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Thoughts on my commission process [Pt 3]
4 months ago
A lot of things have changed in the past 2 years since I posted my last journal jotting down my ideas on how to effectively take commissions. Turns out, one of the best solutions to the problems I was originally facing is just- don't do commissions.
I have a job now that's not related to art, and keeps me comfortable to the point where I don't feel the need to take commissions or do YCH's anymore. That's why most of my recent art has been gifts, requests, or personal stuff. But I'm starting to see the main problems with this approach:
• I enjoy drawing people's characters, particularly characters I see getting a lot of commissions and recognize. With no commissions, I never attract these people because they're constantly scanning for open coms slots.
• It puts a lot of effort on my part to reach out and contact people I want to draw for or trade with, and with my anxiety that just means I rarely ever do. So artist's characters and random characters I find and like are usually off the table too.
• Drawing solo art of my chars when I can't find anyone else is boring me to death
I tried to solve this by posting a request thread, but understandably it doesn't attract enough of what I'm looking for (I know I don't like posting my refs in request threads personally). Though I do find some cute inspiration there at times. Now I'm stuck with this new problem and have to think of a solution. I came up with a couple below and I wanted some opinions on them:
1. Open commissions anyway
I'd temporarily open cheap commissions as a way to get easy inspiration both for characters and for ideas. Opening commissions offloads the work onto the commissioner to both 'approach' me and provide the idea, and unlike public request threads commissioners would be more likely to submit ideas in private (I think). By submitting specific ideas, I wouldn't be as worried about 'blanket consent' like the request thread gives, and I can get back to drawing harder stuff.
I'd open for a couple days to let everyone submit the ideas and characters, then I'd close them. The price will be low enough to hopefully not be a problem for many like my YCHs, but high enough to prevent it from getting overloaded. Then, I'd close them, pick up to 5 to keep the line short, and let everyone know the chosen have been contacted. This lets the others know their idea wasn't picked and prevents them from being in limbo so they can go elsewhere or stash it for next time.
After I'm done with that batch, repeat. Hopefully with only a couple pics at a time, I can repeat this every month or two and people will have more chances.
2. Figure out a way to have private requests again.
I used to have a request page on my old website, but I have since redesigned the entire site from scratch and lost them all. I used to have a second request site after that, but then Twitter's API went paid and I could no longer authenticate who you were, so that got scrapped too.
One solution is I could make the request page again on the new site, a private area you can upload refs and ideas and I can draw from. Unfortunately that means you won't know if I plan on doing your idea, or if it's doomed and you should move on.
Anyway I hope I can fix my art machine a bit because sitting around after work and not knowing who or what to draw is starting to wear on me. Any ideas appreciated.
I have a job now that's not related to art, and keeps me comfortable to the point where I don't feel the need to take commissions or do YCH's anymore. That's why most of my recent art has been gifts, requests, or personal stuff. But I'm starting to see the main problems with this approach:
• I enjoy drawing people's characters, particularly characters I see getting a lot of commissions and recognize. With no commissions, I never attract these people because they're constantly scanning for open coms slots.
• It puts a lot of effort on my part to reach out and contact people I want to draw for or trade with, and with my anxiety that just means I rarely ever do. So artist's characters and random characters I find and like are usually off the table too.
• Drawing solo art of my chars when I can't find anyone else is boring me to death
I tried to solve this by posting a request thread, but understandably it doesn't attract enough of what I'm looking for (I know I don't like posting my refs in request threads personally). Though I do find some cute inspiration there at times. Now I'm stuck with this new problem and have to think of a solution. I came up with a couple below and I wanted some opinions on them:
1. Open commissions anyway
I'd temporarily open cheap commissions as a way to get easy inspiration both for characters and for ideas. Opening commissions offloads the work onto the commissioner to both 'approach' me and provide the idea, and unlike public request threads commissioners would be more likely to submit ideas in private (I think). By submitting specific ideas, I wouldn't be as worried about 'blanket consent' like the request thread gives, and I can get back to drawing harder stuff.
I'd open for a couple days to let everyone submit the ideas and characters, then I'd close them. The price will be low enough to hopefully not be a problem for many like my YCHs, but high enough to prevent it from getting overloaded. Then, I'd close them, pick up to 5 to keep the line short, and let everyone know the chosen have been contacted. This lets the others know their idea wasn't picked and prevents them from being in limbo so they can go elsewhere or stash it for next time.
After I'm done with that batch, repeat. Hopefully with only a couple pics at a time, I can repeat this every month or two and people will have more chances.
2. Figure out a way to have private requests again.
I used to have a request page on my old website, but I have since redesigned the entire site from scratch and lost them all. I used to have a second request site after that, but then Twitter's API went paid and I could no longer authenticate who you were, so that got scrapped too.
One solution is I could make the request page again on the new site, a private area you can upload refs and ideas and I can draw from. Unfortunately that means you won't know if I plan on doing your idea, or if it's doomed and you should move on.
Anyway I hope I can fix my art machine a bit because sitting around after work and not knowing who or what to draw is starting to wear on me. Any ideas appreciated.
Alternatively, I've seen some artists regularly posting journals calling characters, types, ideas of what they want to draw and for people to apply if they have an appropriate character.
Either way, I know I'd jump at the chance of getting a piece from you, been a fan a long time and you know zebras well xD
Love your stuff, look forward to seeing more
Commissions are great for the points you mentioned, as well as what Kaedu mentioned, but will also put you on a schedule. If you are fine with that, then by all means. But just have to keep in mind that commissions on the side of the commissioners, is always a game of luck. Perfect timing and the availability of funds play a huge part. So you may not always end up seeing the characters you see around, as well as artist characters you may like.
On the other side, creating a new place for people to put their ideas also has its difficulties. Investing time to make the page and review a larger number of entries. One of the things you can do however, is to provide some more information on it, for example kinks, or what type of characters you are looking for, as well as their orientation. Something like what you have now. That could help a bit to sway the entries. You could even maybe make a message system, maybe just to provide feedback on those ideas, if you are worried about leaving people without the knowledge if their idea was picked or left in limbo.
Overall is a matter of preference I say. I would pick the new thread just because it keeps you working on your schedule and just adding your free time to do the arts you want to do.
At the very least, I’m glad you’re in a position where you can basically do what you want, rather than feeling obligated to take commissions to survive, which can’t be said for a lot of people. I’ve seen people do those “series” pics where they have an initial setup, and then pick their favorite user comment as to what should happen next. That might be an interesting way to get some inspiration. It could just be as simple as a “you see this what is your response?” Kind of ordeal, but I’m not sure if it would get you the kind of responses you’re looking for.
It’s super hard to say what you should go for, but whatever you do end up doing I hope it works best for you! Always been a distant admirer because I’m terrible at approaching people lol. I hope this helped a little, and wasn’t just one embarrassing rant…yeah I’ll stop now lol
About the anxiety of talking to people: I totally understand that one lol. If you go with the form idea and request contact info, you'd be interacting with people in a fairly focused capacity. Perhaps you could write two or three template responses for "yes, interested," "no, not interested," or, "maybe, do you have a different character/idea?" That way, you don't have to think of something new to say to people each time they submit to the form—you can just copy and paste from a note somewhere and quickly send a reply via email/FA notes/Telegram/etc. (And if you end up building your own thing, you could automate sending responses to reduce the friction even further!) From a requester's perspective, I'd much rather get a polite and to-the-point form letter than nothing.
As for option 1, as long as you only take a couple commissions and you're willing to be professional about things if it turns out you still don't like doing commissions, it wouldn't hurt to experiment with that too. I know I'd certainly jump on a commission opening if you had one again!
I'd definitely commissions some kinky fenn stuff.
In general for commissions though, I'll repeat what I've seen in another comment or two and suggest giving what you're currently interested in drawing whenever you announce openings. That way you'll get more ideas centered around that theme/topic.
Personally, I'd love to get my hands on some Ralek art, but I'm usually kind of shy about reaching out.
Always refreshing to see your work and characters !
My biased opinion is for option 1 but it might be best to soft launch with some of your closer circle of folks you have traded/done commissions with in the past?
I normally do check comission status and prices before deciding to message an artist. (where i usually have an idea ready and maybe even a full powerpoint with description and references for inspiration^^)
Usually i do not apply for requests, because I feel that good art should be paid and it kind of feels wrong to get something for free.
I hope you find a way that you like and enjoy :3