#art commission tips

[herbgerblin]

That poll you reblogged got me thinking. What would you, an artist who does commissions, consider a good character ref sheet? What do you need/consider when drawing someone's oc/dnd characters/character you don't know?

Shoutout to @ceilingfan5 for that poll because I was also very interested in the responses.

I answered a question about what info to include in the description of your character (s) here. But I can definitely expand a bit more! Disclaimer: Not every artist works the same way.

Example prompt to use for requests is under the cut!

If you have drawn your own ocs, but are afraid of using them as references, don't be! I never judge anyone's examples, and I've seen references from a wide range of skill sets. I'm not an art critic, I'm just here to interpret your work and translate it to my own style. You know your ocs best, so I try to pick up on the details that you clearly want to see.

If you can't find the exact right reference, say so before I start drawing. I keep a lot of stock images on hand and I scour the internet for references all the time. I can probably get closer to what you have in mind. Or I will just model the image myself (I have used myself as a model several times.)

Write objective descriptions. Descriptions written in flowery, poetic language can be hard to parse, especially when I need to read them multiple times to make sure I didn't miss anything. I recommend using bullet points if you require a lot of specific details.

If you have a preferred name and Paypal deadnames you, I will 100% only use your preferred name and I will ignore it on PayPal if it comes up. I don't know if there's a way to filter out customer names on PayPal. I only need the email address to send invoices. If you want to go the extra step of making an email just for commissions, that's fine with me.

I don't do a lot of dynamic scenes but if you ask, include what camera angle and POV you want the scene to be viewed from. Providing reference images of a different scene from that angle is also a huge help!

I repeat: If you have no previous examples of your ocs, I recommend using a Pinterest board or google drive folder with references. But keep them to like a 3-10 minimum (unless there are multiple characters, in which case include more than that.)

Example prompt below ->

Hi [artist]

I am requesting a [insert type of commission] for my character(s) [name(s).] I have attached reference pictures of their hairstyles, outfits, poses, and an example of the scene. I have included a description of the commission down below:

Character A is sitting at a small cafe table. They are wearing a button-up dress. A mug of steaming coffee is resting on the table near their hand. Character B is pulling out a chair opposite Character A. They are wearing a hoodie, jeans, and a silver necklace. They look a little damp and disheveled like they've just come in from the rain, and maybe blushing from embarrassment. A wet umbrella is leaning against the side of their chair. Character A is laughing good-naturedly. The background doesn't have to be detailed, but if you could make it feel like the lighting is warm and slightly dim, that would be great!

Please let me know if you would like any further details.

Thanks,

[Preferred Name]

[jimmydeket]

Should I start commissions? If so, I have no idea where to start. 😭

[art-tnt]

[bluebeesknees]

White haired sensei hangout!

[ivyfox-illustration]

I painted a Doberman named Wicked in watercolors!

Want a pet portrait done? My commissions are open!

I figured out a new technique with my watercolor brushes to make more realistic short/fine hairs. I am absolutely in love with this painting, I think it may be my best so far.

About my process:

So usually I’d use a cut up acrylic brush to get an uneven/jagged texture that creates strokes resembling when used to paint. This is great with long haired animals if they have flowing hair. With short haired dogs it doesn’t work as well because of the hundreds (thousands?) of tiny little strokes required to get the texture right. This time I used an actual watercolor brush (a smaller round brush) and would flick any excess water off so it was mostly dry (but with pigment) and splayed out kind of wildly (more or less depending on how sparse or heavy/dark I needed the hair to be in each area) I primarily used a Windsor & Newton Series-7 size 3 (finest sable). The paper is 9x12. Adjust your brush sizing accordingly. I used a white gel pen for corrections. Often it’s too bright for a particular area on a darker dog so I’ll often rub it in with my fingers to soften the contrast!

[brujamala-aka-gigi]

sea bunny plushies and random tarot messages

( ( i had to take some time off because life was being too exhausting but now i'm back with my pac readings, missed tumblr so much tbh. ) )

so: pick a sea bunny plushie and let's see what random pieces of advice you can get from the tarot.

number 1 number 2 number 3

number 4 number 5 number 6

꒰ঌ ✦ scroll down for the results ໒꒱ ༘*.ﾟ

-ˋˏ ༻ ❁ Masterpost and Tarot Menu ❁༺ ˎˊ-

images are from pinterest and dividers are by @nicodefresas

reblog if you enjoyed this reading or if you enjoy sea bunny plushies <3

༘⋆♡⸝⸝💌⊹。°˖➴

꒰ BUNNY NUMBER ONE ꒱ؘ ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

Being overly confident and reliant on thoughts that don’t come from healthy spaces is understandable if you’re in a desperate rush to find stability in your life. But sometimes these ideas will make you unable to move further, especially if moving on involves the questioning of such toxic beliefs. It is quite normal to find comfort in what we already know, but just because something is normalized (on the outside world or on your inner world) it doesn’t mean it’s healthy, or that it’s actually genuine to you. Even if your ambitions are coherent, take time to reflect on how you understand and conceptualize your own struggle and your path to success.

꒰ BUNNY NUMBER TWO ꒱ؘ ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

Neglecting healthy conversations about your emotions for the sake of other’s comfort is definitely stunting the development of many unrelated matters, not recognizing the importance of preserving your mental and emotional stability, is taking a toll on other aspects of your life. You’re giving away too much of your energy to people and places that won’t make an effort to comprehend the real complexity and validity of your purest emotions. Even if you feel like you’ve recently been too emotional, that won’t be solved by dissociating yourself from something so human and natural as feelings are.

꒰ BUNNY NUMBER THREE ꒱ؘ ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

This is a great moment to understand that it’s okay if you are not entirely sure on what to do next with your life. Taking the time to rest or taking an entirely new direction is also part of your own life path. Don’t expect answers that will come from outside yourself, you will find more clarity if you focus on building your own spaces of comfort and growth with the resources and people you already have in your life. Don’t look for things that are not meant to find you yet, find the time to take care and nurture what’s already there for you to help you grow.

꒰ BUNNY NUMBER FOUR ꒱ؘ ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

Even if it is quite undesirable to be in situations where you have to embrace chaos and accept uncertainty, it is helpful to understand that uninterrupted stability eventually begins to feel like stagnation. Situations of conflict are necessary on time to time in order to test the value and strength of anything. It’s key to understand that what’s needed in moment’s of instability is not a toxic sense of optimism and hope, but more so an objective analysis of  what can be done since the problem is giving an opportunity to fix what’s broken and check what could break next.

꒰ BUNNY NUMBER FIVE ꒱ؘ ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

Your decision taking abilities might be affected by a false sense of urgency on time to time. If your mind is moving too quickly and it seems like there’s only few options where you have to go all in, just know that it’s likely that you are not thinking completely straight. Being paralyzed and stuck on unhealthy thought patterns is keeping you away from seeing the full picture. The overly rationalized insecurities and negative self talk might be unperceivable due to it being incorporated as normal and healthy “self criticism”. Is not, and it’ll affect your life negatively.

꒰ BUNNY NUMBER SIX ꒱ؘ ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

It’s okay to embrace the simple pleasures in life and feel confident in material success, yet being overly fixated on this will take away many opportunities to develop a deeper perspective on many issues you might be wilfully ignoring. Don’t allow yourself to change your core beliefs in order to appease hedonistic needs, as this will bring you to periods of stagnation. Take the time to establish your priorities and keep them in mind whenever anything feels too good to be true, if you don’t care for your success, nobody else will.

Hey hiii, it's me, Gigi. I hope you enjoyed this reading and you found something helpful or entertaining on it. In all honesty, im so so soo obsessed with those plushies like, i couldn't resist the urge to use them as visuals for this post i dont care how unserious it seems.

anyways, i'm back to being cronically online, my bookings are open so check my tarot menu if you're interested. and my masterpost has all my pac readings so far if you're into them.

if you feel like reblogging and liking this post, i appreciate the shit out of that and i love you.

i think i don't have much else to say, other than hi im back, missed this place so much.

so,,, bye <3 much love, gigi.

[clockworkreapers]

look at all of these beans

[dreamyfreakout]

girl pop #6 🥛😋💖

link to the full comic here 👯‍♀️👯‍♀️👯‍♀️💖

side note: if you enjoy my work and wanna help me pay rent and bills this month ~ plz consider donating or getting a commission here! ^w^

[pien-art]

-FAQ-

Hello! I've gained a whole bunch of followers lately and I've been getting a lot of questions about commissions, what my setup is, what brushes I use, etc, so I thought I'd make a post about it to answer everyone's questions at once !

Putting them under the cut <3

Commissions:

Commission prices are listed in my pinned post. You can send me a private message about your commission idea and we can get to talking :) It is helpful to have enough references handy (character, outfit, descriptions etc)

I am generally a fast drawer but I also have a job and a physical disability so there might be moments I can't work on your commission. But that is never longer than a few days at most.

Payment is upfront, the full amount and via paypal only. I know this might seem a bit scary but unfortunately there are a lot of people who end up not paying for commissions and I want to avoid that.

During the process I will send you frequent updates and will ask for input, to see if it is going in the direction you want. You can ask for changes during the sketching progress but once I've started on line-art and coloring, no big changes will happen. (You can for example ask for a different color for a shirt etc, but not for a different prop or pose or expression)

When it is completed, I will send the drawing to you via email. The drawing will remain mine and it is not to be sold or profited of by the person who commissioned me. If the commission is for something commercial/for selling, that needs to be discussed. I prefer to do drawings only for personal use!

For more questions, my dms/asks are open :)

How long have I been doing digital art:

I've been drawing digitally for about 5 years now i think? But before that I've been drawing and painting traditionally literally since the moment I could pick up a pencil.

Set-up:

It's just me and my ipad and apple pencil laying on my bed. I wouldn't even know where to begin for those whole multi-monitor/screen setups ;-; I draw only with Procreate

Brushes:

I tend to play with different brushes from time to time to get different textures, but generally i use the same few for most of my drawings/styles. My favorite one is the Peppermint Brush, for sketching. I use it in every drawing i make! I always sketch with it, and often do the line-art with it as well! And it makes for a nice textured brush for rendering as well! (i used it for a lot of rendering of the armor in this drawing)

The (procreate) brushes i use a lot are

for medieval style: inking - Ink Bleed (for line-art) artistic - Quoll (for coloring)

for general style: calligraphy - Chalk (coloring/rendering) sketching - Peppermint (line-art/sketching)

for realism: calligraphy - Shale Brush (full rendering) Also using the shale brush for smudging and erasing when drawing realistic

for lineart: smooth pencil from this pack by Heygiudi

How/why do you choose a base color:

I tend to look at a few different things when deciding on a base color/color palette.

the overall color of the reference pic

the color i associate with who or what i am drawing

the feeling/vibe i want to give off with that drawing

color has a BIG impact on the vibe of a drawing, so it is something i keep in mind when im drawing.

Using a color as a base to start, helps a lot with my drawing process. It helps me pick out other colors so they match better. It helps me get light/dark values right. And the chalk brush i use, has gaps between the strokes, so the base color will always come through a little. Having the same color come through in the entire drawing, helps pull all the colors together if that makes sense? I always start with a solid base color when i am painting traditionally as well!

Advice:

PRACTICE!!! just keep drawing and practice. I know this is such generic advice but truly practice is The Way. Learn from other artists but don't compare yourself to them. Everyone's artistic journey is different and there's no "good" or "bad". And most importantly make sure that you have fun when you're making stuff :3

I also learn a lot by studying art I admire and love. Figuring out what it is I like about it. (for example, the line thickness or the shapes or texture etc), and try to incorporate that in my own style in a way that is not directly copying or stealing.

[millieduboisart]

I’m in need of new glasses with an updated prescription, so I’ll be taking commissions to help cover that cost!

[nerdy-arty]

Say click! Take a pic!

[junkboxcorner]

very messy sketches of ford I did today during my trip to the doctor bc why not?

[yoselin-uyu]

Drawings from the raffle I Made ✨

1st place @aleapple1216

@eternalchaoschocolaterain @theguythatdraws

Extrass @faustinio27 @chirithy564 @cherry-pop-elf

Thanks for being part of this and being patient ☝️

[thymelessx]

My insurance has incorrectly charged me $400 and I needed to pay rent for this month still.

I will be making a dedicated commissions post on tumblr soon but for now here is a link to the information on insta

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by _Thyme ⠨⠤⠠⠞⠓⠽⠍⠑🌱🦽🦯 (@_thymelessx)

I also take tips via cashapp at $thymelessx. I know cashapp is unavailable in some locations, reach out to me as I do have other options available

[brujamala-aka-gigi]

emotional attachment and distorted perceptions...

although embracing emotions and giving ourselves time to experience them fully is highly necessary, we owe it to ourselves to be responsible, and make sure those same emotions are not blocking our ability to have a clear vision of our lives. this tarot reading is aimed to give you some guidance if you feel like something about the past is still impacting your thoughts negatively.

pile one pile two pile three

images from pinterest and dividers by @pommecita

꒰ঌ ✦ scroll down for the results ໒꒱ ༘*.ﾟ

-ˋˏ ༻ ❁ Masterpost and Tarot Menu ❁༺ ˎˊ-

PILE NUMBER ONE

Soon, you will face situations where you are not expected to put your emotions first, as you are now too compromised by ruminating thoughts regarding your past. You need to understand that part of your healing journey involves moving forward when it comes to more material and seemingly superficial notions of success. You must begin allowing yourself to experience the joy simpler things can bring into your life, as they will signify deeper manifestations of emotional and spiritual growth. It is understandable to feel disappointed and disenchanted by apparently mundane things, but you have the mental strength to think more positively about the little things you miss out on enjoying from your daily routine.

It’ll become more noticeable to you that many things have already fallen into place once you get yourself out of toxic thought patterns influenced by emotional scars that you are not allowing to heal properly. Be kinder to yourself and be patient, stop expecting certain things to move faster and enjoy the actual process of healing. Anxiety won’t produce any helpful thoughts, so it’s better to be aware on how those ideas are affecting your wellbeing and sabotaging your growth before allowing them to take so much space.  

PILE NUMBER TWO

Major turning points in your life might be accompanied by long periods of introspection, but it’s also key that you develop better abilities to understand the emotional depth of others around you, especially when dealing with the consequences of other’s impulsive emotional decisions. You might not be taking into consideration that even if you are great at solving problems and creating new ways of dealing with them, other’s are too reliant on your strength, which is making you tired due to rightfully not being willing or able to provide support or company for everyone.

Being someone who is naturally generous and nurturing is amazing, and valuable. But this shouldn’t be taken as a defining characteristic of yours, you don’t owe the same level of care to everyone, even if it’s natural to you, it doesn’t mean that is not affecting you negatively. It is completely normal to want to walk away or to not know how to process absolutely all of your emotions as long as you don’t hurt anyone on the process. Stop allowing yourself to be carried away by the emotional immaturity of others.

PILE NUMBER THREE

During this moment of your life, the independence you might have fought for in the past is not giving you the freedom of choice you expected. This disappointment might get you in an overly defensive state where you are in denial of actually wanting and needing some help, especially when it comes to situations that involve conflictive ways of dealing with them. The need to advance in your life path is heavily influenced by fear of being stuck, instead of ambition to grow further.

Expect your problems to be solved in rather explosive ways soon. Many things in your life will begin to happen in order for you to move past the anxiety of loosing what you already have. You do have control over what happens and how it happens, yet this power won’t manifest unless you become more confident when dealing with mistakes, the ones you made and the ones from others, as it’s not healthy to remain resentful if you are not willing to learn from the experience.  You might not realize it, but any kind of abundance you have in your life, won’t be taken away by others, but will rotten if you are not transcending the fear of loss and abandonment.

[byrd-bb]

How to do Art Commissions! A guide for freelance artists by ByrdbbArt :3 I wanted to give you guys some tips and tricks for doing commissions that I’ve picked up during the 4 years I’ve been doing them. I hope this can help any artists out there who are just starting commissions or are trying to get them!

If there’s anything else you’d like to know leave a comment!