Current Events > So I need to kind of 'fire' my friend, and it's really awkward. What do.

(+) Yeah! (+)

So I've been plugging away for a couple years working on an indie game project, and my friend has been helping out since the beginning as well, doing character portraits for me. At the start of it they did a great job, to the point I offered to pay them for each portrait. But they always declined everytime I offered.
However, as time went on, the quality of the portraits got worse, and I would offer constructive criticism, which they obliged. But then the art started to look kinda phoned-in, and I asked if my friend still wanted to do it, giving them an out if they lost interest/were too busy for it, but they insisted to keep on helping out.

Just recently however, they sent me a pack of portraits, and half of them look like straight traces of my rough drafts that I sent them... And I'm not really sure how to feel about it. I appreciate them helping me and doing the work for free even after I offered to pay, but I'm not getting the material I want anymore.
I really want to just find someone new and commission them to do the character art, but to do that I need to talk to my friend and effectively fire them. I feel like there's no way to make it not awkward...

Should I actually have a talk with my friend, or should I just stop reaching out to them and hope they never ask me about it ever again?
(bear in mind, this friend is a bit flighty and there's actually a very realistic chance they would legitimately forget to ever ask again if I stopped messaging them.)

Help me CE. You're my only hope.

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"I really appreciate all the work you have done on this project so far, however I think we have different visions on the end project. The last few sets of portraits you have done aren't quite what I am looking for. I really value your friendship and your willingness to help on this, however this is something I am really passionate about and want to make happen and be able to sell. That being said, I am going to be hiring some portrait and character artists going forward. We ok?"


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KILBOTz posted...

"I really appreciate all the work you have done on this project so far, however I think we have different visions on the end project. The last few sets of portraits you have done aren't quite what I am looking for. I really value your friendship and your willingness to help on this, however this is something I am really passionate about and want to make happen and be able to sell. That being said, I am going to be hiring some portrait and character artists going forward. We ok?"

Holy crap, this is like almost verbatim what I was thinking of saying, haha.

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"You're out."

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Well, there goes those benefits

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Youre not firing them if they dont make money from you

TheChosenPurist posted...

Youre not firing them if they dont make money from you

I know, that's why I wrote the word fire in quotation marks.

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Show us the art

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elaborate friends day out featuring a barbeque and a scavenger hunt with the ultimate ending of the outing leading to a small box

inside the box is a strip of paper

You're fired.

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TeaMilk posted...

Show us the art

Here's two examples out of the pack I got recently.




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LostForest posted...

Here's two examples out of the pack I got recently.

Lol it's the "can I copy your homework?" meme all over again.

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Why did you keep saying "they" in the OP? Is this a guy or a girl?

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Shadowplay posted...

Is this a guy or a girl?

Does it matter?

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I'm glad you're considering firing them, not going to lie, that artwork is pretty lazy on their part

You know what I would do? I would probably keep them employed because they are my friend, which is a very bad idea. I'm a little bit too passive. In this case, you should definitely be assertive. You may not even have to fire them, just let them know that their artwork sucks.

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LostForest posted...

Here's two examples out of the pack I got recently.

Show us the previous "good" art.

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LostForest posted...

Does it matter?

It doesn't matter if it's someone that refers to themselves as "he" or "she", but if the person refers to themselves as anything else, we know they have their head up their ass.

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Shadowplay posted...

It doesn't matter if it's someone that refers to themselves as "he" or "she", but if the person refers to themselves as anything else, we know they have their head up their ass.

Yikes bro

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"Would you mind signing this specifying that you have to this point always declined payment of your own volition, and that you forfeit any right to seek payment after the fact by way of lawsuit, ie that you performed the work entirely as a volunteer"

Seriously though, lawyer.