Hey artists of Holla Forums have you ever done commissions before...

Hey artists of Holla Forums have you ever done commissions before? If so do you have any stories to share about clients you've worked with? Any advice you'd give to people about to start taking them?

Image doesn't have anything to do with the topic, just think it's funny.

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Lee_(comics)#Controversy
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Did a few back in the day, all in all its a pretty good experience. You just do a few rough thumbnails, show them off, the commissioner picks one, and you expound on it while keeping them in the loop.

I'd say my only issue with it is having to get to know the client. They are always good people, don't get me wrong, but really I just want to get the job done and move on, not make friends.

Advice wise? Just be friendly and courteous. That's about it. After that you just do your best, get the commission done in a timely manner, and send it off to the client. Maybe ask if it's okay for you to post it. My personal rule of thumb is I never post a clients paid for art.

I'd assume it heavily depends on what you do.
I draw shitty cartoon porn, and my experiences are not really uniform. Sometimes I get buddy-buddy with the clients, sometimes it's strictly "draw this, here's the money, no questions asked". Sometimes they ask to see WIPs, sometimes they are satisfied to just get the finished product.
I haven't had any experiences bad enough to learn advice-materiel from it. Never got ripped off, worst that has happened to me was a long-time client tricking me into drawing a shitty OC of his.


Weird. My personal rule of thumb is that I never abstain from posting commissioned art, unless the client requests for it not to be posted in advance.
With the exception of OC stuff, those I just don't want to be associated with. Though, to the client, I pretend "it's you character, you have the first right to post it!"

Did commissions for some stuff. Drawing for my logo (ended up good but I fucked up my account so the logo sat in my folder unused) Pretty well done job. I gave him some pointers with no drawing reference and he made it almost right the first time so it just need one alteration. On time and we don't bullshit around. Sadly the only guy who did my commission on time.

I commissioned a clay sculpture with Gumball theme. Took her 2 months to finish it when she promised me 1 month. No update until I contacted her. She ended up reduced to price to only $10 from the original $40 for being very late. Take note, a lot of people tend to never give us updates unless we probe them. What with most creative people and being fucking lazy?

Also I did a lot of Hot Wheels customization design and commission a guy that good at painting them. So I drew my designs, sent them to him along with intended HW models and just wait. Sadly he's pretty tardy as well. Gave a lot of excuses but I don't mind since his works were amazingly well done.

And no, I'm not going to post my commissioned stuff here. It's like giving obvious evidence to trace my actual identity.

Well that's pretty obvious for porn stuff right? It's not like you going to have a very chummy client paying you to draw something while saying "Oh hey mate, my name is Jonathan, I'm from Doncaster and I want you to draw Amy from Sonic getting fucked with a sword dildo by Sephiroth while he's wearing a pink casual jacket and purple yellow kilt while an IRA member watching from behind a pillbox. Got it? Here's $45 I will pay the rest when you done, cheerio!"

Ha, weird, we are complete opposites in that respect. I always figured it was theirs to do what they pleased with, I was just the hired hand to help draw it.

you'd be very, very surprised how personal and open these people can get in the course of a commission. I'm not going to go into any stories because, as I said, they were all decent people… just some were very open about things.

hotwheels fix your shit
hotwheels fix your shit

Firetires is long dead, mate.

What the fuck with this reply faggotry

I've been stuck, trying to reply since yesterday, periodically refreshing and trying to send the message. Turns out some part of it is not cosher, and when I try to post it - any board, any thread - it just gets stuck on "100%"

okay, Holla Forums is fucking broken and I love it.
so far I have managed to bring down the error-causing structure to pic related.
If you try to post something containing it - you will get stuck on 100%.

The psychotherapy bills would be higher than the commission rates.

Okay, so, trying to figure out the ways in which Holla Forums is broken aside…


Most of the names I see no paypal invoices sound pretty legit, so I can cross the "know their real name" part off the list. I also know where half of them work, since they are willing to share that on their own if I massage them during work hours. And they can be very open and chummy about their fetishes. I don't mind for the most part. I'm really good buddies with one of my clients now, and if anything - it only made him pay me more.


I see it as getting paid for the work but not for the intellectual property. And, being a Holla Forums freedomfag, I'm not a big fan of restrictive copyright. When I see my pictures posted on russian porn sites with no credit - I'm just happy that so many people enjoy my work.

Save the money and just go full crazy. It works well for Frank Miller and the creator of Cerberus.

I think they are in their acceptance stage. They no longer ashamed of their fetish and believe that the artist will protect the client confidentiality. It's a good thing tho. Internet really change everything. I mean back then before internet I felt like my fetishes are out of line and I was too ashamed to tell it to anyone. But now I can see that my fetishes are pretty vanilla compared to what I found on the internet.

You still gotta be selective what you accept. Paul Kidd from Tank Vixens got arrested over some cubfur he did on commission. The judge stated flat that there was no such thing as furry.

Cubfur disgusts me as well but isn't that still a drawing and not real life? Or is this Canadian Court?

I'm just hoping no crazy artist decides to destroy me some day. I'm not a weirdo, I just like seeing hot chicks raped by monsters like any normal guy.

Dude you're fine. You wouldn't be surprised to learn that most people are into some really gross and fucked up shit on the downlow. It gets out that you like that then chances are the person who decides to blow it out of proportions is into something more fucked up.

I did a couple back when I had free time & working computers

Advice: Don't do this if you think you'll have too much to do, keep in contact with whomever you're doing it for, and make sure to get as good of a computer you can get for this

as for story, he apparently met Linkara irl at a convention. he's just as much of a smug prick as everyone thinks

Australian.
We have had two men prosecuted and put on a sex offenders list for Simpsons porn
.

Holy shit dude I feel sorry for you guys. I thought they only strict on video games.

So glad I'm easten european, where nobody gives a flying fuck

My high school dream was to one day work on vidya as concept/environment artist. That pretty much shattered when I actually got a job and realized how bosses are retarded there and how much are artists exploited.
After that I worked on some general freelance graphic design and then moved onto illustration and experience drastically changed.
I now focus on illustrations and individual commissions.

This is bassically what I got from working with different clients. Going from worst to best experience:

Game development
When people look at famous concept artists and game dev industry they tend to forget that them famous ones are about o.5% of concept artists out there and they usually have the top position in their job. The rest is being exploited with long working hours and vietnamese sallary.
are mostly retarded. They have no idea how art works and what needs to be done to make something look good and useful. You will be extremely lucky if you have a capable art director who actually knows shit. Bosses fuckup on their judgement so about 4o% of your time you have to redo your previous work because imbeciles wouldn't listen to your suggestions earlier.
Oh god these…Most and I do mean MOST of the people working in game industry are low tier, uneducated GARBAGE. Deviantart teen tier art scum who knew how to push 3 buttons in photoshop and got a job. These fucknuggets have extremely inflated ego and consider themselves the pillars on which the game industry stand on. Quadruple this effect if they are actually working on AAA titles. Basically out of 15o people there are 2-3 dudes that are actually aware of their job position and don't push it in your face like vegan propaganda.
Shit salary, shit bosses/clients, shit teams; unless you're working in that lucky 1%

General Graphic Design
This is The Office Cubicle job of art world. The daily grind of trying to find good deals that pay well and balance it with hundred others. If you're in freelance, you will definitely spend more time looking at emails than actually working on logos,shirts,calendars etc.
There is this disgusting, terrible trend in GGD (General Graphic Design) where clients always bring you back to fix some minor stuff. My worst case - I had a dude that kept bugging me for 6 months after the project was finished for some minor tweaks and fixes and adjustments. This is the definitely most annoying part of it. People would think that is somewhat not that bad, being the only issue but you have to realize that these guys are most indecisive people on the goddamn planet and you're working for them. If you gave them a perfect win-win option they will still ask you to do both and then later ask for a 3rd option because they feel that if you kick a dead horse long enough, it might run. Did I also mention that you usually work on 3-5 projects at the same time?
Can actually be useful and help you through the grind. Especially if you work in a company. They can help you with ideas here and there and share your pain. Most of them are hipster scum…but they if they help with work…hell I'd take a SJW feminist tumblrina to work next to me if she can nail the perfect font.
MAKE UP YOUR FUCKING MIND CLIENTS. GODFUCKDAMMIT.

Animated Industry
Depends on who you work for and who you work with. I had a chance to work as an art director for a couple of 3Danimation students. Worked well once you establish a proper pipeline. Very long and tiresome job, the problem here is actually finding the clients to pay for proper animation.
Depends on the boss and art director you work with. If you got a good boss and capable AD, then you will have a good ride. If you got bad boss and AD, then prepare for a typical Game Dev Gehenna.
Can be as low as gamedev scum, but if you you have a capable studio, shit can be done well and fast.
The main issue here is actually finding the customer. If the boss is forced to cut corners, then prepare for gamedev-tier abyss.

Comic Industry
You either work alone, in a team, or in a company.
It's ez when you work alone. Team can be good too, because the job can be done faster. Company work can suck because retarded bosses.
When you work alone, it's pretty much the daily freelance grind of finding jobs and offers more than working on actual comics. Small team-friend based studio is good because you all look together on different places and job can be found and done faster. The only downside is that you are limited by artstyle to be compatible with your teammates. Company work sucks heavily, but if you want a stable pay, go for it.
Comic artists are generally shit. So most clients come to you with low expectations. If you're capable, you will find that clients are desperate for a good comic artist and will give you good time and money to work on their stuff.
If you work in company, you'll be most definitely working on low tier comics with shit plot and terrible requirements. If you want to enjoy a comic you're working on, you're not gonna have that here because you don't pick your clients. Your boss does.
In a small studio. Things can run really smooth because you'll probably be good friends with your teammates and that can help with the grind unless there is a problem between people, then shit falls apart very fast.
In a big company, stuff gets much more terrible since all the shit artists who are too lazy to git gud or find job on their own end up here.
Best if you work alone, 2nd best if you have a small team. Bad if you work in big company

Individual character commissions
I'd say stick to the small sketch commissions. If you offer a big detailed picture, then prepare for undecisiveness of a Graphic Design Client. Focus your work on small commissions. Things you can draw in 2-3 hours tops. Also there are a lot of scams here so be careful who you work for. If you work on small commissions, even if you get scammed, you lost 1-2 hours and 1o-2o$ of work so that's not much. Also this job is good because you can work on it on the side if you have a real job.
Very nice experience if you work on sketch commissions because clients know it's sketch so they don't ask for much details or fixes and that helps. I personally avoid NSWF clients because they tend to scam a lot. When working NSWF, always ask for money upfront before delivering any WIPS and/or especially finished works. I was never scammed, but that is mostly because I avoid NSWF stuff.
A cat would do.
Take care not to get scammed; work on small commissions.

Illustration work for writers
Hot damn I enjoy this. This can be your dream job if you work alone. You get to read some good writefag stuff. Can be tiresome if you work in company but hey, steady pay is steady pay. Only problem here is finding work since most writefags are broke af.
If you work alone clients are awesome. You get to work with people who actually listen to you and trust that you can make good artwork for them. Especially if they are actually good writers, then things become 300x better because you draw stuff for a story you actually enjoy reading. It's like getting paid for drawing fanart. In companies. It's a bit different because you don't get to choose writers but then again, writefags actually listen to drawfags so all's good.
Writefags are THE BEST clients a drawfag can have, but good luck finding ones that can actually pay.

Thank you for sharing your experience. What do you think about comic publishers who outsourced their artists from overseas? I mean my friend got commission job from American comic publishers often and paid by the page but he never share his experience with me.

They outsource for a reason. Lower pay. In my country, you are upper middle class/borderline rich if you earn more than 550$/month. Any comic artist here would do the job for for 250$/month. Compare that to asian scum who would do even more for less.

My personal opinion is if it quality is the same, then outsource it. The really interesting thing is what happens when most of the western comic industry is done by asians due to outsourcing? Does it become manga?

Then you'll get into the habit of only outsourcing and lose all domestic talent, just like with Disney

Depends on which side of outsourcing you're on.
Then again it will force "domestic" artists to git good.

No, it would force domestic artists into starvation wages to compete.

This is why we have so many twitter hipsters invading our media. They work cheaply because they have better sources of income to compensate(namely their parents and paterons).

I remember there's a short trend of hiring artists from Philipine. I don't remember what year but the most prominent and featured in Wizard magazine is this comic called Darkminds.

Great artwork though.

Well it always worked like this in art world. You're either better, or cheaper.

What the fuck does twatter have to do with all of this?

Any info on the artist?

Pat Lee. He's a PinoyCanadian and his created his own publication called Dreamwave that spectacularly bankrupt because he's a complete asshat douchebag.

He's hated by every Transformers fans out there. Even Dave Willis did a crusade against that guy.

I think the guy who made Courage the Cowardly Dog made a character based on Pat Lee as well.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Lee_(comics)#Controversy

Lol, so it looks like he learnt his business practices off Rob Liefeld as well as his art style.

So, no reddit spacing?


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