FA+
Shop
Commissions, Winter 2012
13 years ago
General
So I woke up this morning to find that I have like $3,000 on my credit card.
I know that doesn't sound like a lot to anyone with like, y'know, a nice job. But frankly, I work part-time at Wendy's. I've been trying hard to get it back down to like... $0 for the last two years or so, and it's just been steadily climbing up... and up... and up.
So today I locked my credit card in my safe and removed it from my Steam account.
I was going to wait until I was better about stuff before doing this again, but I'm getting dangerously close to calling this an emergency. I'm near my credit limit, so all it takes at this point is for something bad to happen. A car problem, for example, would pretty much screw me.
I could get another job... Or ask for more hours at Wendy's... But I'm going to give the "furry artist thing to do" a try first.
I'm open for commissions. I need the money. Badly.
I'm doing this with a backlog of one full color commission and three badges that I took at anthrocon this year, so let that be a warning (which btw, I'm going to start working on those today. I love you guys I'm so sorry please don't hate me D:).
I work on artwork when I feel like it. Forcing myself to draw when I don't want to always ends badly.
I won't draw anything unless I'm comfortable with it. As such I still won't ever draw sex, and you're going to have to make a damn compelling case to get me to draw nudity. There's also a long list of other things I won't draw, but rather than falling into the trap of listing off various things and then discovering a new thing I don't like when you describe what you want to me, I'm just going to say that if you don't see it in my gallery, then you shouldn't get your hopes up about me drawing it. Describe your commission to me, and I will let you know. I will let you know very gently and if I'm uncomfortable with something, I will tell you what and why.
I'm going to try my very best to be punctual and to do these within a reasonable time frame. But again, I know myself well enough to say that's likely to blow up in my face somewhat. I get distracted, uninspired, overwhelmed, etc. I've been known to put off commissions for months, and every time I open for them I tell myself "well maybe things will be different this time."
Well, maybe things will be different this time.
Now! With that out of the way.
Instead of structuring my prices as "$10 for a sketch! $8 for each extra character! $5 for a background! Lol!" I'm going to structure them as "$10 or more for a sketch." This is because there are so many more factors than just how many characters there are. A character can be complex. A character can be very simple. In some cases a character may be drawn multiple times in a single image. A background can be the difference between an 8 hour piece and an 80 hour piece... etc. I will quote a price to you when you describe what you want to me, and I will try very hard to make it cheap and close to the minimum listed price. If it's ever not the minimum price, I will explain why.
Sketches $10 and up
I draw a construction layer, and then I draw a pencil layer. Then I turn off the construction layer and clean up the pencil layer. After all that I'll probably draw the hands last. God I hate drawing hands.
Ink $18 and up
After all that stuff I do in Sketch, I'll add an Ink layer and Ink your drawing in Manga Studio 4. I'm not all that great at inking, but Manga Studio has certainly made it a lot easier for me to do. So if you want the pretty black lines, this is what to go for.
Flat Color $25 and up
After sketch and ink, I color in the lines. Like a coloring book, really. Ask about discounts for white tigers, arctic foxes, and polar bears. Though I may also add a simple design for a background at this point.
Full Color $40 and up
After all those things, I shade the image. This makes things a bit more complex, hence the sudden jump in price.
Digital Painting $70 and up
These are an entirely different process than anything above. There's a lot of planning, reiteration, research, and time put into these. These don't use my normal coloring process, and instead use a single layer. These are also the ones that are the most prone to taking months and months to finish, especially if I get more than one of them.
Comic Ask for quote
Jesus Christ on a cracker. Okay. Um. Yeah. I'm opening for comic commissions. I will only take one, so if you want a comic from me, ask by January 17th. I'm going to plan and possibly thumbnail every comic submission I get before then, and then I'm going to pick the one that I like best and finish that one. The others will be informed that they've been voted off the island and very likely won't get taken. Due to the extreme variation in comic complexity, it's very hard for me to even put a price on this. A little 3-panel comic will probably run like $30. A multi-page story will probably be $50 a page - or more if you want color. Since I'm usually the one doing the planning and thumbnailing for these, I will give a ballpark quote before doing the thumbnails, and then I'll give a more accurate one after planning it out and seeing how much work it will be. ALSO obviously I won't accept payment for comics until I've chosen one.
How payment works
In the past, I've always said "Pay me after I finish your piece, that way I have motivation to get it done." Well I've found that that just makes it easier for me to give up and say "I QUIT ALL COMMISSIONS FOREVER SORRY GUYS I'M TERRIBLE" since I didn't have to go through the effort of refunding money. So now, I'm just gonna say that you can choose when you'd like to pay me. Before, after, half first half later, however.
I still do Paypal as my primary form of accepting payment. If you don't like Paypal we can try to work something else out.
Ways to contact me
Send me a note on FA.
Send an e-mail to raththomas gmail com
Do one of those two things and then we can set up another channel with which to communicate, if you prefer. I have the AIMs, the Yahoos, the MSNs, the Google Talks, The Astras, etc. I just don't like putting them on my FA page.
So like... Yeah. There you have it. Let's see how this goes. Maybe it'll go well this time.
Also just as an aside I'm still working on my comic, just perhaps a bit slower than normal. Honestly the commissions may prove to be healthy for the comic since working on other things tends to sharpen my focus on big projects like that.
Thanks guys.
I know that doesn't sound like a lot to anyone with like, y'know, a nice job. But frankly, I work part-time at Wendy's. I've been trying hard to get it back down to like... $0 for the last two years or so, and it's just been steadily climbing up... and up... and up.
So today I locked my credit card in my safe and removed it from my Steam account.
I was going to wait until I was better about stuff before doing this again, but I'm getting dangerously close to calling this an emergency. I'm near my credit limit, so all it takes at this point is for something bad to happen. A car problem, for example, would pretty much screw me.
I could get another job... Or ask for more hours at Wendy's... But I'm going to give the "furry artist thing to do" a try first.
I'm open for commissions. I need the money. Badly.
I'm doing this with a backlog of one full color commission and three badges that I took at anthrocon this year, so let that be a warning (which btw, I'm going to start working on those today. I love you guys I'm so sorry please don't hate me D:).
I work on artwork when I feel like it. Forcing myself to draw when I don't want to always ends badly.
I won't draw anything unless I'm comfortable with it. As such I still won't ever draw sex, and you're going to have to make a damn compelling case to get me to draw nudity. There's also a long list of other things I won't draw, but rather than falling into the trap of listing off various things and then discovering a new thing I don't like when you describe what you want to me, I'm just going to say that if you don't see it in my gallery, then you shouldn't get your hopes up about me drawing it. Describe your commission to me, and I will let you know. I will let you know very gently and if I'm uncomfortable with something, I will tell you what and why.
I'm going to try my very best to be punctual and to do these within a reasonable time frame. But again, I know myself well enough to say that's likely to blow up in my face somewhat. I get distracted, uninspired, overwhelmed, etc. I've been known to put off commissions for months, and every time I open for them I tell myself "well maybe things will be different this time."
Well, maybe things will be different this time.
Now! With that out of the way.
Instead of structuring my prices as "$10 for a sketch! $8 for each extra character! $5 for a background! Lol!" I'm going to structure them as "$10 or more for a sketch." This is because there are so many more factors than just how many characters there are. A character can be complex. A character can be very simple. In some cases a character may be drawn multiple times in a single image. A background can be the difference between an 8 hour piece and an 80 hour piece... etc. I will quote a price to you when you describe what you want to me, and I will try very hard to make it cheap and close to the minimum listed price. If it's ever not the minimum price, I will explain why.
Sketches $10 and up
I draw a construction layer, and then I draw a pencil layer. Then I turn off the construction layer and clean up the pencil layer. After all that I'll probably draw the hands last. God I hate drawing hands.
Ink $18 and up
After all that stuff I do in Sketch, I'll add an Ink layer and Ink your drawing in Manga Studio 4. I'm not all that great at inking, but Manga Studio has certainly made it a lot easier for me to do. So if you want the pretty black lines, this is what to go for.
Flat Color $25 and up
After sketch and ink, I color in the lines. Like a coloring book, really. Ask about discounts for white tigers, arctic foxes, and polar bears. Though I may also add a simple design for a background at this point.
Full Color $40 and up
After all those things, I shade the image. This makes things a bit more complex, hence the sudden jump in price.
Digital Painting $70 and up
These are an entirely different process than anything above. There's a lot of planning, reiteration, research, and time put into these. These don't use my normal coloring process, and instead use a single layer. These are also the ones that are the most prone to taking months and months to finish, especially if I get more than one of them.
Comic Ask for quote
Jesus Christ on a cracker. Okay. Um. Yeah. I'm opening for comic commissions. I will only take one, so if you want a comic from me, ask by January 17th. I'm going to plan and possibly thumbnail every comic submission I get before then, and then I'm going to pick the one that I like best and finish that one. The others will be informed that they've been voted off the island and very likely won't get taken. Due to the extreme variation in comic complexity, it's very hard for me to even put a price on this. A little 3-panel comic will probably run like $30. A multi-page story will probably be $50 a page - or more if you want color. Since I'm usually the one doing the planning and thumbnailing for these, I will give a ballpark quote before doing the thumbnails, and then I'll give a more accurate one after planning it out and seeing how much work it will be. ALSO obviously I won't accept payment for comics until I've chosen one.
How payment works
In the past, I've always said "Pay me after I finish your piece, that way I have motivation to get it done." Well I've found that that just makes it easier for me to give up and say "I QUIT ALL COMMISSIONS FOREVER SORRY GUYS I'M TERRIBLE" since I didn't have to go through the effort of refunding money. So now, I'm just gonna say that you can choose when you'd like to pay me. Before, after, half first half later, however.
I still do Paypal as my primary form of accepting payment. If you don't like Paypal we can try to work something else out.
Ways to contact me
Send me a note on FA.
Send an e-mail to raththomas gmail com
Do one of those two things and then we can set up another channel with which to communicate, if you prefer. I have the AIMs, the Yahoos, the MSNs, the Google Talks, The Astras, etc. I just don't like putting them on my FA page.
So like... Yeah. There you have it. Let's see how this goes. Maybe it'll go well this time.
Also just as an aside I'm still working on my comic, just perhaps a bit slower than normal. Honestly the commissions may prove to be healthy for the comic since working on other things tends to sharpen my focus on big projects like that.
Thanks guys.
Are you still open?