Hi.
I'm an illustrator and I find client in a site similar to freelancer (dot) or fiver (dot) com
I still don't make minimum wage, but getting there.
I was recently invited to apply for a job that offered to pay 1, yes ONE dollar per submitted sketch. The reason being, you would get a concept and references images, “It should only take a few minutes to create a sketch, so you should be able to create somewhere between 5-25 sketches in an hour depending on how fast you are. “ Mind you after the sites fees, you'll get .80 cents per sketch.
Maybe you think they just need stick figures!. From the job description:
“The first step is (…) represent different medical words using pictures. We may use a picture of a “lever” to represent the medical word “liver”.
There are many different ways we could draw a lever, so next step is to brainstorm and sketch as many ideas as possible. This is the step where you'll come in. You will be given a phrase like “lever” and several reference images of levers. Your job will to be to use the phrase and the reference images to roughly sketch what our lever should look like.”
But don't worry, most images will not be as simple as lever!:
“Most medical words are difficult to spell and pronounce, however, so you'll be brainstorming sketches for difficult phrases, like “Metal Forming” or “Glitter Owl Hide”. It's not immediately obvious how a “Glitter Owl Hide” should be drawn, so you'll need to be creative. You'll create numerous sketches for each phrase, and each sketch should look as different as possible from the other sketches you've created.”
Ok, at this point I'm upset about this. I feel offended as an artist that my craft is so underalued… but they thought about that, no worries!
“This job is more about creativity and brainstorming than it is about art, however, you need to be a good enough artist to be able to clearly sketch your ideas. Your sketches should be very rough, so each sketch should not take long to complete.”
I WAS going to just decline the interview… but this forum has given me new perspective. So I answered
Hi, thank you for inviting me to apply to your project.
I'm, not sure you understand the scope of work needed vs your proposed wage.
In order to make 12.50 USD an hour (minimum wage in your state, New York), and considering both Upwork's and money transfer fees, I would have to:
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Open and read all your requirement mails.
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Review reference images.
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Probably research a couple of concepts.
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Think and draft 18 sketches. I usually do 2-3 PER required image before I get one I deem good enough to send to the client.
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Export them in the required format.
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Submit them
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Open, read, and process your comments for all 18 sketches.
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Clean up said sketches (in the strange case that NONE had to be redrawn and resubmitted) and export them
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Submit them.
This is just for line work, no painting. A drawing like you have on your site takes at least for layers EACH.
All this in an hour?
I gather you work with international artists that can:
Live on less than 12USD an hour.
Are not really taking into account all the time involved.
Are in fact EXTREMELY fast or don't really do their best job.
I know you are here to hire people that can work for less than your countrymates.
But this is abuse. Please consider paying at least your state's minimum wage, and include ALL time tasks required in said payment.
Do better, please.
Thanks.
I'm not sure what would happen if he reports me. But it had to be said.