just a rant

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So I airbrush murals and cars and motorcycles and such. If you want something really praiseworthy done on your wall or tailgate I can make it happen. It costs money though.
The whole concept phase of creating something original usually lasts longer than exicuting the painting.
My rant is this.. I think someone is my friend..they ask me to do some simple thing on their wall or vehicle....then they start trying to manipulate me once I've started. They take advantage of my nature. I'd like to do this to make them happy, but they keep coming up with more and more ways to complicate it and make it some sort of masterpiece.
I'm in this situation now where I'm painting murals in a friends house. Its for his wife, and as soon as I started he started in on me about all the bad things he would do to anyone who disrespects his wife. The original concept of this job was that I had free reign and they just wanted some colorful pictures with their dogs on the walls.
Now that things are taking shape, this mans wife is having her heart set on all these ideas that I have no way of dealing with other than starting 2 weeks of work all over with.
I'm kindof a pushover...yes. I kindof do this sort of thing so that I can have friends..yes. This time it's gone to far and I'm being bullied into some kind of slave labor. I dont get paid until it's done, and they just wont let it be done. The original agreement was that I work on it for 1 week and I get 250 dollars. Its been 2 weeks now and they keep coming up with things they want done better. I wish I knew how to post pictures on here because i have some on my phone. Its obvious that I have exceeded the reasonal expectation for 250 dollars but this guy has made it clear that he will make some sort of issue of it if I dont meet his wifes rising expectations.
Any normal person could get out of this situation, but I feel traped in it.
He's just some slick bully who was nice at first but now is trying to scare me all the time so that I dont tell him that I dont want to paint for him anymore. Its made me hate who I am. This is what always happens.
Its like you cant be aspie without people figuring out your weaknesses and trying to take advantage of you.
This is why so many of us bit&h about some NT's.
I can't explain it any better than to say that i'm being exploited because of my lack of social integrity. I have no friends to back me up and this guy knows it, and he has a very violent past. They put words in my mouth and make it sound like I agreed to all sort of things that I DIDN'T.
End rant....I've got to just cut all ties with this guy...take pictures of my work and tell him its DONE! Pay up. deal with all the flack. Its so complicated sometimes being me.

You should probably leave the mural incomplete or the way you intended it to be done, make them pay, and then leave. Did you have a contract agreement with them or something? That would probably be quite useful against them in case they wouldn't pay up and you want to sue them. Either way, it looks like you are dealing with some bad people, so be careful.

That totally sucks, I totally know where you're coming from. D: I'm an artist too, and this is why I'm terrified to work with people.
I guess I don't really have any advice that doesn't involve standing up to the guy and explaining how you feel about the position he's putting you in.. which I know, if I were in your place, I wouldn't be able to do.
Whatever you do, I hope you manage to squeeze out of it soon.

PS
Do you know how to get the pictures onto your computer? (usually there's a USB cord or a memory card involved..) If you do, you can use tinypic.com or photobucket.com to host the pictures and they'll give you a code or URL to post here.

Whew. I have never had a situation as difficult as yours, but I have been in that kind of situation.

At least for now, I would take pictures of the work done and leave ... then look for some kind of mediator to become invoved if/when that man or his wife ever contacts you again. You agreed to work for a specific amount of time in return for a specific amount of money, and that is the end of that. You could now file a civil suit demanding payment, and that would result in some kind of mediation if you cannot simply walk away without closure.

I'll get pictures on here sooner or later, maybee not in this thread. I feel like the worlds biggest chump because I did a huge tattoo on this guys leg that I let him get away with not paying me for because he would sometimes give me a ride to work.
I got diagnosed with AS in high school. I mean I wasn't looking for a diagnosis, this was back in 94' when the diagnoses became available and schools were notified or something. A guy showed up in my art class to kind of investigate me. He was asking the whole class all these weird questions and I guess I was giving all the answers that an AS would. When I got home my mom said someone called and I was accepted to a school for AS kids with IQs over 180. My gift is that I can draw things from memory and imagination. I'm not like way over the top or anything but what I'm saying is that my work is professional enough that I should be telling this guy that he owes me about 800$ by now. You'd think people would be greatful, but they just think that I didn't earn more than a guy who's work is bad because it must be easy for me to do.
I'm never gonna work for friends again. Just people who I dont know, and I'm gonna use a contract.
There must be some way to work around this without having a meltdown everytime I try to do something for someone.
A lot of it isn't an AS/NT thing, it an artist/not an artist thing. I cant believe it when someone wants a portrait done from a crappy dark unprofessional picture, or they want me to work from some thumbnail that they found online. It can technically be done but your not going to want to pay me for all work it takes to flesh something like that out. One of these murals I'm doing is this big beutiful sunset with some black silloetted trees in the foreground. I mean it seems obvious to me that once this is established you should know that I cant just put anything else in the foreground without it being redused to a black silloette (there isn't enought room, or the right perspective to conjur up some other light source to illuminate an object) I dont care how cute of a thumbnail you found. I get to the point where I want to say "LOOK STOOPID...NO..NO...NO and I'm not starting all over again!". It makes my world go round to get praise from people for having skill but the downside is when someone thinks they have a picture in there mind and they really want you to make it a reality. I never start with a perfectly formed picture in my own mind. A good piece kind of developes a life of its own on canvas and its a one shot deal. Once I'm half way done with it because you like what you see so far you still usually cant say to me "oh ya. I forgot. I want this in there too". I'm not trying to be mean but its really not funny too me. I always explain all this to people and they always say they understand and they like all my work so they dont care what I do but then they start having IDEAS and then I'm put in a position where all friendlyness is gone and I'm standing between someone and something that they're feeling entiteled too. All the verbal contracts don't matter to them anymore. I'm just supposed to do it or I'm a bad person or something. I mean thats how it makes me feel, and so over the deep end I go. I dont leave my apartment for weeks.
Well 'm supposed to be working on this crap today but I think I'm just going to sit around here and maybee cut up some stencils to speed along finishing it.

Yes, and you might consider working though an agency of some kind or having a business mananger who will take care of (or at least watch over) that end of things for you. In my own case, "self-employeed" never worked because of this kind of problem.

[img] The background for this is kinda done but there was supposed to be a guy in the foreground standing at a crossroads. I was doing this for free but kept getting messed with so I stopped.

[img][img]http://i983.photobucket.com/albums/ae311/sourus/addictiontribe-Copy.jpg[/img][/img] Some logo work I did on my computer.[img][img]http://i983.photobucket.com/albums/ae311/sourus/Untitled.jpg[/img][/img]

Ok I got a micro sd card adapter and got this off my phone. This is one of seven paintings in this room. Its a little over 5 feet in diameter. It was supposed to be simple but then I had to rework it with all this light colored sand to try to make this cartoony chihuahua look like it reasonably belonged. Then I had to make it look like the dog was dressed like a hawiian girl. today this painting has colored umbrellas and seashells all over. I made it look really good by putting shadows and such, so she's finally satisfied, but what I had in mind originally would have taken a third of the time and looked nice anyway. Tey still want one painting completely redone because its kindof an impressionist chaotic new york city background with a nervous looking dog in the foreground. Its a cool piece but it basically looks to "inexpensive"or something. (250$ for 7 very big paintings) One painting I haven't even started yet. I can stand up to them and say we need to renegotiate this based on all these alterations that I'm doing at your request or just finish it and move on. maybee someday I'll be able to call it in as a favor. Thats how people get me. I didn't agree to doing all this as a favor. Sorry for sounding all snotty and stuck on myself but I'm having one of those weeks. [img][img]http://i983.photobucket.com/albums/ae311/sourus/010300_152200.jpg[/img][/img]