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Questions about commissioning
12 years ago
Ooo, an actual journal about stuff!
I have a question for any artists who take commissions.
When being commissioned, do you prefer commissioners who go into a lot of detail about what they want or commissioners who allow you more freedom to do what you think is best?
Because I can see pros and cons of either method.
Being given lots of detail means that the commissioner knows what they want and so you're unlikely to have a long back and forth tweaking tweaking poses and details.
You can get the commission done quickly and arguments are less likely.
However, I imagine being told to 'draw exactly this' is not that satisfying creatively.
Rote copying of words into an image is certainly not what I would look for when drawing.
So is having greater creative control of a commission more satisfying than not?
Let's look at an example.
For my Dazen Cobalt commission, I asked for a pose "that comes across as friendly and welcoming (and maybe a little shy), because at heart he's a huge softy".
But in my mind I had a specific pose that I thought would convey this.
However, I don't draw or paint, so I felt it was probable that Dazen would come up with a better pose, one that conveys the ambience I want more effectively than the one I had thought of.
This turned out to be true by the way, my idea was much more cliche than what Dazen came up with, so I was very happy.
So does anyone have a good way of saying something like "while I have this specific idea, if you believe you have a better one go ahead and do that and we'll see if I think so too" when commissioning?
Because one of the things I really enjoy about commissioning is not only seeing an idea of mine come to life, but also having the artist make their own unique contribution to the work.
I feel that specifiying everything to the smallest detail takes away from the wonderful possibility of getting more than you expected.
I guess I'm just wondering how to strike the best balance between the two.
I have a question for any artists who take commissions.
When being commissioned, do you prefer commissioners who go into a lot of detail about what they want or commissioners who allow you more freedom to do what you think is best?
Because I can see pros and cons of either method.
Being given lots of detail means that the commissioner knows what they want and so you're unlikely to have a long back and forth tweaking tweaking poses and details.
You can get the commission done quickly and arguments are less likely.
However, I imagine being told to 'draw exactly this' is not that satisfying creatively.
Rote copying of words into an image is certainly not what I would look for when drawing.
So is having greater creative control of a commission more satisfying than not?
Let's look at an example.
For my Dazen Cobalt commission, I asked for a pose "that comes across as friendly and welcoming (and maybe a little shy), because at heart he's a huge softy".
But in my mind I had a specific pose that I thought would convey this.
However, I don't draw or paint, so I felt it was probable that Dazen would come up with a better pose, one that conveys the ambience I want more effectively than the one I had thought of.
This turned out to be true by the way, my idea was much more cliche than what Dazen came up with, so I was very happy.
So does anyone have a good way of saying something like "while I have this specific idea, if you believe you have a better one go ahead and do that and we'll see if I think so too" when commissioning?
Because one of the things I really enjoy about commissioning is not only seeing an idea of mine come to life, but also having the artist make their own unique contribution to the work.
I feel that specifiying everything to the smallest detail takes away from the wonderful possibility of getting more than you expected.
I guess I'm just wondering how to strike the best balance between the two.
