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Thoughts on my commission process [Pt 2]
2 years ago
Thanks everyone for all the feedback about commissions! I think I've narrowed down what I might want to do, but I still have a couple things to iron out:
The idea: Open commissions indefinitely.
1. Work with people to craft their ideas into something I'd like to draw, if possible.
2. Add them to the end of a commission waitlist, without any payment. The waitlist can be as long as needed.
3. Work from the commission waitlist in roughly chronological order.
4. When someone's next up, ask if they still want the idea and take payment if so.
- If they don't want that specific idea but still want the slot, we can talk about a new one.
- If the original idea is no longer something I want to draw, let them know and work with them to change it if possible.
- If they want extra time such as for payment, they can push their slot back 5, 10, however many slots.
- If they don't respond in time or say they don't want it, on to the next person no problem. Maybe they can pass it to someone else if they have a good idea too.
5. In between regular commission cycle, I will also occasionally do requests, gifts, art trades, stream commissions, YCHs, personal art, etc.
The (pretty major) problems:
- Some commission ideas are pretty close to unsalvageable. Since I'm into nearly every fetish if done right, it's usually because the characters are not attractive to me. Because coms are permanently open, I would have to straight up tell these people that I am not interested in doing a commission for them with that character. This will cause a lot of mental stress on me, and likely make some people very upset because they may think it's something wrong with their character. And it wouldn't be like 5% of characters, I'd estimate about 60% of characters I wouldn't be interested in drawing, so this is going to be a problem I need to either get used to or fix somehow.
- I'm usually pretty silent about why I choose to draw certain commission ideas and not others because the long list of reasons is rather stupid, but there are a plethora of things that can happen between accepting the com slot and getting to it that will make me not want to draw that specific idea or even character anymore. I don't know how to deal with that other than just being vague and saying 'Your turn is up next but I don't really feel comfortable with this anymore, could we think of something else?'. Especially if they saw me draw the sameish thing the day before or shortly after. I guess I could work in the 'volatility' of an idea at the time of discussing it?
- How would I handle pricing? Would I lock in a price at the time of accepting the com, or surprise them with the price when their turn comes around? Maybe give a possible price range but say it's just an estimate and I'll have a better idea when I get to them? There's no obligation to take a com when your turn comes up so I don't see what's wrong with that.
As for how to ease into this method and diffuse the initial small wave of people, I'd likely open up and get all the commission ideas together and sorted out until they teeter off, then put it all through a list randomizer to choose the starting order at first. After that, just tack on new commissions to the end.
Any thoughts or concerns? Has anyone else done this or know any artists that do?
The idea: Open commissions indefinitely.
1. Work with people to craft their ideas into something I'd like to draw, if possible.
2. Add them to the end of a commission waitlist, without any payment. The waitlist can be as long as needed.
3. Work from the commission waitlist in roughly chronological order.
4. When someone's next up, ask if they still want the idea and take payment if so.
- If they don't want that specific idea but still want the slot, we can talk about a new one.
- If the original idea is no longer something I want to draw, let them know and work with them to change it if possible.
- If they want extra time such as for payment, they can push their slot back 5, 10, however many slots.
- If they don't respond in time or say they don't want it, on to the next person no problem. Maybe they can pass it to someone else if they have a good idea too.
5. In between regular commission cycle, I will also occasionally do requests, gifts, art trades, stream commissions, YCHs, personal art, etc.
The (pretty major) problems:
- Some commission ideas are pretty close to unsalvageable. Since I'm into nearly every fetish if done right, it's usually because the characters are not attractive to me. Because coms are permanently open, I would have to straight up tell these people that I am not interested in doing a commission for them with that character. This will cause a lot of mental stress on me, and likely make some people very upset because they may think it's something wrong with their character. And it wouldn't be like 5% of characters, I'd estimate about 60% of characters I wouldn't be interested in drawing, so this is going to be a problem I need to either get used to or fix somehow.
- I'm usually pretty silent about why I choose to draw certain commission ideas and not others because the long list of reasons is rather stupid, but there are a plethora of things that can happen between accepting the com slot and getting to it that will make me not want to draw that specific idea or even character anymore. I don't know how to deal with that other than just being vague and saying 'Your turn is up next but I don't really feel comfortable with this anymore, could we think of something else?'. Especially if they saw me draw the sameish thing the day before or shortly after. I guess I could work in the 'volatility' of an idea at the time of discussing it?
- How would I handle pricing? Would I lock in a price at the time of accepting the com, or surprise them with the price when their turn comes around? Maybe give a possible price range but say it's just an estimate and I'll have a better idea when I get to them? There's no obligation to take a com when your turn comes up so I don't see what's wrong with that.
As for how to ease into this method and diffuse the initial small wave of people, I'd likely open up and get all the commission ideas together and sorted out until they teeter off, then put it all through a list randomizer to choose the starting order at first. After that, just tack on new commissions to the end.
Any thoughts or concerns? Has anyone else done this or know any artists that do?
From your previous journal, I think the "post your ideas and I'll pick" option would probably be the least worst. From my perspective as a buyer, it works well for me as long as you reject the ones you don't pick with "this idea is great, pitch it to me again next time" or "this isn't gonna make the cut, try a different idea next time". The last thing I want to do is pitch the same bad idea over and over again thinking it has a chance, or drop a really good idea because I thought the artist didn't like it. It doesn't have to be detailed feedback, just enough to know if the idea is on the right track.
It does suffer from those problems I mentioned, but what sucks even more than those problems is the feeling of people waiting on me after already paying, and I have no idea how else to have no paid wait list and not open commissions every day. Regardless of if I give feedback or not, I really don't want to keep making people re-submit ideas every time I finish 1 or 2 commissions.
I guess I could open coms for 24 hours, sort through the coms, accept 4 or 5, explain why I didn't accept the others to everyone else, then take payment as I get to each com until I'm done, then repeat?
I feel like having to keep submitting ideas and then waiting is more pain for the commissioner than just guaranteeing a slot and that's it.
That sort of thing doesn't really work with an infinite waitlist. Time pressure is a real motivation that genuinely works (buy now while supplies last!). And regardless of when you take the money, having a reasonably tight cycle between accepting a commission and completing it definitely has value. Like, am I gonna set aside an idea on my to-commission list and wait a year and then only maybe get that comm done? I'd rather have closure, positive or negative, within a few days so I can recycle the idea for someone else if need be. And obviously how overflowing my wallet is with suspicious furry wealth can go up and down unexpectedly.
I just don't think an infinite waitlist is going to mesh well with the psychology of consumerism. And as crass as it feels to think about it that way, that's what you're trying to exploit when you open for business (whether it's a side hustle or your main jam).
While I completely understand where you're coming from (I'm an opportunist commissioner, I'd never join a waitlist. Maybe a commission queue if it's <5 coms ahead of me) I do have many other ways to get art from me. If you don't mind sketch quality, stream coms are same day and even cheaper. All you have to do is win one of 2 or 3 raffles of like 5 people per stream. Or if you want something full scale, YCH's will go up as well. Sketches honestly aren't that bad for the price in my opinion. Only full shaded stuff would be necessary to take a waitlist slot or concede on a YCH.
As for setting aside ideas, I can understand that too. But I usually force weirder ideas out of people than what they normally do if they want a commission, so someone thinking they might be able to pull an idea out of a generic pile and woo me with it might be a bit misguided. The only reason I'd ditch on an idea entirely that I previously agreed to is if the commissioner got that idea in between me agreeing to it and getting to their turn. Even then, usually just making it a bit more extreme is a quick solution that circumvents that.
I see a lot of artists work out basic pricing around a few concepts:
Media: Icon/Portrait/Fullbody?
$X for single character
+$Y for additional
SFW/NSFW?
Background included/excluded?
Level of commission? Sketch, flats, cel, painted, etc
Type of detailing/shading
Additional modest charges for complex/fiddly characters, or tons of props/other things.
Consider small discounts for concepts or themes you wish to promote
Specificity of idea? YCH for the quick hit easy stuff, very specific idea (true commission) or here's a general concept, run with it (artistic license)
I've seen at least one artist include a pretty sizable discount if the art includes one of their OCs.
My preference as a commissioner is to actually kinda find artists who wants to help develop the concept or world of my characters. They're rare, but usually amazing when I find em. I like to write a little story about the background or run-up to the pic being commissioned.
This gives a good safety net of "I don't feel like doing this image. I should just cancel it because if I am to draw this it will be like clawing at a brick wall"
I would however if you are to do a wait-list cap it at like 10 people or however many people you could get threw in a month that way your planning for the month ahead and not the next year.
The possible solutions to the issues you're mentioning sound good.
I know of an artist that does that. I've been in that queue for probably about a year now, I'm probably about halfway in, but I'm just happy my turn's gonna come up eventually.
From what I've heard, they haven't had issues handling things that way.
I'd say one of the most important things about how you decide to go about it, is that you make it clear to potential customers how you go about it.
Like a terms of service sort of thing. A disclaimer, rules and whatnot, to avoid confusion.
Although... you could do the complete opposite idea and overengineer some solution where you people submit a massive form listing characters, a full comm idea and fantasy and then you brutally grade the submission with feedback like a university teacher... (I don't know if I'm joking or not with this idea ovo)
Regardless I hope you figure something out because you're an amazing artist, and I and many others would at least love a shot of commissioning you!
Remember no one is entitled to get art from you. Art is a luxury and you being selective with ideas and characters is totally up to you and if anyone is upset with that then that’s no fault of you.
If you’re worried about times and deadlines, just be realistic with it. Look back at other pieces you’ve done and try to calculate your average time spent working on them and give yourself a reasonable window that accounts for things within your personal life interfering with your ability to work on commissions.
As far as pricing goes. The best thing you can do is time yourself and get an approximate time for how many hours you spend working on a specific com type. Then from there you can tweak your dollar per hour amount until you reach something you feel comfortable with for the amount of work you put in. The main thing is to not undersell yourself.
I understand situations like this can be stressful. But the important part is to remember that regardless of what you do, you can’t please everyone. So working to improve what will ultimately make you comfortable and happy should be your main priority. There will still be plenty of people who will want to commission you regardless of what you settle on.
Hope this helps even if only a little bit.
Agree it's best to avoid telling someone directly that their fursona is not to your taste. People get very sensitive about it.
But you can simply say you have decided not to choose their commission and leave it at that. Same as if you were doing batches.