By Dean Haspiel
I’m a reasonable professional to work with. I’m an innovative and conscientious collaborator and I always bring my A-game. I’ve learned to know when to leave my ego at the door and step aside to serve the job. I’ve also learned, when push comes to shove, to walk away with dignity.
In retrospect, I should have realized the website editor wanted me to draw exactly in the rendering style of a Thing vs Hulk sketch I drew that was originally cited. Instead, I based the poses from said example for the final illustration, coupled with the fact that all the drawings I saw on the client’s website were simple line-art solutions; something akin to clip art and paper dolls. Less sophisticated than what I usually produce. So, I was doing my best to appeal to their established esthetic. In the end, what I produced was not what they wanted and the gig just wasn’t meant to be.
Herein lies a freelance case of ill-communication and diverse expectations. Below is the email parlay I had with the editor with minor edits to protect names and the website.
–Dean Haspiel
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Dear Dean–
[A mutual friend] gave me your name and sent me a link to your fantastic comic-book style illustrations. I thought you would be perfect for a project we’re thinking of doing for our website.
We were thinking of having characters from TV—say, Kenneth from 30 Rock, fighting with one of the physicists from the Big Bang, but in the style of something like this:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_owOIcuY21Gc/S8Xd_sxSbkI/AAAAAAAAC4I/squdt713PVM/s1600/thinghulk.jpg
Is that something you’d be interested in doing for us? Let me know. If you have any other pop-culture based ideas we’d love to hear those as well.
**
I’m interested.
What’s the deadline and pay?
–Dean
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Hey Dean,
So glad you’re interested! Pay would be $300. It would be great to have something for next week, but we’re flexible. Are you a big TV watcher? Are there any characters in particular you’d want to draw in battle? We’d love the same kind of detail that you include in that original piece.
Let me know!
**
I watch some TV. I usually buy DVD sets but, yeah, I’m hip to pop culture [I gotta be].
Is this a regular feature? If we can talk for 5-minutes, it would help me with the scope of the gig.
Thanks!
**
Hey Dean,
Really excited you’re going to be working with us on this. Here are some links to other things we’ve done that have been successful
[LINKS REMOVED TO PROTECT THE WEBSITE. Suffice it to say, the art was very simple line-art with flat colors akin to what I described above in my introduction.]
That should give you an idea of the sorts of things that have worked. Please let me know between now and next week if you have any more questions!
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Attached is a light sketch I did for the 30 ROCK vs BIG BANG THEORY illustration. I usually pencil in light blue before I got to finishes [in this case; inks & colors]. Let me know if I am approved to go to finishes.
Thanks!
–Dean
**
Hey Dean,
This is a great start! Just a few notes. The bodies should be more defined– They shouldn’t be muscular, but it should feel like this visceral impact is about to happen. Also, you should make it clearer that Kenneth is wearing the NBC page uniform. I know this is just a sketch, but it feels more like a business suit here — you should see the NBC pin and the name tag flying, a la
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1d/Kenneth_Parcell.jpg/250px-Kenneth_Parcell.jpg
Does that all sound ok? Looking forward to the final.
**
I will add more definition to the drawing [I just wanted to make sure the poses were in line with what you wanted] and I’ll show the NBC pin and name tagging flying. Once it’s inked and colored it will come alive.
Cool?
–Dean
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Yep! I would make it more menacing too, if you can, but the basic idea is there.
Thanks so much dean.
**
Quick question [so we're not crossing wires]: isn’t the visual gag that these two guys are skinny weaklings going at each other and they’re more inclined to engage a “girly” slap-fight than do any kind of real bodily harm? Just want to insure the absurdity of the illustration. I could add a charge of color burst inbetween them, too, to amp up there fierce [farce?] competition!
–Dean
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Yes, you’re totally right. I like the idea of a color burst. By menacing I meant, menacing in their mincing way…
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Attached is a low-rez version of my 30 Rock vs Big Bang Theory illo. Let me know if you need anything else and I’ll prepare a hi-rez version for you.
–Dean
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Hey Dean,
This isn’t quite on the money yet. It’s not getting that intense, clash of titans superhero-y feel. I know this is potentially too vague, but could you make them look more like super heroes, even though they are wussy? Right now it’s much too cartoonish and not comic book enough (like this: http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/stevereads/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/captain-america-annual-8.jpg )
Let me know if you want more specific guidance.
**
For what it’s worth: I drew exactly how I would draw for Marvel and DC Comics and any other publisher, for that matter. I am a seasoned [Emmy Award winning] cartoonist who gets hired for my “style” [now that I've established one] and, with the examples you provided [see your links] of what XX has published in the past, I feel my illustration absolutely befits the spirit of the column.
I do not draw neo-realistically; the newest example you sent AFTER I provided you my finished illustration, and I’m confused to why you hired me if that’s what you wanted. I spent some of my weekend and all of today to do this illustration and, if you feel it’s not what you want, let’s please discuss a kill fee.
Thanks–
–Dean
**
Hi Dean,
I’m sorry for the confusion in communicating. Obviously we think you do good work or would not have asked you to do this piece. As I said, I’m new to editing illustration. We’re happy to offer you a kill feel of $150.
i loved your drawing– they shoulda went with it!
All that work and all those emails, geesh!
UGH! That was so painful to watch! I wanna kill myself now…
Parcell’s great- but he’s no Blur.
I’m sorry, but I’m not sure what you’re so mad about. The client told you twice before you sent the lo-res version that she wanted the drawing to have more impact by defining the characters bodies so they appear to be in motion instead of flat. You added the flying tie and badge as asked, but they don’t suggest movement — they are flat.
If you look at the jpg she sent, the muscular bodies appear to be rippling, which seemed to be what she was looking for. Yes the characters are weaklings, but I understand what she means when she says “cartoonish;” the addition of crease lines in the pants and jackets is not enough to get the effect. I’m not an artist, but your tie doesn’t even have any lines suggesting movement at all. It looks like a static banner.
In her second to last email, the client asked you to let her know if you needed specific guidance. At that point, why didn’t you ask for it? You just immediately jumped on her with “this is how I do it” line, and for work for hire, what you do and want does not matter.
I would suggest in the future that you clearly spell out what you would be doing for the money — something like, “for that fee, I can produce one initial draft sketch, then make the changes you want and produce a second draft sketch, and after a final conversation on the exact changes you want, I will produce a lo-res version of the image as a proof. At that point, I would expect your final approval to produce a high-resolution image.
Any corrections to the image requiring more than 2 changes would be charged at #xx per hour.
You didn’t specify up front what how you expected the project to go, and you didn’t set any parameters. If you don’t lay out explicit ground rules, you can’t get upset if the client does not meet your expectations.
Perhaps you should have brought up the “muscular” and “menacing” ideas she had and said, “the characters in the image you showed me are naturally very muscular and and also are not wearing a lot of clothes. It might be difficult to make these fully-clothed characters look like that, with rippling muscles, for example.”
Michelle–
I was more frustrated than mad. You bring up good points about creating sketch perimeters and expectations which I admit would have helped the process. I have instituted perimeters in the past but wasn’t as stringent with this job.
Obviously, my ideas clashed with the editors and we did have two phone conversations; one at the beginning and one towards the end. I called the editor when they suggested my final art needed to be re-done in a very different style than I draw in and, in that conversation [which I can't record here as it would be considered hearsay], we realized we had hit a fork in the road and I wasn’t willing to completely re-draw the job in the time needed [I would have had one more day after having lost two-days]. At that point, the gig wasn’t worth it to me.
As for rendering considerations, et al, I felt I had made the required changes by rendering in color/etc. As for the tie “movement” well, gee, it moves for me.
Different strokes for different folks. Ergo, “kill fee.”
The client hired an artist with a cartoony style and also didn’t seem to have a clear idea of what she actually wanted. Rather, she had a nebulous idea as to what she didn’t want, as work started to come in.
Othwerwise, there’s no distinction between “cartoony” and “comic-booky,” aesthetically. If the client wanted a realistic style, she should have hired someone known for realism.
Otherwise, your notions of “flat” and “suggesting movement” seem completely subjective to me. This drawing has depth and suggests movement–as much as the Thing vs. Hulk sketch drawing she references, anyway.
At any rate, why wouldn’t she use what she got? It’s still a good image, even if it’s not exactly what she’s unable to completely imagine on her own. The key to editing artists is trusting the artists you hire, and avoid micromanaging.
Thanks, Jef.
I think it was Alfred Hitchcock [or some other great director] that said “90 percent of great directing is great casting” and I was hoping that I had earned the honor of being cast great. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case and it was my prerogative to respectfully bail. And, yeah, “cartoony” and “comic-booky” is a recipe for disaster.
I seriously question the wisdom of posting this, no matter how pissed off you are. You’re putting a shotgun to both your feet.
I put myself out there, Si. If it means some editors won’t work with me, well, maybe I wouldn’t have wanted to work them. Dig?
Work is work dude. Slamming doors doesn’t serve you in any way whatsoever.
Even though I’ve made myself vulnerable, I’m sharing an experience, something I’ve learned from, and I don’t believe I’ve slandered anybody in particular. Open dialogue is important to me.
This is surprising. After the client stated multiple concerns about the design instead of altering the sketch to reflect what they wanted, you just did what YOU wanted to do and jumped to a finished drawing. That really seems like a rookie mistake.
Not to mention, you really come of as kind of a cocky jerk in your emails. While the art director may not have had a 100% concrete idea of what they wanted, at least they treated you with respect and offered up a kill fee readily. That seems like a pretty reasonable client to me.
Next time set up a fee structure. 300 budget is fine with say 1 or 2 sketch revisions (which you did not provide) and then charge X amount plus X amount of days for each additional change.
I don’t do too much freelance [spot] illustration. I mainly draw comic books [and sequential narratives]. This was an interesting learning experience for me.
Also, Lucy, I don’t feel that I was a cocky jerk and the editor wasn’t very clear. Which is why we came to a fork in the road and I asked for a “kill fee.” I wonder if the editor would have offered a me a kill fee for the work I’d already put into the job?
Definitely a good learning experience. Definitely in the future include a note that includes revision fees because revisions almost always happen. I just had to illustrate something way out of my style range and while it was a little irritating a least I was able to be compensated for it instead of stalemating.
Really though while this was frustrating for you, I think your client was very reasonable despite their lack of a clear vision and if this is the worst you have to deal with, consider yourself lucky!
Hah – I’ve dealt with much worse freelance situations where the editor basically hired me to be their technician, which is no kinda fun. Ultimately, this gig was a piece of cake.
Given the drawing of Thing and Hulk that was set as an example to work off of, I don’t understand why the person who was hiring you was disappointed with your work. It was completely stylistically congruent. I also don’t understand why the collective here has assigned him or her a gender, but that’s a different matter.
The drawing was on the money as far as your style goes, and if the editor was familiar with your work she would have known more of what to expect. I assume that she saw very little of your work- perhaps just the hulk sketch you cite above, and that she probably assumes that “comic book artist” means something generic stylistically, and that every cartoonist can work in that way (final link she sent).
If anything, your fatal mistake was in not realizing that “great start” meant it was NOT the solution she was after, and that no final details or color would have changed her mind. At that stage perhaps calling her and coaxing out what she meant fully was in order. Most people don’t want to offend an artist by saying “YEAH, that’s totally not what we want”. Hence the “nice start” comment. She was probably hoping you would re-do the sketch.
And at that point, maybe you could have either decided to do another light pencil sketch OR just say it’s not worth the money for the extra work.
I too (as you know) had a recent experience of not understanding what the client really wanted- going ahead and spending an enormous amount of time on something that was MY best work, only to have it fall flat because it was not what THEY wanted.
but good on you for sharing, you can’t be afraid to share your experiences, and I guess I think that Simon is wrong (sorry Simon!) on this issue. You didn’t say their names or identities- which is perfectly fine and respectful.
I made some rookie mistakes, which is weird because I didn’t make those same mistakes for a gig I did a month previous and I should devise a pleasant way to discuss working terms before pencil hits pad.
And, yeah, I totally would have done another sketch during that phase of the process. Email sucks. Talking on phones [and/or in person] rules.
Hi Dino. This is a really interesting post, since I’m an editor and I get to see the other side of this process. It’s been surprising to me just how hard it can be to communicate the image that is in your head to the artist you’re asking to draw it. Sometimes it just doesn’t come across no matter what you do, sometimes you’re explaining it wrong.
It’s frustrating that your client is having trouble expressing it, but I think what they want here is two things: a) heavier shadow and possibly a little brush-shading, and b) though they don’t mention this, angrier faces. The facial expressions are the biggest difference between the two drawings, other than the physiques, and I think that’s what the client is seeing that is making her think that the drawing looks flat. I think you could probably have saved this commission without totally redrawing it. I’m glad they were gracious about the kill fee,
Thanks for your wisdom, Sara. I truly believe a phone call after my initial sketch would’ve made all the difference.
Dean, I appreciate your vulnerability in putting this out here. I think you’ve been honest about what worked and what didn’t in the process, and if anything, it’s a helpful case study for other freelancers out there– especially sequential artists who are slotting in spot illos. Thanks for putting yourself out there to create a teachable moment.
Thanks, Ben!