To the petition of Mr. Robinson I'll share some bullet points about my professional experience with him so far.
- Out of 3 hired, paid up front pixel artists, one of them delivered a very subpar end product based on a previous prototype model made by Mr. Robinson and the other didn't even deliver anything at all, Mr. Robinson was the only one who delivered a satisfactory end product.
- So far he has delivered every single commission for me
- He does several revisions until I'm satisfied with the end product
- He's really open to suggestions and creative ideas, something really difficult to find in an artist with actual talent
- Really easy to have a casual conversation with, this may seem like an irrelevant point, but believe me, freelancers who get out of their way to know more about the client's project, the client himself/herself and share some extra information about them tells you that they're genuinely interested into the project and they're not just after a paycheck.
- He's capable to deliver impressive sprite work with an unlimited palette, but his abilities shine even more when I imposed him a limited 4 color palette for the sprites.
- The animation is really smooth for all his end products delivered so far, is so good that I'm wondering why don't he just opens up a youtube channel, makes some mainstream fan animation clips and see Patreon money coming in
After working for years with freelancers, I'll say this
300 USD may sound like a huge budget, enough for getting whatever you commission to the freelancer to look exactly like you're envisioning it in your head; but the truth is that this amount barely covers minimum wage for a week Monday through Friday and we all know that artistic work needs a lot of concentration and the artist will need breaks from time to time not only physically but also mentally; an artist doesn't read your mind, so if the first draft doesn't look like what you were expecting you need to sit down with them and point out what's need to be fixed, you may have paid money for this job but truth is that you'll have to work a little bit too.
Saying "I like your portfolio, here's 50 bucks, make me a sprite and make sure it looks cool! You'll have it in two days tops right?" Simply won't do
Those are my two cents, best regards