Illustrators rights

People who call themselves illustrators shouldn’t go around saying ‘please let me illustrate your flyer, band artwork etc, I will do it for free!’

It’s fair enough if you are doing the odd job here and there for a friend and you don’t go blurting it all over the Internet that you have done it for free.

By publicy giving away your talent you really cheapen the industry and make the jobs that some of us work very hard at making a paid career out of very hard to do.

Illustration isn’t something that just anybody can do - it’s a skill and it takes time and expenses and illustrators should be paid for that time just as much as bankers, chefs, bartenders, politicians, firefighters are paid for theirs. You would not get a bricklayer spending a year doing work for free to build up his portfolio. If you want to build up your portfolio as an illustrator- do personal work. Make your own little zines, paintings, sketchbook projects and get involved with the illustration community. This will bring out your best talents and unique traits more than designing a logo for a crappy clubnight.

It saddens me when I see illustrators who are starting their career in this self deprecating way, as you will not get very far if you don’t believe in your work.

It angers me when people are like ‘well I’m not really an illustrator, I was just doing it for free for a bit of fun!’ well thanks- that’s a job that could have been done with more skill that’s been taken away from the illustration community.

Just like buying shoes from primark which break in two weeks is a false economy- getting non illustrators to do free work is a bad idea: all of the illustrators that are of quality will decline because they are worth more, you will also have pissed off people in the process, and you will get a shoddy job done by someone who doesn’t quite believe in themselves.

The Association of Illustrators has been campaigning for years for better rights as illustrators. Any budding doodlers out there should check out their website and support the industry that they are trying to get involved in rather than killing it.

If anyone has any questions about this feel free to pop them in my ask box and you can email me at:

Renshawsally@me.com

Illustrators: please reblog this and let’s always believe in what we are entitled to.