Freelancer Illustrator Who Didn't Get Paid

Hi all,

My name is Natasha Antonijevikj and I am a freelance illustrator over 7 years. I mostly do illustrations for kids, traditional art is my favorite. I love working with watercolors and ink and make a living from it. I have worked on many children's books and coloring books, but also designs for T-shirts and posters. In my free time I am trying to learn the digital side of the art and I am pretty happy to see the progress that I am making. I really love my job and have worked on my art all my life. I have worked on many projects and with different kinds of people and every freelancer knows that this is a tricky business. Most of the time you'll get with people who don't appreciate your time and work and they think that "it's just a quick drawing" and you can do it for no money.

So let me start my story. I have a friend that worked with a guy named Remus Martinez and was making a T-shirt designs for him. At that time I was between jobs and I really needed something to back me up, so he suggested to me to start working with this guy. And I did. The payment was really funny, like lower than low, but I really needed money so I accepted. It was an experience for sure. So after 6 months or more working with Remus he came to idea to sell coloring books and because I was the person who knew to draw he turned to me. I started making coloring books for him ( I am embarrassed to say that he payed 270$ for 6 books with 20 drawings per book) and I wasn't really happy, but that was it. After 2 months he got greedy and wanted more books but the price was going lower...like he'll say: "This is a permanent job and you are not working on a project on Upwork" so I worked. I draw every single illustration in the books, including the cover pages (Freepik images). After awhile he said that I need to prep the books for print and I need to learn that, so this friend of mine (I mentioned him before) should teach me and he did. But little did I know that he taught me wrong and I left too much blank space. But that's what friends are for I guess.

The last month when I worked for Remus it was June and I supposed to go on a vacation at the end of the month. So at the time I was making 12 books for him with 20 drawing per book and I was fair to make the books ready before the vacation and handed them to him on June 20th. Everything was fine, he said:"Thanks, really good job." And I didn't even mention the payment (expecting that he'll pay at the beginning of the next month like always).

Everything was fine until I came back. He bought the books himself so he can have a good review on Amazon and there was more blank space then it should be (but that's how the friend told me it should be while teaching me). He threaten me that he'll cut of my payment or not even pay at all saying:"You did everything wrong." I tried to explain myself that it wasn't my fault, that the friend taught me wrong and he and him review and approved the PDF files, but nothing. So I ended up with nothing. I asked like 15 times for him to pay me, even lower than expected but nothing, he ignored me.

So with this post I wanted the world to know how badly freelancers are treated. There is no secure way for this job and protecting our work. I still have the original files of the books (he only got png files) so If anyone knows a way I can get my money back feel free to share it with me. At the end I guess I learned not to trust people so much and not waste time on cheap jobs. True people appreciate your time and art :)