Rant "hopeful eyes"

[Red Lion]

I checked my deviant art messages for the first time in six months and at the bottom of the pile was someone begging for a freebie.

Basically it went like this "Hi your art is really nice! It'd be great to get a freebie from you! *lists favorite gay otps* I'd really love it if you gave me art of one of these ships!!! *hopeful eyes*,"  and the message concluded with some blushing emoticons and smiley faces. 

This whole thing kind of pisses me off for a number of different reasons. Strike one: asking random artists for freebies when they were never offering any. Strike two, going to a gallery that contains LITTLE TO NO FANART and specifically asking for fanart. Strike three, trying to butter me up by acting "cute" (read annoying).  This was probably some teenage girl who sends requests to anyone she can in the hopes of getting a bite, but trying to solicit free art from people who aren't offering it is obnoxious af. And begging is lame. Seriously don't beg people for art, it's pitiful and I can't respect you if you do that. 

It'd be one thing if this was just a one off incident but I get a lot of these messages where people come up and ask for things I don't make or beg for free art and then a lot of them get butthurt if I decline. For chrissakes, have some manners and don't go panhandling around for art, all you're doing is wasting everyone's time. 

[Saxon]

I don't know what 'otps' means?

I agree with you that people who want free art inundate a lot of artists with the hope that at least one will respond. I almost feel sorry for these people.

[Red Lion]

21 minutes ago, Saxon said:

I don't know what 'otps' means?

I agree with you that people who want free art inundate a lot of artists with the hope that at least one will respond. I almost feel sorry for these people.

OTP = one true pairing.

Usually someone's favorite non-canon fan ship.

[#00Buck]

If I can't beg for art what should I beg for?

[Augmented Husky]

5 minutes ago, #00Buck said:

If I can't beg for art what should I beg for?

Mercy :V

[#00Buck]

1 minute ago, Augmented Husky said:

Mercy :V

Nah.

It has no retail value. 

[willow]

 

[Socketosis]

Best thing to do is draw some shitty little pic in under a minute, preferably with stick figures and arrows with names to point out which character is which and draw a happy little sun in the background and color it in with squiggly lines.

[Endless/Nameless]

1 hour ago, willow said:

 

Real talk for a sec: While I do understand the annoyance and frustration at people constantly pulling this shit, I find the constant complaining and the mocking tributes such as the one above, and the subsequent circlejerking that tends to accompany it, to be helping to create and sustain a toxic atmosphere of victimhood and superiority within the artist community.

[FlynnCoyote]

This happens to me from time to time, at one time a guy even outlined the full details of his request in his opening note, literally second sentence after he said hi. So after spending five minutes reading and rereading the thing to make sure I properly understood what he wanted, I replied back and said Thanks for taking an interest but I don't do requests. 

I don't like alienating people that have taken an interest in my art (unless they turn out to be cunts) because generally speaking it is sometimes possible to manipulate people into providing free publicity if the request is basic enough. I will occasionally give out a request in exchange for a signal boost provided the thing they want is simple enough to draw.

[Red Lion]

5 minutes ago, FlynnCoyote said:

This happens to me from time to time, at one time a guy even outlined the full details of his request in his opening note, literally second sentence after he said hi. So after spending five minutes reading and rereading the thing to make sure I properly understood what he wanted, I replied back and said Thanks for taking an interest but I don't do requests. 

Also happens to me a lot. People don't even know if I'm willing to draw for them but they already have an elaborate plan for a piece and a list of demands at the ready, and again, this is usually done without any intention to pay the person they're asking to make art for them. I find that a little rude tbh. 

Though nothing rubs me against the grain quite like begging and flattery. Overt displays of meekness and shameless groveling from someone who's trying to weasel free shit out of you is really not a good look. Gives the impression that they have no pride and again, kind of rude. 

4 minutes ago, Sylver said:

Unrelated but kinda similar story:

I used to split up and give away between 100k and 5m gold pieces in Runescape after my miniature army of bots raked in tonnes of oak logs. Holy crap some of those people... After one of my drops (where I gave away the money) one guy threatened to find me and cut my throat IRL if I didn't give him more in-game money (that cracked me up so bad). Others would follow me around while spamming chat, try to piss me off, and demand more free money for them to stop. People harassed me via message because they didn't get any of the money/items I dropped and demanded free shit.

I got some good laughs.

Jesus Christ. That's ridiculous. They should be grateful they got anything at all and the ones who didn't should have just gotten over it. 

 

Expanding on my opening post  I will say a lot of it really is the WAY they go about asking. I probably wouldn't be nearly as irritated if the person came in and asked "Do you do freebies or take requests?" and then waited for me to confirm or deny before they launched into the actual request itself. I think for me it's about the lack of courtesy. If I feel inclined to give freebies at all it's usually to people who have introduced themselves by saying "hello" and then conversed with me a little. I am aware that that's not how things usually go on the internet but I feel like it's not to much to ask that people have some modicum of consideration and good manners even when they're online. You wouldn't go up to some person sitting in a lobby with a sketchbook, and be all "Hey could you draw this really elaborate and specific thing for me? By the way I'd like you to do it for free." You'd at least start off by asking about the sketchbook, introducing yourself and testing the waters by asking for more information about their hobby. Or at least I'd hope you would. It's different if the artist in question is offering free art but if they aren't then maybe don't send them your pre-made request.

[Gator]

5 hours ago, Endless/Nameless said:

Real talk for a sec: While I do understand the annoyance and frustration at people constantly pulling this shit, I find the constant complaining and the mocking tributes such as the one above, and the subsequent circlejerking that tends to accompany it, to be helping to create and sustain a toxic atmosphere of victimhood and superiority within the artist community.

ain't no victimhood; people just gotta bitch about bitches.  it's natural.  and healthy.  and i don't think the kind of shit being discussed here should be anything but vehemently discouraged and/or mocked, because it is rude and entitled and inexcusable.

tbqfhfam i would have said something awfully mean if i'd gotten a note like that.  like red said, it's one thing to approach someone and ask if they do requests.  it's quite another to just run up to them and start begging, with your extremely detailed request already prepared, and try to butter them up despite not actually paying attention to what they draw or how they feel about random requests.  it's like knocking on every door in your neighborhood and shoving your christmas wishlist in your neighbors' faces until you find one that will buy you presents--and acting like this is a normal way to go about getting what you want.  if you're not in a place specifically made for requests to be exchanged, if the artist has not specifically stated that they take/are taking requests, if there is no indication that freebies are being offered, you do not just approach someone and expect one.  especially with the little cutesy "hopeful" attitude which is just a thinly veiled guilt trip.   frankly, anyone who goes around doing that is an asshole.

it really does piss me off that people (generally people who do not make their own art, go figure) have such a tendency to undervalue artists, their time, and their work.  the more artists value themselves, the less they have to worry about not being valued by those who would gladly take advantage of them.

[Endless/Nameless]

37 minutes ago, Gator said:

it's like knocking on every door in your neighborhood and shoving your christmas wishlist in your neighbors' faces until you find one that will buy you presents--and acting like this is a normal way to go about getting what you want. 

Except it's not people coming to your door, it's bytes in a virtual mailbox. 

I do know it can escalate to more than that but that's less common and not what we're referring to here.

And for every rude, idiotic child who disrespects you on the internet, there's 10 more who respect you just fine--you just never see them.

37 minutes ago, Gator said:

it really does piss me off that people (generally people who do not make their own art, go figure) have such a tendency to undervalue artists, their time, and their work.  the more artists value themselves, the less they have to worry about not being valued by those who would gladly take advantage of them.

This is what I'm referring to. It's all about value me, value us, respect us, the creators, the starving artists, the better-thans; they're the problem, we're the hard-working fun people, they're the faceless leeches who probably just want a handout....

While it's a noble thought to value artists--and we should, no argument there--and it may seem like I'm exaggerating things, the constant sharing of this victim-based attitude and the continued back-patting and circulating encouragement of it inadvertently feeds an ugly monster of entitlement and disdain, and a lack of two-way respect between artists and customers. And then suddenly people can't figure out where the drama fires and deluges of socially inept artists who believe they can do no wrong while sitting in their high castle making Twitter callouts and making customers fear and loathe are coming from. 

I'm not criminalizing any of you who care to vent, and I have no desire to take away your right to complain; I'm just concerned about something ugly that cannot be stopped. 

[MissFleece]

K-kan I haz fwee art?? (´ω｀*)

:v 

[Lopaw]

I have had similar experiences with DA, posting a thread saying I was taking points commissions, making fantasy or anthro art (I'd never do point commissions nowadays) got a grand total of zero people posting in it. Every time I posted the same thread each month I began to think the reason I was getting no interest was because the title didn't have the sentence "anime/manga style" included.

However making a thread saying I was taking requests to do the same subjects got me 5 people each begging me to draw their character. I drew only the character that looked remotely decent.

[Moogle]

For a message that's 6 months old and probably long forgotten by the sender, it's sure got you quite worked up.  It's easy enough to reply with "I'm not taking requests, sorry". I understand it was the way the person inquired that has you ticked, but you can still respond civilly (or delete the message?) and carry on like it never happened.

 

I don't know, I've never had someone ask me for free art before. Maybe it's not so simple? Doesn't seem like a big deal honestly unless they're harassing you.

[#00Buck]

22 minutes ago, Moogle said:

For a message that's 6 months old and probably long forgotten by the sender, it's sure got you quite worked up.  It's easy enough to reply with "I'm not taking requests, sorry". I understand it was the way the person inquired that has you ticked, but you can still respond civilly (or delete the message?) and carry on like it never happened.

 

I don't know, I've never had someone ask me for free art before. Maybe it's not so simple? Doesn't seem like a big deal honestly unless they're harassing you.

Please make some free art for me?

*hopeful eyes*

[Victor-933]

HI CAN YOU DRAW ME A PICURE I WANT IT TO BE SSJ4 NARUTO TO BE SHOOTING A GUN AT MECHA FREIZA AND MECHA FREIZA HAS LIKE TANKS FOR FEET NOT A TANK BODY BUT TANKS FOR FEET LIKE HES WEARING THEM FOR SHOES ANS GODZILLA SHOULD ALSO BE IN THE BACKGROUND DOING A SICK OLLIE OFF MECHA FREIZAS TAIL AND ALSO CAN YOU GIVE EVERYONE BOOBS AND MAKE THEM A HERM OH YEAH ALSO CAN YOU GIVE SSJ4 NARUTO PINK HAIR AND GREEN FOX EARS AND MAKE HIM SAY NOTHIN PERSONNEL KID PLS PLS PLS PLS PLS *HOPEFUL EYES*

 

brb going to go fucking kill myself

[Socketosis]

I don't think I've ever asked for free art. It was always either offered as a gift or I did something in return. Even when artists are taking free requests, I usually avoid it because I'd feel kind of bad about adding to the huge workload they're going to end up getting.

There was this one person on FA I've always ended up seeing in the comments for smut art. He would ask EVERYONE, regardless of quality, if they took free requests and if they could draw his coywolf. Strangely he managed to gather a lot of it and he rarely seemed thankful for them. In fact, he would get rather stern and complain about incorrect details about his character and make the artist fix it.

43 minutes ago, Moogle said:

I don't know, I've never had someone ask me for free art before.

Wh-wha?! You must not be on DA or FA then...

[Moogle]

30 minutes ago, #00Buck said:

Please make some free art for me?

*hopeful eyes*

I'm not taking requests, sorry

(but no seriously, I can whip you up a sketch if you'd like of something. Bit of a backlog atm, so it might take awhile to do :3)

11 minutes ago, Socketosis said:

Wh-wha?! You must not be on DA or FA then...

I was on DA for awhile, never FA though.

[Socketosis]

2 minutes ago, Moogle said:

I'm not taking requests, sorry

(but no seriously, I can whip you up a sketch if you'd like of something. Bit of a backlog atm, so it might take awhile to do :3)

I was on DA for awhile, never FA though.

Blessed by the art gods.

[Cingal]

I'd probably just ignore it honestly.

 

I mean, being all "How dare you ask me!?" just kinda seems like being a dick.

 

Not that I don't get it's annoying and stuff.

[Vitaly]

Hi!!!!!111 (=ﾟωﾟ)ノ

YoU aRe SuCh KaWaIi ArTiSt ｛・ω-*}

DrAw Me pLz ◕ᴥ◕

My ReF _(:3 ⌒ﾞ)_

☆彡 ★彡 ☆彡 ★彡 ☆彡 ★彡 ☆彡 ★彡THaaaaaaNkS!!!11 ☆彡 ★彡 ☆彡 ★彡 ☆彡 ★彡 ☆彡 ★彡

[Imperial Impact]

20 minutes ago, Vitaly said:

Hi!!!!!111 (=ﾟωﾟ)ノ

YoU aRe SuCh KaWaIi ArTiSt ｛・ω-*}

DrAw Me pLz ◕ᴥ◕

My ReF _(:3 ⌒ﾞ)_

☆彡 ★彡 ☆彡 ★彡 ☆彡 ★彡 ☆彡 ★彡THaaaaaaNkS!!!11 ☆彡 ★彡 ☆彡 ★彡 ☆彡 ★彡 ☆彡 ★彡

Being gay is a meme.

[Tsuujou]

43 minutes ago, Vitaly said:

My ReF _(:3 ⌒ﾞ)_

I was honestly expecting some kind of really hideously drawn crock of shit. And then I just see the classic... lmao

[Red Lion]

3 hours ago, Victor-933 said:

HI CAN YOU DRAW ME A PICURE I WANT IT TO BE SSJ4 NARUTO TO BE SHOOTING A GUN AT MECHA FREIZA AND MECHA FREIZA HAS LIKE TANKS FOR FEET NOT A TANK BODY BUT TANKS FOR FEET LIKE HES WEARING THEM FOR SHOES ANS GODZILLA SHOULD ALSO BE IN THE BACKGROUND DOING A SICK OLLIE OFF MECHA FREIZAS TAIL AND ALSO CAN YOU GIVE EVERYONE BOOBS AND MAKE THEM A HERM OH YEAH ALSO CAN YOU GIVE SSJ4 NARUTO PINK HAIR AND GREEN FOX EARS AND MAKE HIM SAY NOTHIN PERSONNEL KID PLS PLS PLS PLS PLS *HOPEFUL EYES*

 

brb going to go fucking kill myself

This

This is the sort of thing I find in my inboxes on a regular basis. 

the last thing I got on FA was a request for me to draw Five Night's at Freddy's Fox character naked on all fours, farting and eating pizza with a green fart cloud coming out of his ass. It was weirdly specific, very strange and again, asking for free art with no attempt made to even check whether or not I was willing 2 freebee. 

2 hours ago, Cingal said:

I'd probably just ignore it honestly.

 

I mean, being all "How dare you ask me!?" just kinda seems like being a dick.

 

Not that I don't get it's annoying and stuff.

except they aren't actually ASKING. They're fishing. Being all "I love your art, I want free things from you, here is my list pls pls pls it would just be sooo nice of you if you made things for me." is not what I consider asking.  I mean they've never said so much as "hello" but now they're trying to butter me up because they want something from me. It's kind of manipulative the way they're trying to be "cute" to weasel out of being charged or turned down.
 

4 hours ago, Moogle said:

For a message that's 6 months old and probably long forgotten by the sender, it's sure got you quite worked up.  It's easy enough to reply with "I'm not taking requests, sorry". I understand it was the way the person inquired that has you ticked, but you can still respond civilly (or delete the message?) and carry on like it never happened.

 

I don't know, I've never had someone ask me for free art before. Maybe it's not so simple? Doesn't seem like a big deal honestly unless they're harassing you.

 

Honestly I'm tired of being civil with these people. This particular message is just one of many that I find in my inbox. They're pretty much the reason I go for 6 months without checking my inboxes on art sites because I know those are usually the only kinds of people who will even send me notes. I see a stack of messages and know it's going to be a bunch of people wanting free art. When I do turn them down half of them get butthurt and start insulting my art trying to make me feel guilty about not handing out free art and telling me that art (not just mine, but ALL digital art) isn't worth paying for. 

Someone tried to make an argument "You're doing it digitally so you're not even using resources that cost money therefore it's unfair to ask me to pay you." While my tablet and art programs have paid for themselves by now people don't seem to understand that TIME is a commodity and most people, even artists, don't have the luxury of wasting the 1-2 hours or more it would take to give someone the kind of quality they expect. And most of them don't want quick sketches, they want shaded, detailed, sometimes full body art and have zero intention of offering to pay for any of it with more than some empty flattery. 

[Snagged]

At least beggars ask for simple things and they do it out of necessity. Begging for freebies AND expecting the artist to comply to your request is downright pathetic if the artist hasn't informed they have volunteered to do freebies

Besides, you'll get much better quality art if you paid for a commision

[Socketosis]

2 hours ago, Snagged Cub said:

Besides, you'll get much better quality art if you paid for a commision

Sometimes. Depends on the artist. I've seen commissioned art that looked like 2-5 minute doodles(at the artist's speed) and was shocked to find out it was a $20 commission. It wasn't that they couldn't do any better, it was that they didn't really care.

 

2 hours ago, Red Lion said:

the last thing I got on FA was a request for me to draw Five Night's at Freddy's Fox character naked on all fours, farting and eating pizza with a green fart cloud coming out of his ass. It was weirdly specific, very strange and again, asking for free art with no attempt made to even check whether or not I was willing 2 freebee. 

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

I used to beg for free art when I was like 10. I learned my lesson and don't do it anymore. Also, if you're saying "BEGGING FOR FREE ART ISN'T THAT BAD, YOU'RE JUST A MEANIE ELITIST ARTIST!!!!" you are part of the problem.

[Moogle]

8 minutes ago, Sidewalk Surfboard said:

I used to beg for free art when I was like 10. I learned my lesson and don't do it anymore. Also, if you're saying "BEGGING FOR FREE ART ISN'T THAT BAD, YOU'RE JUST A MEANIE ELITIST ARTIST!!!!" you are part of the problem.

Who has said this?

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

2 hours ago, Moogle said:

Who has said this?

Nobody, I'm just saying if you think that way you're probably part of the problem.

[Wrecker]

omg im a fan of this thread so i made fanart

[#00Buck]

21 hours ago, Moogle said:

I'm not taking requests, sorry

(but no seriously, I can whip you up a sketch if you'd like of something. Bit of a backlog atm, so it might take awhile to do :3)

 

T-thanks. 

Moogle sempai noticed me. 

P-pls.

Moogle Kun! 

Draw me as the bass of Tsundere...

It would be so nice. 

[Tyranno]

Did any of them ever ask for vore art?

Because I've met a lot of voraphiles with no apparent boundries.

[Red Lion]

50 minutes ago, Tyranno said:

Did any of them ever ask for vore art?

Because I've met a lot of voraphiles with no apparent boundries.

Yup.

I've had a few people request vore, though the bulk of what I get is requests for bizarre fetish fan art. 

[Vallium]

It is, but why do you think they do it?

Theyre on the internet, anonymous, and they can randomly send out tons of these messages and they might get a hit here or there, free art, boom. If they dont get any bites? Nothing off their back, mostly they will just get ignored if that happens, or if they get a long ranty message then they can probaly ignore that back, or get blocked. Theyre untouchable on the internet.

I personally dont go out of my way for free art, if someone offers I will but thats the extent of it.

[Sarcastic Coffeecup]

Why not just reply: "No *spiteful gaze*" to point out their ridiculousness.