#and aside from the legal aspect doing art commissions sounds intimidating too

[lulu2992]

Do you accept art commissions?

I don’t because I’ve never done this before, but to be honest, I’ve been thinking about it lately. The problem is, there are several things to consider and I still have many questions.

The first is: how much should I charge for my drawings? Most people say you shouldn’t ask for less than minimum wage, and while I totally agree, I also tend to take my time and don’t draw very fast. For example, for this piece, because I recorded the process (here and here), I know it took about 17 hours to color. As for the sketch itself, I’d say I drew it in at least 5 hours. In my country (France), the hourly minimum wage is currently €11.88, which means that, for this drawing that took at least 22 hours, I should charge no less than €260. That would be considered fair compensation, but I think that also sounds very expensive and I don’t know if people could or would want to pay that much.

Then, how do I get paid? If I want to do things right and legally (which I do), I could be self-employed and declare the money earned thanks to art commissions as my income. From what I know, this process is strictly regulated by French law: I would first have to provide a quotation that the client would sign, and I could then send my invoice. The problem is that my full name and address have to appear on the documents, and anyone who’d like to commission a drawing would be required to disclose their personal information as well. To receive the money, I’d also have to send my bank account details. As I’m sure you understand, I’m really not a fan of sharing all of that on the Internet and asking other people to do the same...

I’ve read that most artists use PayPal, that it’s easy, and that, with a business account, you don’t even need to use your real name, so that could be a solution. Others sell commissions via Patreon or Ko-fi, and from what I’ve seen, there are ways to easily declare the money you earn on these platforms so you don’t end up accidentally committing tax fraud :’) Also, a lot of artists recommend asking to be paid upfront, and while it’s possible with those online services, I don’t know if you can do that when you’re self-employed in France; I believe the “product” (so the drawing) has to be finished and sent first, which can be risky for me.

The other problem is that fan art, in theory, can’t legally be sold. I know this rule is rarely enforced, that most companies don’t seem to really care, and that many, many artists sell drawings of characters they don’t own the rights to every day, but it still scares me.

So yeah, I guess I could start accepting art commissions if people are actually interested, but I need to figure out how to properly price my drawings, how to get paid... and how not to get in legal trouble.