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Commission Guide
Published: 2011-01-10 18:45:21 +0000 UTC; Views: 123282; Favourites: 4500; Downloads: 1787
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You guys asked for it XD so here it is. I hope it helps someone XD I tried to be as thorough as possible :3See above for a USD to Point conversion calculator for your convenience :3 Provided by *charfade be sure to drop them a thank you!
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Comments: 1100
XD. I know a 9 year old that's pretty good too, but let's face it, they're the few out of the bunch that don't just scribble at that age XD
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Because that I'm new and is still unpopular, is it okay to put my commissions info like this? [link]
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two problems : they need YOUR paypal address to pay that way, not the other way around (they have to know who to send it to!), and second, you are wayyyy underpricing yourself. let me put it this way.. $1 = 84 points. you're getting paid literally in the pennies for your lovely artwork.
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I've solved the first problem, thanks!!
About the second one, if I change the price, will others still commish me?
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you bet XD, most people when they commission WANT your art, so unless the price is really extravagant, they're going to find a way to buy it no matter what price you put it at - i mean you don't want to go overboard, but you should never EVER charge less than $5 for your art for any reason. You're spending your time and talent on these artworks... you should be paid for it :3
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I'll make the price higher, (just a little higher first)
Then I'll slowly increase it if more people commish me
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I want to do commissions here some day. it helps a lot. my cousin commissioned me to do a picture for her kids room. and I had know ideal where to start when it came to pricing it. so thank you.
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you are very welcome :3
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hello this tut is very helpful
but i have one prob i'm 14
and i just want to do commissions for points
and i don't know if i'm ready
and how will i ask ppl to pay me i'm confused
here are some of my drawings
plz tell me what to do
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
[link]
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The best thing you can do is go ahead and make a journal about it - announce you're doing commissions, and figure out what kind of prices you want to do. I believe currently the point conversion for $1 = 84 pt. If that's true, then if you want to sell a picture for $5, then 5x84 = 420 pt per image. You can decide whether they have to pay points before you'll work on a picture, or if you want them to send you half up-front, half after the picture is completed. Your art, your rules :3 Just be sure you put your rules (like what you are willing to draw, what you aren't) in the journal so all of that is straight beforehand.
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omg thank you so much for helping me out
i don't know how to thank you
but one and only thing
does this mean i'm able to do commissions
i hope i'm not bothering you and thank you so much ^^ ♥.♥.♥
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would $1 USD do for a sketch or is that too low...?
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that's extremely cheap, and unless your sketches are just pure awful, your time is worth more than that XD in extreme cases i wouldn't go under $5 but $10 is more average.
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[link]
^^^an example of what my sketches might sorta look like xD
only reason why I said it so low is because my anatomy's poop
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XD I would not charge less than $5 for that for sure, the anatomy is stylized, but it doesn't look so off that it looks noobish. don't put yourself down :3
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eep! i also forgot to ask, how much would one USD be in deviantART points
thanks again ^u^;
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I -think- 84? It changes regularly so the best thing to do is get a calculator and figure it out
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oh okay! thanks so much ;u;
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what if i dont have a paypal account yet?
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there are other ways of getting payment.. but as far as i've seen, paypal is the easiest and safest way of transferring money over the internet for both the buyer and the artist that i've come across. I've been using it safely for the past 13 years ^^. I'd recommend it. The problem with sending real money or even money orders is it's easy for payments to get lost, stolen, and also very inconvenient when it comes to other countries and converting the payments. Paypal is really easy to set up, and free, and converts currencies for you.
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I always find this tutorial useful but I have to ask, if I'm a digital artist, how do I give the commissioner my piece? Should I ship a print to them? Or should I e-mail the piece to them? And if I do, it is better to send them the PNG file or the PSD file? What do you normally do?
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it's all up to you. you can print and sip if you desire. I usually just post the results here on DA and let the commissioner pick it up that way. as long as you save your image to a good resolution (300+) they can always print it themselves as much as they desire. Most people don't actually care what type of file you use (psd / jpg / png etc) but someitmes they'll tell you specifically what they want. Otherwise, it's up to your discretion. I usually send mine as a high-quality .jpg or .png
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Thank you for your reply!
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Is it advisable to just take PayPal? People feel a lot better about PayPal, but not everybody has an account. I just can't imagine asking people for their credit card details. And I certainly can't imagine giving it out to an individual over the net.
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there are services like paypal that will allow you to take credit cards for payment without having to see the customer's actual credit card info ^^, or if you deliver commissions through a private print service, (like a private sale on etsy) those sites will also offer more payment options if paypal just isn't something you want to you. I usually recommend paypal though because a LOT of people use it, it's fast, and reliable. It's just not the only option ^^
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Got a question!
Can I do commissions without prints?
and yess! Thanks for the Ultimate Guide!
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of course you can. it's your commissions XD. I never put my commissions up as prints.
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O Thank you
you really don't know how great a help you have been!
Thanks again
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you're very welcome ^^
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Thank you so much for your guide. It just showed me that....i didn't think enough about all the work it'd be !
I always had some problems setting those prices +_+
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you're very welcome :3 commissions can be daunting if you don't understand the pressure and work behind them. they sound so simple, but some people can't handle the stress.. hence why I try to make it clear how much work they are XD it's better to hold them off for awhile while you practice and get things set up (and get used to working on some sort of schedule) than to rush into things and then find yourself four weeks late on a commission that you don't really want to do XD
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You're sooo right xD
You can be sure i'll come back to your guide each time i'm thinking about commissioning to check myself on those differents points !
Thanks again
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I've been wanting to start my own commissioning on dA sometime soon, but my step mom said that once I get a Paypal account, I'll need to pay income taxes. Is that true? And what is that?
I haven't ever done anything like this before, but I want to, 'cause several people said that they would wanna buy my commissions, but I'm not sure of the strings attached. Are there any? '.'
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it depends on where you live and how much money you make.. if you make under a certain amount of income (and you'd have to check this) per year, you don't have to pay income taxes.. which is basically when you have to pay the government a percentage of the money you make each year in tax... but of course this only applies in the USA.. if you're from a different country I can't say for sure what the laws are there. But if you live in the US, sooner or later you'll pay income tax.. if not now, then when you're older, so it's probably best if you start learning about it ^^
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Oki~ ^^
Thanks for letting me know, this is helpful. ^__^
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I've been thinking about doing photo manipulations commissions for a while... but you say to never drop below minimum wage...
I spend at least 6 hours on each manipulation and I think my record is 24 hours, over the span of days to months.
However, there are people 3 million times better than me offering commissions for $10... if I went by minimum wage, I'd have to charge, what, at least $36 a piece? No one would pay that as my art is decent but not FANTASTIC.
I've been thinking of, if/when I open commissions, to price them at $5 each, but that's still severely underpaid according to your minimum wage guideline. But no one would want to buy a commission for much higher. I'm not sure if $5 is even low enough. :/
What do you think?
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the one time it's okay to go below the baseline price is at the very beginning.. you gotta draw the commissioners in somehow - so if tha means dropping your prices to be competative, it's okay - but try to get above that baseline when the opportunity presents itself, and keep practicing. At some point you'll be really awesome at those manips too and then people will be willing to pay the extra money for it. The downside to manipulations when it comes to an art field is unlike regular art... where no one can duplicate your style and draw exactly the way you do.... people can do exactly what you do with photo manipulations. It's a lot harder market.
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Ahhh, thank you so much.
Manip artists actually really do have their own style. 
It's also evident in the feeling of the whole piece. The atmosphere also changes from piece to piece - some artists end up making manipulations that really make you feel peaceful, or sad, or excited, or just how the piece is put together (some are "soft", some are "hard", etc.).
But yeah, I feel like this would be a harder market... I don't think as many people want to commission manipulations. :/
I also want to do journal skin commissions (they're actually informally open right now) but I'm not sure what to charge for that... 100 
And does $5 sound fair for a starting price for my manipulations?
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I honestly can't say i'd know what to charge for manipulations - it's really not my area of expertise... usually when people ask me about particular areas of field, I say: go find other art of the same type / quality and check out how much other people are charging for it
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Ah, I see. Thanks.
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This was really helpful! I was thinking of starting commissions, so I looked for a guide. Now I'm more comfortable with the idea of trying commissions
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awwies, i'm glad you found it helpful!
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Oh my god...
You are brilliant for this resource!
Do you think I'd be capable for letting people commission me?
Once again bravo for this resource you've created!
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XD thank you - and i'm sure you could. the great thing about deviantart is that there are so many different levels and styles of art that commissioners can be found for just about anybody :3 it just comes down to the amount of exposure and advertising you do. I've known really really epic artists that couldn't get a single commission despite how awesome they were, and really mediocre artists that have commissions by the truckload. XD Just be sure you're ready for the amount of work and stress - sometimes meeting deadlines isn't easy XD
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No thank you! It's so nice to have someone put up a useful resource and comment as well. Thanks for the advise.
LET'S DO THIS... LEEERRROY JENNKINS!
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haha you're welcome :3
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