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A thanks to everyone, and a question-- Commissions? by drawhound
Hey y'all!
First of all, I want to give everyone a huge, huge thanks for being so welcoming to me during my integration to Weasyl. <3 To be honest, I've bounced around art communities here and there over the years (DeviantArt, tumblr, etc), but absolutely no place has been as welcoming and as easy to feel at home at as you guys, and for that I really am truly thankful-- I feel as if I'm finally finding the community I've craved for years. It has been a real treat getting to know everyone so far and sharing my work and thoughts with you all. Thank you for being so kind to me!
Secondly, I wanted to tentatively get a feel for commissions as a form of secondary income. I've done them in the past in various spaces (Furcadia ports, commissions for friends, professional freelancing, etc), so I'm not at all inexperienced in practice, but I haven't really ever had a following on a gallery website like this full of people so willing to support artists and their work. That being said, I really wanted to come to my followers for some sort of feedback-- were I to take commissions (most likely starting sometime in February, during the later half of the month), A- would you be interested? and B- what would you like to see? I'm really interested in doing icon commissions because I adore drawing and painting heads/expressions and I know I could do them efficiently, but I'm open to other things as well. Really, I'd just like to hear your thoughts, if you're open to sharing them! <3
Also, if you already commission and you have any advice for me you don't mind sharing, I'd love to hear it! Thanks so much. :D
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Oh excellent, that actually sounds like lots of fun! I love a challenge. :D
Thank you for link to your TOS! I have a fledgeling one I've been building on for a few months, but having links to others' to do comparisons is totally always helpful and appreciated!
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I'd be interested and I would buy, IF I had the money, which I don't, so this comment isn't very helpful. BUT, as far as interest goes, that's a +1? xD;
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I would totally get something from you! Take commissions slow at first, nothing worse than not being able to get them done on time.
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Yay, thanks for the interest! And thanks for the advice too; I was thinking about opening up 4-5 slots and seeing where I can go from there to keep from getting overwhelmed, so I think I'll be okay starting out! I figure that's a good amount to both gauge interest and keep myself from going overboard.
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I agree, Weasyl is definitely the best art website, community-wise!
Commissions are something I'd like to get into so I'm going to watch this journal if you don't mind! I feel like my skill level is good enough, but either people don't like my style or I'm not advertising enough. What would you say is the best way to draw customers?
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Totally feel free to yoink advice from here; I'd be thrilled to see information on this page help someone else out too!
I wish I knew the best way to draw customers, haha, I tried on tumblr briefly and literally generated no interest. This is my first foray into trying to open commissions on a gallery website like this, so I'm not entirely sure how to go about it here, though I have toyed with the idea of incentives (like 'advertising for me gets you a percentage off,' etc etc) since I'm just starting out and could use the publicity/word of mouth. Not really sure, though!
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Thanks! If I find some good advice on the subject, I'll let you know. :D
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That would be so awesome; thank you! <3
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I found this post on the forums and it has some pretty practical advice.
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Nice; thanks for thinking of me! :D /bookmarks
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I would be interested. :)
The thing with commissions is you need a good variety to offer people. Something simple and cheap (like a sketch or colored sketch), it should take you no more than an hour to do. Then you need something of better quality, like full colored picture with nice lines / stylized a certain way. It can increase in price depending on how long it takes you / what you feel comfortable with. The problem most people have is, if your sketch and nice picture are to similar, no one is going to want to jump up to the nicer picture, unless they get something out of it.
But it is nice when artist have something on the lower price side, that way you don't have to save up forever to commission one for something simple. :)
Hope that helped? And, this is what I have learned from commissioning people and seeing how people respond to different commission types.
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Yay, thanks for the interest!
I've been bouncing back and forth on whether or not I should keep to one/two things or offer several different types of things, so thanks for the perspective on that. Now that I'm thinking about it, sticking to one thing could very well bore me after too long, so it's probably a good idea to offer more options anyway. I do intend to offer plenty of quicker, lower-priced options, so no worries there!
Thanks for your help. :D
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Link
cooley
I totally agree with you about the community - though we discussed that earlier :) As for commissions, I'd be interested in an icon b/c I simply crop existing images at the moment and feel like I can't have anything too complex because the small size makes it look bad. The other problem is my character has a wonky sized head that's hard to get into a square. It would be nice to have an artist take the character and manage to smoosh her into the icon square and breathe some life into her - quirky facial expressions would be welcome. I haven't been open for commissions in a while, but I still have a commission information page that others seem to find very helpful b/c I set forth terms of service and expectations for Artist/Client. I don't know if you'll find it useful, but it's posted here: http://cooley.deviantart.com/journal/Commission-License-Information-CLOSED-242638175