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[knuckleheacl]

How to pay artists for digital-only commissions through Goods or Services

Quick tutorial on how to pay artists for digital-only commissions ( which means no shipping) 

If you choose the shipping option when the artists is only doing a digital commission, and paypal sees that the artist didn’t ship anything, it creates trouble for the artist, to put it simply. So let’s not do that!

1.)

2.)

for those paying through MOBILE 

and you’re good!

[knuckleheacl]

hey this blog is basically dead

follow me on Twitter @knuckleheacl if you wanna see my art !!!

[knuckleheacl]

Heads up PayPal is changing ToS again

And they are getting even more strict when it comes to not using invoices for charging for Digital Goods.

Whatever Invoices make you uncomfortable or not, you gotta start using them if you want to keep your PayPal and your money. Changes starting this October 19th.

Honestly I don’t get why so many artists are so overwhelmed by invoices, takes just a few clicks to set up. 

And is not only “oh you have to use invoices because PayPal says so” if you don’t use invoices you’re putting yourself at risk of being scammed by an user abusing the buyer’s protection. 

Since PayPal ain’t got no idea of what those $50 you received were for, but the buyer is saying they didn’t got anything for the money, PayPal will just side with the buyer.

I’m seriously begging ppl, start using invoices. I’m tired of seeing ppl complain their paypal was banned, or is under investigation, or worse, the $100 they got for a very complicated commission, 3 months later get a refund issue. 

just

start

using

invoices

for your own sake. 

Here is how you use invoices because I can’t keep playing devil’d advocate, yes I would love to help you get your PayPal restored but just this last month I had to help three persons, and they were MORE than aware of this issues. 

Just protect yourself. 

Step 1. You login and click here

Step 2. You click create new Invoice. YOU NEVER CLICK REQUEST MONEY, unless you want to risk yourself to get scamer by buyer’s protection exploit and not only lose your money but your paypal account, and any future paypal linked to your irl name. 

Step 3 You follow this steps

1. Invoice for amount only

2. Ask your client for their PayPal email and put in that field

3. Add a vague description of what you’re doing, something like “Character Coloured with Background” is good enough, and if you need more than 1 character you can type in “2″ where it says amount, or just say “2 characters”.

Warning: don’t type in “Naruto rawing Sasuke”. That will get you banned. 

4. Click send. 

Optional steps. Create a template, doesn’t take more than 10 minutes and it will save you a lot of time for future invoices, you can even click on “items” right next to “create invoice” and add a list of services you offer such as “character sketch” “character flats” along with a price, so next time you invoice you just add to the invoice from your list of items and you saved yourself some more time. 

More importantly, you protect yourself from buyer’s protection exploit because if PayPal knows you’re doing digital goods, then you will be allowed that you did in fact created a digital good. 

Keep PayPal happy, as for right now there are no alternatives to this service, and this is the only source of income for many freelancers. 

Stay safe. 

[knuckleheacl]

kinda wanna draw all the main characters as mermaids now......has this au been drawn before??

[knuckleheacl]

allura would made a great mermaid #cutiesaturday

[knuckleheacl]

i love this antique korean-made porcelain mermaid my brother bought me the other day so i drew her

[knuckleheacl]

(open this in a new window bc holy SHIT does tumblr make huge files look awful)

anyway this is an art dump of shit from twitter. I seriously recommend following me there instead of here bc i hardly update this blog compared to my twitter !

[knuckleheacl]

theres a post going around thats all about how they won’t buy underpriced art and it’s pretty much all an attack on artists who aren’t confident in their work :/

If you see an artist you were going to commission whos underpricing their art, tip them! seriously!

Pay them what you believe they should be charging, and tell them that it’s what their art is worth.

It’ll be a huge confidence boost, as a large part of the problem is they can’t conceive that people would want to pay more for their art.

I understand not wanting to encourage underpricing, but ignoring them is not the answer. all that does is discourage them and they’re likely to lower their prices further, which worsens the problem.

Prove to them that their art is worth more than they think, don’t ignore them.

And to anyone pricing their work, here’s a pricing guide:

[http://captainharrie.tumblr.com/post/149711466900]

if you set yourself a monthly target like this, your prices are based on a set goal you are working towards rather than a vague concept of how much you think its worth!

[knuckleheacl]

How to price your commissions

1. Set a monthly target.

How much do you want to earn in a month? Lets say you want to earn £400. Base this on your bills and living expenses, things you’re saving up for, etc.

That means each week you want to earn roughly £100.

(monthly target) / (four weeks) = [Weekly Target] £400 / 4 = £100

2. Determine how much time you are going to devote to commissions per week

For this example, lets go with 20 hours!

Also you’ll want to figure out how many hours per day that is so you don’t overwork yourself. There are 5 working days in a week, so thats four hours per day.

You don’t have to follow this exactly, but it’s good to know so you know when to stop and call it a day.

I suggest between 18-30 hours a week, and no more than 40.

(hours per week) / (5 days) = [Daily Hours] 20hrs / 5 = 4hrs

3. Calculate your hourly rate

To earn £100 in 20 hours, you need to earn £5 an hour.

NOTE: the numbers chosen are for the sake of an example, you should not be working below the minimum wage.

(weekly rate) / (number of hours) = [Hourly Rate] £100 / 20hrs = £5

4. Calculate how long you spend working on a piece.

this includes time spent researching, anything like getting used to a character’s design to finding references is labour that the commissioner is paying for, not just the final piece!

If you’re a digital artist, you can use Cash Clock to help with this!

it will track how long you are focused on windows you choose, and stop counting if you’re idle for a set amount of time. It’ll also do the next step for you. [http://www.online-stopwatch.com/download-stopwatch/]

for this example lets say you spent roughly two hours researching, doing practice sketches, etc., and then 6 hours on the final piece.

5. Calculate your price quote

(hourly rate) x (time spent) = [price per commission] (monthly target) / (price per commission) = [number of commissions]

for our example this is £5 x 8 hours = £40 per commission. to reach the goal of £400 a month thats 10 commissions a month.

Do this for each type of commission you offer! Lets say a sketch takes you 2 hours of research + 3 hours of drawing. That’s £25 a piece (16 sketches)

Tips:

- when you finish timing yourself working, add on an extra hour so you have some buffer time to polish and fix things. You’re likely to be spending longer on your paid work, so account for that!

- You ever notice how your first few doodles aren’t as good as what you draw after you’ve scrapped a few?

Keep that momentum, when you’ve finished sketching a piece, even if it’s not a sketch commission stop and continue on to sketch a different commission.

When you’ve finished sketching, do this again with the next stage in your process like flats or inking.

This is a more cost effective way of working - working in batches like this is commonly used in comics to maintain consistency between pages!

- don’t be afraid to ask for tips! 

Include a link to https://ko-fi.com/ or https://paypal.me on your commissions page. Some people might not be able to commission you, but they might still have some money to spare!

[knuckleheacl]

somethin i did for tearzahs on twitter!! thought i’d dump it here too

[knuckleheacl]

We artists have noticed something: communication with some of our clients (new and old) has not been very good, of late. While there are still many art directors, creative directors, and business owners who efficiently and effectively communicate with us, there are seemingly just as many who are in need of important tips on how to properly assign work or manage projects. Please note: I do not blame these individuals — not one bit; hiring artists for projects is not usually something you are taught in school, and there is no Communicating with Artists for Dummies book, as far as I know.

Therefore, here is a guideline that will lead to improved communication, fewer revisions, better artwork, and fewer headaches for all involved.

1. Your first email to an artist should not read: “Hey, are you available for a job?”

This kind of email is a waste of everybody’s time, because all of the important information is missing: description of the job, timeline, and budget. In order to reduce the back-and-forth between the individual requesting the creative work, and the artist, simply take a moment to include the important information in the initial email request. For example: “Dear Ms. Granger, we are publishing a story in our magazine about the ongoing conflict between hedgehogs and walruses. We will need a cover, a full page, and two spot illustrations. The deadline for sketches is March 1st, and the final artwork will be due March 8th. Our budget is $3750. Are you available / interested in working with us on this assignment? Please let me know by 5pm today. Thank you.”

With one email, you have now given the artist all of the info needed to decide whether or not to accept the job. As an illustrator, most of the emails I received ten years ago read just like the above. Lately, this has not been the case. I’m not sure what happened, but let’s fix that.

2. Please do not expect artists to read minds.

Details are very important. When sending emails about your job, give as many relevant details as possible to an artist, if the assigned artwork has specific requirements. Artists are great at solving creative problems, but we cannot guess what you are looking for if we are not told up front. For example, if you tell an illustrator to draw “a car on a street,” then the illustrator will assume the make and model of the car are not important. The illustrator will also assume the street can be any kind of street. Therefore, it is not fair to the artist to reject the final art because you expected a vintage Porsche on the Autobahn. Please be sure to communicate all required elements of the art in your earliest correspondence with your artist, and it will be smooth sailing for all.

If you tell an artist you need a mural of a vineyard painted on a wall in your restaurant, do not wait until the artist is half finished with a stunning, 20 foot scene with bright morning light casting cool shadows over the grapevines, to tell them that you need the time of day to be sunset. Not only is this a problem for your timeline, but the artist must be paid for all the changes that need to be made because the communication was not clear from the beginning.

Sometimes, you love the portfolio of a certain artist and you wish to give this person artistic freedom when commissioning a piece of work. Let us not confuse this wish for unbridled creativity with a lack of relevant information. For instance, the recent recipient of the Richard Gangel Art Director Award, SooJin Buzelli, is famous for giving her editorial artists a lot of freedom. But, when she assigns work, she actually has spent a good deal of time figuring out a way to distill a complex article down to its essential message or theme. She then sends this one or two sentence summary to a carefully selected illustrator, providing that individual with a perfect launchpad from which to create a unique visual solution. This is good communication. The artist comes away with enough information to be creative and daring without producing a piece of work that completely misses the mark.

3. Please Don’t Leave Us Hanging

This is just common courtesy. I often get asked if I am available for an illustration and I then respond in the affirmative with some questions about the assignment or the budget or some other detail. Then, no reply ever comes. A week later, I will see another artist blog about completing the very same assignment that was initially emailed to me. While I understand that everybody is very busy, and emails are flying around at the speed of light, I urge you to please remember that it is unprofessional and rude to simply leave an artist hanging. We often will put other things on hold or rework our weekly schedule to accommodate a project that we think is moving forward. A simple email to let us know that you will be working with somebody else, the job is cancelled, you need to consult with a coworker before moving forward, etc. is all we need to move on and stay on top of our other jobs. There is a popular misconception that artists are free spirits, day dreaming on a hillside and waiting for inspiration to strike, checking emails from paint smattered laptops touted around in burlap sacks … or whatever … but hey! Artists who make a living making art are working. They’re working all the time. Keeping an artist in the dark about the status of a project upsets their productivity in a major way. Please don’t do this.

I welcome comments. Please be polite. Thanks.

- Kyle T. Webster

[knuckleheacl]

workin on somethin special for DA :3c

[knuckleheacl]

person looking at my art: where are your backgrounds bitch?

me: sweats

[knuckleheacl]

i saw The Purge: Election Year yesterday

[knuckleheacl]

truly

[knuckleheacl]

the shit i draw when im wasting time.....i blame marsh and jer

[knuckleheacl]

doodleroni of my #1 daughter