As usual, a new sunday and a new journal!

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The news

The week.... has been busy. Couple of things in real life, but the most important and worrisome was that my grandmother has suffered a stroke during the week. She is well again, and is recovering, but this was a rough hit for the family. On this side of the family we have already lost one of my aunt and a grandfather both of whom we loved dearly. Excluding my grandmother, the only people left in my mother's family are my mother herself and her brother with whom she has only begun to reconcile herself despite a conflict between the two which lasted almost half a decade. This has meant a lot of stress and has been in part why I had to cut my stream short this last thursday.

On a brighter even if minor note, Adventures in Otter week was still nonetheless mildly successful in term of commissions and productive in term of art in general with two digital paintings completed(one of which still needs to be posted).

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Etiquette and not pissing off the Saw Doctor

This might seem like an odd title or expression, but it has a fair bit of meaning to me.

My father, as it stands, is a self-employed worker. An artisan even, in many a fashion. This wasn't always the case as he once held a corporate job for a long time, but for at least a dozen of the years I'd spent living with my parents before moving on to live in an apartment, the main income that put food in our plate was my father's independent job,

As it's stand, his thing was to make tools used in timbersport contest. He's still doing it. And he's still successful at it.
This may seem again a bit random but there is still a point for which I'm saying this.
The "saw doctor" is a nickname that has been given to him at times in the timbersport community due to his skills at making and repairing saws that are frequently used in contests where a difference of an hundreth of seconds can mean the differences between sawer.
One of the unofficial rule within the lumberjack community?
You don't piss off the saw doctor. His job takes a while, he has a queue to go through and his work is in demand. Want one of his saw? Get in the queue like everyone else. He has been in such demand that at times this queue can reach two years of wait.

Because his tools have been this good.
People needs his saw more than he needs the abuses of those who may want to attack him or cross him.

And this is something I wish to communicate to some people who commission artists but throw entitled fits at some of them. The people who wishes to criticizes the prices of an artist whose only income is their art. Or those who don't understand that a queue is a queue and that no amount of cajolling, harassment or passive aggressive comments will allow them to jump said queue. And that's not mentionning those who are trying to get an artist to draw a subject which she isn't comfortable with.

When you hire an artist, you hire them for their skills. Sure, some are unprofessional about it. Which is why you can simply "vote with your feet" and decide to support other artists. And you know the fun part with this? You don't have to attack the artist or harass them to do this.

But most artist that I personally know try to be professional about the art they produces, -I- try to be professional about it, even when I think I could do better. And when I think so.... I try to to better next time.

But at the end of the day when someone hire an Artist they hire them for their services. What they are not, is hiring a servant. If someone hire an artist it is because they can't or won't draw something themselves. And at the end of the day. most of these people thus needs the artist's skills more than the artists needs their potential harassment or abuse.

This is something I've learned over drawing commissions, sometimes I wished I'd learned it sooner. And seeing some other artists I know, it's a message I wanted to pass along.
An abusive commissioner is not something you need as an artist. No matter how much they pay. They sap your motivation, your will. And with those two, eventually sap at your skill and productivity as an artist altogether. And at this cost, they need your art more than you need them.

When you learn to cast away such people, even if it seems at the monetary cost of their business, you learn that those who remain... the commissioner who knows that etiquette and professionalism is a two-way street, will generally still continue to support you. And you will know that having polite and supporting fans and commissioners will be more profitable for you in the long run as you see your craft flourish from their support. And sometimes? That results in -more- business than if you'd continued taking business from an abusive commissioner. Simply said, an artist who loves what they produces will generally produces better art and sometimes even will make people think of you as more of a professional.

And generally, better art will results in more clients wishing to hire you for -your- skills. Rather than hiring you because you happen to be the only one who'll put up with their abuse.

And if you get such success... you can bet the abusive clients will sometimes regret not being able to get -your- work.

I know one of my father's ex-client is still trying his best to find secondhand saws made by my father, half a decade after he made the mistake of pissing off the Saw Doctor who will never take any orders from him again. Because my father knew the man needed his saws more than he needed the disrespect and breach of trust from that man.

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Tea-time with Kaijus

..... is next week's theme. Inspired by the new Godzilla movie, recent Kaiju craze and Kerberos Productions' own Kaiju-a-Go-go project( https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kerberosproductions/kaiju-a-gogo ) on one side, and a discussion involving tea on the other I have decided upon next week's theme,

As already stated, teatime with Kaijus. Commissions unrelated will still be most welcome, however!

This said, commissions involving the "teatime" scenes, such as friends sharing tea, or involving giant monsters(or both!) will be receiving a discount.
Similarly, during the week as any last weeks I will be working on a digital painting based upon that theme in-between commissions. Which painting as usual will be used to advertise the stream.

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Livestream Schedule for 05/26-05/30

Week's theme: Tea-time with Kaijus

This week, I will celebrate this most refined tradition that is sharing a cup of tea between friends. Because tea is awesome and good for your health, while in the same time celebrating these most dignified gentlemonsters known as kaijus. After all, after destroying tokyo for the eleventh time, even Godzilla needs a cup of tea to kick back and relax.
As such, this week commissions with either or both of those themes(friends sharing tea, or general tea appreciation, and Kaijus) will be elligible for a 10% discount :)

(Hours given are representative of the EST timezone)
Monday: 12pm-4h30pm
Tuesday 12pm-4pm & 7pm-10pm
Wednesday 12pm-4pm & 7pm-10pm
Thursday: 12pm-4pm
Friday: 7h30pm-11pm