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Updates + Changing How I Handle Commissions a Bit
7 years ago
Hey guys! So I wanted to make a quick update journal regarding where I'm at on commissions, and things I'm gonna be changing to help me work quicker.
First of all the progress I've made this year has been slow between fighting off depression and all the other curve balls life has thrown at me and just getting far too into my own head space about shit. I'm not sure if I've done more digging myself in a hole than catching up at this point but I know that the way I'm handling things right now isn't working very well for me productivity-wise. I'm not gonna sit here and make excuses either. I just want to catch up.
So to do that I'm gonna be changing up the way I work on commissions. I wanna start by saying I'm sorry but a lot of the deadlines I've given folks over the last few months (and year) haven't been great. I'm still working on commissions from last December, and if I don't finish that and at least all the January commissions this month I'm gonna die of stress.
My biggest issues lately have been biting off more than I can chew. And that's mainly focused on the work I promise people, not meeting those deadlines, and working on too much shit at once to accommodate those deadlines. I try my damn hardest to meet the dates i throw out. I never forget. But I feel like absolute shit and end up breaking down some days because I know I'm not hitting the mark. My biggest mistake is I treat my schedule as if I were some robot just pumping out art, and forget to account for days where I just need to get out of the house some (because I spend most of my time in my bedroom and it sucks), or have a slow morning because I wake up depressed or some other shit.
Lately I've been doing stuff in batches of 15-20 pieces at once and that's super stressful. Typically I sketch all those pieces back to back, end up burnt out by the end of that, and then go from there either doing all the line arts and finishing them off one by one after or so. But with the last group I finished, it took me way longer than I expected. In part a lot of those pieces were really heavily detailed, big commissions. (not complaining, I'm really happy with all the work I've been putting out lately)
But to say the least by the time I got back to working on some of them, the initial drive and excitement I had for a few of them was gone. Its kinda rough when you are really excited to work on a commission you sketched only to have wait a few weeks while you finish all the other ones ahead of it. Makes it feel like I've worked on something that may only take up a day of my time start to finish take 3 weeks...
The Important Stuff:
Here's the things I'll be changing:
- I'll only be giving rough estimates for when I expect to get to someone's piece if asked. I'm not gonna feel bad if I miss them any more, because ultimately I will get there and it will totally be worth the wait. I just wanna make awesome art for ya'll and not waste my time being stressed out over deadlines
- I'll only be working on commissions 2-4 at a time. This will prevent me from getting burnt out and let me finish stuff I'm excited about as quickly as I want. turn around should ideally be quicker as a result too (despite it potentially taking longer for me to get that initial sketch out)
- If I've got a lot of big things back to back I may pull an easier commission (like things without backgrounds and badges) from farther down my list to give myself a little break between them.
- I wont be responding to messages on the weekend. I kinda already do that, but Saturday's are my day off to clear my head and not think about art, and Sundays are primarily catch up days that I may or may not work.
- I'm still going to be taking commissions to cover bills while I catch up. I cant avoid that right now and I'm currently looking for a part time job so that I can make some money and take on less work while still having time to work on art.
- Finally I will be simplifying things a little bit art style wise. I need to get faster at drawing and stop nitpicking over every tiny detail. The finished product will still look good, But I may start doing more painting instead of a lot of lines for backgrounds, and I'm gonna be a little less meticulous with a few things.
First of all the progress I've made this year has been slow between fighting off depression and all the other curve balls life has thrown at me and just getting far too into my own head space about shit. I'm not sure if I've done more digging myself in a hole than catching up at this point but I know that the way I'm handling things right now isn't working very well for me productivity-wise. I'm not gonna sit here and make excuses either. I just want to catch up.
So to do that I'm gonna be changing up the way I work on commissions. I wanna start by saying I'm sorry but a lot of the deadlines I've given folks over the last few months (and year) haven't been great. I'm still working on commissions from last December, and if I don't finish that and at least all the January commissions this month I'm gonna die of stress.
My biggest issues lately have been biting off more than I can chew. And that's mainly focused on the work I promise people, not meeting those deadlines, and working on too much shit at once to accommodate those deadlines. I try my damn hardest to meet the dates i throw out. I never forget. But I feel like absolute shit and end up breaking down some days because I know I'm not hitting the mark. My biggest mistake is I treat my schedule as if I were some robot just pumping out art, and forget to account for days where I just need to get out of the house some (because I spend most of my time in my bedroom and it sucks), or have a slow morning because I wake up depressed or some other shit.
Lately I've been doing stuff in batches of 15-20 pieces at once and that's super stressful. Typically I sketch all those pieces back to back, end up burnt out by the end of that, and then go from there either doing all the line arts and finishing them off one by one after or so. But with the last group I finished, it took me way longer than I expected. In part a lot of those pieces were really heavily detailed, big commissions. (not complaining, I'm really happy with all the work I've been putting out lately)
But to say the least by the time I got back to working on some of them, the initial drive and excitement I had for a few of them was gone. Its kinda rough when you are really excited to work on a commission you sketched only to have wait a few weeks while you finish all the other ones ahead of it. Makes it feel like I've worked on something that may only take up a day of my time start to finish take 3 weeks...
The Important Stuff:
Here's the things I'll be changing:
- I'll only be giving rough estimates for when I expect to get to someone's piece if asked. I'm not gonna feel bad if I miss them any more, because ultimately I will get there and it will totally be worth the wait. I just wanna make awesome art for ya'll and not waste my time being stressed out over deadlines
- I'll only be working on commissions 2-4 at a time. This will prevent me from getting burnt out and let me finish stuff I'm excited about as quickly as I want. turn around should ideally be quicker as a result too (despite it potentially taking longer for me to get that initial sketch out)
- If I've got a lot of big things back to back I may pull an easier commission (like things without backgrounds and badges) from farther down my list to give myself a little break between them.
- I wont be responding to messages on the weekend. I kinda already do that, but Saturday's are my day off to clear my head and not think about art, and Sundays are primarily catch up days that I may or may not work.
- I'm still going to be taking commissions to cover bills while I catch up. I cant avoid that right now and I'm currently looking for a part time job so that I can make some money and take on less work while still having time to work on art.
- Finally I will be simplifying things a little bit art style wise. I need to get faster at drawing and stop nitpicking over every tiny detail. The finished product will still look good, But I may start doing more painting instead of a lot of lines for backgrounds, and I'm gonna be a little less meticulous with a few things.
It is my humble opinion that backgrounds should cost extra. A plain white background is fine by me since it'll get the piece finished all the quicker. ^^
I'm aiming to get to where you are at before the end of the year if I can, but if not I should get there by January :3