. This is why we have this state of affairs. The other one being that artists do upload their work for free on the net. This gives some people the wrong idea about the value of their craft.
If somebody is unwilling to pay for your services, odds are he does not really value it to begin with. A suspicion that tends to be confirmed on a regular basis by them acting out aggressively towards artists asking for payment or extra information.
Either way, once somebody is requesting your services, its time to ask for a price, because you are worth it.
Full stop
_____________
Livestream announcement
That's right, livestreams are back, baby! This week, I have something super exciting, as I will work on an animated concept trailer in After Effects!
Come along and glimpse over my shoulder alongside the production!
This sunday 18 CEST
SUPER PREMIUM HOLY SHIT WELCOME BACK 6 HOUR STREAM
I will also have a big announcement during the stream. Don't miss it!
That's it for now and thanks for reading.
Best wishes
BB
Posted by BazookaBonsai - December 29th, 2015
Hello fellas,
2015 is about to meet its close. It has been a long year and tiring in more ways than one.
My output (or lack thereoff) was the result of that. Alot of stuff has been going on this year, both private and professional. I like to spare you the details.
Along the way, I lost my focus. My goals just went out to the side to collect dust while I did other things. Some where ultimately more pointless than others. Reflecting on what I did this year, I'd say that I wasted most of it.
I did make progress here and there. I got a job doing my usual thing, which is great. I relaunched my web presence. I got a couple of frontpage features (weeeh!) and more. It's really the idea that, in hindsight, one could have done alot more.
With the intentions to start refreshed and better than ever into the next year (forrealdiztimelol) and spilling my guts to you fellas, here are 3 mistakes I would not make again
1. Do nothing
This sounds arbitrary, but it isn't. Idleness is a soul killer. Once your work momentum is gone, it is difficult to pick it up again. Best thing you can do is not letting it come this far. Even if you may have a bad day, find a way to force yourself trough or circumvent this blockade. Where there is a will, there is a way.
Rest is good, but don't let rest become a habit.
2. Distracting oneself with pointless shit (feat. politics)
You have any idea how many times I sat down to work, only to find myself suddenly pop in a video game or youtube video? I do and the thought pisses me off.
Having so many options to distract oneself with makes it difficult not to. Imagine a kid locked in a tox store being told to focus on his homework. Well, toys are fun and all, but you will be better off doing your homework, getting something done and feel good.
I'm adding politics here because you have no idea how quick you can loose yourself in a torrent of ideological drivel. You can quickly obsess over politics and news, especially because of the way they are presented and the nature of some issues themselves.
Oddly enough, the best lesson one can derive from here is from ideologues themselves. Most of them wish to improve the world by changing society, media, what have you and often completely neglecting themselves in the process. This rarely ends well. Complaining and begging is easier than getting up, fixing yourself and getting shit done.
Don't be that guy. Focus on whats important in life. Politics is a social construct anyways (HA!).
3. Assume the worst
You cannot write assumption without ass. Thats not a coincidence.
Many things were dropped along the way because I assumed the worst. "It's gonna take too much time", "I do not know how to do that!" etc. . Kind of ties back to my first (and atm only) video.
Tl;dw: DO IT!
One year over and the next one right at the doorstep. Lets make 2016 legendary.
Best wishes,
Bonsai
This one got a hell lot longer than expected.