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Do you take commissions?
10 years ago
Then I'm sure that you know of this scenario, it's either happened to you or someone you know;
Someone asks for a commission and is quite vague about it, even when pressed for details
'Okay,' you think 'some creative freedom while giving them what they want, that's cool'.
You do all the work and show it to them
It's totally wrong, not the right shape, wrong angle, sky is wrong colour
They tell you to do it again
Professionally, do you refuse and ask for payment or do you just do another, essentially for free?
Did this hypothetical person simply not think of the details they wanted and assumed you could mind read?
Or are they a complete bastard who wants to get tons of free art by guilting and whining?
Well, fellow people who draw stuff for others for money, I have a small suggestion to hopefully cut this problem down a bit, simply add this, or something to it's effect, to your info on commission handling:
"
It would be unprofessional to put fingers at people who may fall into such a category as these hypothetical people, but word does get around in a few ways and artists tend to look out for eachother.
This is just one journal and I hardly expect to change the world with it, (I haven't even included any hash tags like the real social media super heroes) but I hope it may help even a small bit to artists who may find themselves possibly being taken advantage of.
Someone asks for a commission and is quite vague about it, even when pressed for details
'Okay,' you think 'some creative freedom while giving them what they want, that's cool'.
You do all the work and show it to them
It's totally wrong, not the right shape, wrong angle, sky is wrong colour
They tell you to do it again
Professionally, do you refuse and ask for payment or do you just do another, essentially for free?
Did this hypothetical person simply not think of the details they wanted and assumed you could mind read?
Or are they a complete bastard who wants to get tons of free art by guilting and whining?
Well, fellow people who draw stuff for others for money, I have a small suggestion to hopefully cut this problem down a bit, simply add this, or something to it's effect, to your info on commission handling:
"
By agreeing to commission me, you agree that if you are too vague about the specifics of what you want, then find that it hasn't been done to your liking, I am under no liability to refund money or redo the image.
In no uncertain terms: If you do not give enough detail about what you want then it is your own fault the product hasn't been made to your expectations and I still expect payment as I tried my best with the details you gave."It would be unprofessional to put fingers at people who may fall into such a category as these hypothetical people, but word does get around in a few ways and artists tend to look out for eachother.
This is just one journal and I hardly expect to change the world with it, (I haven't even included any hash tags like the real social media super heroes) but I hope it may help even a small bit to artists who may find themselves possibly being taken advantage of.
They should indeed still compensate you for your work and efforts, and if they want changes done they should expect to pay for it (assuming its nothing hugely incorrect from say, a character ref given.)
When such vagueness is presented, I consider it artistic freedom.
In the future, might be best just to confirm if they are agreeing to an artistic freedom piece, otherwise they should need to provide sufficient detail.
Commissions are a real complicated subject.