if we had submitted price sheets during this hiatus, do we need to re-submit them?

No, the notes are still there, just haven't been read yet.

okay thanks! :3

For the tips you could do alternating tutorial links and tips for buyers like where to commonly check for prices. Or how to approach an artist about. And a thingl about pricing would be nice to see. I'm shooting ideas out lol

What kind of tutorials?

Also could you clarify what you mean by the rest?

Oh I'm sorry I wasn't very full with that information ^^ of course.

I mean Art tutorials, Or commonly called ' how to draw' Providing links to them at the bottoms for the artist, I have also seen a few of these 'how to guides' floating around with titles of ' how to price art' ' how to commission an artist' for help on basic things. For example http://alexds1.deviantart.com/art/F.....orial-90158269 how to draw feet
http://alexds1.deviantart.com/art/C.....rial-116427636 how to take commissions on ( just an example I'm sure we could find one that is in general)

There are some like this that are meant for buyers. I cannot find them at the moment as they are not as popular as these kinds.

As for the rest i was suggesting different kinds of helpful tips for both artist and buyers.

Teaching buyers how to approach an artist about wanting to commission them, How to handle and artist being late? Or what are the commission process's artist go threw when commissions. Ie The steps Sketch, line ect ect.

Teaching both how to properly price different kinds of art ( as this is a problem with artist ripping them selves off, and buyers not understanding what they are paying for)

how to be safe with money over the internet
What do to if you see / have to deal with art thieves.

Does that help?

I might be able to compile some links to resources for people wanting more help with improving their art, but artistic improvement in general is kinda beyond the scope of this group.

Writing up articles/guides on things like setting up commissions, choosing prices, what to draw, etc, all good ideas, stuff I intend to do. Any other ideas for specific articles/guides along those lines are also welcome. I'll add the topics you mentioned to my to-do list. If you think of anything else, please let me know!

You could do tips on basic html to decorate their profile pages.

hear me out! presentation is everything, right? you do need to find the right balance with it though. There's a lot of people who go overboard, and people who don't do enough.

So, we could encourage users to learn the html of the site and make their profiles a little prettier, and also link them a lot of resources to help doing that.

Also, you could post tutorials on which colors go to together and like basic design stuff for commish sheets because I notice a lot of people struggling with them.

I don't feel that gallery profile decoration is really any sort of priority or "must have". If anything, I might do a gloss over of professional presentation in general, but the whole design thing is a whole other can of worms. Like I told Sweetvixsin above, there are just some things that are beyond the scope of this group that I can't teach for various reasons. Best I could do would be to provide links to places where people might learn more about design/aesthetics.

Oh I'm glad to hear you're back. :)

You could make some tips on how to make a proper and clear price-sheet. What information goes in the price-sheet picture and what information is best to put in the description? What kind of pictures are good to use for a price-sheet and what pictures can you better leave alone? I am sure some starting artists could use this, because some price-sheets are a bit... Unlogical and unhandy to look at or to get information. I suppose some people could use the help. :P

Also, maybe you could write about the problems artists encounter when dealing with commissioners, so that future commissioners will think about the way they act towards artists when they are getting art. Some major information you should give, some etiquette... Things like that.

I'm sure there are plenty of other things, but try to make tips-journals for both artists and commissioners. :) That will make it easy and nice for everyone.

I have something of that sort I wrote a while back which is linked in the profile. Though I don't really get into what types of images/examples one should use, since I think that's personal preference on the part of the artist. I do reject guides that I think are bad in terms of readability, and that includes color combinations that burn my retinas. lol. Red text on blue background/vice versa = NO.

I would need some input from other artists about their "horror stories" to write about problems like that. I encounter very few major issues in my own dealings, so it would be good to get some perspective from other artists. And vice versa. Always interested to know what sort of retardation is going on on either side of the fence.

Etiquette is a good one too. Some customers (and heaven forbid, some artists) seem to think that begging for favors is acceptable. I might have to shoehorn etiquette into both a buyer's guide to commissions, and artists guide to commissions.

Well, for instance it is good to put pictures in your guide where faces are very visible. People are more attracted to faces, usually. Then there is that it's best not to use any adult-rated pictures in it, even when they're censored, because some people will not appreciate it, some are too young to see it etc. With censoring usually there is a lot visible, so the implication of something happening or being there is VERY much present. You can always put it as text in your guide "Will also draw adult rated art" or something along those lines. :P Also tips on "Don't put in too much text" and stuff like that, but you probably already have that.

Some major information you should give is at least the character you want to be drawn, either in a description or in a ref sheet, so the artist can name their price more easily. Just send it with the first note, it will make communication so much easier. Things like that. And also things like making sure you HAVE the money available immediately, so you can pay for your transaction. I've had it so often that people would go like "Yeah, but I have to wait till I get my payment again from my job" or "I don't have it on paypal yet" and those things are so incredibly annoying, because I explicitly state you have to have the money ready. In my opinion I shouldn't even have to say that, I think it is etiquette from the customer's side to have the payment ready. And also making clear whether they have a specific scene in mind or whether they give the artist freedom in what to draw.

Shortly said, if you want a commission, be sure to be clear to the artist what you want so you get what you want. And have the payment ready, so there won't be any delays.

Note about adult art: If you're primarily an adult artist or just often do it, there's really no issues to having an uncensored sheet with porn on it and submitting it as "adult". Yes, technically the audience capable of viewing said sheet is smaller, but adult marked sheets get WAY more views than the non-adult ones.

As for the rest about price guides, yes that is all common sense. Out of all the ref sheets I post here, I don't get many, if any at all that don't show faces or have too much text. So I don't think I really need to say it anywhere.

About the "have money ready" thing, I don't find it to be a major problem for me. If someone tells me they can't pay me right away or until a certain date, I just say "fine, but you're not in the queue til you pay". Pretty easy on the part of the artist to say that, and all artists are different when it comes to when they take money. I don't think it's beyond the artist's responsibility to inform/remind customers when money is needed.

The rest of your comment is also stuff that would automatically be addressed in a buyer's guide, as that stuff should also be common sense.

Maybe every now and then you could have some tips for people just beginning to sell their work. People like me who are socially awkward might not always know what to say when, or how often to our customers. What is the proper etiquette when serving a repeat customer? Should you always thank someone for bidding in your auction, even if they've bid earlier?

I realize that in the end, it depends on you and how you want to run your business. However, it would be nice if experienced artists could share their tips and lend some examples. Some people might come off as cold when they're really just shy.