testing the waters

[egypturnash]

I am thinking of taking commissions.

This is not an official announcement of such a state; it's just a testing of the possibilities. What I'm thinking is this: a full-color Illustrator image, like the one I just did of Revar, or like Complicity, or pretty much any of my other recent work, for $250. That's one character, full-figure or nearly so, in a semi-abstract background. If you're reading this regularly, you know what my finished art looks like by now. The best place to see a quick reminder of my stylistic range is probably my DeviantArt gallery.

There's no discount for limited palette work; while it can come out cheaper to reproduce, it takes about as much effort for me to make as something lush - in some ways, modeled work is easier!

What you would get for your money (check or money order, no credit cards or PayPal, sorry):

• Non-commercial reproduction rights (print it out for private use, use it on your website, etc, just don't sell copies)
  
• A high-resolution copy of the image rendered as a GIF or JPEG
  
• An infinitely-scalable copy of it as a PDF, should you have access to better printers than myself (warning: PDF viewers don't properly display all the effects I use, but Photoshop is able to load one in and rasterize it)
  
• A chance to watch me work via the magic of the Internet, if you're actually conscious when I've got Illustrator up and the screengrabber running
  
• My rough sketch (a total mess, most likely!)
  
• A printout, signed. This may be delayed until I can scrounge up enough cash for a decent printer; right now I have nothing, and other bills are higher priority.
  

I will retain reproduction rights, and might sell prints.

I won't draw gore, sex, or genitalia; insinuation is fine but being explicit is right out. I won't try to work in the style of another artist; I can push in the direction of one of my influences, but that's it. If you want someone else's look, go to them. I'm not a draw-every-scale artist and I never will be; graceful and graphic cartoon-noir is what you should be expecting. I also won't read your 600-page novel about the character; I just want to know what the subject looks like, and a little about who they are and what they do so I can put them in an appropriate situation.

I also won't futz around with endless re-dos; I want this to be kinda fun for me. You should want 'Peggy's vision of blahblahblah', not 'Peggy precisely implementing every little detail of my vision of blahblahblah that I don't have the skill to draw.' I haven't had to deal with this, but I've heard enough horror stories from other artists. *grin* You get to see my rough; if you don't like how it's looking I'll play with it, but once I start up AI you're pretty much stuck with the composition and the details.


So. Would I actually get any takers? Am I horribly overpricing? Or underpricing? Stuff like this is about twenty hours of work, when it goes well - it's fun, but it's hard work.

I'm not actually doing this yet; there are a couple things I've been slack on that I need to pull out and finish first. But I may be very very soon! I got bills to pay and toys to covet! (Maybe in time for a few folks to do commissions as winter-solstice-of-your-choice gifts, even.)

Comments

[hydra-velsen.livejournal.com]

Probably underpricing, however, dont nail yourself into too small a niche market. Just because something's worth $500 doesn't always mean someone will want it.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

ps.

PV's mu* character desc archive as an example of the info I'd want? The combination of one-line summation with reasonably evocative yet detailed description works well, but they're all kinda fetishy. ;) Not that this is bad, but I don't want to give subliminal impressions that's all I'll do. I think of them because they came up recently.

Probably just use one or more of my own descs as an example, really.

[neillparatzo.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised you haven't been taking them already. You do amazing work.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Notice how infrequent the stuff is, however. *smirk*

I've been leery of taking commissions in the past because of all the horror stories I hear. You hang out with artists, you start hearing about nightmare commissions who want five complete re-dos because they just couldn't communicate what they wanted, couldn't envision what it'll look like from sketches, and wanted an exact duplicate of a mental image...

[lapdragon.livejournal.com]

Out of range for college-student-living-in-parents'-basement. But If I were an individual with the money to spend, I'd say 250-300 would be a pretty good deal.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think that for your skill level and your talent, that is about right, if not underbidding yourself. However, do know that the target market of fur fandom probably will not go for that level, as the majority will fuss over commission price. At least, I think they would.

What this would do, however, is elevate you onto a plata... plauta... a plain above others, and make your work destinctive and judged as some of the best and desirable, if you can get people to buy at that level.

I honestly don't see why you couldn't however...

Just don't expect a commiss from me till I am much more successful, however. :')

How much more

[amilori.livejournal.com]

for a diptych &/or triptych?

Re: How much more

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

To me, 'diptych' and 'triptych' means two or three pictures, intended to be seen as a whole, but preferably able to somewhat stand on their own - like the individual books in a trilogy, they are related, but stand alone to some degree. Like the three 'December Flowers' images (one, two, three - I never quite came up with a framing composition I was really happy with!) I did a while back.

So a diptych or triptych would probably just be 2x or 3x the cost of a single image. Maybe a less, it kind of depends on what the concept of the polyptich is.


You might also mean multiple characters in one image; in that case, I'm definitely up in the air; my estimates range from simple cost multiplication to something a little more complicated but less pricey (base cost of one, plus half as much for every additional character, plus, perhaps, a 'I have to compose HOW MANY limbs?' fee for 5 or more *grin*). Someone would probably have to be a guinea pig, willing to pay up to 2x/3x the cost if it turned out it really takes that much work - instinct says that the increase in effort is mostly linear. Props like the person I drew Revar stepping on don't count, of course; they're just background.


So, in summation, I don't know, it kinda depends on what the client has in mind! At least half again as much, I can be pretty sure of that.

[oceacat.livejournal.com]

What you create is definitely high quality and worthy of whatever commission/fee structure is appropriate for the market you will be entering. Go for it!

[kamenkyote.livejournal.com]

It's certainly not a matter of your work being worth that (though there is a lingering stigma about "original-less" art, if you know what I mean). It's not even the idea that there isn't such money out there in the furry community. The problem is getting someone to spend said money. We know they will, as evinced in just about every major con auction. But what it takes to get there seems to be the idea that there is only the ONE piece, that more than one person wants it, and that the decision to buy has to be NOW. Since you're offering this as a commission, it's even tougher in a way, as there isn't a finished piece for folks to ogle. Perhaps if you only kept to doing a certain number of commissions at such a degree of detail per year, or decided to auction off said commission. Or perhaps even offered your services as the 'ultimate gift' for someone, allowing a number of folks to chip in together to buy a commission as a gift for someone.

Your time is worth it, you've proven that with the latest piece if by nothing else (though I also wonder what the final piece would be; a printout of what size,or just the file, and would that be the only copy, etc...). It comes down to the marketing, I think, if you want to keep to that price. Try and keep the commission special in as many ways as possible (i.e. you only do a couple a year, you won't make prints of it, it won't be viewable online, or something(s) along those lines. Know your crowd and who you'd be willing to draw for.

And I could be full of crap, but that's what's buzzing about in my head on the matter.

-T'

[atomicpanda.livejournal.com]

Your stuff is worth the price and I hope you can get it. Everyone says I should be making more but I'm trying to make a living selling paintings at around $15 a pop. T_T

[turbinerocks.livejournal.com]

I HEAR THAT! :D

I think I've only ever moved a couple paintings at cons for more than $250.

Too high for any but a very handful of folks I know...

[wolfwings.livejournal.com]

...but just about right from my POV. Maybe a little less, maybe a little more, but around $250 for something on par with Revar sounds about right. For something that looks like the other picture you posted as an example, people might balk at $250, as even though it may or may not have been the same work it looks noticably less complex.

Perhaps a simple "I work for $X/hour for commissions, most commissions take around Y hours to complete. You get ABC rights, blah, blah."

Don't worry about the specific base price for something like this, especially since there's no 'physical original' to worry about. Just give an estimate if you decide to do this, and say how much you charge an hour. There's many people willing to pay a bill that's divided up into 20 hours at 12.50/hour, that wouldn't feel comfortable buying a single '$250' piece of artwork, if that makes any sense?

And if you want to make LARGE-scale prints of something, I can get you in touch with someone with a VERY large-format high-resolution printer, that they bought specifically to provide to artists wanting to use it. As in, able to print 50-foot-long banners that are something like 2 or 3 feet wide, at 1200dpi using 6 colours of ink.

[dnellin.livejournal.com]

You do beautiful work, $250 doesn't seem unreasonable at all. If I had a defined persona yet, I'd order one.