An update on commissioning art
A year ago, I wrote a long post on my experiences commissioning art. I've done a fair amount more commissions since then with a variety of new artists.
Some tips for people who want to commission art:
- Have your materials on hand. If you're asking someone to do art of your original characters or fandom characters they may not be familiar with, have your reference images and/or text descriptions ready and include them with your description of what you want from the image.
- Be polite. This is a business exchange, and you being rude isn't appreciated by the artist.
- Expect professionalism from your artist. You are paying them your hard-earned money, so you have a right to be satisfied with what you are paying for. Not only that, you have a right to expect them to not take six months to produce your art. (An exception: if you are on a waiting list, and you knew it when you contacted them about the commission.)
- Know what your artist is comfortable with. Some artists will say up front that they don't draw mechs/anthros/kumquats. Some will also include that they don't draw slash or nudity. Sometimes artists don't realize they need to say something up front because it's never occurred to them someone would ask for something. If your art includes stuff outside their usual art-range and that you would warn for if it was a story, ask the artist if they are even comfortable with the concept before you get down to specifics. Be willing to accept them saying "no, I don't want to do this".
- Figure out the payment terms upfront. Are you paying them everything before they start work (I do not recommend this unless you know the artist quite well or are really pining for their work)? Are you paying half upfront, half on completion? Half upfront, half midway through? Installments? All on completion? Half midway through, half on completion?
I continue to learn from experience, as do we all, but hopefully I won't have to do another update post in a year.
Some tips for people who want to commission art:
- Have your materials on hand. If you're asking someone to do art of your original characters or fandom characters they may not be familiar with, have your reference images and/or text descriptions ready and include them with your description of what you want from the image.
- Be polite. This is a business exchange, and you being rude isn't appreciated by the artist.
- Expect professionalism from your artist. You are paying them your hard-earned money, so you have a right to be satisfied with what you are paying for. Not only that, you have a right to expect them to not take six months to produce your art. (An exception: if you are on a waiting list, and you knew it when you contacted them about the commission.)
- Know what your artist is comfortable with. Some artists will say up front that they don't draw mechs/anthros/kumquats. Some will also include that they don't draw slash or nudity. Sometimes artists don't realize they need to say something up front because it's never occurred to them someone would ask for something. If your art includes stuff outside their usual art-range and that you would warn for if it was a story, ask the artist if they are even comfortable with the concept before you get down to specifics. Be willing to accept them saying "no, I don't want to do this".
- Figure out the payment terms upfront. Are you paying them everything before they start work (I do not recommend this unless you know the artist quite well or are really pining for their work)? Are you paying half upfront, half on completion? Half upfront, half midway through? Installments? All on completion? Half midway through, half on completion?
I continue to learn from experience, as do we all, but hopefully I won't have to do another update post in a year.