Hey all! New thoughts on future commissions -- TruNorth's Journal -- Fur Affinity [dot] net

Hey all! New thoughts on future commissions

10 years ago General

Hello, everybody!

I should really consider making journals more frequently than once every 3 months... but here's my latest update!
School has been going swimmingly this semester, but as always, it's time consuming, and I always manage to find myself protecting my fragile mind after a long night of programming by refusing to do anything productive until my precious few brain cells are needed again for the next project~ I have one final commission I'm working on right now for Tygre13

Tygre13, but after that, I'll be trying to re-work how I handle commissions.

As I accept them now, I let my commissioners tell me what they like, and I (almost always) accept, because I just hate saying no to any of you wonderful furs :3 In the future though, I'm going to be trying to be more picky about what I do and don't accept. I feel that if I am personally interested or inspired for a commission, I'll complete it faster, with more energy, and believe that the quality will reflect the interest I had in the piece.

Lately I've been watching Kenket

Kenket just crank out all these gorgeous paintings, and I've been feeling really inspired to follow in her footsteps. Landscapes, life paintings, and purdy animals have been filling the canvases in my mind for a while now, so if you're wanting a commission from me, you'll have a better chance of getting accepted if you help me out!

Right now, I don't have any solid plans, or prices, and I'm really just rambling this down as I type it here, but:
I'm going to start trying to be more selective about what commissions I take on.
I do enjoy a range of subjects, but highly character-specific scenarios (your unique chimera character flipping pancakes in his boxer briefs on a lazy sunday) may get declined in order to pursue generic and widely appealing paintings (say, a snow covered tiger on the prowl in the snow).
I also would like to encourage speedpaints, or quicker, looser paintings for much cheaper prices!
I'd love to negotiate with individual customers for small 20 dollar pieces, or 30, or 40!
Painting images of your pets, or your favorite animals off a reference image!

Essentially, I want to break the habit of just accepting every commission I see in my inbox in order to work with more people to paint more pictures I have a greater interest in. When I do that, I find I take longer, I find excuses to put the work off, and I lose interest in painting for myself until the work's all over. If you help me paint what I want to be painting anyway, I'll work a lot better!

tl;dr:
I wish I were Kenket, and I wanna fight to get to her level! So, I am going to become more picky about my commissions in order to keep interest in my work!

PLEASE! Tell me if it would be desirable to post short, "Themes for this week only!" kind of events, such as "This week I'll paint your pet!" or "Give me your favorite animal and a mood, and I'll mix them into a landscape for cheap!" kinda deals.

I'm looking for any ideas to do faster, more interesting commissions!

All this being said, it's always a JOY working with you all, and I hope you have been enjoying a splendid March! Have a great spring, and I look forward to sharing more art with you all soon!

16 Comments

Drewzy ~drewzy

Digital Artist

10 years ago

Pfffft, You keep getting better and better all the time and you were already amazing in the first place! I'd say you're on the right track if that's what you're going for :)

IanPuppy ~ianpuppy

Digital Artist

10 years ago

I am absolutely up for these sorts of things, the only problem I have with them is that people who do this sort of thing tend to stop doing characters... like my own? The colourful specific theme based ones I mean. (like mine is space)

TruNorth ~trunorth

Anthro Artist

10 years ago

Yeah I can see where that's a problem. I kind of wrestled with it while I was writing that journal -- I really like the idea of building up more non-character art in my gallery, as it can appeal to more people, but I do enjoy doing other fun works that are about a character. I don't know. x.x happy medium is what I'm shooting for.

I just feared what happened last semester when I had 5 commissions left that were all kinda strange character-specific pics that I really just wasn't into doing and it killed the art mood -__-

IanPuppy ~ianpuppy

Digital Artist

10 years ago

You could always simply pick ones that interest you, specific or not. Instead of limiting your commission types you could take ones you can have more fun with, like open commissions for five slots, instead of first come first serve, hand pick after leaving it open for a while. That's my suggestion, then thugs like pets and loose commissions can have their own deprecate prices, or be pointed out that you're likely to pick them, and people will likely want one or two within the five(or more)

TruNorth ~trunorth

Anthro Artist

10 years ago

Those are some excellent ideas! I like what you're getting at, and I think that would be best! I need to keep my actual commission queue small, but filled with ones that I'm most interested in. Thank you for your suggestions, I love them!

IanPuppy ~ianpuppy

Digital Artist

10 years ago

thanks, sorry for the autocorrect riddled response, I had to write it up fast on my phone.

graydiel ~graydiel

Certified Clueless

10 years ago

I feel like everyone on this website probably wishes they were kenket

kenket.

That being said, though, your art is actually REALLY good and you shouldn't have to worry about it not being up to par.

Soba ~soba

Watcher

10 years ago

If you'd like to work faster, try doing simpler commissions that use techniques you'd like to explore more. E.g., perhaps you could do painted headshots of other people's characters. There's a lot less room for revisions with such works, so you'd make progress on your queue a lot faster and crank more things out.

Just an example. Whatever works for you and helps you achieve what you hope to achieve with your art. I wish you good luck. :)

TruNorth ~trunorth

Anthro Artist

10 years ago

Thank you for the suggestion! I'd be glad to try it out!

Euan ~euan

Photographer

10 years ago

I understand your feelings and I think I would be an asshole if I were a digital artist - only picking the commission idea's I would personally enjoy. So yes... You are absolutely good enough to do so.

That being said, I must confess I like your ref sheets and pinups best. The detailed backgrounds from nature... You're able to paint them well, but not as well as... Lets say Maquenda or Rhyu (you faved my hunting commission lately). So I personally would consider commissioning you for a ref sheet if I would need one, but not (yet) for a highly detailed image as that from Rhyu. How much do you charge for a painting such as the one with the wolf archer you did, recently?

TruNorth ~trunorth

Anthro Artist

10 years ago

Mm. I see your point. But that's the problem I'm hoping to avoid: I'm not very good at doing backgrounds and things because I never do them, so I become known for my simple references and other things. But if I only accept character sheets and art like that, then that's all I get popular for, and I never get to practice or get BETTER at the landscapes and stuff like Rhyu!

The purpose of this change is to spend my time improving in the areas I want to improve in, and not stagnating only painting what people demand of me when I don't enjoy or learn as much from it.

Tygre13 ~tygre13

10 years ago

You gotta do what makes you happy, and you most certainly possess the talent. If you keep doing something that your heart just isn't into, you'll eventually get sick of it and not care enough to put your full ability into or worse, not even want to do anymore. And you can't always please everyone. If you trying to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one. As for myself, I say that if this is what your aim is, then go after it with your full vigor and make it yours. If you really want it, you'll have it. And if you persue it with the determination that it WILL be yours, then you will master it.

Hatwolf ~harakiriwolf

Writer/Artist

10 years ago

I hope you are still interested in the comission we talked about, although we havent made it very specific yet. But I like the idea, that you bring your interests into the whole picture, so you work on something, that you enjoy. After all, it is your unique style what interests me the most.

BlueChance ~bluechance

Art Whore

10 years ago

Personally, I can't agree more with the direction you're taking. Some may see it as a selfish act, but I don't think so. Part of what makes you grow is whether you enjoy it or not. You're least likely to do so if you're constantly forcing yourself to do what you don't really wanna do. It's unfair to yourself. While you have the talent to continue as is, but I bet it would be more pronounced when you do what you love.

Go for it Tru. I'm cheering you on as always!

NamelessImp ~namelessimp

Some kinda artsy imp thing

10 years ago

Just ran into your art randomly; I love it! Would you be doing digital paintings like now, or move to traditional art (since you're mentioning kenket)
Do whatever you think is best! I look forward to seeing more art form you!

TruNorth ~trunorth

Anthro Artist

10 years ago

I'll be sticking with digital. It's always been a dream to learn traditional, and I've dabbled, but my experience solely lies with digital art.

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