Screwed over!

[Mattias Fahlberg]

So I was contacted by a local game developing company named *bip*. The boss offered me a fat salary and basically everything I could have wished for. I "just" had to produce four high-quality illustrations on a given subject (which I can't talk about) over the easter weekend and the job would be mine. These were meant to be worksamples for them to judge my ability to paint a theme on a given deadline. Turned out he was going to use my paintings for client work without telling me before I made them. I managed to create this for him spending between 5 - 8 hours each on them. That was way to slow! They should have been done in the half amout of time. This isn't concept art again but full illustrations. I'm sure people does them fast with hardwork etc. but atm I'm not at that level. He keept extending the deadline for me (doing me a favour) to do it right so after 10 days nonstop working I had enough. I completed the two first dealines. I updated everything over and over. He wanted 7 more days but I reached my limit. I asked him about the job he promised saying he knew my work ethic by now and that I wanted an answere since I allready have 1 job to do. This is were it all turned to shit.

He started saying that I wasn't humble and fast enough to work with this. That he gave me a chance and that I should be thankfull for that. So basically I should shut the F up and thank him. He said that he would have hired me but that I blew it when I mailed and asked him about if I would get the job. Don't question authority people. Also they were the ones who contacted me wanting me for their team because they thought I was the shit and they just had to have me. Then he makes me jump trough all these hoops. Stupid.

Long story short: I got totally f***ed over. Wasted time for sure. But it seems that most artists stumble upon these people. Next time i'll be smart about it. Back on track and ready to go! Thanks for reading.

[DK]

Yo man, that shit blows. I have had similar things happen to me, that kind of stuff will bring a man down. At least you learned from your experience and ready to move on. Don't be afraid to ask questions from clients. You gotta have all the information before you start working for them. Most artists don't like to do that because it means finding out you didn't really find a job. Just remember, you got more control than you think. Don't be afraid to show clients the back side of your hand either.

At least one good thing that came out of this is you got some drawing done in the process, even if it did destroy a part of your spirit.

[SamC]

That's bad :( A shame that stories like these are all too common. Remember: don't start working till you've either signed a contract or received a percentage of the payment already. Unfortunately, a lot of the time, if something seems too good to be true it probably is :(

[joerdenleigh]

Just read this with my coffee :) Yeah I gotta agree. Sucks man hope you find something like that again soon without dinks in your way :)

[Mattias Fahlberg]

Yeah the good thing about this whole scenario is that I learnt tons from it. Won't be as eager to please next time around for sure. But as I understand almost every artist have a story like mine. Next time around I will ask the questions and pay more attention to what is asked of me and so on.

Cheers guys! :)

[yianniPapz95]

That must suck :/ Although this is definitely a heads up for me in a few years time, and yeah, thats why Im not really after being a concept artist. Seems totally different than illustration, too rushed.

[SangHee]

Hey man, I know very well what you've gone through. I think that most of us who offer some services to people are at some point being trialed like this. Guess things like this make us be more careful about our working conditions.
I was lucky enough to amass enough money to hire an artist (also from Sweden, btw) to make a poster pic for my project and guess that once being in his place made me respect him and his conditions better and it worked out well for us.

[Shaun Patterson]

Ive been down that road myself before. Word travels real fast in the gaming industry and no doubt this company will reap what they sow.

[ChrisBjors]

Don't trust Swedish games companies in general. It's not like we're serious over here.

Depends on skill level but in general just don't ever do work samples/tests. That's what your portfolio is for, if they want to know if you're good to work with they should hire you for one paid asset. This isn't fucking charity.

Also, spending 5-7hours on an illustration is crazy, I need 3days at a minimum for my work, usually spend a week per illus. I know a few people who can do a full hq illus in that amount of time, the dudes with 10 years under their belt.

But it's good you had this experience, like you said, almost everyone has at least one of these and hopefully you've learned to be a business man, not an artist.

[Mike Tenebrae]

You get the same people in the book industry as well. One company I was working for wanted me to pack up my rig, drive to their offices and finish the work there so they could physically get the pieces as I'd completed them...bizarre.