#ignisfatuusdelirante

[zedrin-maybe]

Hey Zed I thought you already made a post about this but I can't find it... Do you have a quick like "Do's and Dont's" of taking on commission work? My friend recently started taking commissions (this was a physical commission not digital) and had the person flake out on her. She's trying to set up some ground rules and I was wondering if you had any tips on how to do things professionally and protect your own time investment, etc.

I had one for commissioning people, but here’s one for opening commissions

Be prompt. Speed sells well. If you can only draw once a week, when you’re in the absolutely ideal conditions, you’re probably not ready for commissions. Don’t fall into the ‘self-care’ trap. If it takes you more than a month to complete or even start a piece, you probably shouldn’t be taking it as a commission.

Don’t take on too much work. On the flipside, take on a reasonable amount of work. Don’t overwork yourself to the point of getting sick. I’ve done this before myself, while other artists around the world have actually died of overwork. Slots are a common way to manage this.

Price yourself fairly. Most commissions come because people want art by YOU, not just any piece of art. Don’t price yourself at $5 for 2 hours of work just because someone on Deviantart is doing the same. To determine prices, I usually measure out how long it normally takes me to complete a piece of that quality and average it, then rate myself by an hourly rate based on experience. (For starting out, usually $10 per hour.) 

HOWEVER! If you are immensely slow and inefficient, you’ll want to take this into account on your rates. Likewise faster, higher quality work basically warrants a higher hourly rate. It doesn’t make sense to have a $10 per hour rate, take 30 minutes to finish a super detailed high res portrait (like Sakimichan quality), and charge $5 for it, when from a professional studio you would get $500 for that same level of work. (Of course if you’re asking for this advice chances are you don’t need to worry about that quality level yet.) Fast, quality art is not cheap. Cheap, quality art is not fast. Fast, cheap art is not of quality.

Take payment up front in some form. This may be taking the whole cost up front, taking payment only after you’ve done a gesture sketch, or providing a super-low-res preview before giving them the image. Do NOT provide the completed product before receiving payment.

Use paypal invoices btw. This allows you to prevent people from turning on shipping options, and to make sure you’re not the one slapped with currency conversion fees.

Don’t give too many options. I’m guilty of this. It’s a bit over-encumbersome to have ‘sketch’ ‘lineart’ ‘flats’ ‘shaded’ ‘rendered’ ‘extra characters’ ‘backgrounds’ etc. all on your commission sheet. Figure out what range you wanna focus on.

Some common starting price ranges a lot of artists use: $10-$15 for lineart, $25-$30 for cel shaded. You can use whatever you feel works for you.

If someone tries to persuade you to adjust your prices for them, demeans your art, or starts acting very aggressive with you, you run. Do not take their money.

If you don’t have a big following, don’t expect a flood of commissions right away, and don’t be idle between commissions. Do fanart or post other things relevant to what you like to draw. When posting, remember only the first 5 tags count in tumblr’s search, and use that to help you get a bit more notice. You can include a link to your commission info on any art you post as well.

[lazytechsupport]

Get to know people memery! tagged by @gnollbard​ (dude are you me? our answers are eerily similar) You don't have to do the thing.

@ignisfatuusdelirante​ , @senexproxy​ , @upthefolks​ , @hiiimsky​ , @wolfpurplemoon​

The actual questions are as follows: 1. How old are you? Thirty Two

2. What’s your current job? hating my life, but at my last fulltime job I was a support engineer for a VOIP-phone provider

3. What are you talented at? Describing things in laymens's terms. Taking things apart and putting them back together. Jack of all trades from mechanical maintenance through electronics to programming and system administration. I like to keep things working.

4. What is a big goal you are working towards (or have already achieved)? Right now, I think I'm working on getting my health and life back on track for the new year. Making new and re-contacting old friends are definitely on the wishlist though. And getting a pet.

5. What’s your aesthetic? Soft apocalypse. Stargazing while not wearing a warm enough jumper

Anthropomorphised machines and robots and code that work, far beyond any reasonable estimation of their original useful lifespan. Repaired and cobbled or just so damn over-engineered in the first place that they refuse to break down no matter how battered they get.

But they will. Eventually.

6. Do you collect anything? Everything. I remember people and events through association so I tend to hoard objects. Electronic scrap because having the part you need when you need it is REALLY handy and has saved my ass before, but I can get trapped in a 'it might be useful' mindset and have trouble getting rid of things that are literally junk. That seems to be a family curse.

7. What’s a topic you always talk about?   Honestly, I don't know. I'll infodump to @neverwhere​ about whatever my latest project is but have trouble doing that with anyone else.

8. What’s a pet peeve of yours? Not putting things back where they came from when you've finished with them (I do it too) Career managers who have never done the job of the people they're managing.

9. Good advice to give?   You don't have to be the best and you don't have to understand everything on your first try.

10. What are three songs you’d recommend? Cursor Miner - Grilling the Cheese (bassy, glitches more as it goes, electro, tw:staring eyes) THE GENTLE STORM - Endless Sea (Storm Version) (classical, acoustic, rock) Covenant - Bullet (electronic, (EDM maybe?) tw:mannequins )

[andromulus]

I'm so hype B|

bless

[zedrin-maybe]

ignisfatuusdelirante replied to your post: Ffs dude, Could you just, I dunno, Stop this...

HE’S SENDING ME ASKS NOW BECAUSE I REPLIED LOL

OH MY GOD IM SO SORRY

he’s trying to set a record for digging a hole or something

[zedrin-maybe]

ignisfatuusdelirante replied to your post:Saw that pic of Collet never knew she was so...

I thought collet was underage ya dingus

apparently if you’re a teenager you’re not allowed to have boobs until you’re 18

[zedrin-maybe]

Originally came for shitty horse, stayed for the PMMM. Somehow we ended up here, it's been weird. But I like you senpai, keep doin you B|

[neurhoe]

@ignisfatuusdelirante the ol’ rogue toss

new dnd class: the rogueslinger

just throws a rogue at the enemy. get fucked