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Commission Guide
Published: 2011-01-10 18:45:21 +0000 UTC; Views: 123316; Favourites: 4499; 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
Ah! Stalking your old stuff!
Can I have your opinion on something, if you have the time?
For a commission advertisement scheme, do you think it's a good idea to say, "choose your own price"? Or not?
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that's definitely a mixed bag. You'll get several results out of it: A) greedy people who want art as cheap as they can get it... B) Generous poeple who will over-pay you.. no complaint there.. and C) people who are too hesitant to name their own price so they just won't bother messaging you. Generally, I think it's safer to decide your own prices and let people pick whether or not they want to pay them.
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Hmm... I hadn't even considered C. I'm sort of hoping there'd be enough of B to outweigh A. There was a case with a guy who owned a restaurant where he did the same thing during a financial crisis, and the homeless people ended up getting food, and most people were happy to donate more than enough that he ended up getting more than he would have otherwise. That's where I got the idea from, but this isn't food that's essential to life, it's the internet.
What about having both systems, where they can choose the price or they can pay what's it says?
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I don't know if you could get both systems to work simultaniously - people (unless they had extra money just lying around) will always choose the cheaper option XD, though you might put something like "these are my prices, but I accept negotiations, and also donations." so people know your prices aren't finite and there's some wiggle room if they want to pay more or a little less.
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But if I tell them them is a cheaper option, would many people pay enough to make a profit? Maybe I will say negotiations are open.
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I'd like to do a sketches-only type of commission for, say, two dollars per drawing? I'm 11 yrs old, but a lot of people say I'm a great artist. I lean a bit towards manga-type.
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well I can't judge your art, because you don't have any on your profile ^^ but $2 is extremely low- it's good to start out with low prices when you start commissions, it draws in customers, but I wouldn't keep it up. Regardless of your talent, you should be paid for your time.
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I posted some. ^^
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Im thinking about it but, can i survive with my style of art? (im new on Deviantart, just learning stuff 
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you'll never know until you try ^^
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Yeah, seems possible to try it
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Hey thanks a lot for your tips! However, I have some questions... I will be making t-shirts, how do I send them abroad, shipping, etc. o_O And does the customer have to pay for it? Sorry about asking such stupid questions :> (noob)
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Well i can't give you specifics on shipping since I don't ship anything, but I do know that if you're working through a company (like threadless or etsy) they handle a lot of that for you.. otherwise, ask your shipping company what their rates are etc. depending on who you ship with you may be required to pay the shipping fee when you mail the package, or you can set a COD, which means the recipient pays the fees when the package gets there. As long as you're getting the money from your buyers before you ship (and you should be) you can ask them to pay the shipping costs ahead of time. It's all just however you want to do it XD
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This is super helpful, thanks! I do have a question though.. do you know about pricing for point commissions? How much would you recommend?
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If I remember correctly (it's somewhere in my commission journal, see if you can find it cause i'll prolly misquote it) $1 is equal to 64 (?) points. I would suggest you go no lower than the fair trade value.. I've seen sooo many people do commissions for like 20-40 points.. that's just pennies. If you go with the equal money to point conversion.. then you just set your prices like you would if you were expecting actual money, and then figure out what that'd be in point value. :3
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thank you so much! I'll keep that in mind when I start working on it. Yeah I've seen lots of people like that too, and it's not worth it then. Thank you!!
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Have you seen the deviantART Point Calculator ? You may find it useful
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omg! thank you so much!! i hadn't seen it before but really! thank you
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Have you seen the deviantART Point Calculator ? 
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I had not seen it! Thank you so much for the link :3
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I've been thinking of doing commissions and this guide is just perfect. There are so many things I had never considered and this guide is very thorough and straight-forward. Thank you so much for creating this! ^^
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you are so very welcome :3
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XD welcome
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this thing really helped me. thanks!
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you're very welcome :3
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This tutorial was amazingly helpful, thanks a lot!^^ Now I finally got an idea on how not to over- or under-price myself^^
But, Iยดve got a question... how do commission slots work? Iยดve heard lots of people talking about them, but never figured out how exactly they work...
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basically, you set a work load for yourself ... lets say you want to queque up 6 commissions.. then you set six slots (they're imaginary).. when those "slots" are full (you have six commissions backed up) you stop taking commissions until they're all done - it helps to keep from being spammed by more commissions (I get asked at least once/twice a day for new commissions but I simply can't keep quequeing them up till forever so I take a handful at a time) and it helps you keep organized. you can list your slots somewhere with the names of who commissioned you, how much they need to pay you, and where you are progress-wise on their commission to remind yourself (and your commissioners) of your workload. It also works when you're doing free/requests or trades.. you can say "i'm only putting three slots, first come first serve" and POOF.. the first three people to ask about it get a "slot" and you don't accept anymore.
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Oh, thanks a lot^^ That makes it all a lot easier^^
Seems like a great idea, actually. Iยดd taken so many commissions and requests last time that I had my hands completely full and no time to draw for myself ;___;
Thanks a lot again^^ Your tutorial as well as the information on slots are really helpful^^
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XD you're very welcome! if you have any more questions, feel free to ask anytime :3
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This is so helpful, I can't thank you enough~ Thanks so much for posting this ; u ; <3
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you're very welcome!
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This was very helpful, except I'm still not sure on the correct way to time myself.
Let's say 4 stages takes me half an hour, that's two hours. Add an hour for each stage, six hours. Add half a day, that's twelve hours. So my total would be 18 hours to finish a piece. Is that right?
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if the four stages you use take half an hour each.. you can probably get a piece of work done in 1-2 days without too much hassle unless you have a very busy schedule.. 2 hours of work smashed into a day or two isn't going to be too stressful ^^ see generally i work 4-9 hours on each stage of my work (depending what it is) so i usually give myself about a week to get out the initial version of whatever i'm working on, and take a few days more days to fix things if the commissioner asks for revisions.
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Well, it actually takes me 1-5 hours on each stage, it depends on the complexity of the drawing, but I'm just making sure I have the general idea of the correct way to time myself.
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XD here's the simple way to think of it: let's say it takes you five hours to do the lineart... that's a LOT of work in one day. so plan at least a full day (or two) for just that stage. say flats take 2 hours.. okay, that's a half day (because let's face it, staring at your screen for 2 hours is going to tire you out, and your hand!) so that's 1 1/2-2 1/2 days right there.. coloring takes you 3-4 hours.. that's another day. so 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 days for a piece. That gives you plenty of time to do other things and you won't feel so pressed by the deadline because you know you have a large cushion to work with if anything comes up that keeps you from working ^^ If you get it done ahead of time, then awesome! your commissioner will be estatic that you finished early. Keep in mind that a lot of artists on DA have a somewhat bad reputation for taking commissions and not finishing them for a year or more.. so 3 1/2 days to finish a piece is NOTHING. It'll seem like a damn miracle to your commissioner. The point is to give yourself plenty of time to rest, eat,sleep, watch your favorite tv show, and visit family while still getting your work done in a timely manner. if you try to rush and get the whole thing done in one day (which you could!) then you'll be stressed out and will burn out a lot faster. You can't sprint in doing commissions without getting to the point where you just want to run away for a week to rest. It's not fun drawing things for other people that you may not even like to draw - and it's even worse when they constantly ask you to revise things XD The time cushion is a buffer to keep the stress down :3 use it wisely.
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Okay, thanks! XD
I feel so dumb now...
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you're very welcome!
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;;^;; you... are super amazing for writing all of this!
(This will definately help me for when i open commissions ;A; )
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aww thank you! and you're very welcome :3
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this is a major help. thanks.
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would $3 be a good starting price?
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depends on what you're selling, but generally no. I wouldn't go under $5. try to keep in mind that the people who commission you for work want YOUR work. No one else can reproduce it. don't be afraid to charge for it.
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