I’m a freelance illustrator. I had a prospective client contact me, wanting 15 illustrations for a Valentine’s poem he’d written for his girlfriend. He emailed me on Thursday morning (Feb 12th) and wanted them by Friday afternoon (Feb 13th) so he could put music to them and present them as a Power Point for a Valentine’s Day gift.

Me: I already have other orders in front of you, but honestly, even if I didn’t, there just isn’t enough time to do all this work.

He seemed confused.

Me: See, you’re looking for 15 illustrations, 10 with backgrounds, and all of them full colour with shading and highlights. It’s 20 hours of work, minimum. More like 30, since I’d have to do concept sketches for approval before I even start.

Client: Yeah, so? That’s fine. $75 should cover it.

Me: Sorry?

Client: Well I’d be ordering so many drawings at once, so that sounds like a fair price to me.

Me: I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to help you here. There’s just not enough time, and the cost to rush this amount of work is more than you’re willing to pay for the project.

The conversation ended shortly after, but he still seemed genuinely confused why I wouldn’t work for 30 hours at $2.50/hr.