Words of Wisdom from the mouths of starving artists...

I'm reposting some posts written by other artists because I totally agree with what they have to say.
-This is not aimed at one person in particular and so far, thankfully, I have not had a customer try to belittle my art and effort by asking that I drastically lower my prices. Though I have had a few people ask me 'how' I make my masks...which can 'sometimes' be insulting, honestly. :/

"I'd like to share with you an ancient piece of wisdom that I learned some time ago, when I was just a wee small brain in a wee small jar.

When you do creative work for others, it's good to make sure the people you undertake the work for understand this mystic triangle:

Good.

Fast.

Cheap.

Write these down on a piece of paper. Carve them into stone if you must. Chant them repetitiously as you spatter the blood of a freshly slaughtered chicken about your body. I really don't care. Just make sure these three ideas are burned into your memory.

Now here's the trick - when you're creating art for somebody else, they are only ever reasonably entitled to expect you to provide a combination of any TWO of these three. The third, whatever it is, gets lobbed out of the nearest open window.

You can work fast, and cheap, but the work won't necessarily be any good.

You can produce good work cheap, but nobody better expect you to be fast about it.

And you can maybe - just maybe - work good AND fast. But NOBODY had better expect that to come cheap!

This is fact. Here endeth the lesson."
-Original source: http://hde2009.deviantart.com/journal/27390342


And...
"Once again I must remind people about the business of fashion.

Designers such as myself put a lot of time and effort into what we do. We go to school for years to study how to make patterns and how things are sewn, as well as how to design garments. It's a lot of time, money, sweat and tears. We fight for jobs because they are so few.

When we do things, it's not because we're bored soccer moms puttering around Joanne's looking for a fleece no-sew project. It's because it's how we live. We design things, we sew things, we SELL things. When people BUY things, we make money. That money PAYS OUR BILLS AND PUTS FOOD ON OUR TABLES. I'm sure the concept is hard to grasp, but just pretend.

When someone asks me, or any other designer, how to do something, for a copy of the patterns, for a tutorial if we haven't already posted one, or worse, if you can knock it off, it's insulting and it's also robbery. If I give it to you for free, then how can I justify asking anyone to buy my products?

Do myself and other designers a favor and buy our products. Don't even ask about getting stuff for free, how to do things, or for patterns. Or, get $60,000 to $100,000 and go to design college and maybe then you can understand what we go through when you ask us these things."
-Original source: http://dedredhed.deviantart.com/journal/28020285/#comments

EVERY artist feels this way, including Me.