I personally love taking commissions, but I also acknowledge these issues that naturally arise from working with clients. You and I talk about a lot of similar content on our channels, which I appreciate. So what’s your favorite type of client?
yeah, i can definitely see both sides as well!! my favourite type of client tends to be the kind that knows what they want and can describe it clearly and provide references, because i personally have the least anxiety working for someone when i’m confident that i can make them exactly what they want, rather than trying to meet vague criteria that they haven’t been specific about and hoping they don’t hate it. what about you?
I've never done commissions before but the idea scares me. I actually think that me doing an ask blog with one of my favorite characters is giving me a taste of kinda what being commissioned is like. Of course the people sending me asks aren't telling me how to answer their questions, but it rather nerve wracking thinking "what if they hate the art for the answer?"
yeah, i can see how that would be really similar!! i very much see what you mean, but i do hope you start feeling more comfortable with it in time if commissions are something you want to pursue!!
I used to also run a character ask blog years back and yeah there were a fair bit of times where my asks consisted of things that felt like drawing prompts, especially when people would insert themselves or their character into the ask. I was happy to do some if i thought they would make for interesting answers of course and having a prompt to bounce off of actually helped me a fair bit when it came to brainstorming. Sometimes it was so blatantly someone wanting free art though that I would have to ignore.
i received a request after i hadn’t been drawing anybody anything for a bit and they gave me a proper reference of there character didn’t specify a pose but did specify what kinda pose they wanted asked for a few changes that i was able to do easily asked for something i couldn’t do for a background not well at least and i didn’t feel comfortable drawing it since this was a request i wasn’t obligated to so i did a simplistic background instead they had asked politely where reasonable and had been clear about what they did and didn’t want this makes me feel less terrified of ever taking commissions just because in doing this because people always tell me how i’ll never be able to do anything or that i’ll be able to do something i’m capable of more but they always say how proud of me they are and say wow you actually did it and that kinda hurts and for once somebody asked me for something like they thought i could do it and i wasn’t being forced either it just feels nice being talked to like you’re not useless right now i know i’m not good enough for commissions because i can’t draw enough different things good enough quite yet so right now i’m just trying to draw some of those different things and experiment with my art more i’d say i’ve improved a bit 💖
I currently don’t take commissions but it does seem a bit scary to handle. Not knowing when your next payment or even if you’re gonna get pay at all is stressful
I don’t do commissions because: 1) I’m not that big. 2) Choosing beggars. 3) Perverts. 4) I have no idea how exchanging money online works. 5) Fickle minds I’m more of a Beethoven type, meaning I reject the patronage and just draw what I want in my style and hope someone likes it. I’ll get questions every now and then about the characters in my art, but that’s about it. I don’t get a lot of traction. But it’s cool because I’m very busy in life right now.
The reasons I hate taking commissions They come from People and people can be weird scary and difficult Your list seems nicer than mine XD Great Video Again :)
I love actually doing the commissions but the promoting/haggling/general legwork makes it all such a pain and definitely impossible to live on, especially when you're small & terrible with technology lol
Dude! Thank you so much! No one talks about HOW MUCH time it takes to do those damn commissions, everyone acts like it's normal to undercharge, I thought I was just a slow at drawing or something, but nah everyone I ask seems to be taking a surprisingly big amount of hours, woah it's almost like art is a hard thing, and doing someone a custom piece of art shouldn't be worth less than an IKEA painting. I thought I was the only one that was struggling to make minimum wage, even though I rarely have any downtime. Your other points are also on point. Thanks for the video!
Yeah that's something I'm personally struggling with. I'll have massive bursts where I get so much work done, then I won't seem to be able to draw for a week or two or more sometimes. If anyone has any suggestions on how to do with this it would help a lot
I couldn’t have said all that better myself. I hated digital art commissions because my art style changes about every week. Now I do painting commissions with paintings on display for people to know exactly what they would be getting, Pokémon and Anime character portraits 😎 mainly 8x10 and 8x8s with no deadlines unless it’s two weeks or a month! That has built up my confidence up a few levels
Really great points and great vid!! I usually have in my ToS that there’s only allowed 3small changes before a fee, then no characters can be made after the LA(lineart) except for color changes, without a fee. I’ve also seen the “it’s bad for the community” argument, and it wasn’t until someone used it on me that I realized it didn’t really……make sense. Cause, I’m not part of a community, I’m an individual whose work may fit, and/or may be liked by a community. I might partake in memes and fun challenges, but at the end of the day, “The Community” isn’t gonna pay my bills, put food in my belly, or pay my rent, and I don’t expect to do that for them either. I could go on all day about commissions too, but not here XD Also really liked that one about “50 changes in and you want another where the head is tilted an inch and a half to the left” 🤣🤣🤣
Commissions pretty much had me go through heavy burnout and pretty much I rarely take them. Not to mention how I end up stop drawing for a while because I'm feeling terrible. Don't get me wrong, there are things that I enjoyed while making them but the constant pressure to "satisfy the your client to the fullest extent even if it causes you to hate everything", doesn't really feel worth it, right??
yes, completely agreed!! that’s very much a conflict i feel very often too, i feel you sm fhrjfjg AND LMAO im so sorry for the personal attack but we just. we have to love and appreciate chihiro in this house
I loved this video and your art as always!! I agree with you on so many points commissions can be so fun but exhausting I’ve done a few commissions and while the customers where mostly nice and the commissions were usually fun to draw! But the part that stresses me out is not doing them. when I’m not doing comms they’re always on my mind which can prevent me from getting enough sleep and when I am doing them I constantly push myself to do it better becasue I feel the need to make it as perfect as I can and because of this I usually take months to finish them and or experience burnout afterward, but I have been taking a break from commissions so I’m hoping when I open mine again I’ll be able to handle those things better! :)
I love how concise and well thought out your content is!! It's just as clean and professional as your beautiful art :) as a hobbyist, I have an immense amount of respect for anyone who pursues art as a career- It takes a lot of strength of character (and of wallet!)
For me, commissions have been hit and miss. Some clients were awesome - and even if their requests were a lot of work, I wasn’t overly stressed by them. Others were a nightmare who either didn’t know what they wanted, were extremely vague and indecisive, kept making changes AND then refusing to pay despite the written contract. I realized the huge anxiety and stress those caused was just not worth it, and I learned that having few clients may be a problem financially..but is probably better than ruining your mental health for people who were never serious about paying you anyway.
For me commissions are usually smooth and the customer doesn't complain or get picky because I put boundaries on things right off the bat. I do have a story where a customer annoyed me though. They sent me the character and all the references I needed and after I sent the sketch they told me they had a different pose in mind and sent it to me so I had to redo the whole thing. I have no idea why they didn't send that BEFORE I started but oh well.
Watching this while doing commissions lol, had some stressful situations a few times but overall i enjoy it and its a great motivation to draw and not just do nothing all day and improve and seeing the happy reactions of the clients is just so heartwarming, ESPECIALLY when they set the piece they ordered from me as their pfp, oh my god!!
As an amateur and hobbyist artist, I'm in a rather specific (although not necessarily rare/unique) situation: - As a prospective commissioner, I realize I'm really specific and controlling about the things I'd like to commission as artwork. This has discouraged me from commissioning artwork, even in time periods where I could afford it more than nowadays. - I consider myself to be fairly self-sufficient to draw and paint artwork for myself. I work with graphite pencils + digital coloring, acrylic paints, occasionally done watercolors, and more recently experimented with more purely digital pieces and with artist grade coloring pencils. At the same time, I tend to be rather inconsistent with my discipline, so I've accumulated a lot of unfinished works over the last decade, but especially the last 5 years. I also do artwork as requests, gifts, trades and collaborations with friends and acquaintances, albeit at a relatively slow and inconsistent pace. - Lately, I've had a combination of financial need, plus some friends and acquaintances telling me that they think I should be doing commissioned artwork. I feel worried that I still don't have enough discipline to guarantee a sufficiently fast turnaround with artwork. I'm not too worried about pricing because I know I put a good amount of effort into the detail of my artwork, so it's not like I'm doing rapid turnaround cartoons or flat illustrations. - I also recently finished a master's degree in engineering, and I'm very sure my job prospects in this discipline are rather favorable. In a way, it feels like the benefit of doing commissioned artwork isn't really worth the effort when I'd be guaranteed a comfortable income through other means.
Great video! I really wish I liked doing commissions, but they burn me out more than anything (especially expression/talk sprites, which is like... the only thing people used to buy from me). On the topic of pricing things and maybe seeing it in a future video, I'd be really interested in hearing about the discourse on it and your opinion. I've been closed for ages because I'm painfully indecisive about how to price my stuff lol
I personally opened a commission not so long ago and it being my first commission ever, I didn't put any rules for the client to read. That's why I kept on being told to revise numerous times, and also why I'm kinda scared to open up commission again :(
it's easy, just put ToS page up. some people even have it on webpage so people have to fill out a form first where they automatic agree to the terms of service/your rules . you can even if you use same page but re-open commission change things (like putting rules) and write clearly that you can show them the rough sketch but if you start you won't change anything anymore so they should be aware of this .
I will never listen to the other artists anymore. I had bunch of commmissions in the past and they told me i am sooo underpriced while I said i KNOW they will not pay more if I charge more. I took like 20 dollar for full colored fullbody commission while they charge over 100 dollar for this. What happened? I raised the price, from that day on I never got commissions anymore. And right now nobody wants to even donate 1 dollar to me anymore even tho my followers grew so big xD (am I so bad??) the only thing I have is an official project. and the boss underpays me a lot. And it hurts me each time I finish it for a HD wallpaper 35 dollar which is like 33 euros for me. It's nothing, but it's the only customer and if I lose I have no money so I will go with it. I started to become envious because many of my friends who drew just occassionally and in my opinion quality wise worse than I did back then, making much more money and get more commissions, makes me always feel I am super bad. Yet I remember the bad sides when weird guy-weebs commissioned me drawing their "petite" girl on bed in suggestive pose, I already struggled with. But in the end wanted me to do 3 versions each time with less clothes. It was the moment I said i won't draw pin up anymore. And it was also when follower counts dropped xD I was young and foolish. I thought my dignity is more worth than money but nowadays I know I was a fool. Once I move out here I plan to go full nsfw fetish-furry--whatever yuck things they want as long as they pay me money. As young teen I always said I never want to earn money with my hobby, hobby is hobby (drawing) and such. But looking now how much anxiety real jobs give me (social anxiety) I hate myself that I wasted the precious time when I had followers back then who commissioned me and didn't built up the community. Because IF you manage to jump the stairs , just has to be 2-3 posts that go viral if you have even a tiny community that is willing to pay, you can make full income as freelance artist.... I never felt pressured with commissions because all years I aimed for drawing fast. Because death can happen to anyone of us and it would be a shame if I can't draw so much as I want before I die. Result is that I need 1 day for a commission. Maybe 2. (I never work on pieces that are older than one week, they go to trash bin because they feel "too old" xD) So it's also kind of time management If you are afraid of taking commissions due to time management and pressure I have few hints: first: write in your ToS clearly that once you started the commission (you can provide sketch but thats it) there will be NO refund or they will be public called out, reported etc. the most feel afraid and are aware of this , before you get scammed. also write that after the sketch you wont change mayor things which will help you a LOT to avoid stressful customers. And for yourself: Find a fitting program, use anything that makes you faster (I can't understand people who use cellshading and they draw all areas manually instead of using the bucket tool when the outcome looks / is the same for example) xD, try to become as fast as possible while maintaining your quality (clip studio paint helps you a LOT with speed). And personal hint: if you have to draw backgrounds add tons of sparkles and shiny things. shiny things distract the commissioner from details and other things. blur the very far away details so it looks full but you dont have to work clean. sorry for writing so long comments to your videos but they always trigger me to write a lot xD
I've never done commissions before, and truthfully, the idea scares me a lot. I remember I was asked for an art request on a rhythm game forum, and I didn't reply because I was scared. I mainly do art for myself, and I feel like it ties into the, "What if I do it wrong, that they won't like the art I make them?" kind of thing. And I was thinking if I were to do commissions, I'd price them to be affordable. But I don't know how low is too low a price, or how Ko-fi works. Also, I really like your Spirited Away painting! ❤
Mostly, I like taking commissions but I also recognize that a lot of that has to do with the fact that for me its just a hobby with a little extra income to buy fun stuff. I'd imagine for me it'd get pretty stressful VERY quickly if I ever needed to do them for a living. I'm far too slow and like to perfect most of my stuff, and if I'm taking a load it would take a toll on me. At *best* I'd be able to take 5 illustration commissions per month and that's during summer vacation or something. And they are definitely underpriced according to US standards too (at best I'm making 8 - 10 $ per hour bc full illustrations take me 10+hrs)... at best I'd be making 600-700$ xd. That being said the thing I like taking about commissions is IDEAS. A lot of my clients honestly had very good character designs that were really enjoyable to draw. Of course I got the occasional difficult request, but also that in itself is quite challenging at gets me out of my comfort zone (I think my most notable example is I got a request for a ferris wheel BG TWICE it was pain XD I underestimated it soo much) and I can confidently say that a lot of my tricks that I learned in drawing today were because of experimenting with commissions. Also limitations for me are surprisingly benefitial because wondering what to draw all the time actually gives me anxiety, because I'm the type of person that would wonder if a certain idea is even worth it to work on in the first place; I'm just really picky. So I do open them when I feel like I don't know what to draw.
I think you made lots of valid points :D you're really underrated!! personally im trying to build myself up for commissions by only taking requests for now. Although I do feel the burnout and I feel people are rude and have no sense of effort. people always ask me if I'm done with it yet and it's really annoying. sometimes people would just say that I did a terrible job and I felt really bad :( but your video made it a lot better... thanks :D
I hated taking points commissions. In the beginning, it was fun. But then my client got abusive. Nothing was good enough for him. I was hot and sweaty in my bedroom going over a detailed drawing in the way he wanted. It was a nightmare. He became super manipulative later. Oh and points commissions are practically worthless these days.
currently working on commissions while watching this! 😂😂 i have to agree on all points you mentioned. and im going thru all of them as well and share the same sentiments so much. I've only been doing comms for 2yrs and already really wearing thin. I cannot afford to close them cuz I rely on this to pay bills and provide for my pet and contribute w/ expenses. I power thru the burn out, bad days, period cramps, etc but I cannot say im a reliable artist anymore (my deadlines are almost always late, i dont reply to messages as fast as I can, there are days im making so much mistakes). I honestly feel it's only a matter of time before i ruin my reputation ive worked so hard to build as an artist because I wouldnt take the chances to close my comms even though im falling apart. I really want to shift to passive income but I dont know where to start. or where to get the energy after doing comms. The only reason im still getting commissioned is that i have very lovely understanding clients that are content creators themselves and understand how much time and effort art takes.
Lots of interesting points. There are a few things I do to make commissions a bit less mental-health-busting but I still have a hard time with them. That said: usually I have a document that I give every first time client that details the commission process (with an example of the description type that I'll be able to work with), I have an edits policy that states that at each stage of the commission I accept X number of edits and what type of edits these are and how much each additional edit will cost if the number of edits is exceeded. It's also worth stating whether you want to be paid in advance or half in advance. That said... I got commissioned a lot to fill in for other artists and never drawing in my style and I feel that I am the reliable one that isn't really appreciated for their work, but for the fact that I'm reliable and I don't argue to death with edits unlike other artists which in turn I see receiving gushing praise from the same clients. This, it seems to me, has gradually put me in the position where I receive fairly blunt, ungracious feedback and I'm kind of... fed up; there are a variety of reasons for this and a fair few stem from mental health problems rooted in self esteem, but I feel that the whole experience has soured art completely for me. I recently had such a bad time I pretty much had a prolonged state of panic that made me feel physically ill for a few days. I'm still trying to figure out what I'll do, I also have economic concerns and things are getting particularly bad on that front recently, but I also think that wrecking my mental health isn't necessarily the best strategy for a long lasting career anyway.
Found it hard to get myself motivated enough to want to draw for other people sometimes. When a client's tastes don't suit mine, I'm tempted to add in my own thoughts and revision. Whether they're okay with it or not the end result can seem a bit empty and I feel disconnected with my own work.
100% Well said. I feel the same way in the custom tattoo industry, and the rare times I do a commission painting or logo. I’m a people pleaser so it’s hard for me to say no to any art style. I’ve decided to start a graphic novel and more paintings on my own time now so I can feed my inner artist something away from custom work. It’s difficult taking time away from the custom work that instantly pays the bills but if I can finish my own work and generate some passive income from it, it will grant me more time away from custom tattooing.
I’ve only ever done logo commissions for farms or companies which I have found to be much easier and more fun. Doing a fully detailed piece can take me anywhere from 4 hours to 14 hours with tons of tedious little details. I like doing the tiny details on my own time and having the freedom to scrap it if I want. Logo commissions only take a few hours, most of those hours being figuring out the design and running it through with the client. When it comes to payment, most of them are pretty willing to pay a decent amount which is always nice. When doing commissions for larger projects there is often less people willing to pay for your time. I’m planning on making more money off my art but that doesn’t mean I’m doing commissions outside of logos. The most I’m doing outside of that is selling prints and possibly making content out of it in the future. Gas is expensive, I need to do what I got to do for profits.
I just stumbled upon this video now and it just makes me realize how I'm punching myself over and over again on taking on commissions that really doesn't pay off yet I'm putting a lot of my time doing it by actively accepting that commission even though the whole description of it is far off from what I normally draw and yet.. I have to just to get by. I'm still trying to figure out if I should continue with that client after another commission because they're only one that keeps coming back to me because somehow I can manage to depict their characters on what they have in mind.... I just hate that I can't do it on my own style, that's all.
Commission work is a business too at the end, and it's the matter of how you brand yourself as an artist. There's plenty of individual artist who made it to the fact thet they charge almost until $2K per commission, even knowing that to get there is hard and its not easy for some artist. A good advice yet simple for this is "get good" and that is all, the rest is pray and keep going.
Bruh, I know that there have been ppl that would straight up commission artists and have them do something in someone else's art style. I know ppl mainly do it because the other artist either doesn't do commissions or they couldn't afford it, but man if that's not a punch in the face. I have a bunch of reasons why I don't take commissions currently, mostly from fear.
I'm making plans to open up commissions sometime soon so this video really helped. I think time management is my biggest concern for reasons also expressed here, and maybe a little bit also of not being able to experiment with commissions since I feel like I have so much room to grow. Also just generally fearing something will be beyond my ability scares me. But anyways, hearing this helps, and I think for now I am still going to go through with opening commissions because following instructions is sometimes easier for me than just coming up with things on my own. I've always loved doing secret santas, even when people's wishlists are very specific, for that reason. If I could make some money off commission work even if not minimum wage that would be great for the time being.
The idea of taking commissions to me sounds amazing,just drawing,making others happy and get cash. But the only issue is the actual idea of drawing for others makes me want to pull my hair out. Kinda the same vibes of when you go to clean your room but your mom tells you to do it-and now you don't want to.
Oh man the OCD thing... that explains so many things (edit: I'm saying I do those things too and hadn't realised, not saying anything negative about you)
This is exactly why I stoped my tattoo artist career :( sister, we suffer the same problem with ocd and anxiety when it comes to clients, I just cant handle my head in those moments. Congrats for being so brave and carry on. And thank you, you gave the the motivation I needed, I thought I was alone.
I'm in a unique position that I'll never need to take commissions. I'm retired and have more money than I need so I'll never feel financially inspired to take any. But the other thing you said, about being dictated to on a piece, I just cannot do that. I was in the army so now it's almost toddler levels of "you can't tell me what to do". lol. I am always open to hear a request, but the second it starts sounding more like a demand or an "order" I get really mad and have to hold back from exploding on them. So for me, there's really nothing that would entice me to do a commission.
I also consider a ‘banana duct taped to a wall’ passive income, due to the lack of effort involved. Take cues from conceptual artists (just don’t mimic their art 😅)
I really like taking commissions. For me, the frustration lies within getting people to actually commission me. My reach on any social media platform is abyssmally small and even though my prices are very low, the only people that have commissioned me in the one year I've been doing them are my mom and three of my personal friends. Ofcourse I appreciate their support, but getting only 4 commissions in more than one year is just too little to actually mean something for my wallet
in my experience i love taking commissions even tho im kind of anxious about the commissioners not liking it or simply answering right ahead, I dont know how to explain it, but i've got problems with being extrovert and texting sometimes, especially if they re going to pay me and rightfully judge what i do i think btw, the reason i love them is cause im forced to do something i never thought of maybe, or a specific perspective, an idea (it s important to notice i mostly take nsfw comm, so you can understand what I mean when I say sometimes the amount of fantasy people have is crazy, which is both fascinating and scary from time to time ahah) uh btw, what i mean is i get the chance to go out of my comfort zone and get payed too!
Personally I love taking commissions though the imposter syndrome really reeks its havoc. I have a hard time accepting that my friends which are the only people I've really accepted in commissions from, actively choose me because they like what I'm doing even if I don't feel like it's up to par with what they want/deserve. The thing I've had to keep doing is reminding myself that they chose me when they could have gone to anybody else who is more experienced, and sometimes cheaper. Working with the people that I know has helped some of it though I'm still honestly terrified of taking commissions from random people. I really think my biggest issue is just a confidence thing, and it's one of the hardest things to learn to deal with.
I think all artists should create artificial scarcity within their own work; like limited editions or one-offs, and tack on HUGE price tags to these editions, and even if none sell, you’re indirectly declaring to the world you value your work highly. I’ve heard of designers doing charity work for free, but still indicating to the recipient, the value of the invoice
On the point about people considering undercharging to be a dick move to the rest of the community, I feel this way about indie book publishing. At this point, most people are selling their novels for like a dollar, so if someone wants to sell their's for even half of the price it would be if traditionally published, they get attacked for setting their price "too high." It's insane. People like to say that a pro of self publishing is that you keep more money from your sales, but the average price is dirt cheap, so you make pennies per sale anyway.
I like doing commissions a lot. I like to make people happy. But there are just like u say, many problems around it. People too nice and generous and I worry if theyre REALLY Happy. And some too narcissistic and entitled. Usually u notice the first few lines which one u just got. Im also very selfhating when I cant make it as good as I wanted. Only recently I actually put an actual "donts" List to exclude things that make me super uncomfortable. And goshdarn have i drawn things that make me uncomfortable for trauma reasons often. But yeah I think commission work is great. My pricing has gone up too. Been too low as people complained. I dont actually take money first eitehr cuz just like you, i wouldnt be able to draw anything else or focus on it. So people would go to a waitlist. I had a pretty big mental dip so at the moment i didnt do many if any. Couldnt. Yeah well now its coming back I hope. Wonder if still people would hire me at all. The Furry community was pretty good with it. ( never drawn anything furrylike before i watched beastars in january this year) anyway! enough ramble. thats my feeling. so far. I guess.
I've done commissions, but I hate them for the very selfish reason that, I learned to draw because I wanted to draw the things I like, and I'm lucky that I've got work from it and that others have enjoyed that! If I'm buying something from an artist, I'd much rather buy something that's THEM and not me. I'm too autistic for this game lol 😅
I've only taken a few commissions, but they usually bore me or stress me out... or both. Ones of real people are interesting to stylize... but people just want stagnant poses, wearing the clothes in the phot, just how it is. Which is fine, I just have so many ideas on how to make it really fun and interesting and unique but people just want Regular Portrait TM. That usually comes more from ppl not really knowing my style and commissioning me anyways. People I know irl usually ask for portraits and while I do draw people, I like drawing fantasy characters and whimsical things. A portrait of them truly in my style would have fantastical elements and interesting surroundings. But people want Normal. Which is FINE just not fun. And it stresses me put having to make deadlines. I have adhd, ocd, and am autistic so time blindness and perfectionism both kick my ass real hard, and I'm just not into that. I'll think that I have 5 more days to work on a commission, decide its fine I can finish shading and hilight in 5 days I don't have to do it right now... and then I look at the date and see oh shit, I have to be done by tomorrow. Forcing myself to focus on art when all I want to do is something like sewing, is really hard. I can blast music as loud as I want to try and get the adhd brain to calm down but I still end up agitated, tense, and hyper critical of my work; no line is right and everything sucks. I end up hurting my body, forgetting to take care of myself (eat, drink water, move at all), and end up worse off. So that part of commissions really fuckin sucks and is why I haven't taken one in at least 7 months now.
I'm scared of taking commissions because my Sketches always look like crap compared to the final piece. I use affinity designer so pretty much all of my art is just a bunch of vector lines and shapes with the occasional pixel layer to draw blushes. This way I can easily edit and move around the lines. Anyways due to this I tend to get lazy during sketch phase. Why will I draw a perfect circle when I can just make one with vector later? So I'm afraid that clients will always hate the sketch and never approve it. I always hate my art until I get to the rendering stage 😂
I’m currently taking a commission in a fandom I’m new to so I don’t have commissions set up yet Since I didn’t have anything set up, there weren’t any prices yet but I needed money so I accepted the person I’m new to commissions too so I’m too shy to ask the person to pay for anything Do you have any advice on how I could ask them to pay something for it? I believe my art is worth something and I don’t want to give It out for free but I’m really bad at confrontation (` ~ ` ; )
Wouldn't asking a specific artists to automatically make it that style? Unless they can do multiple styles on command, most artists have a specific style. You, Fioapplo, and Genoman all do styles that is more stylized by nature (more cartoony or animeish by nature) but I wouldn't say any of your work looks alike.
I personally love taking commissions, but I also acknowledge these issues that naturally arise from working with clients. You and I talk about a lot of similar content on our channels, which I appreciate. So what’s your favorite type of client?
yeah, i can definitely see both sides as well!! my favourite type of client tends to be the kind that knows what they want and can describe it clearly and provide references, because i personally have the least anxiety working for someone when i’m confident that i can make them exactly what they want, rather than trying to meet vague criteria that they haven’t been specific about and hoping they don’t hate it. what about you?
I've never done commissions before but the idea scares me. I actually think that me doing an ask blog with one of my favorite characters is giving me a taste of kinda what being commissioned is like. Of course the people sending me asks aren't telling me how to answer their questions, but it rather nerve wracking thinking "what if they hate the art for the answer?"
yeah, i can see how that would be really similar!! i very much see what you mean, but i do hope you start feeling more comfortable with it in time if commissions are something you want to pursue!!
I used to also run a character ask blog years back and yeah there were a fair bit of times where my asks consisted of things that felt like drawing prompts, especially when people would insert themselves or their character into the ask. I was happy to do some if i thought they would make for interesting answers of course and having a prompt to bounce off of actually helped me a fair bit when it came to brainstorming. Sometimes it was so blatantly someone wanting free art though that I would have to ignore.
i received a request after i hadn’t been drawing anybody anything for a bit and they gave me a proper reference of there character didn’t specify a pose but did specify what kinda pose they wanted asked for a few changes that i was able to do easily asked for something i couldn’t do for a background not well at least and i didn’t feel comfortable drawing it since this was a request i wasn’t obligated to so i did a simplistic background instead they had asked politely where reasonable and had been clear about what they did and didn’t want this makes me feel less terrified of ever taking commissions just because in doing this because people always tell me how i’ll never be able to do anything or that i’ll be able to do something i’m capable of more but they always say how proud of me they are and say wow you actually did it and that kinda hurts and for once somebody asked me for something like they thought i could do it and i wasn’t being forced either it just feels nice being talked to like you’re not useless right now i know i’m not good enough for commissions because i can’t draw enough different things good enough quite yet so right now i’m just trying to draw some of those different things and experiment with my art more i’d say i’ve improved a bit 💖
I currently don’t take commissions but it does seem a bit scary to handle. Not knowing when your next payment or even if you’re gonna get pay at all is stressful
ahhh yeah absolutely!! commission life is basically Anxiety Life half the time lmao
I don’t do commissions because:
1) I’m not that big.
2) Choosing beggars.
3) Perverts.
4) I have no idea how exchanging money online works.
5) Fickle minds
I’m more of a Beethoven type, meaning I reject the patronage and just draw what I want in my style and hope someone likes it. I’ll get questions every now and then about the characters in my art, but that’s about it. I don’t get a lot of traction. But it’s cool because I’m very busy in life right now.
The reasons I hate taking commissions
They come from People and people can be weird scary and difficult
Your list seems nicer than mine XD
Great Video Again :)
honestly that largely sums up my own list too lmaooo you’re valid
and thank you!!
I love actually doing the commissions but the promoting/haggling/general legwork makes it all such a pain and definitely impossible to live on, especially when you're small & terrible with technology lol
Dude! Thank you so much! No one talks about HOW MUCH time it takes to do those damn commissions, everyone acts like it's normal to undercharge, I thought I was just a slow at drawing or something, but nah everyone I ask seems to be taking a surprisingly big amount of hours, woah it's almost like art is a hard thing, and doing someone a custom piece of art shouldn't be worth less than an IKEA painting. I thought I was the only one that was struggling to make minimum wage, even though I rarely have any downtime.
Your other points are also on point. Thanks for the video!
I dont like taking commissions because sometimes my ADHD says "let's just not draw this week :)"
Which is exactly why im a hobbyist.
Fr though! Another thing I’m really scared with commissions is what if starting a commission but then end up ghosting them
I’m not diagnose adhd but this is exactly me the problem when I’m probably doing commissions is to manage my time and not just abandoning it
Yeah that's something I'm personally struggling with. I'll have massive bursts where I get so much work done, then I won't seem to be able to draw for a week or two or more sometimes. If anyone has any suggestions on how to do with this it would help a lot
Crap, why does this whole comment chain sound relatable- 9_9
I couldn’t have said all that better myself. I hated digital art commissions because my art style changes about every week. Now I do painting commissions with paintings on display for people to know exactly what they would be getting, Pokémon and Anime character portraits 😎 mainly 8x10 and 8x8s with no deadlines unless it’s two weeks or a month! That has built up my confidence up a few levels
Really great points and great vid!! I usually have in my ToS that there’s only allowed 3small changes before a fee, then no characters can be made after the LA(lineart) except for color changes, without a fee.
I’ve also seen the “it’s bad for the community” argument, and it wasn’t until someone used it on me that I realized it didn’t really……make sense. Cause, I’m not part of a community, I’m an individual whose work may fit, and/or may be liked by a community. I might partake in memes and fun challenges, but at the end of the day, “The Community” isn’t gonna pay my bills, put food in my belly, or pay my rent, and I don’t expect to do that for them either. I could go on all day about commissions too, but not here XD
Also really liked that one about “50 changes in and you want another where the head is tilted an inch and a half to the left” 🤣🤣🤣
Commissions pretty much had me go through heavy burnout and pretty much I rarely take them. Not to mention how I end up stop drawing for a while because I'm feeling terrible. Don't get me wrong, there are things that I enjoyed while making them but the constant pressure to "satisfy the your client to the fullest extent even if it causes you to hate everything", doesn't really feel worth it, right??
Also, I'ma rightly say that your Spirited Away fan art is a personal attack on me, Chihiro is so damn cute omg 🥺🥺🥺♥️
yes, completely agreed!! that’s very much a conflict i feel very often too, i feel you sm fhrjfjg
AND LMAO im so sorry for the personal attack but we just. we have to love and appreciate chihiro in this house
I loved this video and your art as always!! I agree with you on so many points commissions can be so fun but exhausting
I’ve done a few commissions and while the customers where mostly nice and the commissions were usually fun to draw! But the part that stresses me out is not doing them.
when I’m not doing comms they’re always on my mind which can prevent me from getting enough sleep and when I am doing them I constantly push myself to do it better becasue I feel the need to make it as perfect as I can and because of this I usually take months to finish them and or experience burnout afterward, but I have been taking a break from commissions so I’m hoping when I open mine again I’ll be able to handle those things better! :)
I love how concise and well thought out your content is!! It's just as clean and professional as your beautiful art :) as a hobbyist, I have an immense amount of respect for anyone who pursues art as a career- It takes a lot of strength of character (and of wallet!)
thank you so much!!
For me, commissions have been hit and miss.
Some clients were awesome - and even if their requests were a lot of work, I wasn’t overly stressed by them.
Others were a nightmare who either didn’t know what they wanted, were extremely vague and indecisive, kept making changes AND then refusing to pay despite the written contract. I realized the huge anxiety and stress those caused was just not worth it, and I learned that having few clients may be a problem financially..but is probably better than ruining your mental health for people who were never serious about paying you anyway.
For me commissions are usually smooth and the customer doesn't complain or get picky because I put boundaries on things right off the bat. I do have a story where a customer annoyed me though. They sent me the character and all the references I needed and after I sent the sketch they told me they had a different pose in mind and sent it to me so I had to redo the whole thing. I have no idea why they didn't send that BEFORE I started but oh well.
Watching this while doing commissions lol, had some stressful situations a few times but overall i enjoy it and its a great motivation to draw and not just do nothing all day and improve and seeing the happy reactions of the clients is just so heartwarming, ESPECIALLY when they set the piece they ordered from me as their pfp, oh my god!!
As an amateur and hobbyist artist, I'm in a rather specific (although not necessarily rare/unique) situation:
- As a prospective commissioner, I realize I'm really specific and controlling about the things I'd like to commission as artwork. This has discouraged me from commissioning artwork, even in time periods where I could afford it more than nowadays.
- I consider myself to be fairly self-sufficient to draw and paint artwork for myself. I work with graphite pencils + digital coloring, acrylic paints, occasionally done watercolors, and more recently experimented with more purely digital pieces and with artist grade coloring pencils. At the same time, I tend to be rather inconsistent with my discipline, so I've accumulated a lot of unfinished works over the last decade, but especially the last 5 years. I also do artwork as requests, gifts, trades and collaborations with friends and acquaintances, albeit at a relatively slow and inconsistent pace.
- Lately, I've had a combination of financial need, plus some friends and acquaintances telling me that they think I should be doing commissioned artwork. I feel worried that I still don't have enough discipline to guarantee a sufficiently fast turnaround with artwork. I'm not too worried about pricing because I know I put a good amount of effort into the detail of my artwork, so it's not like I'm doing rapid turnaround cartoons or flat illustrations.
- I also recently finished a master's degree in engineering, and I'm very sure my job prospects in this discipline are rather favorable. In a way, it feels like the benefit of doing commissioned artwork isn't really worth the effort when I'd be guaranteed a comfortable income through other means.
Great video!
I really wish I liked doing commissions, but they burn me out more than anything (especially expression/talk sprites, which is like... the only thing people used to buy from me). On the topic of pricing things and maybe seeing it in a future video, I'd be really interested in hearing about the discourse on it and your opinion. I've been closed for ages because I'm painfully indecisive about how to price my stuff lol
I personally opened a commission not so long ago and it being my first commission ever, I didn't put any rules for the client to read. That's why I kept on being told to revise numerous times, and also why I'm kinda scared to open up commission again :(
it's easy, just put ToS page up. some people even have it on webpage so people have to fill out a form first where they automatic agree to the terms of service/your rules . you can even if you use same page but re-open commission change things (like putting rules) and write clearly that you can show them the rough sketch but if you start you won't change anything anymore so they should be aware of this .
I will never listen to the other artists anymore. I had bunch of commmissions in the past and they told me i am sooo underpriced while I said i KNOW they will not pay more if I charge more. I took like 20 dollar for full colored fullbody commission while they charge over 100 dollar for this. What happened? I raised the price, from that day on I never got commissions anymore. And right now nobody wants to even donate 1 dollar to me anymore even tho my followers grew so big xD (am I so bad??) the only thing I have is an official project. and the boss underpays me a lot. And it hurts me each time I finish it for a HD wallpaper 35 dollar which is like 33 euros for me. It's nothing, but it's the only customer and if I lose I have no money so I will go with it.
I started to become envious because many of my friends who drew just occassionally and in my opinion quality wise worse than I did back then, making much more money and get more commissions, makes me always feel I am super bad.
Yet I remember the bad sides when weird guy-weebs commissioned me drawing their "petite" girl on bed in suggestive pose, I already struggled with. But in the end wanted me to do 3 versions each time with less clothes. It was the moment I said i won't draw pin up anymore. And it was also when follower counts dropped xD
I was young and foolish. I thought my dignity is more worth than money but nowadays I know I was a fool. Once I move out here I plan to go full nsfw fetish-furry--whatever yuck things they want as long as they pay me money.
As young teen I always said I never want to earn money with my hobby, hobby is hobby (drawing) and such. But looking now how much anxiety real jobs give me (social anxiety) I hate myself that I wasted the precious time when I had followers back then who commissioned me and didn't built up the community. Because IF you manage to jump the stairs , just has to be 2-3 posts that go viral if you have even a tiny community that is willing to pay, you can make full income as freelance artist....
I never felt pressured with commissions because all years I aimed for drawing fast. Because death can happen to anyone of us and it would be a shame if I can't draw so much as I want before I die. Result is that I need 1 day for a commission. Maybe 2. (I never work on pieces that are older than one week, they go to trash bin because they feel "too old" xD) So it's also kind of time management
If you are afraid of taking commissions due to time management and pressure I have few hints:
first: write in your ToS clearly that once you started the commission (you can provide sketch but thats it) there will be NO refund or they will be public called out, reported etc. the most feel afraid and are aware of this , before you get scammed. also write that after the sketch you wont change mayor things which will help you a LOT to avoid stressful customers.
And for yourself: Find a fitting program, use anything that makes you faster (I can't understand people who use cellshading and they draw all areas manually instead of using the bucket tool when the outcome looks / is the same for example) xD, try to become as fast as possible while maintaining your quality (clip studio paint helps you a LOT with speed). And personal hint: if you have to draw backgrounds add tons of sparkles and shiny things. shiny things distract the commissioner from details and other things. blur the very far away details so it looks full but you dont have to work clean.
sorry for writing so long comments to your videos but they always trigger me to write a lot xD
No yup, this is pretty spot on LOL. Best I can advise people is to have a solid TOS and a good attitude when working with everyone ^^
I've never done commissions before, and truthfully, the idea scares me a lot. I remember I was asked for an art request on a rhythm game forum, and I didn't reply because I was scared.
I mainly do art for myself, and I feel like it ties into the, "What if I do it wrong, that they won't like the art I make them?" kind of thing.
And I was thinking if I were to do commissions, I'd price them to be affordable. But I don't know how low is too low a price, or how Ko-fi works.
Also, I really like your Spirited Away painting! ❤
Mostly, I like taking commissions but I also recognize that a lot of that has to do with the fact that for me its just a hobby with a little extra income to buy fun stuff. I'd imagine for me it'd get pretty stressful VERY quickly if I ever needed to do them for a living. I'm far too slow and like to perfect most of my stuff, and if I'm taking a load it would take a toll on me. At *best* I'd be able to take 5 illustration commissions per month and that's during summer vacation or something. And they are definitely underpriced according to US standards too (at best I'm making 8 - 10 $ per hour bc full illustrations take me 10+hrs)... at best I'd be making 600-700$ xd.
That being said the thing I like taking about commissions is IDEAS. A lot of my clients honestly had very good character designs that were really enjoyable to draw. Of course I got the occasional difficult request, but also that in itself is quite challenging at gets me out of my comfort zone (I think my most notable example is I got a request for a ferris wheel BG TWICE it was pain XD I underestimated it soo much) and I can confidently say that a lot of my tricks that I learned in drawing today were because of experimenting with commissions. Also limitations for me are surprisingly benefitial because wondering what to draw all the time actually gives me anxiety, because I'm the type of person that would wonder if a certain idea is even worth it to work on in the first place; I'm just really picky. So I do open them when I feel like I don't know what to draw.
Now that you mention it again, I am still waiting for you to show us that Love Life Waluigi card XD
I think you made lots of valid points :D you're really underrated!! personally im trying to build myself up for commissions by only taking requests for now. Although I do feel the burnout and I feel people are rude and have no sense of effort. people always ask me if I'm done with it yet and it's really annoying. sometimes people would just say that I did a terrible job and I felt really bad :( but your video made it a lot better... thanks :D
I hated taking points commissions. In the beginning, it was fun. But then my client got abusive. Nothing was good enough for him. I was hot and sweaty in my bedroom going over a detailed drawing in the way he wanted. It was a nightmare.
He became super manipulative later. Oh and points commissions are practically worthless these days.
currently working on commissions while watching this! 😂😂
i have to agree on all points you mentioned. and im going thru all of them as well and share the same sentiments so much. I've only been doing comms for 2yrs and already really wearing thin. I cannot afford to close them cuz I rely on this to pay bills and provide for my pet and contribute w/ expenses. I power thru the burn out, bad days, period cramps, etc but I cannot say im a reliable artist anymore (my deadlines are almost always late, i dont reply to messages as fast as I can, there are days im making so much mistakes).
I honestly feel it's only a matter of time before i ruin my reputation ive worked so hard to build as an artist because I wouldnt take the chances to close my comms even though im falling apart. I really want to shift to passive income but I dont know where to start. or where to get the energy after doing comms. The only reason im still getting commissioned is that i have very lovely understanding clients that are content creators themselves and understand how much time and effort art takes.
I love to listen to you while i draw
Lots of interesting points. There are a few things I do to make commissions a bit less mental-health-busting but I still have a hard time with them. That said: usually I have a document that I give every first time client that details the commission process (with an example of the description type that I'll be able to work with), I have an edits policy that states that at each stage of the commission I accept X number of edits and what type of edits these are and how much each additional edit will cost if the number of edits is exceeded. It's also worth stating whether you want to be paid in advance or half in advance.
That said... I got commissioned a lot to fill in for other artists and never drawing in my style and I feel that I am the reliable one that isn't really appreciated for their work, but for the fact that I'm reliable and I don't argue to death with edits unlike other artists which in turn I see receiving gushing praise from the same clients. This, it seems to me, has gradually put me in the position where I receive fairly blunt, ungracious feedback and I'm kind of... fed up; there are a variety of reasons for this and a fair few stem from mental health problems rooted in self esteem, but I feel that the whole experience has soured art completely for me. I recently had such a bad time I pretty much had a prolonged state of panic that made me feel physically ill for a few days.
I'm still trying to figure out what I'll do, I also have economic concerns and things are getting particularly bad on that front recently, but I also think that wrecking my mental health isn't necessarily the best strategy for a long lasting career anyway.
Found it hard to get myself motivated enough to want to draw for other people sometimes. When a client's tastes don't suit mine, I'm tempted to add in my own thoughts and revision. Whether they're okay with it or not the end result can seem a bit empty and I feel disconnected with my own work.
100% Well said. I feel the same way in the custom tattoo industry, and the rare times I do a commission painting or logo. I’m a people pleaser so it’s hard for me to say no to any art style. I’ve decided to start a graphic novel and more paintings on my own time now so I can feed my inner artist something away from custom work. It’s difficult taking time away from the custom work that instantly pays the bills but if I can finish my own work and generate some passive income from it, it will grant me more time away from custom tattooing.
I’ve only ever done logo commissions for farms or companies which I have found to be much easier and more fun. Doing a fully detailed piece can take me anywhere from 4 hours to 14 hours with tons of tedious little details. I like doing the tiny details on my own time and having the freedom to scrap it if I want. Logo commissions only take a few hours, most of those hours being figuring out the design and running it through with the client. When it comes to payment, most of them are pretty willing to pay a decent amount which is always nice. When doing commissions for larger projects there is often less people willing to pay for your time.
I’m planning on making more money off my art but that doesn’t mean I’m doing commissions outside of logos. The most I’m doing outside of that is selling prints and possibly making content out of it in the future. Gas is expensive, I need to do what I got to do for profits.
I just stumbled upon this video now and it just makes me realize how I'm punching myself over and over again on taking on commissions that really doesn't pay off yet I'm putting a lot of my time doing it by actively accepting that commission even though the whole description of it is far off from what I normally draw and yet..
I have to just to get by.
I'm still trying to figure out if I should continue with that client after another commission because they're only one that keeps coming back to me because somehow I can manage to depict their characters on what they have in mind.... I just hate that I can't do it on my own style, that's all.
Thank you. I’m thinking about doing commissions in the FAR, FAR, future, and this was informative. :)
A suggestion that came to mind for the commission specs, maybe create a basic form those who contact you can fill out to avoid getting vague requests.
Commission work is a business too at the end, and it's the matter of how you brand yourself as an artist. There's plenty of individual artist who made it to the fact thet they charge almost until $2K per commission, even knowing that to get there is hard and its not easy for some artist. A good advice yet simple for this is "get good" and that is all, the rest is pray and keep going.
Bruh, I know that there have been ppl that would straight up commission artists and have them do something in someone else's art style. I know ppl mainly do it because the other artist either doesn't do commissions or they couldn't afford it, but man if that's not a punch in the face.
I have a bunch of reasons why I don't take commissions currently, mostly from fear.
I'm making plans to open up commissions sometime soon so this video really helped. I think time management is my biggest concern for reasons also expressed here, and maybe a little bit also of not being able to experiment with commissions since I feel like I have so much room to grow. Also just generally fearing something will be beyond my ability scares me. But anyways, hearing this helps, and I think for now I am still going to go through with opening commissions because following instructions is sometimes easier for me than just coming up with things on my own. I've always loved doing secret santas, even when people's wishlists are very specific, for that reason. If I could make some money off commission work even if not minimum wage that would be great for the time being.
The idea of taking commissions to me sounds amazing,just drawing,making others happy and get cash. But the only issue is the actual idea of drawing for others makes me want to pull my hair out. Kinda the same vibes of when you go to clean your room but your mom tells you to do it-and now you don't want to.
Oh man the OCD thing... that explains so many things (edit: I'm saying I do those things too and hadn't realised, not saying anything negative about you)
This is exactly why I stoped my tattoo artist career :(
sister, we suffer the same problem with ocd and anxiety when it comes to clients, I just cant handle my head in those moments.
Congrats for being so brave and carry on. And thank you, you gave the the motivation I needed, I thought I was alone.
I'm in a unique position that I'll never need to take commissions. I'm retired and have more money than I need so I'll never feel financially inspired to take any. But the other thing you said, about being dictated to on a piece, I just cannot do that. I was in the army so now it's almost toddler levels of "you can't tell me what to do". lol. I am always open to hear a request, but the second it starts sounding more like a demand or an "order" I get really mad and have to hold back from exploding on them. So for me, there's really nothing that would entice me to do a commission.
I also consider a ‘banana duct taped to a wall’ passive income, due to the lack of effort involved. Take cues from conceptual artists (just don’t mimic their art 😅)
I really like taking commissions. For me, the frustration lies within getting people to actually commission me. My reach on any social media platform is abyssmally small and even though my prices are very low, the only people that have commissioned me in the one year I've been doing them are my mom and three of my personal friends. Ofcourse I appreciate their support, but getting only 4 commissions in more than one year is just too little to actually mean something for my wallet
in my experience i love taking commissions even tho im kind of anxious about the commissioners not liking it or simply answering right ahead, I dont know how to explain it, but i've got problems with being extrovert and texting sometimes, especially if they re going to pay me and rightfully judge what i do i think
btw, the reason i love them is cause im forced to do something i never thought of maybe, or a specific perspective, an idea (it s important to notice i mostly take nsfw comm, so you can understand what I mean when I say sometimes the amount of fantasy people have is crazy, which is both fascinating and scary from time to time ahah) uh btw, what i mean is i get the chance to go out of my comfort zone and get payed too!
Personally I love taking commissions though the imposter syndrome really reeks its havoc. I have a hard time accepting that my friends which are the only people I've really accepted in commissions from, actively choose me because they like what I'm doing even if I don't feel like it's up to par with what they want/deserve. The thing I've had to keep doing is reminding myself that they chose me when they could have gone to anybody else who is more experienced, and sometimes cheaper. Working with the people that I know has helped some of it though I'm still honestly terrified of taking commissions from random people. I really think my biggest issue is just a confidence thing, and it's one of the hardest things to learn to deal with.
I think all artists should create artificial scarcity within their own work; like limited editions or one-offs, and tack on HUGE price tags to these editions, and even if none sell, you’re indirectly declaring to the world you value your work highly.
I’ve heard of designers doing charity work for free, but still indicating to the recipient, the value of the invoice
On the point about people considering undercharging to be a dick move to the rest of the community, I feel this way about indie book publishing. At this point, most people are selling their novels for like a dollar, so if someone wants to sell their's for even half of the price it would be if traditionally published, they get attacked for setting their price "too high." It's insane. People like to say that a pro of self publishing is that you keep more money from your sales, but the average price is dirt cheap, so you make pennies per sale anyway.
I like doing commissions a lot. I like to make people happy. But there are just like u say, many problems around it.
People too nice and generous and I worry if theyre REALLY Happy. And some too narcissistic and entitled. Usually u notice the first few lines which one u just got.
Im also very selfhating when I cant make it as good as I wanted. Only recently I actually put an actual "donts" List to exclude things that make me super uncomfortable.
And goshdarn have i drawn things that make me uncomfortable for trauma reasons often.
But yeah I think commission work is great. My pricing has gone up too. Been too low as people complained.
I dont actually take money first eitehr cuz just like you, i wouldnt be able to draw anything else or focus on it. So people would go to a waitlist.
I had a pretty big mental dip so at the moment i didnt do many if any. Couldnt. Yeah well now its coming back I hope. Wonder if still people would hire me at all.
The Furry community was pretty good with it. ( never drawn anything furrylike before i watched beastars in january this year) anyway! enough ramble. thats my feeling. so far. I guess.
I've done commissions, but I hate them for the very selfish reason that, I learned to draw because I wanted to draw the things I like, and I'm lucky that I've got work from it and that others have enjoyed that! If I'm buying something from an artist, I'd much rather buy something that's THEM and not me. I'm too autistic for this game lol 😅
I've only taken a few commissions, but they usually bore me or stress me out... or both. Ones of real people are interesting to stylize... but people just want stagnant poses, wearing the clothes in the phot, just how it is. Which is fine, I just have so many ideas on how to make it really fun and interesting and unique but people just want Regular Portrait TM. That usually comes more from ppl not really knowing my style and commissioning me anyways. People I know irl usually ask for portraits and while I do draw people, I like drawing fantasy characters and whimsical things. A portrait of them truly in my style would have fantastical elements and interesting surroundings. But people want Normal. Which is FINE just not fun.
And it stresses me put having to make deadlines. I have adhd, ocd, and am autistic so time blindness and perfectionism both kick my ass real hard, and I'm just not into that. I'll think that I have 5 more days to work on a commission, decide its fine I can finish shading and hilight in 5 days I don't have to do it right now... and then I look at the date and see oh shit, I have to be done by tomorrow. Forcing myself to focus on art when all I want to do is something like sewing, is really hard. I can blast music as loud as I want to try and get the adhd brain to calm down but I still end up agitated, tense, and hyper critical of my work; no line is right and everything sucks. I end up hurting my body, forgetting to take care of myself (eat, drink water, move at all), and end up worse off. So that part of commissions really fuckin sucks and is why I haven't taken one in at least 7 months now.
I'm scared of taking commissions because my Sketches always look like crap compared to the final piece.
I use affinity designer so pretty much all of my art is just a bunch of vector lines and shapes with the occasional pixel layer to draw blushes. This way I can easily edit and move around the lines.
Anyways due to this I tend to get lazy during sketch phase. Why will I draw a perfect circle when I can just make one with vector later?
So I'm afraid that clients will always hate the sketch and never approve it. I always hate my art until I get to the rendering stage 😂
I have my commissions open but no one wants too commission me 😢 and my price might even be under
i wanna do commissions but im scared people wont wanna because they might not like my art style, or it isn't good enough for them
The shirt on the girl you drew looks exactly like my hoodie without the hood
What brush type do you use? It's so soft!
I’m currently taking a commission in a fandom I’m new to so I don’t have commissions set up yet
Since I didn’t have anything set up, there weren’t any prices yet but I needed money so I accepted the person
I’m new to commissions too so I’m too shy to ask the person to pay for anything
Do you have any advice on how I could ask them to pay something for it? I believe my art is worth something and I don’t want to give It out for free but I’m really bad at confrontation
(` ~ ` ; )
I just set up my commissions and nobody commissioned me yet bc it's listed in my VK group that has 12 subscribers and one of them is a deleted user...
neat
Wouldn't asking a specific artists to automatically make it that style? Unless they can do multiple styles on command, most artists have a specific style. You, Fioapplo, and Genoman all do styles that is more stylized by nature (more cartoony or animeish by nature) but I wouldn't say any of your work looks alike.
you people are getting commissioned? I'll take some please haha XD