Hourly working as an Artist

[akriti0412]

Hello there! I am a freelance artist and I would like to have more understanding of how does hourly contract work for an artist because there are times I would be working manually, or drawing on other devices, an Ipad. I do have the time tracker installed on my laptop but how do I update them if I am not drawing on the laptop. 

[prestonhunter · Accepted solution]

You can do this however you want to do it.

And however a client will accept.

Most clients allow artists to use manual time. Some do not.

Some artists never have any interest in using manual time. Some artists never use time tracked by the desktop time-tracker. Some use a mixture of both.

Some artists use special software to connect an iPad to a desktop computer and track their work with the Upwork desktop time-tracker.

The thing you can NOT do is override how the actual time-tracker software physically works. It is not a time clock. So you can't simpy start it and come back a few hours laster and stop it. It is designed to record active keyboard/mouse activity, and it will not record time segments if there is no activity (or extremely low activity).

[resultsassoc]

As usual, Preston is correct. I've hired on UW and another online board for almost twenty years and have never seen a screen shot. Every hourly freelancer is permitted to use manual time. I'm also a provider and refuse to use a time tracker. If a client expects top talent to work for her, it has to be in an atmosphere of mutual trust. Using a time clock pollutes that atmosphere. Plus, it's so easy to bypass that anyone who can't figure out how is too stupid to work for me.

It makes no sense for a creative freelancer to use an hourly contract. Is the finished product worth more to the client because the freelancer couldn't get himself organized, or took more time to produce the final result? No. Generally, the only hourly engagements I accept are executive coaching.

[prestonhunter]

I agree with Bill and appreciate his feedback, which is based on considerable experience working with freelance artists.

However, I think there are times when a creative freelancer would prefer an hourly contract and would benefit from such.

If a client can provide a well-defined, concrete task to the freelancer, and pay the freelancer when the task is done, then maybe an hourly contract doesn't make as much sense.

For example:
"Draw a picture of a cat wearing a funny hat. The hat has our company's logo on it: Alley Cat Landscaping. The cat is mowing a lawn."

But this is NOT the only type of client that a freelancer might work with. There are projects for which an hourly contract would be appropriate, or even necessary. For example, if the client received the artwork and then said:

"Oh, actually we need another cat in the picture. This one is installing a sprinkler system."

And then after receiving the revised artwork, the client asks:

"I talked to my business partner and she says that the cat installing the sprinkler system needs to be a Abyssinian."

And so on.

I have routinely hired artists using hourly contracts, using their posted hourly rates. I understand if some artists prefer fixed-price contracts. But I can't really think of situations in which using an hourly contract would not be a fair and equitable arrangement for both sides.

[akriti0412]

Thank you, Preston! This definitely makes sense. 

I think hourly projects are great for a longer project too which might have more than 1 iterations. but yes when there's a concrete task fixed price makes more sense. 

[akriti0412]

Bill, this too totally makes sense. Speaking from an artist's perspective, I would like to add that, if artwork takes say 7 hours to finish, giving an update every hour would also break the flow of my work, which is of utmost importance in a creative process.

Also as a professional, we already have an idea of how long a particular artwork would take, so it's great to mention it beforehand for the best clarity of the client even if the client would want to go with the hourly payment so they can choose the time limit and allow the freelancer to log time manually.