Dont ask artists for free art you scrubs
How to waste your talent while losing your friends all at once because all you care about is money: A tumblr guide on how to be a cunt to those who admire you.
Imagine if the Mona Lisa was a commission and s/he had no money.
the mona lisa was a commission you shitshill, that’s how artists make a fucking living. it’s how we get the money to pay for things we need, because we don’t want to spend all our time working in a shitty job instead of doing things that are important to us, like working on personal projects or spending time with people we like. by thinking that you deserve free art is basically telling them “your time and skill isn’t worth anything but my personal enjoyment!” and if someone only wanted to be friends with me for free art, i don’t want that friendship because that sounds like an awful friend. artists are people with lives and often art is our only source of income and if you really admired us you would understand and support that.
i still laugh at how someone thought the mona lisa was a free painting. my god.
Actually, no, asking isn’t a crime. You can ask. There’s nothing wrong about asking. Asking is good so long as you respect the artist’s response. If they agree, great! It’s their choice and the „free” art is a gift. If they don’t, well, i think it has been explained above. Either get a comission or walk away (and maybe hope for requests to open).
Yes, *demanding* free art and being an immature dick when they don’t agree IS a problem.
But… what’s wrong with someone simply asking?
The problem is a lot of people ask even when it’s clear the artist does commissions, either they don’t bother to actually look or it’s someone who thinks they are entitled to free art somehow. Also the person above was implying charging commissions is a way to lose friends, implying friendship entitles a person to an artist’s work. Which would be like making friends with a chef with the expectation that they will make you free food all the time from the restaurant they work at. That’s called using someone, and anyone who weighs their friendship on whether a person gives them free art or not is a gross, manipulative, selfish person who’s better off without friends until they learn how to properly treat someone.
If you’re a complete stranger, it’s best not to ask an artist unless they explicitly state somewhere they do art requests.
If it’s a friend, then be sure to assure ahead of time they don’t need to feel obligated and are welcome to say no, because trust me most artists dread learning someone became their friend only for art. So just reassure that’s not the case ahead of time and don’t get upset if they say no.