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Commission tutorial
by-nc-nd
Published: 2009-03-19 17:19:52 +0000 UTC; Views: 298860; Favourites: 10013; Downloads: 4492
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Description
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Over the past three years I've done loads of successful commissions, and have commissioned others successfully as well. I have never had an issue with my transactions because I did my research before I started, and asked others who were doing commissions themselves how they were managing. However, not everyone has the time to go and note everyone (or, if you're getting noted, you may not have time to answer inquiries constantly)! So for your perusal and reference, here are some helpful tips to help you get started with taking commissions on DA.
This tutorial is more for people who offer commissions, but I have a few words for those who take them as well:
- Do your research. Make sure you're getting art from a reliable artist!
- Art costs money. Don't haggle down, its insulting. Don't forget, you're also getting free advertising when they post it to their gallery (for example, who here doesn't know Audley 's Castor ;3 )
- Don't be afraid to pimp the artists who did good work for you! Here is my list!
Raraarrar you know the drill, feel free to comment w/ questions if you got em, thanks for reading etc
The pics in the icons are mostly from the LJ random image generator, they're (c) to the internet, I suppose XD Except for Kash, he's (c) Geico.
My other tutorials:
Pose tutorial
Expression tutorial
Hand tutorial
Foot tutorial
Ladies tutorial
Fellas tutorial
Face tutorial
Coloring Walkthrough
Related content
Comments: 1342
I have a really pathetic question if you dont mind me asking: Ive gotten a little confused on the difference between the 'commissioner' and 'to want a commission' or to 'be commissioned by someone'. It would be a lot of help thanks!!
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No problem!
- A "commission" is a piece of custom art that you buy from an artist
- A "commissioner" is the person buying the art
- "to want a commission" is when you, they buyer, feel like buying a piece from someone
- "to be commissioned" is when you, the artist, have your work bought by someone else
Hope that helps :3
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Thank you so much for this tutorial! I've been trying to get my parents to let me do commissions for several months now. Maybe now I can persuade them from all the useful tips you've provided in here lol
Though I do have one question: if you ask for those "points" things (which I'm not all that sure what they are) how would you know if you're pricing the "points" enough?
Sorry for asking questions like this. I'm just clueless when it comes to stuff like this
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I would strongly advise against doing point commissions. They give money directly to dA for your hard work, unless you have no other option you should not really take them. At best you're undervaluing yourself, and worst you're undervaluing the art of other folks on this site who should be paid actual money for their work!
Ask your parents if you can sign up for a paypal account with their permission, maybe invite them to oversee the commissions you do (so they know you're not doing anything creepy or whatever). Even if you only charge a small amount, at least you will have something to spend or put away or do whatever with, instead of giving it right back to dA!
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I agree. Good artist shouldn't do point commissions.
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Ah okay. Thank you for straightening up the points issue.
I personally had no clue about what they were. I'll do that and now my mom will give the final okay for it since I'll sound like I know more of what I'm talking about lol.
Yeah, she'd probably want to know what I was drawing since I'd be using her card and such.
Thank you so much for your help! This really helped a bunch
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Will do! Thanks so much again!!
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Thank you for this. It will be my first time doing commissions, so I hope it works out. : 3
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Thank you for a very helpful tutorial! I'm sure everyone will benefit from your teachings, it'll really help me, thank you so much! ^^
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I have a question!!
Is there any difference between a commission and an art request?
sorry for the strange question, I just want to make it clear for me
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Yep, an art request is something you do for free, but for a commission you generally get paid some set-upon price. Requests are less stringent (like people shouldn't ask you for numerous revisions) since it is basically a gift that they are asking you for.
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cool ! thanks a lot
I will do this step
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lovely tutorial... how do we send them to the customer???
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You can either mail it (if it is a physical drawing) or you can email it to them directly
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wow i found this sooo helpful ^^ i have been wanting to maybe do comissions for a while...but was not sure how to go about it....thanks to this i now have a pretty good idea
i hope that in the future i will have the time and beable to think about actually doing commissions .
thanks again
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It helped me a lot! Thanks
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Thank you so much for making this! It's really nice to get the perspective of someone who has some experience with commissions!
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this answered alot of questions :3
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Thank you for this, this will help me alot as I'm starting out.
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Love this! A ton of useful tips for a newbie to the commissioning world!
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Hi! This is very interesting and extremely helpful, but I have quite an important question.
How do you give the commission to the person who ordered it? Is it via Internet or what?
You probably have a lot of comments to answer to/read, but please, please can you answer my question? I am sorry if it's an obvious question, but I've just opened commissions and I don't want to goof up. Thank you very much!
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Sure, no problem. You should work that out with your commissioner before you start. If you're doing a traditional commission, like a painting or a pencil drawing or something, then they should be paying you more than if it was just a digital copy since that involves cost of materials. They should also pay for secure shipping (like for you to pack it up safe in cardboard or whatever) and possibly mailing insurance or sign-on-delivery service if they want to make sure it gets to them.
If you're doing a digital commission then you can skip that, and what I usually do is I just email them a high resolution copy of the artwork (at 300dpi or greater so it can be printed). Most emails can handle large files, like Gmail does up to 20MB, but if not or if it is more than one commission then you can upload it to a service like sendspace.com and send them the download link.
Just make sure either way that if you post their commission online somewhere like dA or something, to watermark it or at least only upload it at 72dpi. That way others can't take or print the work that was meant for the person who paid it.
Hope that helps!
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Thank you, i start doing commissions [link] <33333
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Excellent tutorial. Thanks so much for posting this. I have wanted to start doing commissions for a long time, and had no idea how to even get started.
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Really useful and easy to understand 
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Dude, you don't know how helpful this has been.
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I'm glad to hear it
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I may be missing something, since I am a 'real world' artist who paints things on canvas.. but $10 for a bust? Are you kidding? You'd make more at Walmart as a greeter!
I'm a noob on DA... so perhaps I'm miscalculating the scale issues of digital art vs painted stuff. Please explain to me how this is a good thing.
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I'm on a shit computer right now so I can't see the file I posted, but I think I said that as a starting/ hook price. Obviously that's not something you should stay at, but for a beginner offering commissions, something like that can drive a lot of interest. After you get some demand then you can raise prices however much you want. I don't take commissions anymore but I went from $10 for a painted portrait in 2008 to what works out to $10 per half hour of effort nowadays.
Unfortunately this tut came out a few years ago, before points. If you want to get really pissed try looking at the point commissions people do nowadays... full commissions for a few hundred points (aka 3-4 dollars). Drives me nuts.
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this is really cool! I never thought anyone would do a tutorial like this. Its really good! Thanks for the hints.
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This is very helpful. Thank you!
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This is such a great tutorial! It's really going to come in handy, I think. Thank you so much for making it!
- SG17
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Thanks, this will be helpful in the near future!
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oh, so helpful for the commission-taking newbie. c:
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thank you so much for making this! it is really helpful and informative
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Thanks so much for the insight. I was just so confused about how to start commissions, and this just saved me. Thank you!
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Well said. Thank very much for this infoirmative tutorial. you did a great job ; )
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Well, this was very helpful! I was thinking about how I should start doing commissions if I started. Thank you for making this tutorial!
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Thanks for making this tutorial! I was feeling really uncertain about opening up commissions, but now I think if I do, they'll be a success. I feel so much smarter now ^^
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