Why you shouldn't take commissions

How to start taking commissions. Step 1: DON’T

Now I know that sounds harsh, but in most cases, it’s true.

You’re not ready to start selling your art.

Fair warning this is not actually a guide on how to sell commissions. It’s why you probably shouldn’t.

After having to explain this so many times to so many people, I decided to lay it all out for people in one post. Now let’s begin.

Ask yourself this: WHY do I want to start taking commissions?

If your answer is one of the following:

1. Because I see other people doing it so why not

2. Because I’m broke and need money

3. Because I think it will help me get better at art

4. I dunno….?

Then congratulations, you should probably NOT TAKE COMMISSIONS!

I know that DA has glorified the prospect of making money off of something you love to do, but heed my warning young ones:

Taking commissions hastily without knowing what you are doing can and will:

1. Devalue Art as a whole (On DA and other places of the internet)

2. Devalue your own art tremendously

3. Frustrate, discourage, and may even cause you to hate the art you once loved

4. Get you into serious trouble with money if you’re not careful!

Let’s talk about some of these in more detail.

Devaluing art in general-- what does it mean?

It’s a simple situation. Let’s use farmers as an example.

(It’s not a perfect, flawless example, but it’s a good baseline)

• Farmer Joe is a hard worker and relies on his crops to keep his family fed and his barn paid off. He sells quality tomatoes, and at a fair price for the amount of work he puts into them.

• Along comes farmer Fred. Fred lives with his ma and pa so he doesn’t have a family to feed or bills to pay, but uses his free land to make his own tomatoes. Because of this, he’s able to sell them for WAY less than Farmer Joe, which gives him a lot more customers! He has to sell a lot more tomatoes for way less value, but it’s fine because he doesn’t mind and he wants people to get them cheaper, and plus more people buy them when they’re cheap!

• Meanwhile, poor farmer Joe is losing customers because they’ve all gone to buy them for cheaper from farmer Fred! Joe has to start selling his own tomatoes for less to compete, and it just goes downhill from there. He can’t afford his farm, feed his family, all because another farmer came along and devalued his tomatoes.

So the question here is, do you really want to be Farmer Fred?

By doing something nice and offering cheaper commissions so you can either get more customers, or simply “be nice”, you indirectly hurt other artists around you.

Now quality, style, and all sorts of things also factor in as well, but in general this is still very important.

Haven’t you ever had a relative or a peer tell you, “You shouldn’t be an artist because artists make no money?” There’s a stigma that art is not worth that much. This is especially true from the viewpoint of non-artists who look down on us for our choice in occupation. Either that, or they think we should draw them stuff for free because “we love drawing so much, why should they have to pay for it”?

Can we please, as artists, stop factoring into this stigma by decreasing the value of our own art?

Don’t undersell your art!! If you don’t know the value of what your art should be, well, then again, you should not be selling commissions.

DeviantArt is one of the worst art sites for devalued art, simply because of the amount of young and inexperienced artists here. It is also due to the point system that was introduced, allowing young artists who don’t even have a bank account yet, or who are too young to be working at a job, to earn a form of currency.

Devalue your own art tremendously

How is underpricing your art from the beginning, devaluing it?

Well it’s quite simple.

You start taking commissions for $1/100 or so points at first, just to test the waters and build a following. However, what you are not realizing, is that you are building a following of cheap customers that will never pay when you increase your prices.

This is one of the most common things I hear:

“Whenever I increase my prices, people never buy my art!”

So what do these people do? They lower them back down!

Now why would anyone buy your art at a higher price if they think you might lower it again?

Why would they take that risk? (I would personally be pissed if I paid one price only to see the artist sell the same piece for cheaper later!)

And also, the people who were previously commissioning you are NOT the kind of customers you want in the first place! Why? Because they are too cheap or too inexperienced to take art seriously enough to spend real money on it.

Respect your art. Respect yourself. No one will respect you or your art, if you cannot.

If no one is buying your art at reasonable prices, you’re either not marketing yourself well, or your art isn’t good enough to sell yet.

Is it okay to accept that your art isn’t “good enough”? YES, it IS! By not being good enough, it only means you can improve! No one is ever at the top of the ladder. Never settle for good enough. Always strive for better. If you think your art is shit, then accept it and get good. Every great artist was once where you are now. They didn’t get where they are by moaning and wishing their art was good. They just practiced and got better.

Frustrate, discourage, and may even cause you to hate the art you once loved

I’ve been there, trust me. You start taking commissions, and either no one buys them, or only your friends do out of pity/support. Then it dries up and you’re sitting there, feeling hopeless and not knowing where to go from there.

If makes you feel stuck, and depressed, and worthless. No one wants you art. Not enough to buy it at least. I’m here to tell you one, very important thing:

PEOPLE STILL WANT TO SEE YOUR ART.

Just because people don’t want to buy it, doesn’t mean you should stop, feel stuck, and give up. KEEP. DRAWING. Never stop.

But why don’t people want to buy my art?

Skill:

Most commonly: you’re not ready. Either your skill or technique is not quite established yet, and you simply don't have enough art fundamentals under your belt yet to understand anatomy, color theory, and composition. Most artists I see with this issue have only really drawn character art and adapted styles from other artists they like.

But have you studied real life references? Drawn from life? Done daily art exercises? (like 1 minute drawings, no erasing (or using only pen), etc.) Watched/read tutorials on composition/color theory/lighting/etc.? Have you read books about animation, cartooning, landscapes, perspective, facial expressions, and so on? Taken classes?

Be truthful. If you haven’t been truly studying art in the pursuit of improvement, then you need to start there before you can sell yourself.

If you can’t even get people to spend $5 on your art, YOU’RE NOT READY TO TAKE COMMISSIONS.

Marketing:

You have some really sweet skills, but you still can’t find commissions.

You’re not looking in the right place, and you’re not exploring enough options in order to get yourself out there.

Don’t only try to sell your art in one place.

When people complain about people on DeviantArt not buying their commissions, I roll my eyes every time.

First of all, get off DA. Again, it’s one of the worst places to sell your art and you will only be hurting yourself if you only stay here. (If you are serious in pursuing a living off of commissioned art)

Find your demographic. Species art will always have a place on DA, yes, but when I sold pet portraits, I did much better on Facebook than anywhere else. My demographic was mostly women around the age of 30-60. There’s a lot of really enthusiastic pet owners on Facebook, making pages for their pets and wanting tons of art for them. There’s also a LOT less artists to compete with because it’s FACEBOOK. (Not an art site)

I also did well working in an industry (pet retail and dog daycare) where I could sell myself in person, and my commissions to clients of the business I worked for. Face-to-face is always a lot easier to sell yourself, because they can truly believe in you and want to support you if you’re right there in front of them.

This obviously isn’t an option for a lot of people, but it’s an option most people don’t even consider. So consider everywhere when marketing your art. Do you volunteer at a church? Maybe you could sell some cute face portraits or caricatures! Are you a part of any nerdy clubs? Perhaps offering fun drawings of their favorite fantasy/video game characters! Talk to local geek stores and see if they’ll display your work! Make connections, be friendly, and be confident! Which brings me to my next one...

People Skills:

Do you think your personality is absolute garbage and you’re a piece of shit person to deal with? Congratulations! You should NOT take commissions! Just apply to some business that will give you a broom and tell you to sweep.

I mean it, though. If you don’t have confidence in yourself or you art, how do you expect people to feel confident in commissioning you? You can’t be in charge of your own clients if you don’t even know how to work with people one-on-one.

You also need to be professional as you are dealing with a transaction of currency.

Avoid using emojis, text faces, meme humor, and abbreviations. Be clear and precise. Tell the client exactly what you will do and what you expect in return. Communicate clearly or your relationship with the customer will suffer.

I have had some really wonderful art that I have commissioned in the past, but because of how unprofessional the artist was to work with, I would never buy from them again or promote their work. So it’s important to be professional and have decent communications skills.

Commissions can be a great way to practice consistency, but it can also easily stagnant your art as well.

A lot of artists strive to have that “iconic style” that everyone knows them for. They have a “brand” and their style itself can sell.

To me, it often brings a very unhealthy artistic mindset that can easily stagnant your development as an artist.

By clinging so dependently on a style that sells, because it sells, you find there is less room to explore and flex your creative muscles.

“People like it, people buy it. Why change?”

Remember to never settle. Always explore your art and different styles. So be mindful of this when you do begin to seriously take commissions.

When art becomes a chore and stops being fun

I’ve seen many an artist quit art entirely after their venture in commissions, either getting discouraged, or burned out. Usually this can be avoided if you develop your skills BEFORE you start to seriously get paid for your art.

In order to keep yourself happy with yourself as an artist, talk to yourself and ask what stresses you out. Do you have a tendency to procrastinate? Do you have a lot of anxiety when you have to draw something you don’t really want to? Do you have a hard time saying no to people?

Only take 1-2 commissions at a time. Only offer 1-2 styles at a time. (Offer what you WANT to work on. What you want to improve on, or what you’re in the mood for at the time)

If there are a limited number that people can buy, people will act quicker when they HAVE to act soon. It’s simple business strategy, but it works.

Make your rules simple to understand, and make your commission list eye catching and to the point. Slap a price tag on the image itself. Don’t make people go digging for your information. The less clicks they have to make, the better. Have it filled with visuals, bright and nice, and make it super easy to see.

Commissioners WILL NOT come to you unless you have a following.

Stop waiting for people to come to you. Go to THEM. Follow and watch people you know are good customers. Not just wonderful artists. See what they like, what they’re willing to buy. Talk to people, communicate, and see what’s trendy. Be smart.

Don’t always rely on posting your art in a million groups. You might get some traffic, if your art really stands out, but you need to be more personal and reach out to people.

Get GOOD

If you don’t want to seek out people to buy your art, then build up your following first.

That, is a topic for a whole nother journal, I’m afraid. But in general, you’ll need to start sharpening your skills as an artist. Read books on art, follow artist blogs, look at tutorials, and DRAW EVERY DAY. Practice the same thing every single day and you will get better at it. But only if you never stop!

My group and my standards

I want to take a moment to talk about me for a bit. I want to talk about why I made this post in the first place.

Over the last couple of years now, with my group, Wyngro, I’ve had to explain to so many newer artists WHY I denied their commissions from our gallery. I’ve heard all the typical responses. Many that I listed above.

But really, the main reason I deny members access to sell their commissions in my group, is because I care about you. And I care about artists as a whole.

I want to change the world of art and how people see artists. I don’t want artists to be looked down on like they are. I want people to see real VALUE in what artists can DO.

And I want you to value yourself, as an artist, and as a person.

If you undervalue your art, you undervalue yourself. Please, don’t!

I hope this helps people truly consider whether or not they are ready to begin receiving money for their art. But here are some closing tips to always keep in mind if you are:

• Don’t openly complain - DO something about it!

• Stay positive!

• NEVER draw anything without getting money upfront.

• Always show the customer your final drawing BEFORE you post it publically. They may want edits! (And it’s awkward to ask for edits once it’s been posted and finalized)

• Be professional. Avoid sarcasm, emojis, and abbreviations.

• Don’t open forever/have unlimited waiting lists. Keep yourself valuable!

• Be confident. You are an artist. You have a skill that not many others have!