"Detective Cat...Mrs.?"
Seeing this title, the corners of Gu Weijing's mouth twitched slightly.
certainly,
It’s not his customers’ fault.
Fiverr does not have high requirements for registrants’ personal information, and does not require store owners to provide their detailed personal information.
As long as there are no complaints from buyers, basically you can fill in your country, age and gender as you like, or customize your gender to an armed helicopter and no one will care about you.
It’s not completely casual. Fiverr’s registration policy is basically divided into two categories: American or foreign.
If your registration place is in the United States, you need to submit an additional W2\1099 tax return form to the IRS (U.S. Internal Revenue Service) on the website on time.
No matter where you are from, as long as your registered place is the United States, you have to pay taxes.
This is not mandatory. If you are an American, you can fill in the form abroad as long as you are confident that you can avoid IRS supervision.
Outsiders browsing this store can tell from the self-introduction in Detective Cat’s store profile.
They were doing business with a 34-year-old woman who was born in Algeria and had a university degree. They would never have imagined that the owner of this online store was a Yangon native who was not yet an adult.
The reason why Gu Weijing registered as a "female" painter was not because male students on campus often liked the idea of creating an account for a cute girl in a bikini when playing role-playing games.
He also has his own little cleverness in it.
Gu Weijing saw a data analysis on the gender of painters in a school class.
Sexism still exists today in the high-end art market and art exhibitions.
Male oil painters are more popular and recognized than female oil painters. Male painters are also more likely to get higher-priced contracts.
But in online part-time job postings, the ratio is almost reversed.
Currently, the ratio of male customers to female customers is almost half, but female painters are more likely to receive orders than male painters.
This factor may be because female illustrators have more delicate brushstrokes than male illustrators, and are more likely to draw soft and cute cartoon-style illustrations.
However, Gu Weijing personally feels that there is another big reason——
The commissions for figures and animations may account for half of the online illustrators.
Let's imagine.
You are a housekeeper who is keen on collecting figurines.
Every day you spend a lot of time dressing up your Kurisu Makise, Siesta, Miku Nakano, Asuna (the above are all popular anime female characters)... figures with various Armor, dress, and corresponding anime accessories.
When you finally dress up your two-dimensional wives beautifully, you want to draw a customized illustration for them as your own mobile phone wallpaper.
You would rather wish that this illustration was drawn by a otaku who shares your interest in 2D, while eating cola fried chicken and holding a paintbrush on a tablet with greasy fingers.
Or do you want a young lady painter to create for you?
Although online sex is not trustworthy.
But you definitely prefer the latter, at least you can still dream about it.
Otherwise, it will really feel weird when you sleep with your phone in your arms.
This industry is the same as online game escorts, no matter whether they are foot-picking men who use voice changers or not, at least the gender column must be filled in with girls.
As for why he fills in the fact that he is in his thirties, it is easier to understand.
It’s because customers think older painters have more experience.
If you know that it was drawn by a teenager, even if they are actually satisfied with it, they will worry that you did not draw it well and will make you revise the draft endlessly.
Gu Weijing looked at the massive news on his side,
he knows,
This detective cat shop of mine has become completely famous this time.
…
When Gu Weijing finally looked through the thousands of unread emails in his inbox, it was already early in the morning.
There are all kinds of messages. Even if he only browses those in languages that he can understand, and only reads the titles at a glance, and occasionally clicks on the emails he is interested in, it still consumes a lot of his time.
In fact, most emails are not nutritious.
Basically it can be classified as "Wow! You are great, madam.", "Ms. Detective Cat, your painting was chosen by Mr. Hyperion!!!" or "Is there really no script? I don't believe it." type of spam.
Gu Weijing basically deleted such emails in batches, and blocked hundreds of guys who wanted to sexually harass him just like the so-called jewelry merchant.
The rest are all order types.
"User Hyperion1077 gave you a positive review!"
"Number of positive reviews +1"
Not long after browsing the message sent to him by Mr. Hyperion, Gu Weijing received a reminder that the other party had praised him.
He opened the virtual panel and took a look.
After completing this single positive review, his panel at this time became——
[Serial Mission: A First Look-Professional Way (2/3)]
[Current task: Complete twenty favorable orders on Fivverr, and the favorable rate exceeds 95%]
[Current task progress: positive review (9), medium review (0), negative review (0), terminated transaction (1). 】
[Current mission reward: Painting Appraisal Technique (Exquisite Level Skill)]
Not counting the evaluation Mr. Hyperion just gave him, Gu Weijing only made two deals during this period.
The lack of traffic in the Fiverr store is the main reason why he has been unable to speed up the progress of his task.
Gu Weijing originally thought that at this rate, he would not be able to complete the second step of this professional task before the holidays were over and school started.
Unexpectedly, an unexpected surprise came from heaven.
He knew that from today on, as long as he didn't seek death, his store would probably never lack orders.
However, since there are a large number of orders coming in, he is very careful in screening his orders.
Not all orders are accepted with value.
First, those with extremely low transaction prices can be eliminated.
At present, among the hundreds of transaction applications on Fiverr, the vast majority of people have seen Mr. Hyperion’s video, and they want to take advantage of it, hoping to get it for ten dollars. Request a manuscript from him.
These trading offers account for more than 95% of the total orders.
Except for meaningless cheap orders.
Some order prices are surprisingly high.
[Mr. Hyperion] asked Jane Arnold to draw a drawing for a million dollars, mainly because it was the Tarzan Beidou in the illustration world, and it was also to achieve the video effect.
In fact, the price ceiling for illustrations itself is not high.
But the figures on these manuscripts really surprised Gu Weijing.
The world is so big, there are always some people who are not short of money, or who want to take advantage of Mr. Hyperion's popularity.
There were several orders worth tens of thousands of dollars, and one of these emails even included a Canadian studio asking Gu Weijing to draw a promotional poster for the animated film they were preparing to release on Easter, and offered a high price of one hundred thousand dollars. .
This is already the price of a top-notch illustration studio.
The other party obviously wanted to spread the word before the movie was officially released.
For some large-scale animated films, the cost of advertising before they are released on the corresponding schedule can account for 50% of the total cost of the film, with the investment cost reaching 80, 90 or even hundreds of millions of dollars.
This Canadian film studio is definitely not that powerful and can only be regarded as a third-tier low-cost animation, so it wants to spend $100,000 to ride on the popularity of the Internet celebrity illustrator.
However, the other party made it clear that if he wanted to take the order, he must personally cooperate with all the other party's publicity arrangements.
As for how the painting is done, it doesn’t matter.
Even if you don’t cooperate with the announcement requirements,
Gu Weijing was also not prepared to take such an order.
He knew that he relied on Menzel's basic painting experience, coupled with Berryman's anatomical skills, and in a very specific environment, was able to paint works that were truly comparable to the master.
The luck factor outweighs the strength factor.
In terms of real painting experience, any one of the three serious illustration artists is actually better than me.
After all, Menzel's experience was only Mr. Menzel's understanding, not Gu Weijing's own.
Menzel’s skill set has the word “basic” in it.
It's not the basics of painting skills, but when he uses the skills, his whole person seems to have entered a unique state of tranquility.
It is not difficult to learn basic drawing skills such as drawing some simple patterns that you have already thought of, copying models, or anatomy of a character's muscle lines.
Yet it is difficult to engage with one’s own emotions and creativity.
As the judge lady said, it lacks all emotions except seriousness.
The emotional table will always be fixed on the evaluation of "simple work". No matter whether it is painted once or a hundred times, there will be no other evaluation.
If it's not yours, it's not yours.
Otherwise, with this sketch and a little creativity, it would not be difficult for Gu Weijing to participate in a solo exhibition.
The quick money you can make by relying on Internet popularity can only be made once. When the traffic leaves you, you will fall as high as you are praised.
Only take up colored pencil drawings that you are good at, and only draw subjects that are within your ability, either characters or simple patterns.
This is the real long-term solution.
