Does a failure make us stro...what?
Warning! Grammar mistakes!
A calendar. 3 album covers. 4 or 5 posters. 2 postcards. A good deal, isn’t it?
Nope. All these items are still ‘on paper’ projects, most of them will never be real.
Postcards aren’t important, there was no any plan, just a chance. I don’t care.
Posters are still possible to happen. My partners are very slow. We achieved successful results in our negotiations (3 weeks! almost no details!), but still… frankly speaking, I have a feeling they found somebody else and didn’t tell me. Or they just think my e-mails travel through Inner Mongolia on foot.
12 sheets of lettering for ‘an inspiring and motivating’ calendar. Well, some of the quotes I was hired to write were weird, but I came in behalf of graphic and calligraphy, not philosophy. Funny, now it seems I was ‘somebody else’ who stole another artist’s job. A design studio sent me all materials – backgrounds and style samples. When first 3 sheets were ready, they changed the style, though I sent them all 3 drafts before starting a serious work. The drafts were small-sized and very-very quick, to exclude a potential using my designs before I get my money (sorry for mentioning, but it’s a real topical problem, and it’s not plagiarism but an actual robbery). Art manager approved that first drafts. Anyway, I started anew, sent small files and got an answer: that style was good for 1 picture only. It turned out they decided to have 12 different styles for 12 sheets. Why they sent 17 samples, I still don’t know. Moreover, they said the budget was reduced and I would be compensated when they got 12 high-res pictures IF they like the pictures. Hahaha, I knew that. They have chosen a bad girl for their experiment. I said ‘You will get everything in a week’. They agreed. I did nothing for them, a week later I wrote ‘I’m leaving’ and sent this:
The strange thing: they asked me to stay. With no offering any prepayment.
Then, there were album covers. The first band didn’t know what they wanted. Except the sketches. Sketches of what? The second band… well, I don’t know was it a band or not, seems they have 4 talkative managers. Still, they sent me a 'no_name_example' record to inspire. That one sounded suspicious, as all emails I got were from Russians and they said they found my portfolio on Russian website... Shazam indicated it was something by Fear Factory, released long ago.
The boys from the third band were nice and sweet, sent the sketch, explained everything… then sent examples. I was about to faint, because this work would have taken 5-6 weeks (no sleep, no eat) and a graphic tablet. The sweet boys suddenly said I had 10 days and MAYBE they would pay. Same old story, I reckon.
My disappointment could be deep and bitter. Instead of being disappointed, I made my friend start writing. Now we’re working on 'Of beasts, birds and men' series. I hope we’ll manage to translate everything into English (you see, I’m not translating now, I’m whining here) So if you read this, please try #modernbestiariy on Facebook, Instagram or vk.com. We just have too much text in Russian yet.
For example, Rhino: a beast logically impaired and close-minded. Lack of wit is successfully compensated by street wisdom and thick skin. His envy to unicorn's lithe body and immense popularity has no end, but is easily overruled by his love for greasy food. Runs fast but rarely, because it is very hard to run and to eat simultaneously. To enrage a Rhino is a task pretty hard but not impossible if you use some deconstructive criticism. Has no knowledge of foreign languages, almost illiterate, can't do math properly except for calories counting. Lives in hot places, cause it gives him a reason to whine a lot. Quite harmless.
In addition, I found out that one of the bachelor students plays guitar in his own band. The boys work a lot. They are quite humble, but they’re making progress, composing something more mature than I expected. Besides, the lyrics are not just ‘sky is blue I love you’. Blind Miles is definitely my favorite new local band, it took them 3 seconds to make me listen til the end.
What else? A report at the academic conference (Russian Academy of Arts; I was the youngest speaker). I didn’t like the process. Too pompous while 90% of reports are rubbish.
I'm proud: in December I was the only newly arrived non-professional illustrator who managed to write a blog post on a 'professional' website for illustrators and wasn't mocked and derided (as it usually happens). Woo-hoo!