A basic guide to setting up commissions
When it comes to commissioning, there is so much that needs to be decided, arranged and thought of that it can all appear a bit daunting at first.
However: when following a couple of basic guidelines, setting up commissions really is not as hard as you think!
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First things first
So you have decided you want to start doing commissions. That's great!
The first thing to do is to determine what you want to offer.
Do you want to offer drawings, or designs?
Will you be coding journal-skins for people, or will you be pixeling?
Take a look through your gallery and try to determine what you do best and what you like to do the most.
Because
that will most likely be what you'll be offering.
- TIP:
Stick to what you're good at.
Don't promise what you can't deliver when someone is paying you for it.
Now that you've most likely decided what you want to do, it's time for the next step.
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Payment & payment methods
Time to start writing up a price-list! But how much can or will you charge for a piece of your work?
A good way of going about this is to ask yourself the following:
* How good are your drawings?
* How many hours do you spend on a single drawing?
Chances are that if you just started drawing, you can’t ask the same price as someone who’s been doing it for years and does a better job at it.
Don’t over-price, but also don’t under-price yourself!
Ask a couple of people you know for an estimate and for some advice. That way, you’ll have a broader view and you’ll be able to write up a price-list with more information.
Now is also the time to decide whether you want to be paid in advance, paid after the work, or paid in segments.
This is pretty much up to personal opinion, though most artists prefer payment in advance.
That way, when a client suddenly cancels the commission, you still get some payment for the work you've already put into a drawing.
Something to also keep in mind is that if you can't do the work, or if the client is not satisfied with the commission, is that in some cases you may have to refund.
Try avoiding this by doing your very best with every single picture and don't spend what you were paid before completing the commission.
Also: no rushing and definitely no sloppy sketch-deliveries when you were asked for a painting!
Moving on to payment methods, you have the choice between the two most used methods on deviantART: points or Paypal.
* Points are deviantART’s on-site currency and may be purchased here. Once purchased, they can be donated or, in this case, used to pay for a commission.
* Paypal is an online service that allows you to safely pay and transfer money over the internet.
Information on how to set up a Paypal-account: www.squidoo.com/paypalsetup
Right about now you should be having a lot of information. Time to move on to the commission journal!
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Setting up your commission-journal
To let everyone know you’re taking commissions, it’s a good idea to have a commission-journal.
There, you can notify people of what you can be commissioned for and for how much. It's also a good idea to keep a list in your commission-journal of who you are currently working for and how the commissions are progressing.
I’ll try to dissect the commission journal point by point and link to a couple of examples afterwards.
But first of all:
* Commissions: open/closed?
Are you taking commissions or not?
This is important since it lets people know whether or not they should contact you for information.
* Amount of commission slots available: ?
How many commissions will you be taking at a time?
How many slots have already been filled?
Don’t bite off more than you can chew and keep it reasonable.
When starting out, I suggest keeping 3 commission slots.
You can always add more later on when you're accustomed to being commissioned.
The next thing to do is specify what you can be commissioned for. Include samples for each type of art you are offering and make sure to show your best works. After all, you want to get people interested, no? It’s also usually in your best interest to include a list of what you can / will do and a list of what you can’t / won’t.
TIP:
Keep your lay-out simple and orderly.
No one wants to dig through a wall of text in order to find what they’re looking for. The easier your journal is to navigate, the better!
You can always add a list of completed commissions at the end of the commission journal to show what you've already done.
A plus is that it also shows people you finish your commissions and that you are trustworthy.
A couple of examples of commission journals:
example ~ example ~ example ~ example
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Getting your name out there.
On this part I will be brief, though it's also something important that most people forget. Let people know you're taking commissions!
* Put a link to your commission-journal in your signature.
* Put a link to your commission-journal in your most recent journal and keep it there for as long as you're taking commissions. Nothing is worse than to have to dig through loads of journals in order to find the commission journal.
* Advertise it in the projects-forum for commissions you do in your free time.
* Advertise it in the job services-forum if you are wanting to take your commissions seriously and treat them as you would a real job.
And if all goes well...
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I am being commissioned; what now?
Ask for details about what the client wants of course!
Also set up a clear set of rules in Terms of Service (ToS).
* If the client is not satisfied, will you re-do the piece?
If yes: how many times?
If no: do you refund?
* When you finish the piece, how will you deliver it?
See below for various methods of delivering said piece to the client.
* Do you give progress-reports?
If yes: how often?
* Will the client be able to change his/her mind?
If yes: will there be extra cost?
There are a plethora of things that can be discussed to avoid complications later and I hardly listed them all. But I think you get the general idea, no?
When the commissioned piece is finished, you need to show the client, of course.
How you will do this all depends on what you have agreed upon with the client, but a couple of options are:
* Uploading it to deviantART and linking it to the client.
* Sending it by e-mail.
I recommend making a separate e-mail account for commissioning only.
Make sure people know about it and that they can contact you there
* Sending a copy / original in the mail
Keep the cost of sending things in mind and be sure to notify beforehand if the shipping will be included in the price or not.
This list is not exhaustive, of course.
IMPORTANT:
Do not send out the full-res, unwatermarked copy of the commission if you haven't been paid yet.
In cases of payment-after-commission, send a low-res and watermarked proof of the commission being finished.
You can send over a higher-res version after confirming you have been paid.
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Last but not least
Have fun with it!
And then all that rests me to say is: good luck!
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* A couple of related tutorials *
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