9 Ways To Say NO.

Are you tired of being asked expected to work for free? Here are nine ways to say NO.

1. The Demure Negatory. If you throw in a little something shiny, they won't even know what hit them.

2. Shock and Disbelief. Trust me, you won't even need to fake it.

3. Rage. No one will mistake this for a "yes".

4. The Element of Surprise. Catch them off guard with a Cirque move!

5. Run Away Screaming. I tried this last week and it works amazingly well.

6. Over My Dead Body. This one's a little old school, but it's perfect for repeat offenders. Plus you can always throw in the threat of haunting to spice things up.

7. The Jedi Wave. Some folks simply don't get that they should pay for commercial services; they really feel entitled to free drawings and stuff, no matter how you explain it. And they even get kinda mad when you just say no. It's far better to hypnotize them. Help me Obi-Wan Kenobe, you're my only hope.

8. Mirth. Burst out laughing. Especially effective if someone offers to pay you with tweets.

9. If all else fails, Spell It Out. If you view these two drawings in the Lightbox skin, you can animate them and say the word "no" at the same time. TRY IT - just click on the drawing.

I may publish a collection of some of the more absurd emails asking me for free drawings. I'll even pay myself to illustrate it - oh, the irony!

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The YES-a-holic.

This story originally appeared on Aiming Low. Something recently happened to me which prompted me to re-purpose it here, with a different ending...

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Hi. My name is JC…

… and I’m a YES-a-holic.

It’s not always the word “yes”; other words are involved. Like “sure”.

And “Okay”.

And sometimes it’s just, you know, good old-fashioned submissive posture.

I guess my problem is that I’m unable to say “no”.

I want to please. So I try to do it ALL… which inevitably leads to The Overwhelmption.

When you see an angler fish in the room with you, you know you're in too deep.

But once in a while something comes along, that you simply must say "no" to.

What should I say? I can't go to the shop and buy food with tweets. I can't pay my electric bill with tweets. I can't clothe my kids with tweets.

So I did what any red blooded animator would do.

I fell off my chair.

But I still managed to avoid saying "no". I am a true Yes-a-holic.

It happens more often than you'd think - someone just expects an artist to give up their work in exchange for 'exposure'. In some cases, such as causes, I will draw just for love and fun. But greed and bad behaviour is a big turn off, in real life and social media alike.

What is your take on this?

Here are 9 ways to say NO.

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X-Men WHEELS Are The New Black. AND Blue.

Twitter convo yields low hanging fruit sometimes. Here's an example:

Anissa Mayhew asked for X-Men wheels for her wheelchair. And One Chunky Mama suggested I help out with that. Me being a recovering YES-aholic, I can certainly recognize when I'm being voluntold.

Since I've already drawn Anissa, I simply made a few modifications to the original design... ...and presto! X-Men WHEELS.

So yeah. What's the name of the blue lady in the X-Men movies? Smurfette?

Now do the sharing thing.

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