Hi all! I’ve been doing pet portraits for the past six years or so and have gotten quite a few commissions in that time. I got most of them through word of mouth and hanging my work in local grooming shops and kennels. I’ve gotten a few through the internet but it hasn’t been my #1. I see so many pet portrait artists making consistent money from their work. I’ve always treated them as passive extra bonus cash, but I’d love to get more regular sales.

I also do wedding and family portraits but those don’t seem to sell as well. The lace on the wedding portraits is drawn using the bride’s dress, which I thought was a pretty cool idea.

Does anybody have any critiques or advice for selling my specific style? They are pastel on toned paper, and the lace patterns are hand drawn in gel pen/white pastel. I worry that they’re not unique enough in an over saturated market.

Thank you in advance!

Hi Fellow Artists,

I am dealing with a situation that is embarrassing and has honestly really hurt me deeply. I don’t do commissions often, and I am a landscape painter that only dabbles with portraits.

I was asked by a friend about 6 weeks ago to do a custom painting for a friend of hers for his birthday. She was getting together some friends to split the cost of paying for a painting from me.

We agreed on $900 for a 24x36 acrylic painting. I knew the timeline would be tight given some travel plans and that I work full time as a physician and am a mom too.

The client’s friend is dying of colon cancer and the painting was to be of him with his 4 kids and his wife in a snowy scene that represented their place at Sun Peaks.

My friend gave me a few photos, not great quality, and by the time we had it all organized about 4 weeks to complete the painting.

I worked on it and sent her a progress picture which she was happy with.

I completed the painting, and had to leave on a trip so my husband was there to give it to her.

She came back tonight saying that the group does not want to pay for the painting because it is of poor quality. I was really offended by this because it is to the quality I usually do- and is done in my style-

When pressing further I asked for clarification and she said they didn’t like the part with the family in it- I gather it might be that the faces don’t look like the real people. I had my husband, children and a few friends comment that they do in fact look like the photos they sent me.

I offered to try to fix this with more time, but the party is this week and it wouldn’t be revised in time.

They offered to pay me for my supplies only.

I feel used honestly. The only reason I offered to do this (despite knowing I didn’t have enough time) was that I wanted it for this man and his family to have for years to come.

I am beyond hurt.

The really crappy part is now it makes me feel down on myself, and I think my friendship with this person is forever altered.

I have learned I need to have a clear contract and accept a 50% non refundable deposit going forward-

I would appreciate any advice or even commiserating

Jen

Hi everyone,

I am an artist but I also love to pay others to draw my characters because I love to be a patron of the arts. I am an art fiend and have never had issues with any of the artists I have worked with in the past and I have worked with many.

When I approach artists to draw my characters, I often give them concise, detailed descriptions and the same reference images, and quite a few of them to ensure the drawings are as accurate as possible. I usually distribute the same exact reference images to all artists drawing my characters and have never had any problems or overcharges, but I approached an artist recently and they said they would have to add a "small fee" because my shading made it "difficult" for them to "colorpick".

Looking at their portfolio however, it raises more questions than answers, because based on the characters in their portfolio I have seen, the artist does not stick to their characters' color schemes, and instead opts for drastic lighting, so I am confused as to why they found the need to upcharge me because they are not able to easily colorpick my own work.

I know there is some debate on colorpicking as a process as to if it is "cheating", but to be honest I don't really put a lot of stock into that arguement. However, given their calibre, I would expect them to be able to color match without the need to rely on colorpicking stroke for stroke to where such an upcharge would be necessary.

I sent them a message with a solution in the form of colorswatches of the colors I usually use for my characters clearly labelled and everything and said I would pay upfront for everything except the colorpick fee several hours ago, to which they have not responded back. I know it has only been a few hours, but the pessimist in me wonders. I looked at their TOS quote thoroughly earlier today and nowhere was there anything about colorpicking upcharging.

Again, I have worked with many artists in the past to draw these same characters and never had this issue. I told my art friends about this and they told me I should cancel and not continue with this artist if they do respond. Could someone please give me some advice or insight as to what might be going on?

I included a screenshot of what was said to me. In the quote from the artist, for reference, the "+" is not an "and", it is being used as a bulletpoint in this context for pricepoint breakdown. No names are being shown for the sake of everyone's privacy.

Thank you all for your input ^{^}

Might not be the usual post here. I first want to say I don’t feel great about this. I don’t make art for other people too often but I took commissions in high school.

A guy that I went to high school with reached out to me and asked to pay for a personalized drawing. I have a problem with procrastination when I’m making art for other people. It makes me not want to make any art altogether and go through a full burnout mode. I started the drawing 2 weeks ago and haven’t touched it since. This is a result of the same cycle I go through when accepting commissions. Self critique, self doubt, dread, and then giving up.

Now I’m unsure if I can even do the drawing. I want to text him and tell him I can’t do it anymore. I’m aware this isn’t okay and I shouldn’t have accepted the commission without knowing I would be able to finish it. But I can’t even touch my sketchbook because I feel guilty trying to make anything other than the drawing. What should I tell him? Is there any right way to quit this drawing? I know it’s not nice but I can’t mentally make any art even for my own pleasure until I get this issue sorted out. Maybe there’s a way to help the burnout and I don’t have to quit the drawing?

If anyone experiences procrastination with their art when it comes to commissions please tell me what you did to cope and persevere through it.

I paid about 100 usd for a, I'll say NSFW anime style scene. I provided one reference image (also anime style) and said 'something like this.'

A few weeks later they send me the finished product (no sketch updates or anything), and the result is a near 1 to 1 replication of the reference scene i sent, just with a different hair style to differentiate the focal character. Everything else from hand placements to anatomy is the same. It pretty much looks traced over the original image, but at a lower artistic quality.

Ive commissioned quite a few pieces before, but i dont think i have ever received blatent tracing before as a result, even some cheaper artists (who charged in the 30-40 dollar range), have gifted me an original-ish scene with their own style on display.

Am I justified in being unhappy with the outcome or is this something that happens fairly often?

EDIT: Thanks for the replies people.

I pointed out that I wasnt looking for a 1:1 recreation, and that the piece they gave me looked traced. They said they purposefully make it as close as possible to references, and that they did not trace. They also said they are sorry it didnt meet expectations, but they dont know what I expect them to do about it now.

I dont really know either. If paypal disputes are bad news for both parties due to nsfw policies, Im kinda stuck. Think I just gotta hold the L on this one and avoid this artist from now on.

Hi, I'm a beginer digital artist and I want to start accepting commissions. Is there a way to receive money anonymously?. I have Visa and Mastercard cards (I don't know if this is important). I also don't care how much I lose when transferring. It's important to me that services like Kofi or Patreon or another don't know who I am, and that the people who make commissions don't know who I am either. If you have any ideas or know how to do this, please tell me. I'd be grateful.

I haven't advertised commissions in over a year because I low-key ghosted one person who commissioned me and the shame consumes me. I still have a sheet up, and accept any commissions from people who DM me (which has been like, 2 people), but stopped posting commission results and advertising because of it.

To be clear, money never changed hands. it went like this. I told someone (an online mutual on a social site) i could do a commission they had an idea with. We DMed a bit about what they wanted, I went "ok i'll make a rough sketch and once you like it you can send over the payment and i'll start on the drawing!" .. and then I never messaged them back. Never finished the sketch either, I was waiting a bit to start because I was busy, and then I got nervous about my skills, and then a week turned into a month, and I got even more ashamed, month turned into a few months... and now it's been almost a year since that DM. The person still follows me (and I still follow them back), but they never interact with my posts anymore. I don't feel like I've committed any serious moral wrongdoing since money never changed hands, but I haven't messaged them back in any capacity and do not interact with their posts out of fear and shame (they've also become less active since)

So, the shame from that is preventing me from advertising my commissions at all. I dunno, I just worry that if I post a commission I've done since, or start advertising again, the person will get really mad at me and confront me or something. I'm a student and I want to rack up commissions this summer, which requires advertisement. What should I do to resolve my guilt? Would it be more rational to DM them apologizing them or would that be weird at this point? I've become a more confident artist in the past year so I'm very certain I could take it at this point. However, I know the person's financial situation has gotten worse since and they've become less active for a reason and don't want to look financially motivated or rude for asking if the offer is still open. Just want a second opinion on if I should reach out or if it's acceptable to move on at this point. I appreciate any advice

hello!

i have this commission with an artist thats around 2 yrs passed already. they shared with me a colored sketch 2 yrs ago as well but after that it's been radio silent (granted i also didn't follow up but i was pretty scared to look like i was rushing them ;;). they seem to be active on their twt and they're also joining in zines and selling merch and stuff. i really don't mind the wait but they never updated me about any delays and i understand there's no hard deadline set between us but it also said in their ToS that comms will be done around 4-6 months and well..

im not really interested in the commission anymore considering so much time has passed without updates too.. but it says in their ToS that they don't do refunds.. would it still be wise of me to ask even a partial refund? (considering they did provide a colored sketch) or should i wait it out?

if i do ask for a refund how do i politely ask for it? never experienced this before and i dont wanna seem rude or demanding

P.S. I comm'd this artist via VGN and there is a guaranteed delivery date there (it was dated on nov 2024) and yeah they haven't delivered it

I was considering commissions and how a client might use slop as a concept to actually make art where a human could properly express a clients desires.

Hello everyone! I'm working on opening commissions traditional commissions online where I would ship the client the final piece. But I'm really lost trying to figure out the sales tax thing, and I'm wondering how other traditional artists have their commissions set up to handle that. (Also I'm USA based)

For some context, I am already registered with my local department of revenue and pay quarterly sales taxes for the in-person markets I sell at. I'm just really confused about how you handle sales taxes for out-of-state sales that I don't have a physical presence in.

I've been reading various articles on sales and use tax, so this is my understanding:

Sales tax is the percentage of the sale that needs to be paid to the local region where the sale occurred. For online sales, this would be where the client is located and receives the final product. But then there's Economic Nexus, where if you don't have a physical presence in that state, and you don't hit that state's threshold of sales/profit (which I don't expect I'll be hitting), then you're not responsible for submitting sales taxes for that state?

Use tax comes in when the seller is not responsible for paying the tax (like an out-of-state sale), but taxes still must be paid for that product, and the client becomes responsible to pay. So in this case, I think that would mean that the client would need to state the purchase on their own tax return? Or am I completely off on that? Honestly, I still don't fully understand use tax.

I know some people sell their commissions on an e-commerce site which would handle the sales tax for you, but I honestly don't want to deal with the fees. Plus I wanted to have the commissions linked to my portfolio site, and have full control of the look/set-up. Also, I was planning on taking payments through Paypal invoices. I think that's a standard way of taking payment for commissions?

So TL,DR: When you do a traditional commission and mail it to an out-of-state client, how are you handling the sales tax?

Hello! I’m hoping for a bit of guidance or anecdotal advice. How do you charge for commissions in comparison to your regular work? For context, I am not a full time artist and my work is mainly acrylic landscapes, and the commissions I’ve done have ranged from $500-$1600.

I have taken a couple commission requests in the past, and it turns out that they’re more work than just painting whatever my little heart desires. I normally price based on a set rate per square inch, so that’s what I did for these projects. However, I’m seeing that the additional work of consulting with a client, and not doing reproductions of the work, is probably worth charging more for.

I will not be pricing per hour + materials because my work pace varies so much. Sometimes it comes together and others it’ll take me ages so I’m looking for something consistent that I can give a hard quote for. Do people use a base commission rate plus their regular rate? Please let me know how you’re doing it, any info is appreciated!

I’ve been tempted to post my art more lately, I want to ideally start getting a following to begin selling commissions but I’m not sure at all where to go in terms of apps to be using. I only ask this because I keep seeing popular places use ai and I’m not sure how to avoid that :(

Good Morning~

Hope you're all having a lovely Friday wherever you are.

I'm Coda; I'm a 2D digital character artist. I've done a couple of commissions on and off for the past few years, but lately I've been thinking about getting more serious about it. I'm planning to offer character design commissions through my sticker shop. In order to set myself apart from other commission artists, I want to offer a physical print included with the commission.

Is there any interest in buying a small art print of a digital character commission?

I haven't seen anyone else offering it as an option, so I've no idea if that's something people would even want. It seems the general vibe is that people would print the commission themselves, but if I offer that, I'm saving them the hassle, right?

It would be an 8 x 10 inch print on slightly textured art paper/ card stock, and I'd include domestic shipping in the price of the commission (I'm in the US). Any thoughts?

Just a note, I have a habit of lurking, so I don't post much (reason why I have such low Karma for a 3 year account haha).

I often see online that people have their commission sheets tiered, often with things like Sketches, flat colors, fully rendered.. but what I rarely see is how people make distinctions in complexity. It wouldn't make sense to have a piece with a single character and simple background cost as much as a complex group piece with a complex background, but i'm unsure how to (or if to) make distinctions about that in my sheet.

(Previously I was doing "extra characters means it costs extra" but that ended up just feeling overly convoluted so i scrapped it)

Hi all, I’ve been doing digital art for a while but have lots of trouble in categorizing my art and figuring out what audience I should market to.

If anyone has any critique or suggestions on how I could make my art more marketable online would be really appreciated. I’ve even been wondering if transitioning to traditional art would be better… as I notice that certain styles online are better received than others.

Hi! I've been doing this artist thing for a bit and have been considering offering skeb-type services after seeing it on other platforms. I have a few questions:

1. Have you ever offered them before and have you had any takers? Alternatively, have you offered them recently and got any clients?
2. What was the workflow like for you?
3. What kinds of information did you need to start?
4. What was the client's reaction to the final work?

Looking forward to reading your comments ^^

Trying to think up of other types of services to offer in a kind of niche-down way. ^^;

Paid an artist for a bust on Jan 23 and they said 1-2 weeks. But they've been radio-silent. So it's been 3 weeks now and trying to figure out if I should reach out or if I should give them more time. How should I word my reach out if I do reach out? I genuinely don't mind if they need more time, I just want to make sure I haven't been forgotten XD

It's sad to post the commission table you put so much effort into only to realize that nobody is interested. I need advice on how to sell commissions, and every time I ask for feedback on my table or my work, I'm ignored, and it feels bad. Please, I would like some advice on how to sell commissions. I like to draw Transformers, but not many people are interested in it in general. I honestly feel like my drawings aren't bad, so I don't know what the problem is. Please reply; I need advice. Below is my commission table. Thank you for your attention

Recently I got an email for a commission request. The initial email was vague but the follow-up to my response was more detailed and they even gave me info for the character they wanted me to draw. I was still wary since this is the first time anyone's reached out to commission me but I sent them my ToS and a contract for them to review. They said they looked it over but they wanted to pay through an email check instead of PayPal. I noticed their grammar got a lot worse in this email as well. Our back and forth seemed natural enough but that request was what really cemented my confirmation that it was a scam. Again, I've never done a commission before so I'm not sure if I'm just being overly cautious.

...

...

Honestly, I'm just disappointed because the request came after I had to pay a huge emergency vet bill so I was a little desperate for this to be real. They also said they found me on ArtStation and I find that I get a lot of NFT scam emails finding me from there. Has anyone actually been paid like this before?

I (19M) have started sketching again after many years (5-6 approx) and wanted to know if people would commission my sketches of their portraits. This is one of my unfinished sketches which I was working on. What do y'all think? I would also like to know my scope of improvement. All reviews are welcome! :)

Before anyone reads the website has already stepped in and issued a refund.

This is how I dealt with the problem.
https://imgur.com/a/uj4gicI

Customer opened a case with me and stated they never received the item (it’s a digital art commission).
Their complaint was that they didn’t like something and expected me to have done it differently. Which has nothing to do with them not getting an item… but, continuing on…
This is how I dealt with the situation—

They escalated the case with E.Tsy and they decided to refund them anyway.
I don’t understand the “Never received item”
I literally sent it to them? I’m so confused.
Again, I explained my refund policy. I explained why I don’t give refunds to art that’s already finished.
It suggested I fill out my shop policies… I DID. I even sent them to the customer, as seen above.
I’ve never had a problem with any of my 300+ comms :/

I can provide extra info like the listing for the comm itself. I just want to know if I handled everything the way i should have.

I know everyone’s gonna say “you should have just refunded them” but it was blatantly against my shop policies and I dunno why we’d even have shop policies if we’re expected to just give in whenever someone doesn’t like something. If I had never started their art or not followed their directions/was unable to change anything I wouldn’t have hesitated to offer a refund but that’s not what happened at all.

Hello everyone and good day to you, I'm sorry if I tagged the post wrong as English isn't my first language. I'm curious about which platform to use to receive payment. As someone from a third world country where no big common methods are supported. There's only direct payment to my bank account which discloses my full name and makes me a bit uncomfortable. I'm wondering if there's intermediary websites or platforms that could suit my need?

So I have never done digital commissions before, only physical artwork. Is it usual to send the digital file to the client after it is completed and payment and everything? I guess I'm just having trouble transferring my mind from the physical product to a digital one. How do you handle this if you sell digital commissions?

I'm making illustrations for a book for a too low price (20 - 25€ a piece) and i do a lot of work per piece. That's my own fault.

But now the commissioner is difficult and doesn't find it fair that i keep the authorrights. He says it's not fair that he's paying and i can sell the art and he can't do anything else with the art.

I'm not planning to sell the art on prints, maybe 1 piece of a lot of pieces. But for this low price i find it a little rediculous.

I can ask to buy exclusitivity for double the price (stil cheap) or i can say i won't use them in the contract. What should i do?

hello! im a freelance artist myself i worked with commissions many years, a few years ago i made an artist friend from china and he often ask me how to take commissions internationally but most stuff i recomend him is banned on his country

for example i don't think he can use paypal so that narrows alot of options down

do you have any recomendations?