Packed with anecdotes about the people that helped him when he was starting out, and the issues he's faced as a professional:
In art, there is so much room at the top. People have been a little afraid about that because of AI, it seems like, but there's pretty much a whole world of artists that are pretty good, but that you could switch out with each other. And then there's the people that are always busy, and the people that are always busy: there's not enough of them to do all the work. That's why they're always busy.
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Recently, I was doing a job negotiation with a company on doing the cover art for a big video game release, but they didn’t want to pay the same rate that we had used in the past. They were a little tight on money on this project and normally the contract is written to say that I can't show the work I do for them. This time though, I said if they wanted me to come down on the rate, they would need to allow me to show this publicly later, (which has a huge marketing value to me because it's a game that millions of people play), and be able to go, “Hey, I did this.” So, they agreed and we got it approved that way.
THE BLADE ITSELF ⚔️ More of my art from the Curious King illustrated edition. These are the endpapers, depicting Adua as Logen sees it upon first arrival. Sketch included, + alt. sketch depicting our four mains crossing the bridge to the House of the Maker. #thefirstlaw #firstlaw pic.twitter.com/jDPREpXO9z
— Tommy Arnold (@TommyArnoldArt) November 20, 2023