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Thoughts on my commission process
2 years ago
Heya, figured I'd make a journal because Twitter's text limit is a bit too restrictive for it.
I've been thinking about how best to handle commissions. Because as much as I want to do them, I feel like the standard ways of going about it doesn't work with me.
Here's a couple thoughts that make taking commissions hard for me:
I'm very picky about the ideas I want to draw. This mainly for personal reasons. I'd be more inclined to take whatever I can get if commissions were my main source of income, which they aren't. This means whatever the method, I have to be able to pick and choose in some way. This means no 'first to take the slots' style coms.
I get stressed about people waiting, and it compounds back on itself. If I take slots and payment upfront, and I don't finish them nearly immediately, I get stressed about the wait and it makes me not want to draw coms at all (because I want to do my best and I'm not feeling my best), which makes them wait longer, which makes me feel worse, which loops back on itself indefinitely. But because this is the best method I've come up with, I've always done slots.
I've also had the idea of taking slots, but not taking payment until I get to them. While that makes me feel better about the wait, I know from friends and myself that commissioners prefer paying upfront with reputable artists in order to not have a 'surprise' when suddenly their slot comes up and they don't have enough to pay for it at the time.
Another way was to be open 24/7, which would mean a couple things:
- I'd have to tell people upfront that what they want to get isn't something I feel comfortable drawing, and this is something I absolutely know I'd have to say a lot, and I really feel bad doing that. When doing slots, I may get 30 to 50 com requests and I pick about 5. The rest that didn't make it are anywhere from 'I really want to do that but it didn't make the cut' to 'I really don't want to do that'. But because I don't have to directly give a reason, everyone can assume theirs was very close to making it and everyone's happy.
- Open 24/7 means I somehow have to cut back on the number of people who want to com me to a reasonable and sustainable pace. The only way I can think of doing this is raising prices to lower demand. I know my prices are "too low" because of the number of commission submissions I get when I open, but I'm uncomfortable raising them too much, let alone enough to make 24/7 coms come in at a reasonable pace.
I could also do YCH's, which while they guarantee I draw something I'm alright with and I can do them at my pace, they have two drawbacks:
- I've seen a lot of great ideas from great commissioners and I'd much rather stick to doing other people's ideas at least some of the time since I don't think I by myself can come up with half of the stuff y'all do.
- Because it's an auction, the price can and has gotten up to ridiculous prices. I've gotten hate for that, and while I've gotten really good at ignoring that, knowing a pic costs 8x my usual com prices makes me anxious to even draw it because I stress about it not being good enough. I can prevent this by putting an autobuy price, but if it's too low it becomes a race and I've gotten negative feedback from the 'I wasn't fast enough' or 'I didn't see it in time' crowd too.
Recently I've been doing in-stream commissions, but I've been choosing them based on random roll and I worry about the kind of ideas I may get and have to say no to, and they're limited to colored sketches max because of time restrictions. (I prefer finishing stream coms on-stream same-day) so no animations or 'full' shaded stuff.
I don't know, there's a lot of options and in general they all have drawbacks in some way, so I've pretty much just been doing personal art, art trades, and fanart for friends and peeps I admire in the meantime. But I'd like to branch out again. Which method do you personally prefer or would like to see me find some sort of solution for so I can do it that way?
Anyway I'm rambling because I don't know what to do when I finish my last couple coms here shortly, so any ideas are welcome.
I've been thinking about how best to handle commissions. Because as much as I want to do them, I feel like the standard ways of going about it doesn't work with me.
Here's a couple thoughts that make taking commissions hard for me:
I'm very picky about the ideas I want to draw. This mainly for personal reasons. I'd be more inclined to take whatever I can get if commissions were my main source of income, which they aren't. This means whatever the method, I have to be able to pick and choose in some way. This means no 'first to take the slots' style coms.
I get stressed about people waiting, and it compounds back on itself. If I take slots and payment upfront, and I don't finish them nearly immediately, I get stressed about the wait and it makes me not want to draw coms at all (because I want to do my best and I'm not feeling my best), which makes them wait longer, which makes me feel worse, which loops back on itself indefinitely. But because this is the best method I've come up with, I've always done slots.
I've also had the idea of taking slots, but not taking payment until I get to them. While that makes me feel better about the wait, I know from friends and myself that commissioners prefer paying upfront with reputable artists in order to not have a 'surprise' when suddenly their slot comes up and they don't have enough to pay for it at the time.
Another way was to be open 24/7, which would mean a couple things:
- I'd have to tell people upfront that what they want to get isn't something I feel comfortable drawing, and this is something I absolutely know I'd have to say a lot, and I really feel bad doing that. When doing slots, I may get 30 to 50 com requests and I pick about 5. The rest that didn't make it are anywhere from 'I really want to do that but it didn't make the cut' to 'I really don't want to do that'. But because I don't have to directly give a reason, everyone can assume theirs was very close to making it and everyone's happy.
- Open 24/7 means I somehow have to cut back on the number of people who want to com me to a reasonable and sustainable pace. The only way I can think of doing this is raising prices to lower demand. I know my prices are "too low" because of the number of commission submissions I get when I open, but I'm uncomfortable raising them too much, let alone enough to make 24/7 coms come in at a reasonable pace.
I could also do YCH's, which while they guarantee I draw something I'm alright with and I can do them at my pace, they have two drawbacks:
- I've seen a lot of great ideas from great commissioners and I'd much rather stick to doing other people's ideas at least some of the time since I don't think I by myself can come up with half of the stuff y'all do.
- Because it's an auction, the price can and has gotten up to ridiculous prices. I've gotten hate for that, and while I've gotten really good at ignoring that, knowing a pic costs 8x my usual com prices makes me anxious to even draw it because I stress about it not being good enough. I can prevent this by putting an autobuy price, but if it's too low it becomes a race and I've gotten negative feedback from the 'I wasn't fast enough' or 'I didn't see it in time' crowd too.
Recently I've been doing in-stream commissions, but I've been choosing them based on random roll and I worry about the kind of ideas I may get and have to say no to, and they're limited to colored sketches max because of time restrictions. (I prefer finishing stream coms on-stream same-day) so no animations or 'full' shaded stuff.
I don't know, there's a lot of options and in general they all have drawbacks in some way, so I've pretty much just been doing personal art, art trades, and fanart for friends and peeps I admire in the meantime. But I'd like to branch out again. Which method do you personally prefer or would like to see me find some sort of solution for so I can do it that way?
Anyway I'm rambling because I don't know what to do when I finish my last couple coms here shortly, so any ideas are welcome.
Offer some "Artistic license" commissions. Stuff where like, the person can give a vague idea and you can be creative in the approach. Prescriptive commissions are hard for both sides tbh.
Before someone's turn is up I usually ask them a month ahead if they are still interested. Most people are, some need more time (so I just delay the slot to another month or so) and some resign (in such case I can just take people that were supposed to be done in the following month).
I can recommend my method since it's low commitment for the client (which "softens" the issue of enromours queue) and provides me with steady stream of work to do. The main drawback is that one has to be consistent with the work output, otherwise the queue would fall apart.
I appreciate what you're saying here, but from a commissioner's perspective it's just frustration, not "I almost made the cut, joy!"
I had an artist who'll remain nameless say in their TOS they don't do one specific type of art, and I totally forgot about it, and was asking for that in their lottery for slave-stream time. I didn't win a "random" slot like 8 times in a row (the chances of that are incredibly slim) and then I realized what they were doing is just dumping my name from the lottery because of what I was asking for in the commission request.
So instead of just correcting me and pointing to their TOS, they just essentially ignored my request again and again and again without any feedback.
So yeah, it's much better to get clear communications from the artist.
To be completely frank I just don't bother with artists who do "submit your ideas and I'll pick one". I spend a lot of time on my commission descriptions. Gathering refs. Writing dialogue. Finding a sexy reference pose from art. It's just a huge waste of my time to submit into a pool like that when I have pretty extreme fetishes anyways and I'm 99% likely to get rejected anyways.
Not to say that you *shouldn't* do that. Do what works for you. It's just not something I engage with.
As for the pick and choose, only about 4 or 5 out of 50 commission requests are ones I wouldn't do, and it's entirely preventable because I'm usually pretty verbose about what I like and don't like when I open coms. The rest are ones that I like but just not 'top 5' liked.
I guess I'm projecting a bit when I assume people would rather not be told. I'm not exactly a serial commissioner but I know I'd much rather silently be not picked than told "I don't really like your character's design enough to draw them" by some artist I admired. Like the idea is one thing, it can be tweaked, but how do you say 'yeah I don't really vibe with this character's design and I don't really know if there's a way I would ever be in their current state' without sounding like a dick?
Your acceptable content range is way, way wider than the vast majority of artists. I'd say you're in the 90% percentile of "will draw nasty shit". Also I like almost all the content you've drawn for yourself, or as commissions. Sweaty rimjobs hooooo!
> I guess I'm projecting a bit when I assume people would rather not be told. I'm not exactly a serial commissioner but I know I'd much rather silently be not picked than told "I don't really like your character's design enough to draw them" by some artist I admired. Like the idea is one thing, it can be tweaked, but how do you say 'yeah I don't really vibe with this character's design and I don't really know if there's a way I would ever be in their current state' without sounding like a dick?
I think you just say "Do you have another character? No offense intended, this particular one is just something I'm not interested in drawing." I think that would work fine for most commissioners.
"Hey I saw you filled out the form at some point, I like your idea, you still down to get a commission? If so lets talk"
Then when that form closes, you take a look through the applications and take on whichever ones you want.
As someone who's bought lots of art, I don't mind when an artist tells me that I wasn't selected and they give a brief explanation why. Next time I can be more versatile with my ideas and try to cater it more towards something the artist would like to do more.
Cause the issue with raffling off slots is, well, if the winner's idea isn't to your liking, they're going to not feel so good about getting cut.
Maybe you can add a raffle filter after separating all the ideas you liked, to narrow it down more.
It could take a while to read through all those forms though!
I mostly just dislike first come first serve. People are busy and can't always check in every couple minutes.
I'm not the biggest fan of YCH's either, but I understand that can make really good money for an artist and they get to do an idea they like. So I certainly wouldn't mind if they do YCH's on occasion, on top of some commissions here and there. A little balance.
For the issue of peoples slots sneaking up on them and them not being able to pay the full price, perhaps you have a "reservation fee" of "Pay me half of the total cost, and when I get to you/finish your art, you will then pay the next half of the comm" thus they have atleast paid so that, if they are surprised, it will be significantly less so
And for the reasons of having many comms you simply do not wish to do... perhaps an extensive blacklist is necessary? I have not commed you before so I am unsure if you already have such, but from what I see your TOS is only visible once you have actually opened your slots and are accepting forms. Which if I am being honest is dumb, and should be adjusted.
Perhaps its that you see these designs and your head isnt able to visualize them in your own style? Thus meaning you do not wish to take their comms in the back of your head (Half assed theory)
Would you say that the character youd be drawing is more important to you in why you decline it rather than the idea behind the comm itself?
And rather interesting as well
Is it like "This person has a lot of art already, I would rather give it to someone with not much art so the big lad who has a lot of art doesn't just take my art and toss it into his art horde to be forgotten." ?
As for not liking some ideas there's nothing wrong with saying no it can just be hard sometimes.
It seems like there's no way to not have some sort of queue.
Now I'm thinking maybe the best way is to have some sort of flexible preliminary queue that people get added to before any payment, and that can be very long. But being long is fine because there's no obligation to anyone. It's like a commission slot voucher and not a guarantee, and I won't care if it takes 2 years to get to them because they haven't paid anything. Then I just work through that.
In the meantime, I'll keep doing in-stream coms for people who want sketches, and YCH's for fun experimental or weird stuff I'm itching for.