The HARD TRUTH about Art Commissions 

Hi! Great video! I appreciate that you are not sugar coating what makes freelancing for the average consumer so incredibly dire. It is easy to wear rose-tinted glasses about the concept of drawing for others and getting paid to do so, especially if you are told that you are talented enough to make it happen-- but, as someone who has done merch design, sales, and freelance work for both individuals and indie productions, there is far more to consider about the labors of creating art vs income earned than most give credit for. In point 2 you state that a commission artist /may/ be underpaid (because they are undercharging)-- I actually agree, but I think there are some BIG FAT ASTERISKS about it, and being that this is a 'hard pills' sort of video, I think I wanna elaborate because I feel very strongly about it as someone who played this game for a little over 15 years. It isn't a criticism though-- just more like a piggy back! So, while it is noble to aspire to and recommend charging what you are 'worth' to avoid being underpaid (a nebulous concept at best wrt art, and especially digital art), just short of working for industry professionals I'd argue that actually, no matter what, you WILL be underpaid. So, the average consumer cannot afford what people call luxuries, especially in modernity bc the economy has been incredibly unstable ever since the crash of 2008. Most people who love art today enough to buy it at all, won't have the kind of income an artist would need to charge in order to - Pay Rent - Eat - Get health insurance - Collect taxes - Pay assistants/accountants/any other job related expenses that keep your lights on. Unfortunately, the reality is that you cannot charge a regular person 500 USD for an art piece the same way you could likely demand that of a commercial piece and expect to get paid work. Not only are we smashing records for the amount of citizens globally without expendable income en masse, we are also dealing with (mostly) a demographic of people who are used to strong-arming and haggling their way through a transaction because of the Amazon effect (ie, offering outlandishly lenient customer support that conditioned a LOT of people into being over-entitled consumers). So if someone IS going to do freelancing, doing it with the impression that you will ever be in a place where you can charge 500 USD (which is frankly, what would be considered a barely livable wage if you didn't want to be completely burned out doing like 10 pieces a month) for a piece is going to yield a ton of disappointment. If I'm honest, a better use of time for an aspiring career artist would be to learn how to make an incredible portfolio, and gear toward working for the industry- because commission art will almost ASSUREDLY stay a side gig that yields very little consistency or income. And you know what? That isn't even a bad thing necessarily! Taking paid work casually as a point of learning or growth is a GREAT motivator for some! Some people struggle to write or come up with their own ideas. Some people prefer just doing work with other small people who aren't a company or industry employer! In those cases, the best advice imo is this: Don't take any job request you are not IN LOVE WITH. I am so serious. If you take any job that walks through your door because you think that will improve your reputation and clientele, all it is going to do is keep landing you jobs drawing the things you didn't really feel crazy about in the first place (which is something Minty referenced later in the video, good boomerang! haha). Income be damned, /only take jobs you care about/. And then, there is the other Elephant in the room, which I personally find to be the more bitter pill: Bluntly, I don't think enough people are willing to reconcile that the saturation of the market (esp post pandemic) is a lot of what is causing disparaging results on costs and expectations. I know a lot of us were made to believe that because we were skilled that hard work and exposure will net us a living-- but there are ABSOLUTELY not enough collectors who purchase one-off custom work to justify the amount of people trying to enter the industry right now--and arguably there never were. In fact, this style of freelancing for the everyday art fan really only got popular in the early 2010s as the internet was very, very rapidly expanding as a side hustle. And eventually, big media corporations saw that there was a demand for artists to sell their work on a platform- and so they then artificially bloated demand by advertising and peddling commission art as a legitimate or secure means of living that anyone with enough gumption or talent could achieve (a lie. clearly), and a MASSIVE percentage of socially estranged or isolated people suddenly thought they had an out where they could just do something they were good at, and we didn't yet realize that it was a pipe dream with no real basis. Hustle culture is demonic. And in the end, I actually encourage people to consider perhaps not trying for freelance art as a career at all. Even in the best case scenario you will still be doing work that is not YOU, and is not for you, and if you're just using all of your creative energy to sate someone else who has the money to not bother learning that skill for themselves, that is no different than the song and dance you would be doing in food service or standard retail (actually, in some ways you are doing even more labor than that, because YOU HAVE TO DO ALL BUSINESS OPERATIONS YOURSELF TOO!! LOL). I was lucky enough to escape that deathloop some time ago. Younger folks have not been so lucky. Influencer culture has only further elevated the myth of freelancing's viability in a market of consumers who regularly shop at places like Five Below, and as someone who once did this as a point of career, for thousands of hours: Don't. If you can bear to let go, and you are able to, learn how to love making art for no reason other than just making something that you think needs to exist, and try to pivot to something that ISN'T intrinsically linked to the emotion part of your brain. In the end, when we are all dying, it is that work that you will hold closest to your heart. Don't lose sight of why you fell in love with the idea of making things- making rent with a talent you have is wonderful on paper and soul-crushing in practice, and only a very lucky (and microscopic) percentage of practicing artists ever see a level of success that doesn't demand they continue to work at a grueling place (or a pt job at like, fcking McDonalds). That does not mean that art is not worth making. It absolutely is, and even if you have to make it badly, you should still MAKE IT. Thank you for making this video! I hope anyone who reads this has a wonderful time, and that if you are struggling with your creative spirit that i am rooting for you.

Another tip for those who start taking commissions: try commissioning someone else. That way you will get into the client's mindset and will be able to organize your own commissioning process with this understanding in mind.

ive dealt with some interesting characters in my commissioning career- one that really stands out in my mind was a guy who guilt tripped me into dropping my price on a full color full bg piece. will NEVER do that again LMAO.

7:53 reminded me of this one person who wanted to give me “advice” and “criticisms” but all they did was tell me how shitty my art was (they showed me their own art which was mainly just art from bases they had used). They started to tell me how I shouldn’t be selling my artwork to people because of how shitty it was and the MAIN REASON why was because I had to be proud of my work, my commissions aren’t stunning or jaw dropping but if people were still willing to pay for it then that’s them because it’s their money. This guy just went on a whole rant on why he didn’t sell his own work because he knew he wasn’t good enough or something (he had professional artist in his bio and had already told me he was better then me at art) so. That was an interesting time.

I remember a guy doing minimal stick figure art on Fiver years ago and was very successful. He had different tiers, packages for his commissioned work. The hard part for artists is understanding business. Business is cutthroat and straightforward. Breaking down the drawing/art from sketch to full rendering should have vastly different price points. Whether its just inked or full color. Be bold and charge more. It doesn't need to outrageous, but enough for food on the table, clothes on your back, roof over your head, and bills paid. Probably would be good enough for savings, too.😊

Horror story - I once had accidentally accepted a request from a commissioner who stole old anime OC art from a SUPER popular anime to be the base designs of the OCs they wanted to pay me to draw for them. They stole those pictures from DA and thought, since the users hadn't updated in years, that meant the OCs were considered abandoned and ripe for their taking. I didn't realize it until we were deep into the commission together and she finally admitted to it. I didn't know what to do because my family was counting on her payment at the end of the week. Since then, THE SECOND I FEEL SUS ABOUT A COMMISSIONER, I do a complete refund, regardless of how much work I've finished, and run for the hills. I used to have a friend that thought it was unprofessional behavior for an artist to NOT finish something, but I explained as long as the money returned intact, nothing else mattered. Nowadays, I don't take commissions anymore because no one wants to pay for them, but it hasn't stopped people from knocking on my door expecting free art.

To newer artists aspiring to do art commissions: I've been doing commissions for several years and have done comms ranged from five dollars to a couple hundred. Intermediate artist. This video brings up a lot of great points, and you should consider them when going into doing art commissions, but if these sound like a whole lot of negatives, don't let it immediately discourage you. Doing commissions can be extremely rewarding, fulfilling, and can boost your confidence significantly with work. Yes, it has its downsides, but if you're wanting to try it, I would recommend you try it. IMO you CAN undercharge at first (nothing less than 5-10 dollars, even for something simple), but the og video does make good points and if you feel that that is the route you want to go, then absolutely do that. good luck !

i wanted to do comissions for not even real money.. and someone literally said: improve your art more before doing commisions. like helloooo?? i can do it whenever i want

04:00 this works only if you don't need the money, if you do, you will work for whatever it takes to get any money, 2 dollars is more than 0 dollars, that's a snack you can feed yourself. Also minimal wage is different all around the world; when poeple say an artist is underpricing themselves they're usually Americans/western. It's very hard to make a pricelist that will satisfy people from the whole globe; that's the iffy thing about selling on the internet. Ideally people should charge enough to provide for themselves in the place they live in, but if the place they live in is cheap, and no one wants to buy their comms cuz they "undersell" themselves... it sucks. Also higher prices would make it impossible to people from their countries to ever buy from them. If you think an artist is underpricing themselves - commission them and generously tip them; no better way to make them feel like they indeed deserve and can make more.

Thank you, Alayna!! You did a phenomenal job drawing Köga, and while I’m writing my Sonic OC story, I pray your channel gets all the recognition it deserves. God bless you!!

It's also because not everyone can afford art even if it's 20-30 dollars. Not many artists get commissions so when they price it low then they get work. I see so many artists struggling to get commission work and their skills are amazing but their prices are like $8-$15 some are higher and they still can't get work... I've seen artists prices go to $90 but it does depend on your audience. Some are lucky to find their people but many can't.. I myself do like doing commissions but it's hard to find anyone willing to commission me. But it's fine, keep going is what I say🥺👍🏻

I really understand this, I’ve opened commissions before (for free since I’m only a minor) they always stressed me out and it took up all my time 😢 I enjoyed drawing art for people but it took away time for me to do what to do!

You are a gold mine. As an older artist who came back to art after 20 years, I not only wasted a lot of money on a dream I thought was lost but I also believed I could at best be doing stuff here and there for little money. Thank you for this.

Minimum wage is meaningless when artists in the phillipines charge $15USD for a riot splash art level piece, and its hard justifying that to a potential buyer.

As someone hoping to maybe try commissions in the future this was really useful, thank you.

I commission book covers every once in a while, and I think it's really important for artists to know how their work is going to be used. So for example for a cover, you need to do things like get the title on right away (to make sure it fits); test your art at different resolutions and aspect ratios. Cover art usually has to work at 2x3 and 1x1, and at resolutions from 5400x3600 all the way down to 180x270. And finally, take screen shots of market places (like Amazon) and place your art work next your competitors, to make sure it pops, but not in a bad way.

Thank you, you helped me finally put the nail in the coffin. I LOVE, love love LOVE making art. I have a passion for it that I sometimes don't even have for life itself (depression). I figured I could just go and EZ PZ get commissions. No dice. I found I HATED doing commissions. Like, if money was involved, the turn-off was startlingly violent. So, hearing someone finally say that I.. just don't need to, makes me so happy. Still gonna mess with my website though, I love it and have so much fun doing stupid stuff. I'll probably renovate the commission stuff into a sunroom or smth..

20:06 subway surfers gameplay is devious but it also feels like it may have actually worked 😭

Good video. Before I say something about commissions, I want to compliment that "you drawing animation loop" thing. It is cute and satisfying to watch while listening to what you say. I do think that you are making a lot of good points, but I want to add one more: sometimes, making commissions can suck out your passion for art or at the very least passion for the subject of your art. This happened to me recently and that made me realize I probably won't be able to make art a thing I can ever make living of. That's unfortunate, but it seems that's the reality of the situation. I guess what I need to do now regarding art, is to get a grip and reclaim the passion that I've lost

Making your prices higher is the most logical thing in your sitsuation, the product your offering is in high demand so the value should reflect that.

After my last client who was flakey asf, I came 100% to the realization that I'd rather be paid by people who like my work and the art I create. That means stuff I WANT to draw. That being said, I'm not against doing commissions but if they can't afford me, they can't afford me. I'm not lowering my prices.

This is a really awesome video. When I was a bit younger I had started a very small art commission set up, but stopped doing it because of burn out and now and I just kind of spiraled out of posting art at all. Friends and family have said that I should start posting art and maybe try to do commissions again. Though I'm not sure if I will, this video was really encouraging to watch. And as always, your art is amazing! Hope your art journey is going well and I can't wait to see what comes next. :>

I dealt with more scammers in the last month than actual real commissions. So many people trying to get money from artists to or get stuff for free made me ask for the full price after sketch phase

Art licensing is also a big income earner. Ownership vs Renting agreements for products.

Your art is so pretty and glad you're back queen!

I paid for a lot of drawings but like a month ago I decided to start drawing myself. Did not imagine it takes so long to create something I dare to post on pixiv. I may get faster but for now a OK image takes me about 3 days (work and sleep included). Long story short I think I always underpaid the poor fellas 😅

Thank you for making this video! I find this very relatable since I'm also a freelance illustrator who also takes commissions. I'm really grateful for all of my clients and I also want to focus on how to earn money not just by taking commissions. Keep up the good work Minty!

Thank you so much for sharing this amazing video with us, Alayna! I wish I had heard of all these tips sooner, especially when I just starting out and trying to find the best way to avoid common pitfalls before opening my first commissions. I still have a lot to learn in that area of my art journey, but I'm trying my best to improve, and your video definitely helped by providing a useful checklist to keep in mind! Also, lovely art, as always! ☺🙏 💖

Thank you so much for this video...literally happened to be on my feed. ❤ I have always wanted to try commissions, but didn't know where to start. But knowing our worth as an artist is so important. And that if the price we set doesn't get people, then the main point is we know our worth as an artist. And true, honest people will see it too and pay for it. They are a fan of our art. Thank you this just helps a lot! ☺️

Had to shut down a credit card due to a fraudulent commission that took $100 from my PayPal. Yeah.

Your line work is beautiful!

This looks like a very interesting video I can't wait

Thank you for this video! I started commissioning the start of this year and it was difficult trying to feel like my art was worth a price tag. People would tell me it was a crime that I was charging so little for my work, but whenever I did higher my prices, my chances to get any work was little to none. Eventually I stopped, but I've been wanting to do it again because I enjoyed drawing my friend's characters for them (I offered). It was also really great practice and I'd see myself improving every time. I'll definitely keep this advice in mind! I appreciate it not being sugar coated. 😭❤

4:37 omg yes, this reminds me of an incident i had waaay before when some follower tried to argue with me that copic isnt expensive item & the size of an A3 with high details aint worth that much... put in mind im not new in art I've been doing art for over 15-18 years.. these type of arguments lead me to leave media in general. Im glad im over it now and sharing my art normally. It was a hilarious yet nerve burning experience

I do on and off commissions and have been looking into trying to figure out how to do them more but this vid is pretty helpful! Also a good reminder for me to change my prices lol

You doing great Minty! You definitely inspiring me and I hope things keep going well for you! One step at a time!

personally I could relate since my friend keeps sharing his story of his artworks to me and trying understand his side under his spectrum and I could easily relate to perhaps at 7:20 ~ Working myself as a fryer in a restaurant there will be times I would not prefer what other people would order on work and what to put on food like Fries on a Sundae (lol) and putting bacon! , now applying that to persay artworks, there will be times I heard stories how my friend artist wasn't so feeling motivated or feeling good when he was given bad designed + written characters to draw, and yes this still happens especially to whose clients have NSFW characters in a way you are forced to because of money. This is unlike to a company at least they are tamed (it depends sometimes it doesn't work) to have at least artist feel ease drawing something but everyone has there own phasing and preferences so not everyone is going to draw something overboard especially when it's being asked.

YOU ARE SPEAKING THE MF FACTS!!!! YES!!!!!!!

I think thanks to you I'll go all over my tiers and try to trim the fat from them. I'm still new with this shop and people were not commissioning me stuff that I wanted to do to improve and be more professional. It really hinders growth when you are stuck making plain stickers and how bad the details are lost on that format it annoys me to no bounds. Also, while you are doing commissions you can't practice with stuff you are learning from tutorials and other courses. I'm not popular enough to raise my prices but I needed to raise them a 3% because of PayPal's cut. Oh well thanks for sharing your experience with us. You got a new sub 👍

I remember a celebrated artist that began having trouble getting work as he got older. Your hand isn't as steady, your eyes and mind aren't as on point. You can see the degradation over time when an artist has a long public career. As a worrywart, I just want to remind people that you need to save up for rainy days and have a Plan B for catastrophes and old age! The only time I've commissioned artwork was when I simply wanted a concept to exist. I paid for it and asked the artist for the right to show it to the fan community (who're a bunch of art thieves, sadly). I'm proud of the concept and that I helped spread it, like a disease, into people's impressionable minds. :D

Is pretty hard for me to get to the audience I want in my art accounts, I don't know what to do about it. Almost everyone that has tried to comission me wants to pay with crypto or wants my art for NFTs (a good amount of them where sacams). And on that one of clients that don't respect you... I had one that actually wanted to get in my pants and used comissions as an excuse to send me nudes, cause they comssioned a sexy self portrait... that they ended up not paying when I refused to send nudes back, and I did't send it, refused to do so till I got payed, but it was fully finished. Luckily, thanks to advice from other artists, from the start I charged half upfront and would only send the final product once it was fully payed. That person also asked for another sfw comission on the same price, so I considered that one fully payed and sended it so they couldn't demand money back. That is another good tip, charge at least half up fron and only send the final product once is fully payed.

It’s kinda crazy to me to think that artists charge so much for commissions bc they need to afford to live in this economy (which makes sense our art should be valued and taken seriously as a job.) But then likely these same artists could probably not often afford to go out and buy commissions at these prices bc of inflation and needing to eat. So it’s a constant cycle of asking those who can to pay us minimum wage prices for art (which to afford to do they’d have to make well over minimum wage so be well off or save up) well we scrape by and don’t always get the luxury of being able to afford the things we make ourself thus we’re putting work onto the market we couldn’t realistically buy often if we were consumers. (I mean idk maybe some of u can afford our own commissions prices but with how artists talk about needing to charge more to eat and pay bills I doubt it bc all our commission money is going into affording living with less leftover likely to afford luxuries like commissions unless we save up.) But then again I think the whole concept of art being a luxury for the rich is kinda sad altogether bc many artists aren’t even part of “the rich.” And can’t effortlessly spend money on luxuries like art without budgeting properly. Furthermore, it’s that reason that historically only the rich could even afford to be artists. But now anyone can be an artist thanks to the internet but like only the rich or more well off can afford to pay us for our art so we can live off minimum wage when we ourself probably can’t afford to buy our own art or others commissions often if at all. But idk, kinda be interested to know how many artists would actually pay their own commission prices for their work or could even realistically afford to rn with the wages they make on top of the cost of living? At least when we work for a company using our art we’re not asking consumers to pay us living wages, which is well over what most spend on a single item at a store, but we’re asking cooperations with way more money in their pockets to pay employees.

thank you so much for this!!!!

I haven’t finished watching the video yet but everything you are saying resonates so much to what I’ve been thinking lately regarding my work. Unfortunately freelancing for small clients is my only income atm and I’m struggling to pay rent, bills and food every month… and I’ve been trying to apply for bigger jobs or create more intricate pieces to get better commissions but so far I don’t see many results :( It’s been like this for 2 years but I’m hoping that I can change things soon!

Great video as always, Alanya! Very informative and helpful about the truths of art commissions. And seeing how you'll be using our commissions to add to your portfolio, I'll definitely commission you at some point to further help your portfolio. I see great potential in your career. Hope you'll feel better soon. Take care!

I did over a hundred commissions over the last 3 years. Hated every moment of it. Recently I stopped to focus on my own work. If you can charge thousands or live in a country with a low cost of living, maybe it's worth it. It was not for me.

I'm a little different in that I build guitar pedals as a hobby and sell them off if I'm not into them, and to also fund the next builds. I'm not doing it for a living. However, people often see these for sale and occasionally ask for a commission build (usually for a clone of something rare and/or expensive). I actually hate doing them due to the self inflicted pressure to get it right, so I charge like a wounded bull with a bunch of caveats - I get it done when I get it done because I have a job and a family, half up front, the rest before delivery, they'll get updates as things progress and there's plenty of communication regarding the artwork. They also get lifetime support and repairs on my work. I haven't actually had a bad experience with it yet, but possibly because I do it on my terms, not the client's.

When I work with artists for commissions, I always try to be the best example. I understand that it's alot of work for these guys.

Great video. I'm glad the RU-vid algorithm is working for me again.

Amazing video! and yes this is so true tho.! Hope ur channel makes it to 3k subs ^^

When I have done commisions in the past. Working traditionally helped me a lot. Digitial art is really convenient. But that convenience was the root to a lot of my problems. I found that drawing traditionally made the process more easy, was more respected, and the pay was fine, because I could mail the physical copy to the client. Or simply taking a photo with a camera, allowed for sending things digitaly. It costs more if you don't have supplies. And simply treating digital like traditional can help as well.

i gave up doing commissions. i got dozens of scam attempts, and the only “clients” i got were very disrespectful to art and my art, and some people even begged for free commissions. i’ve never come across somebody who was willing to pay my specified price and cooperate with me

Thank you sm for this video because as a small artist myself the idea of doing commission for people was a neutral feeling,so now that you explain your process of doing commissions for people it really gave me insight of how the process goes and to easily not be scared of people's negative comments about your work as well as to value yourself upon your craft.

Definitely one of the hardest industries on every spectrum.

Thank your for this video! Subbed!

This is exactly why I no longer do them. I get burned out fast.

I kinda have a hard time getting started on my commissions, I have ADD and even when I want to work on them I struggle to sit down and focus, or I get distracted and forget what I was originally doing and feel really bad for being so slow…

Hello! So, I'm an artist that is still underage and in my country I don't have the possibility of opening a bank account that works with dolalrs, I mainly open commissions on summer and I charge items or money from games I play. I normally draw sketches if it's just art for myself, but I like commissions because they force me to improve and put attention to details I hadn't thought about before, mainly since I have to actually finish the piece I'm making. I usually post them on disc servers for people to see them. A week ago I decided to open commissions once more, it was the first time I used specific amounts for a currency I wasn't used to, since it was experimental, I decided to test it out with a few prices. Yes, many people commissioned me for this new currency, the thing is that that currency is very easy to get in game and I didn't feel like the time I spent doing commissions was proportional to the amount I was getting paid for. I had to remove the currency and post something along it, that I wouldn't be taking more of that money. T-T

The best art commission site is your own carrd website, or any personal site where you can directly communicate with a client.

Gonna be honest with you, I kinda have some of the same problems here, in terms of orders I only seem to get about 1-2 orders at a time, though mostly far between. Also I might actually consider the idea of commissioning you at some point

I'm someone who likes to do pencil drawings mostly, sometimes digital art, but I haven't mastered digital art. Anyways, commissions stressed me out so much that I basically quit drawing altogether. I'll still draw here and there but I'm not as passionate about it as I used to be. I liked drawing as a stress relief but then I couldn't say "no" to people who would ask me to draw things for them. Usually it was pictures of a family member and that's okay! I understand wanting that, but when I spend several hours drawing this and only get 20 dollars? It just became too much. And some people even thought that 20 dollars was too expensive! One person never paid me for a commission at all. But everyone around me keeps telling me that I should be an artist for a living, or an art teacher... and that's just not what I wanted. So instead of continuing getting better at my own pace, I guess I just stopped drawing so people would stop bugging me about it. I didn't do this intentionally either, I just lost passion for it after a while and that thought did pop up from time to time. I'll still sketch sometimes, but I just can't be bothered anymore. For some background. I have some mental health issues and drawing was a distraction for me, kinda like a therapy I guess, and then it became super stressful. I'd like to think I'm a decent artist, I won the art award in my school, I like drawing portraits of my favorite actors in roles that they play... but yeah. I'd kinda like to get back into it at some point but trying to figure out where to start might be difficult. An art website that I like using is called ArtStation.

I’m so glad I’m a hobby artist so people who can’t afford art and DESERVE to do more then survive eat sleep and work can afford art. I’m glad I do many raffles and requests cuz when I see stuff like this talking about how much you make and it should be $1000 plus for a small commission it makes me see just a greedy gremlin making granny hands at everyone. It makes me understand why people give up on ever having no ice things or even decent things and understand why there’s a difference between living and surviving. Yeah. It’s a luxury but if all they can save is $5 in spending money in money months it sucks that the best thing they could buy is maybe a soda or candy bar. Then they get friends going on and on about look at my cool ocs I bought or look I got amazing art or a phone that can handle I drawing program or look I bought a car that won’t break down tomorrow! And they get told how awful they are asking for a $5 commission in a group and get to show off a soda and that’s it. I was able to afford a soda 8 months later. At least I’ll scrape by when I’m 90 saving money…yeah charge what you want but don’t make it seem like those who charge less are bad and harm others. I always have a few requests or cheap art comms for people that can’t pay much for commissions. Always because it isn’t about “they don’t think it’s worth much “ or “I could be making millions cuz some company pays an artist this much” it’s about not being tight fisted, being kind, and enjoying art. So not just thinking me me me the whole time

I open these small 72-hour character commissions twice a month to practice drawing, try out new techniques and have myself a little fun... I basically hone my skills and get paid at the same time.

yes! Always go a little higher on the estimated delivery just in case you run into any hiccups. And ALWAYS make sure that you are in regular communication so that your commissioner knows what's happening and has confidence in your work. Yeah, I agree minimum wage is a great way to start out in gauging your pricing. You want to make sure it's worth your time and effort to do it, which is why I have slowly raised my prices over the years. Even if there is a reduction in clients, I don't want to rush and work hard for measly pay in the end that would have been better if I was doing a minimum wage job. We, as artists, need to remember that art is a skill. Most skillful jobs and professionals get higher than minimum wage. We have to remind ourselves that it's okay to ask for more when we've spent so long honing our artistic skill.

No.3 is litterally why i gave up on being a full time freelance artist after 3 years in. I was only drawing for companies/professionals. I started hating drawing, and having my entire future depending on that, it was too unstable for me to fully count on it. So I took a minimum wage job in retail and doing whatever I want during my free time. If I want extra dough for the month, I will open commission slots on my twitter. If not, i just draw for myself. Drawing as a fulltime job made me feel miserable, it's genuinely not for everyone.

Personally, i undercharge my art because i know i dont have the platform. If you see an artist youve never seen charging the same prices as an artist youve been following for a while-EVEN if you like that nee artist-youre going to trust the artist you know more. Because thats common sense lol There's less worry in spending on a new person if you're not spending as much

I was curious what your rates would be considering everything you were talking about in the video, and when I went to look (as of writing this comment)... they're all extremely fair prices that I personally would be more than willing to pay for your quality of work!

I love this.

Your explanation and the overall video were great, and I'm very happy with the way you broke down the pros and cons. To be honest, I can totally understand and relate to how time-consuming commissions can be and how much they can hold back on improvement. I genuinely believe it would be better not to take commissions unless it's truly needed or in case the person feels confident with their skill and is fully ready to offer services :) As for the best platform, my commission experience has been quite easier than before once I began using VGen as a commission platform to offer my services. The overall platform is neat and versatile and there's no need to discuss much or pay outside the platform. Thank you for the video :D

i remember about 5-6 years ago being on a discord serv with lots of 16-ish young drawers and 2d animators that were discussing how much they should charge for comissions and they were going for charging like 5€ for a set of twitch banners and stuff like that. I tried to put my grain of salt in the discussion, I tried to put things into perspecive, comparing prices to what they can afford, I tried to give them example of how freelance artists charge in their area. Even gave them the hourly minimum rate of a trainee, which was like a bit less than minimum wage but still magnitudes more than 5 buck for days of work. But since the majority of the serv was young, I was the only voice countering the mass of "oh but it's not even work, it's a side hustle for quick student money, we ain't worth minimum wage, and we can't legally work under 16 anyway, and...." The lack of confidence and certitude from some and the group effect made them go for being paid literally a McFrist chicken at McDonald's. It was sad. Just sad.

I love this video thank you, but I do have a question, I’m 16 and I want to start selling commissions of my illustrations but I don’t really know where to start. Do you have a video you could recommend or a site that I can start on? Really would appreciate it, thanks!

The first person I got a commission from unfollowed me weeks after I sent the artwork, thank goodness I was still paid

ive turned down every commission request except for 3. Its not that i dont want to do it but like most artist, i am veryyyyyy critical of my work. Id hate to look back at something and pick at its faults when the commissioner thinks its not even that bad. I want to feel as if theyre getting my absolute best. Anything else falls short. Also Im alr wayyy too hard on myself so i just dont bother. At least for now. Those 3 commissions will hopefully be worth something one day.

Realizing that you are surrounded with people who financially struggle the same way like you has a huge impact on pricing. Also if the client simply deserves a low price out of humanity, for example if a poor woman wants a portrait of her child she lost to a lethal illness. Charging more than a small price would be outrageous selfishness and greed, in this case. But, if these cases become majority, you'll have some interessant thougths.

This video was amazing! As a (kind of) inexperienced artist, this was very inspiring! And you are speaking F A C T S! This is really true. 💖💖 (I might be commissioning you in the future but currently my budget is a bit low :)

Hello!! I have a question regarding payment. What’s the best and fastest method to transfer money? I don’t like using Paypal and other sites require I have a business. I am working as individual for individuals. Sending invoices sound intimidating and once again, I don’t have a stable business, and can’t afford the fee of sending one. Is there an efficient way of going through payment fast and with minimal complications? Moreover, I find myself doing extra work like coloring and rendering while that was not part of the deal or completely redrawing and without additional charges. When I redo a work, I just say I don’t charge additional because it was me who screwed up, I was a dummy for being sidetracked. I just want to give high quality service but this resulted in me working on something for a day that would only take me half of it.

i've taken many commisions before and everytime i got hit with so much artblock, and then the guilt :((( so much stress to go through because of the dead line

I just checked your prices and holy smokes they are higher than I'm used to. Though in your case it seems that they're justified for what you offer. I once saw an artist who offered prices around as high as you and their art was not on par with yours or even mine.

Your art is very cute 💕

I've been thinking to start doing commissions but from what I've seen, unless you have a huge following it's almost impossible to get commissions no matter how you price them...

one thing that puts me off from commissions atm is payment methods. most people I've seen personally do paypal or kofi but I'm not sure how kofi works and if it's worth it and am not getting paypal just for commissions, especially after reading up on the fees involved. how does one market internationally without a third party transfer fees involved? should I just charge with the fees in mind ?

These are all great points but the problem is not all of us can find good clients or companies straight up ignore you for numerous reasons. So yeah that is my hard truth as a freelancer that is working since 2018. There is more but better to make it short.

Man I remember not selling a single commission so I studied like a motherfucker and id argue that I’ve gotten really good. (Understand I’ve only started to believe this in the last year) Now nobody buys my work because it’s not “trendy” and too expensive. I feel so bad telling young artists I’ve never made money on my art because they always respond with “if YOU can’t make money then there’s no hope for me…” that means I really have no place to vent about that. It’s super disheartening as I continue to post and I feel proud every time I improve and yet the only messages I receive are from scam bots

Hmm,,, about the pricing and the professionals... I feel much of this is only applicable to designing, not to all art. I for example do wood working. Not on the standard to sell anything yet, but even if it were: Most wood work is not seen as individual as a graphic design. And it surely is not in as high demand, since people like advertisers don't need handcrafted stuff there. I suspect that people who draw/paint/illustrate are the ones that have the easiest (not easy) way of getting money for their work.

have you ever experienced a chargeback before? how did you deal with it?

owww, i would really like some tips in where exactly you find costumers if its not instagram or twt!

What procreate brushes did you use in this video

Bro, I had this one artist and when I told them my prices for my art work for commissions, she told me she can do that at home. What’s with artists putting down artists, and then another artist told me this on Reddit: r/delusionalartists.

I don't even bother with commissions. I'm a freelance animator. It takes me weeks to finish a sequence.😂

What about when you offer commissions and post regularly but aren’t gaining a following? I draw dragons, which I understand isn’t everyone’s thing, but I’ve been trying to grow an audience for the past five years and I just end up giving up because I’ve never broken 200 for my art alone. Am I doing something wrong? Should I be drawing humans instead?

4:50 what are you doin here with the braids? I don't understand

Almost every commission I ever got I hated 😂🤣!!!! I did hundreds of them too and there's only a small handfull that i actually enjoyed making

i have the opposite problem and can't find clients for the life of me :(

1 or 2 years ago I was making art for people, for free.

Times are hard but if sonic at comm... You know I still don't know it I can.....

I can't even figure out how to get a commission lol, I don't think my work is bad. Been trying to post stuff but I get demotivated not getting much reach :( maybe I should start an actual yt channel like you instead of just shorts

Guys is 40$ too much for fully rendered portrait in my style? (Its something between semirealizm And manwa i think) /gen question 🙏

I have been messed around in the past. So this is what i do. One time payment, upfront and you will get the piece within the time frame i say. If you change your mind, then it’s too late. So make sure you really want it before paying me. I expect a good price for a good piece. If you don’t like that offer than we are done with the conversation. That is my process. I never let the client down. But i have had some elf entitled people that i happily said bye too

Unfortunately there's more supply than demand when it comes to making artwork for money...

What program do you use to draw?❤