It seems to never fail me; each year that passes by, I find that one set of people who do it. It starts out as a nice conversation -- one that encompasses our interests and goals in life. They ask me what I like to do or what I am studying, and I reply with "I’m an artist."

“OH. MY. GOSH. You do art? You must be a really good draw-er! You should totally draw me!” Without a second thought, they blurt it out. It always seems to go that way, at least with a majority of people. Of course, I first take this as a compliment. I mean, it does make me happy that people are interested in or like my artwork. But there are times where people get a little too demanding. When I get asked by some people to draw them, they seem almost offended when I start suggesting pricing. They instantly retract their request, or seem to begin to try to convince me to create an artwork for them for free. I am told that I should draw them for no charge because they know me, because their birthday is in a few months, and other various reasons.

Let me say this first: I really do appreciate when people take interest in my work. But let me say this also: it is highly upsetting when people treat me as less of an artist just because they know me or because of my age. I may be young, but that does not mean I do not hold any integrity and pride in my artwork. I spend hours on my art -- up to 10 hours on a portrait -- and I have spent over 20 hours on projects for classes. I put not just hours of putting marks from a pencil onto paper; I spend hours figuring out how to translate a face from reality to the 2D world, and I spend hours erasing, restarting, and planning each and every stroke of the pencil. I believe that an artist’s work should be respected and it should be general knowledge and practice that the hard work we put into the art should be rewarded. For spending so much time and putting so much effort into art, artists, including myself, should not be treated as some sort of personal free entertainment. Many people do not realize that for many of us, art isn’t just a hobby. Instead of demanding art almost on command from an artist, take the time to think about how much they’d be putting into the piece and realize it is a commission, not a favor. In my lifetime, I have come across people who will become angered when I don’t comply with their requests for a portrait. There was a time in early high school where I was doing digital portraits of people, and at first it was fun for me; it was something I could do that made others happy. But the amount of people asking for these portraits started piling up, and up, and up. At one point I had to start rejecting people because it was too much work for me to handle. They would become enraged and start yelling at me over it, telling me I have to do a drawing of them because I did it for everyone else, among other illogical reasoning. Eventually, I just stopped completely and would only do those portraits from my free will and not from anyone’s requests. It is amazing to see how upset it makes people when they don’t supply them instantly with something. In the same way, you don’t force a singer to sing for you on command for no reason. You do not command and try to force artwork for yourself out of an artist.

On another note, another thing that really gets to me about people is that they always say, “It must be so easy for you at holidays- you can just draw gifts for everyone!”. Now, there’s nothing really wrong with this statement aside from the large ignorance to the reality of that. First of all, it is not easy. Like I stated before, it is extremely tedious in making a very nice piece of artwork for someone, with hours of work spent on each piece. If I just drew my presents for everyone, my entire life would be spent drawing for people for free, which I assure you, is not something I want to be doing. I can’t just pump out drawings like it’s nothing! While it’s true I do create artwork for many gifts for people, I do take the time to think about what they would really want and I do purchase gifts as well. Keep in mind, no matter how good someone’s art may be, getting a drawing or painting for every holiday every year is probably not what they want. In a few years time, they’d probably run out of space for all the drawings.

So next time you meet an artist, or next time you know someone who has said these things before, remember, artists work very hard and commissioned pieces don’t necessarily come free. Artists should be respected in their profession, and just like you wouldn’t ask a performer to perform free for you at an event, you don’t ask an artist to use their talents for your personal gain with no reward. Artists are human, and can’t possibly make art for everyone, so even if you do understand that they take all this time on art and that it costs money, don’t become angered and yell at them if they need to deny your request. Sometimes they know their limits and can’t currently take on another project. I am not able to act as a human printer and just suddenly produce a photo. All in all, when everything is said and done, I’m only human. I am an artist, not a printer.