I got scammed.
I posted in a job offer thread:
[link]I got an e-mail on Wednesday from the client, Sebastian, saying I was one of 5 artists chosen to do the designs, along with a creative brief. The basic breakdown was 5 artists to do the designs, then he would pick 2 to do illustrations, show them to his client, and the best one would get a larger comic book with the characters. Pay was clearly promised in the e-mail for all artists chosen at this step. He asked in the e-mail to send our rates to him for the work, and I sent a very modest rate quote for the work.
The deadline was Monday, and I foolishly started working on the project before I had any money in my hands. I finished researching, pencilling, and inking 2 full designs, and I designed a third and got about halfway through pencils on it.
On Friday, I received an e-mail from him again. It was two sentences long:
Thank you for response but this time we are not interested.
All the best
I felt so stupid and used. I wrote him back immediately, told him that I had already almost completed the work, and asked him to make any offer he thought was fair for my work. He got back to me this morning and told me I could submit my work for no pay and have a chance at the next step, the illustration part of the job, if they picked my designs, and he would pay me for that.
Does he really expect me to trust him? At this point I have the work done, 3 designs (despite his only asking for two) in full-color, because they turned out really nice and I wanted to finish them. So, it would be no problem to send them to him for review and get a chance at his gig/him stealing my work. I could do that.
Or I could keep my self-respect.
HEY GUYS!
