I have a question. So, I have a buddy (online, never met in real life) and we’ve done a couple projects together. I like him. He and I both agreed to costs etc… and things worked out fairly well. Then somewhere down the line he lumped a really siff uncreative project on me that pays like a piece of cheese, and I say I’d rather not do it. He’s desperate that I do it, but everything about it screams of pain. I politely bow out but he begs. I can foresee getting into it will just be miffness. He begs some more. He’s like someone with earache coming to a doctor to remove the pain. Is being an illustrator / animator like being a doctor? Is there some kind of unwritten Hippocratic Oath that I should be abiding by? I’ve turned down other people that I know, politely, because the work at stake is like zombie work and I feel like they’re trying to leverage their relationship to me to get me to do it. I hope I’m seeing through these murky waters and doing the correct thing. Paulo Coelho writes about the ‘Favour Bank’ in one of his books, and that everyone in the world unconsciously knows when you’ve failed to deliver when somebody tries to make a withdrawal from the favor bank. I get what he’s saying. But sometimes, I think, one or two people I’ve met are a little too premature in assuming that because I may have a good rapport with them, they can put any brief in front of me and I’ll snap it up. It…just…doesn’t work like that with me.
Though, there HAS been a time when I had serious toothache and a dentist went out of his way to help me. I’m sure he’d have rather not worked on Saturday. He has a wife and kids I think. And I was so grateful he helped me. Are graphic jobs and doctors even relatable? I heard a podcast not too long ago where an illustrator tries to weed out jobs where the client is just hiring his hand to carry out the client’s creative vision. I hear him, man. I hear him loud and clear.
On a totally unrelated note, here’s a piece of thing I did as some fan work for South African electro band Goodluck yesterday: