successful vs sellout

So as I've mentioned before in some blogs that I've been doing more and more freelance work lately. I love it, it's so exciting! I feel like I'm really going to be able to be successful at this. The only thing is that my professors keep telling me to make sure I'm getting paid what I'm worth. However, their perspective and mine is so different. They obviously are very picky about the work that they take because they have been successful illustrators for many years. I'm glad they think our work as students is worth so much but I really don't put the same price tag on my art that my professors do. Take the amount I would accept and put a 1 in front of it, that's typically the difference of our perspectives. I figure if it's paying me more than my current job, then, hey cool. (If it's less than that then it's pretty ridiculous, come on, this is Provo) I'm getting valuable experience, published work and I'm getting paid for it. And it's not like they're paying me to scrub floors or something, they're paying me to draw stuff, which is my well known addiction anyways. What could be better? Last year I drew all the time for free. What am I talking about? My whole life I've drawn for free. In my eyes, anything is better than nothing.
However, as Michael Dudash pointed out (a visiting illustrator who came to BYU last week) when students and young artists consistently accept smaller paychecks than the industry standard then it hurts everyone because publishers start to expect to pay less and then everyone, young and old, gradually are forced to accept less money for their work. I guess the idea is that we're not just getting paid for what we complete, but the billions of hours of drawing and experience that it takes to be able to produce professional art. My professors are my professors because they know more about the illustration world than I do so I should probably listen to them. I've tried asking for more money and it gets me a little progress, but not a whole lot. Should I just hold out for the better jobs and more money or be grateful for what I'm getting?
I'm curious about other people's opinions, at what point are you a sell out hurting the industry, and when are you just a student getting a foot in the door by having some published work under your belt because you draw really fast to make it worth your time? (obviously I would prefer to be the later but I know I have to choose some type of ground where I reject work)

And by the way, the reason Michael Dudash was talking about this subject was because when I walked into the middle of a class to sit and observe my professor pointed me out and asked about the bargain freelance work I had been doing and what his opinion was about it.

BYU perks

There are a lot of great things about BYU. And of course some not so great things, but isn't that always the case? One of the things about BYU that I especially appreciate is the (usual) efficiency of the Lost and Found. I have had a couple of items never show up there, a favorite scarf and a homemade hat I really liked, but that nothing compared to the many, many, many, *pause* many items that I have gotten back. Quite often I'm in there every week or 2 to pick up stuff I brainlessly left somewhere on campus. The other day I left a project at the library but I was already on my way home when I realized I left it. Instead of going back for it I just thought, I'll just pick it up at the Lost and Found tomorrow. Very irresponsible and naive of me to always expect things to turn up there, but what can I say, it works. So the next day I picked up my project worth about $200 (it was some partly finished freelance work). When I had to write down on the lost and found paper how much the item was worth I realized maybe it would have even been worth going back to the library to pick it up. but oh well, it all worked out anyways. yeah byu!

teeth are overrated

If I can convince myself to believe that I will sure save a lot of money. I went to the dentist last week and I have 3 cavities. note- not in the place where my teeth are sore, of course not, those teeth are perfectly fine, it's some other random ones. I think he's making it up. Come to think of it, I don't know why I went to that dentist anyways. My friend used to work there and thinks the dentist is nice so I thought, hey why not, he can look at my teeth. However, now reflecting on the 3 made up cavities he told me about that will cost over $200 to fix I remember that I almost got a job working for him, because of a recommendation from my friend. You might be thinking, oh a dentist job, you would answer phones or decorate the walls or something knowing my qualifications. nope, this guy was going to hire me to be a Spanish translator. Apparently I was a pretty good Spanish 102 student. It didn't work out but the funny part was that it didn't have to do with the fact that I didn't even know the word for teeth in Spanish. So I claim the cavities are a figment of his imagination.

Record Low

I realized I have reached a record low number of clothes in my closet right now. Yeah, there's a lot in a laundry hamper to be washed tomorrow, but I am pretty amazed with the pile I have on a chair and a dresser and, well, my floor too. It seemed like I would only wear outfits for 3 hours at a time this week, I just kept changing my clothes. And it seemed like I kept wearing the same thing over and over again, because I only wore them for a few hours I thought that was okay. I think it had more to do with the fact that my closet has gradually just been declining to only the clothes I wear for Halloween. (I bet you will all be interested to see what I'm wearing tomorrow)
My roommate's cute little niece who is 4 or 5 was over visiting today and she came into my bedroom and asked me why my clothes were all over the floor. The way she asked it was like she expected me to have a really good reason, like I had been robbed, or I had a picking-up-clothes-disease. I just mumbled something about being busy. But who knows, maybe I do have some sort of disorder. I'm sure they'll find a cure for it someday.
That reminds me, I was reading this interesting anatomy book the other day and it talked about the brain and how they figured out which part of the brain does what. The front of your brain has to do with your personality. The book mentioned how there was this guy who was shot in the front of the head and lived and then his personality changed to being really mean. So don't you think this would work just as well in reserve? It sounds so easy to cure mean people. I'm sure we don't have to shoot them in the head, but I bet someone could come up with a simple procedure that just made people more pleasant to be around. I think I'll so some research on that. Lots of people have art for a hobby, but since that's my career I need something like science to be my hobby.

Rick the girl

This blog is about my friend Rick because the only thing she could come up with for me to blog about was a teacher crush. like I know anyone that has a crush on their teacher. let's be real here.
So Rick (real name will remain secret) and her husband are pretty funny. They plan on moving to North Carolina soon. Charlottesomething. I guess they have a lot of publishing houses there so I might tag along. What I'm really hoping is that somehow Rick's insane work ethic will rub off on me. She takes a million (okay, that's an exaggeration, only half a million) credits and has the tendency to not care about eating or sleeping, she just paints. I on the other hand have a tendency to eat (lots), sleep, well, not as much as I should (but more than Rick), and goof off by reading science books and playing foosball. I don't know how to develop good work habits. I hear they have professional foosball players. I don't think it's too late to change my major. And that Tuesday afternoon assertiveness class isn't helping me. (well maybe it's because I haven't gone yet)

what do you want?

So a few weeks ago I saw this flyer posted at the library that had all these questions and I kept thinking "yes" to all the questions and at the bottom it said if I said yes to any of those questions then I should go to the Assertiveness Class. It sounded like a good idea so I planned on going for awhile. I figured it will help me have more effective discipline with the missionaries, be firmer with what I want from art directors, etc. However, today my friends said let's go hang out and I said, sure! And therefore I didn't make it to the assertiveness meeting. Maybe I am doomed to be weak sauce my whole life.

uh....uh....

I really don't know what to write a blog about. I just got a cell phone, I could explain how great that is and I'm sure my friends are so happy for me. Or how confused I get every time anyone's cell phone goes off because I can't remember what mine sounds like, I just think, oh yeah, I have a cell phone, it's ringing! But I guess other people have cell phones too. I could write about how fun it was to hear the music at the library last week. It's been years since I've done that. The music was alright. Kind of obnoxiously loud. I was trying to scan something, it was like they wanted me to leave or something. I could write about my classes, my job. How cool my teachers are about me being a slacker when they know I did some freelance work. I might change my job for one that pays less, but gives me better experience. It would be sad, but good. I could write about complicated relationships and trying to be normal friends with people you dated. I could write about how I realized today how grateful I am for bicycles otherwise I might be wearing some corset or something right now. very grateful. I thought if I rambled long enough I would come up with something interesting....maybe next time. But I didn't want to completely get out of the habit. I think blogs are great. And I would also like to add that I am really looking forward to AVP2.