It depends... As an artist myself I can see the use of call out journals for art thieves but just talking about random people that we wouldn't know doesn't seem that interesting. Now sometimes you need to vent and that is understandable. On the people who ask for money every other week, eventually I just start to ignore them (If I had some of my own money I would help in a crisis). On the topic of Personal Journals that is fine, I see no problem in those. Commissioners want to know what is happening in the life of the artist in case it effects the timeliness of their art. It also depends on how personal it is: A short update on what has been happening in your life is fine, coming home every day and talking about it isn't good for this type of environment... Save that for something like twitter or Facebook. I'm sorry I ramble, when I think I type...

definetly makes sense, so no worries!

I watch a few people who post the every day updates, and I find myself less likely to click on their journals.

but those are also artists I find myself thinking about a lot, from a buisness aspect I want to be on someone's mind in regards to art, but I also don't want to have to post DAILY updates to get that sort of affect on people.

I'm trying to find a happy medium, I want to leave my mark here on a personal level too. I don't want this to be soley buisness, or an artist whos only journals are "open for commissions" I want to make friends in this community. I find it hard to balance the two so I'm just trying to get a feel for peoples thoughts on it

I think just saying when important stuff is happening is a good idea. For instance if you are going out of town or sick or just got a promotion at a day job etc. I have never been good at Social Media but I know as an artist networking is important. Too much networking can make people ignore you, too little and they will forget you.

Hey as an off topic I'm planing on getting into commissions myself, what are your suggestions. You obviously would know more about it (considering you take them)

well I just started taking commissions 3 weeks ago, so I'm not sure I'm the best person to ask, but I'd be happy to share what I do know.

organize your commission details by first setting up the type of commissions you want to offer, and then pricing them.
pricing is hard because if you're first starting out you really don't get good buisness if your prices are "normal" (what I'd like to offer for my stuff anyway) I notice if you offer cheaper commissions you draw more people in. Once you kinda lock in commissions I'd suggest raising them a little bit at a time.

Then, figure out how you want to offer commissions, by journal? maybe an "open for commissions" submission? I've seen some people use google forms(?) to accept commissions by having people apply there, I don't know much anything about that application

also having a visable que is important, some people have a designated journal, you could even go above and beyond that and have the status update of someones commission on their que (for example "Mr. Cat: 1 character sketching " (I highly suggest, that way you wont get notes asking about progress all the time)

Personally I've been taking commissions via visual submission. I post a new weekly offering, with an example on the 'commission que submission',I have people order within the submission to keep things organized, I also write up my que in the submission details with progress updates next to the commissioners name, and I'll advertise via journal,

honestly I haven't been too sucessful though. I'm not giving up just yet though.

Thanks, this is a great help! I think I should wait until I have more of a follower base here, I have a bit of a follower base on tumbler, and a dead follower base on DA (I say this because even when I post stuff no one looks). Anyway, it was nice talking to you! I hope you have a great night.

So, I'm more on the artist side here than an actual commissioner, but every now and again I'll buy a thing and I'm still an avid watcher and stuff so I felt you wouldn't mind my two cents!

Anyways, I like personal journals, so long as the poster has a good attitude. I really love getting to know the person-behind-the-brush, so to speak, because it can be really magical seeing where they come from and how that affects their work. Even if times are bad, so long as the person is up-beat, I don't really mind. Then again, my mood is easily swayed and I just feel awful after reading how someone hates their family or their art or their life. Especially if the artist has more artistic skill skill than me, it's so depressing to see artists I'm fond of only focus on the negative.

And even though I like personal journals, it's kinda annoying to have ones with misleading or non-discriptive subjects and one line inside. With people who post these, I kinda stop reading after a while because it feels like a waste of time.
I find if there's at least an equal mixing of business and personal posts, I don't feel that it clutters anything, especially if the artist has links to resources that their commissioners may want to know, like the current Queue or the like.
And I definitely see your point on the continuous hand-outs, especially if the artist acts ungrateful or is always pissed off at the community or just has a bad attitude in general. It's tough making a living off artwork, so I don't mind at all if artists are promoting themselves in a respectful manner (both to themselves and their watcher-base), but as soon as that degree of humility goes out the window I tend to click that convenient little -Watch button.

In my opinion and experiences, attitude is everything!

An artist's attitude can have an affect upon whether I commission them or not. After I watch them I keep a relative eye on them to get to know them a bit. Comment on their work, see hiw they respond, especially to the commissioner. Then when I have a piece in mind, I check their T.O.S. to see if they would do it and get a price. In my experience thus far, all the artists I've commissioned have great attitudes.