I am not the best artist, but this advice and the next ones come from my own mistakes and other people’s mistakes, and from things that worked fine for me, or for other artists.
TIP N°1:
YOU DON’T DO REQUESTS.
You MUST charge something (at leas $5) for moving that stylus of yours, regardless of your quality.
Requests just bring more people that are looking for requests. You’ll be in an spiral of drawing for free while feeling guilty of not finishing soon. Because you will want to finish fast, your quality will go down.. Not just that, but you will constantly feel that you don’t have time to draw something for yourself. The result will be a gallery with rushed art.
Remember nobody will give you bread for exposure, soon you will feel hungry. So don’t do requests. Let them whine.If you want to live from your art, you have to charge.
When you accept money, you have less chances of accidentaly drawing for an underage. Because in order to have a credit card and paypal you have to be +18.
“Well, Mighty, but I have to fill this gallery if I ever want to be noticed, and lately I don’t know what should I draw!”
Fanart, and your own OCs I would suggest. But listening to the audience is good too. Accept suggestions and pick the ones that inspire you. Remember these are suggestions, not requests, and you are not obliged to draw them all, or to draw other people’s OCs.
So if they ask if you do request what you say?: NO
Bigtime this. I’ve seen alot of artists fuck up over the years with taking commissions, so let me give you some advice i’ve picked up by talking to them as some of my closest friends.
If you can charge for something, for the love of god charge for something. No request will give you more exposure than a paid commission.
Take suggestions, not requests.
Your art is your labor. Unless previously agreed upon, You owe your labor to no one without exchange of goods or other services.
Expanding on that, you will find alot of people will pretend to be your friend to bilk free art out of you. Be very wary of this. Real friends have no problem giving you money for your art.
Demand payment upfront too. If they have a problem with it, ask yourself, “Why do they have a problem with it?” Are they intending on not paying you? are they going to run off?
Create a pricelist for commissions and keep careful track of how many you take. Many artists get the works all gummed up by accepting 10, 20 commissions at a time, then dread the workload and never end up working on them. If you’re just dipping your toe in, Try 3 at once, then 5, then 7, and gradually build up to a comfortable number. You’ll never know your limit till you reach it.
Publicly shame the everloving shit out of people who skip on payment, or do chargebacks.
If something comes up, TELL THE CLIENT. Thy don’t need to know “nana sat on a nail and now she has an infection and i need to clean out her colostomy bag” they just need to know “Hey, i got life shit going on, I’m gonna need some more time on this/This is going to take awhile.”
If the client asks for a refund before work is completed, Give it to them. If work is already completed, Do not give it to them.
Make sure you have a good idea of what the client wants BEFORE you start. Grill them for more details. Be annoying if you have to. Make absolute sure you know what you’re about to do before you get ¾ths way into ti, and they diddn’t want their character laying down, they wanted her standing up.
If you need exposure, Draw a popular character. Nintendo characters are always a safe bet.
Understand you are now your own boss. If you take 5 hours to draw something that you could draw in 45 minutes, that’s on you. You are now working flat rate. That means, you charge per job, and hours are irrelevant. If you want to be paid by the hour, specify you want the client to pay you hourly. You will get more clients working flatrate though.
SIGN YOUR ARTWORK LEGIBLY AND/OR PUT A TUMBLR/DEVIANTART/INKBUNNY LINK ON YOUR ARTWORK SO OTHERS CAN FIND YOU!!!
Ask the client if everything is A-OK before you post it.
Ask the client if they want it posted before posting it
Ask the client if they want their name attacked to the description
If the client cannot maintain reliable communication, DO NOT ACCEPT THEM AS A CLIENT. Respectfully but firmly decline to do business with them.
If taking commissions turns into a major chore and makes you hate drawing, STOP TAKING COMMISSIONS!!!
If things get Really bad, ask clients if they’ll accept a refund. If they decline, make an effort to still honor the agreement, but if things come to it, give them their money back with an apology.
While it’s doubtful drawing commissions will become a career, it’s a great side business to make your freetime more productive. You are not going to get rich off of this until you have put in many years of work, and have established a reputation for yourself. Best of luck to you all!
Discussion ¬