I know had a thing as their featured submission for quite a long time that listed some suggestions and information about their opinion regarding the commission process.
My own are that you should be able to retain the rights to an image--but the commissioner is allowed personal use. this way you could use it as a commission example or even make prints--the latter I still ask the commissioner about if I do so.
You have the right to refuse a commission for any reason. If you don't like the subject matter, have heard the person doesn't pay, feel your style/ideas don't fit their concept...then you reserve the right to say no.
Generally people prefer if you finish things in order on a to-do list. For icons and sketches, short turnaround I'd think...for anything else, maybe up to two weeks? Idk. it totally depends on how fast a worker you are.
Generally the person can pay you after OK-ing a sketch, or up front, but not after. after the sketch payment binds you to finishing it and them to paying for it.
You should have a list of subject matter at hand as well, even if it's only regarding tame stuff.
Hope that helps. :)

Thank you for point of view. It's really helpful since I know all artists do things a bit differently. I definitely agree on the retaining rights to an image. I know I was thinking to myself whether I should post a commission without the commissioner's permission, but then at the same time I'm thinking that it is my drawing and I should have rights to post it.

I suppose I should go out and snoop on everybody's terms of service. I think that would be one way to get a clear idea on how everybody works.

You can post it anywhere, man. The bigger thing for me where i always ask is, can I print it out and sell it at a con? I think you technically should retain the right to do that but I feel better asking people anyway, since their characters are special to them. <3

Do it! I kinda did that for a while and still do--reading other peoples' stuff, people who are more experienced, helps a lot.

See, that's stuff I never would have thought about. Although, who knows when or if I'll ever go to a con, but I definitely would like to be able to use a piece for my portfolio or for whatever else I may need to in the future. Say I become famous and have a gallery showcase one day, I would probably want to be able to use some pieces that people commissioned me for. Oh, and with that last sentence just imagine a five year old talking about how one day he's going to grow up to be an astronaut... that's the tone I would have used, lol.

Yeah, I started thinking about it too--people actually do that a fair amount at cons. They DO sell prints of commissioned work, especially if most of their adult work (or even entire body of work in general) is commissioned. So a good scan or photo of a finished work is a good idea, if you make a traditional piece and mail it, that way you can use it in the future. :)
LOL. When I grow up....
I don't know what I used to want to do, but oddly I'm back at animation...more because the careers available with the job, plus skill set, fits what I want to do :x

I always thought animation would be fun, especially since there is still a lot of need for it, although I miss the old school process of animating. I was always too afraid to go to art school... I didn't want to fork out tons of money just to get a degree and then still be working at a coffee shop or an office trying to pay off a degree that there was no demand for. More so, there is demand, but I'm not THAT good to stand out amongst other artists...

It's like acting... you gotta know people in the industry. Fortunately right now I'm just a stay at home mom so I have time to do freelance work to bring in extra income (and luckily it's not income that we have to have to survive). <-- I would be waaay too stressed out if I had to rely on my work to eat. Kudos to all the artists that can do it!

The school I'm going to still teaches 2D and the skills are important--they can be applied to graphic design, comic art, etc.....the storyboarding process is still necessary and the skill set of drawing is stressed more there than in other areas.
Plus...JOBS. All kinds of jobs. You can also do character design. Yep.

Oddly, you'd be surprised. If you go into graphic art or animation instead of studio art (which, trust me...is a bad idea....) then you'd probably do very well. If you go to a school that stresses getting a job and stresses internships, you're in a good situation.

But oh my god is art like acting. oh my god.
and even...studio art. i think there's less of a need for that than acting. we need acting for commercials, etc...and graphic artists and studio artists can do everything else. Studio art is REALLY hard to do. :/

/ramble

I wish school wasn't so expensive >_< I would have loved to go, if only to advance my art. I always wonder where my art skill would be if I actually had somebody teaching me and giving me direction on what to do. That and to open myself up to learning how to draw new things.

I want to make a graphic novel in the future. And I mean one that is on the shelves in a comic book store, and not just a crappy web comic like the one I'm working on right now. (And I just say crappy because I feel that I'm following the over abundance of "Canine comics" that are over on DeviantArt right now. But, I'm doing it for the practice and because I actually have the entire comic mapped out and if I complete it, then I know I can make a more serious comic).

And see, school would help me so much, but again it's just the expense that I have a hard time swallowing, especially since I don't plan on working a full time job for a while. I know so many people who graduated from my class who went and got a degree in art and now aren't doing anything with the degree. I think the only person that I see doing the most with her is charging outrageous prices on her artwork. Which, I get why she wants to do it, and if she gets enough customers, kudos to her, but I would never pay $20 an hour for her art. It's good... but not that good and as a customer I don't feel like she should charge more just because she has a degree.

Sorry it's early and like I said in another post I can be really terrible and organizing my thoughts XD

If you want to do graphic novel work, anything that deals in realism drawing and storyboarding (animation degree, basically) helps.

Is there a chance you could get a big scholarship, maybe?
Also there truly are a lot of jobs available in actual -fields- involving art -skills- such as graphic design, animation, even architecture and interior design. Straight-up art, yeah, that winds up being your life. You have to jack up prices because there's no actual paycheck. :(

My biggest problem with any of the sort of graphic design or animation jobs is that I live in Alaska... so there really isn't a lot of demand for it. You may see some adds looking to hire graphic artists, but that's about it. We just don't have the studios or anything up here that demands for artists. I would be better off making pretty Alaska pictures and trying to get a gallery.

OH, man. That really changes things, yeah! ;-;
I heard you guys are getting some serious snow. I didn't hear where but I kinda figure if winter's bad for you, then it's BAD.

Haha yeah, we've had a record snow fall this year, which is awesome because the last few winters have sucked and we would get barely any snow, and whenever we would get snow we would get these warm winds that would come in and melt it all to ice. Snow is easy to deal with, it's the ice that makes things dangerous.

Unless you live in Valdez... they are getting so much snow that roofs are caving in.

I'm in Buffalo, so we're kinda familiar with the whole snow and ice thing, but not nearly as much as you guys, of course.

Oh man. that's awful...;-;