diamondsdroog:

Hey, people who go to conventions, let’s have a chat.

This past weekend a whole bunch of my friends were at 3 separate conventions and all of them were tweeting very similar experiences with convention goers: being told their art was the wrong ship, or their favorite characters were bad, or that their art was in some other way unacceptable. People placed food and bags on their work, or complained about their prices to their faces. It’s happened to me. I’ve had people tell me they hate the characters I have prints of to my face. I’ve had adults tell me my ship is disgusting. I’ve had people complain about the quality of my art. These are my favorite characters, that I’ve made art of, in the hopes to share my art and my love for those characters with other people.

Artists at conventions are at work. For some people, this is their full-time job. And they put passion and love into the things they create. They put time and money into creating the things we take for granted at cons.

Can we stop treating artists like they’re not people, with feelings? If you think something about the work at a table is a genuine issue, bring it up with con staff. If you don’t like a character based on something in the show, that’s fine. You can discuss it with your friends, not with the person who has put time into making art of that character. Don’t put your food and water on paper merchandise. If you don’t like the price of something, you are not obligated to buy it. 

Please, just. Think before you speak. Be kind. And if you don’t like something, you just walk away. The artist isn’t going to change who they are or what they draw because you told them you hate it.