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Tips For Nabbing a Commission Slot
7 years ago
✧✦ REQUIEM BEATZ! ✦✧
got somethin' to say!Things that improve your chances:
1. Higher budget
This makes sure that my bills get paid, and also tends to be more high quality, interesting images to put in my gallery, which is good for drawing in more business. I map out how many commissions I'll take by monthly budget, so if I can keep the number of commissions lower, I will.
2. Being a repeat customer
Specifically, those who have been very pleasant to work with. I enjoy people that make my job easier. If I see a username and feel myself perk up, I wanna pick them.
4, Watercolor Style
Aside from being the higher budget style, this is also the style I prefer to develop and represent myself with.
5. Natural and/or Well-coordinated Character
This doesn't inherently mean a simple character. I appreciate complexity and a splash of color, so long as it's well coordinated and balanced. Neon wuskies with an odd assortment of tattoos and rainbow piercings are not an aesthetic I'm even remotely drawn to.
6. Female/Trans Characters
They're rare in my consumer base (women especially, both cis and trans), and I spent 16 years near exclusively drawing women because I love female bodies. Combine this with a desire for diversity and variation in my gallery, along with wanting to work on a very different thing every day. I tend to appreciate variance from the lean, big-dicked male.
7. A Challenge
In addition to paying bills and providing you with a quality piece, I'm also trying to constantly improve. Subject matter that is new, interesting, stimulating and dynamic (with a few exceptions, that I'll mention further along) tends to have a lot of appeal to me. I have already established about 80 times that I can, in fact, draw a dude standing there with a smug face and his penis out.
8. Artistic Freedom
I have more fun, I get to experiment, and I can let inspiration take its hold :D I work a lot better with leniency, and artistic freedom pieces just tend to come out higher quality and feel like they go faster. Hence why they are discounted!
9. SFW or Mature (as compared to NSFW/Pornographic)
This ties a lot with seeking a challenge and doing something new. I'm okay drawing porn, but lord does it get repetitive. This is largely due to the fact that most customers tend to want the same angles and positions to show everything, namely, the almighty erect penis, and whatever hole it happens to be entering.
SFW and mature pics, however, tend to have more diversity, intrigue, and a focus on a mood or theme.
Things that hurt your chances:
1. Certain Themes/Genres
Despite seeking a challenge, I have basically nonexistent interest in horror, violence, drug use, and to many's dismay, most sci-fi, cities, or anything involving scenarios with a bunch of crisp, man-made structures. I enjoy natural things, and just find it nearly impossible to get psyched about drawing a building or vehicle.
2. Copycat Commissions
That is, a commission where you link another piece, from another artist or myself, and say "just like this". Linking an image and wanting something with a similar aesthetic to it is fine, but wanting me to basically treat a completed piece like a YCH is nearly always going to be rejected. I have a decent amount of career goals, and redundancy is not one of them.
3. Last Batch Commissioner
Despite what I said in number 2 above, I also like to make sure I don't have newcomers excluded because of the slots being taken by frequent buyers.
4. Being difficult to work with
I have a ridiculously high threshold for actually banning people. But if you were more difficult to work with than the canvas I was drawing your picture on, I'm not going to feel particularly motivated to pick out your form.
1. Higher budget
This makes sure that my bills get paid, and also tends to be more high quality, interesting images to put in my gallery, which is good for drawing in more business. I map out how many commissions I'll take by monthly budget, so if I can keep the number of commissions lower, I will.
2. Being a repeat customer
Specifically, those who have been very pleasant to work with. I enjoy people that make my job easier. If I see a username and feel myself perk up, I wanna pick them.
4, Watercolor Style
Aside from being the higher budget style, this is also the style I prefer to develop and represent myself with.
5. Natural and/or Well-coordinated Character
This doesn't inherently mean a simple character. I appreciate complexity and a splash of color, so long as it's well coordinated and balanced. Neon wuskies with an odd assortment of tattoos and rainbow piercings are not an aesthetic I'm even remotely drawn to.
6. Female/Trans Characters
They're rare in my consumer base (women especially, both cis and trans), and I spent 16 years near exclusively drawing women because I love female bodies. Combine this with a desire for diversity and variation in my gallery, along with wanting to work on a very different thing every day. I tend to appreciate variance from the lean, big-dicked male.
7. A Challenge
In addition to paying bills and providing you with a quality piece, I'm also trying to constantly improve. Subject matter that is new, interesting, stimulating and dynamic (with a few exceptions, that I'll mention further along) tends to have a lot of appeal to me. I have already established about 80 times that I can, in fact, draw a dude standing there with a smug face and his penis out.
8. Artistic Freedom
I have more fun, I get to experiment, and I can let inspiration take its hold :D I work a lot better with leniency, and artistic freedom pieces just tend to come out higher quality and feel like they go faster. Hence why they are discounted!
9. SFW or Mature (as compared to NSFW/Pornographic)
This ties a lot with seeking a challenge and doing something new. I'm okay drawing porn, but lord does it get repetitive. This is largely due to the fact that most customers tend to want the same angles and positions to show everything, namely, the almighty erect penis, and whatever hole it happens to be entering.
SFW and mature pics, however, tend to have more diversity, intrigue, and a focus on a mood or theme.
Things that hurt your chances:
1. Certain Themes/Genres
Despite seeking a challenge, I have basically nonexistent interest in horror, violence, drug use, and to many's dismay, most sci-fi, cities, or anything involving scenarios with a bunch of crisp, man-made structures. I enjoy natural things, and just find it nearly impossible to get psyched about drawing a building or vehicle.
2. Copycat Commissions
That is, a commission where you link another piece, from another artist or myself, and say "just like this". Linking an image and wanting something with a similar aesthetic to it is fine, but wanting me to basically treat a completed piece like a YCH is nearly always going to be rejected. I have a decent amount of career goals, and redundancy is not one of them.
3. Last Batch Commissioner
Despite what I said in number 2 above, I also like to make sure I don't have newcomers excluded because of the slots being taken by frequent buyers.
4. Being difficult to work with
I have a ridiculously high threshold for actually banning people. But if you were more difficult to work with than the canvas I was drawing your picture on, I'm not going to feel particularly motivated to pick out your form.
Also, I didn't realize you were down below 2000 watchers. I have a bad habit of assuming that if I like someone's quality of work they must have massive followings already xD
Someone's getting a spotlight today :D
Plus, I hate first-come-first-serve. I have customers all over the world and those slots go fast. This way everyone has a pretty equal chance regardless of time zone, I end up with pieces I actually want to work on, and I can organize by budget rather than just having a random lotto of how much money I'll get that month.
I'm a tad disappointed I didn't make the guide sooner lol. Just kinda told people "I pick muh favorites" but it clicked today while going through the forms that nobody actually knows what "muh favorites" are xD
I always thought maybe I'm not hitting a nerve in the fandom, post too irregular and too many sketches... not enough classical anthros like wolves. I also am currently a student, so I'm not having a regular flow of commissions in my gallery, since I can live off student support.
If everything goes as planned I'll be finished studying next summer. I feel like a chimera of furry, concept and fine artist. I want to establish myself in the “normie“ market of my town AND in the furry community. And have no idea where life will take me, I need to get a feeling for hitting said nerve. xD
I started out with rule 34 personally. I'm not really a furry myself, but my boyfriend at the time was, and since I couldn't really imagine an animal person myself, I just drew pre existing ones xD People dug it and now I draw their fuzzies.
Bit of advice regarding gaining a foothold. Despite what popular opinion may suggest, porn does not necessarily equal the destruction of a place in the normie art world. If your work is high enough quality, people will frequently overlook the pornographic aspect.
I can attest to this as someone who grew up in a small, conservative town that managed to showcase furry art, often times NSFW, without being too harshly criticized, and actually got some "normie" customers that way. Even my mama (catholic woman) doesn't bat an eye if my description of a business exchange involves sexual imagery.
I'm of the opinion that if you focus on improving your quality and being respectful to people, you can get away with a lot more subject matter.
Consistency is important too, which you'll prolly be able to do better after schooling is done, as you mentioned. I gain watchers at a much higher rate if I'm posting a piece bi-daily.
That's very valuable to know. I'm glad you can share such a positive experience in that regard. I guess people accepting that they'd be hypocritical for shaming drawn pornography and the fact that even old masters had ties to pornographic art comes in handy too... just will be weird when it comes to personal pieces with me and my boyfriend. Then I can blame no commissioner nor the money.
What I am afraid of the most actually is, that making money will derive me into a direction I don't feel is me, or that it will make me stagnate. Your list up there is a good inspiration for what to aim for, how to counter that! And offering affordable YCHs created in my very personal vision with the freedom to choose fitting characters could also be a way to escape stagnation and carry out my personal language.
I'm so fucking thankful people enjoy art so that we can live off and provide to that enjoyment.
Keep in mind you don't necessarily have to "blame" anything. Generally speaking, if your reasoning isn't malicious, it's usually okay, at least in real life (people online can kinda be assholes) to share your honest intent behind your actions. If people wanna give you shit for drawing a piece of you and your boyfriend, I think it's reasonable enough to say "I like sex with my boyfriend so I wanted to draw it."
And that stagnation is real, and I went through it. To be quite honest, I think most artists kinda have to endure it at least a bit while they build up their fanbase, unless they're fortunate enough to be financially secure outside of the art, and still have enough free time and emotional energy to consistently put out art.
And yeh, it's pretty great how there's so many people who value the work enough to make it a way of making a living x3
As you build up, you will have people judging and scrutinizing, and for those that are friendly, there's still a lot of inquiries and social interactions (that I personally view as vital to a healthy relationship with your fanbase).
So getting good at holding your own and remaining confident in the face of people judging your content, on and off screen, is a really, really helpful skill to have.
Thought it was worth sharing, as anxiety has been a massive thing I've had to get through in this line of work, and seems to be very common among artists and the fandom in general.
Great tips indeed.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/19907195/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/22257736/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/25375463/
Mind I ask, what would be too much when it comes to a character with a tattoo? Another question I have is, what specifically do you want to try to do more of?
And generally, RPG, elemental, ornate clothing, natural scenery, that sort of stuff.
But that's good to know thank you. I do love to see how you draw ornate clothing.
And the latter part is a big part of why I posted this. I frequently get requests for sci-fi type things specifically, and whenever I take one on to try something new they look...technically good, but they have an obvious lack of spirit to them. Just really not my cup of tea. I like magic and tribal aesthetic.
Same issue with super porny requests. I very much enjoy drawing sex, it's interesting and jam-packed with emotional intensity, along with being a very unique dynamic. But when it's just this constant focus on the genitals it's just like "dear god have you people not seen enough dick?"
I can now be selective enough to spare both me and the commissioner a subpar commission. I don't like spending many hours on something that lacks soul.
Unfortunately it feels like that kind of porn is popular because it's easy to consume and is immediately gratifying for a lot of folks. Sex on the other hand sounds like more of a story and I can see why you're getting tired of the same old thing that doesn't have much going for it there. In short, no, people haven't seen enough dick. :P I'd like to give the furry community a bit of credit though, people can get preeeetty creative with how the bits look like. XD
See I've no desire to pander to the immediate gratification xD And luckily, my choice to pick commissions with a little more substance seems to have been serving me well.
The market is out there, even amongst the furballs e_e
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/26341625/
Keep in mind most of these standards are in comparison to other forms put in. I wouldn't look at the character and go "lol ew not doing that", but I'd be much more inclined to choose characters with a much less visually intense design.
Also thanks for the clarification! I'll make sure to keep it in mind for the when you open for commissions.