interested in starting pony commissions, any advice?

Nightmare Fuel
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doesn't like much
i’m interested in doing some commissions eventually, it’s fun drawing for others and you get something in return. but there’s two things i’m wondering about before i start
 
  1. based on my art, what should i price it? i got a couple of recent examples of what i can do, >>1909137 and this link. i have uploaded other stuff here before, but everything is from 3 years ago. it’s really simple artwork and i don’t want to charge too much for it, so i was thinking around the $10-$20 range, but at the same time i don’t want to underprice my art either.
     
  2. even though i am interested, i hardly have any confidence in actually delivering the commission to other people. i’ve been told by friends that my art is great for commissions, but i always worry if i get a commission request, but i don’t do anything about it and disappoint whoever is asking for one. i also am admittedly very slow at drawing, and i worry if i promise somebody a due date, but i deliver the drawing after that date instead. i sometimes see artists say they won’t accept money until they finish off a sketch, should i do something like that?
     
    commissions aren’t something i want to take too seriously, it’s just something to keep me going while i got my own job. plus it’ll hopefully help me improve in art in whatever way i suppose. but i still would like to know just a few things before i really decide
Clear Vision
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Petrolhead Artist
Going to drop in and give my opinion seeing as no one else has replied so far. I’ll try my best to give a detailed and elaborate response :)
 
  1. based on my art, what should i price it? i got a couple of recent examples of what i can do, >>1909137 and this link. i have uploaded other stuff here before, but everything is from 3 years ago. it’s really simple artwork and i don’t want to charge too much for it, so i was thinking around the $10-$20 range, but at the same time i don’t want to underprice my art either.
 
Undervaluing your art seems to be a somewhat common mistake, and looking back at when I first started doing commissions some months ago, I think I might have set my initial prices a little bit on the cheap side and I’m definitely going to make a new sheet with new prices as soon as possible to reflect the current quality of my art. As for your art, I think $10 is too cheap; if you can do more pictures like the Pinkie Pie one, definitely don’t go lower than $20, even to start. If you continue to improve and refine that style, then IMO you possibly could even set your price at $30 in the future.
 
As for determining your price, try to find as many other artists with styles comparable in some way to yours to find a baseline. From there, increase your price when:
 
  • There’s a noticeable change in your style that makes it look better than your previous art before  
  • There’s several people in your commission queue (proof of demand for your services)  
  • You become more consistent at doing good art quickly (you almost always can only have two qualities between fast, cheap, and good)
     
    However, don’t rush your art.
     
  1. even though i am interested, i hardly have any confidence in actually delivering the commission to other people. i’ve been told by friends that my art is great for commissions, but i always worry if i get a commission request, but i don’t do anything about it and disappoint whoever is asking for one. i also am admittedly very slow at drawing, and i worry if i promise somebody a due date, but i deliver the drawing after that date instead. i sometimes see artists say they won’t accept money until they finish off a sketch, should i do something like that?
 
Out of the 6 completed commissions that I’ve done so far (two of them from a repeat customer), and the comms that I’m working on right now to catch up on, I’ve never been asked to hurry up on a commission, or even about a due date; in fact the clients have been quite supportive, understanding and even helpful. Of course, that could just be my luck of the draw, but I think as long as you talk to your clients on a regular basis and tell them what’s going on (or even just to have a friendly chat), you should be fine.
 
Also, if you think you’re a slow artist, I can guarantee that you will be shocked when you find out that some people have commissioned artists, and 6 months down the line they’re still waiting for their drawing and they haven’t heard from the artist in a while. The longest I’ve ever taken on any drawing (commission or otherwise) from the moment I started it to the moment I finished it was 3 months (working on it a little bit each day, or every now and then), but then again, my drawings tend to be quite detailed. One of my clients has told me about an artist that he had commissioned, and one whole year later they are still waiting for their commissioned piece.
 
As long as you keep in touch with your commissioners, and you’re not taking an absurd amount of time to do one piece, then once again you should be fine and there’s nothing to worry about. Just let your customers know that you aren’t the type of artist who can whip out a completed project in a matter of days or a week, but that you’ll do your best to keep them updated. And if it makes you feel more at ease, you can request to be paid once the sketch is ready; not many people would object to that.
 
Hope this helps!
Bigshot232
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Mr. Works'alot
You know who gives good commission advice? My friend Bertolt right here
 
But yeah, I’m also not very confident with my stuff, but the key things are communication, honesty and transparency.
 
By keeping your clients in the know of your progress and happenings, you’ll very rarely get asked to speed things up.
 
You’ll also feel nervous at disappointing your client. This is good, the nervousness that is, its very natural and just shows you are taking their request very seriously.
 
I think it’ll be a good idea to post your progress to them, so they can not only see the work being completed at on a step by step basis, but if the client changes their mind on an aspect or makes a suggestion they didn’t think of before, itll not only lead to a better desired image, but also s happier customer.
 
I’m still super new to this so can’t rightly suggest prices, but the other replies seem to have that covered.
 
also a pricing reference sheet is always a plus to have
Bigshot232
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Mr. Works'alot
@ClearVision  
For me, It helps when I make a commitment on something as I end up thinking more on that and less about what i think others are thinking about me.
 
What i do find as a sort of barrier is, is taking the first step. It looks so big and vast and I’ll start to worry I’ll mess it up somehow, but if you take littler steps and keep going, you’ll be surprised how far you go.
 
Also have trust in yourself, that’s always a big plus.
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Just a cute artist
Well, if it helps you, I’m gonna share my experience with you:
 
I did many wallpapers (edits) and vector drawings with just my mouse and my pretty damn slow laptop back in 2012, and I got some experience and interest on dealing with this stuff. Then I started doing something more and tried to ask for commissions since I was unemployed and in need of money at that time.
 
I started off by selling this artwork HERE with 13 ponies, and I did it for just $20. It took me a week to do because I was asked to do many important details on this, and this guy didn’t have a reference for these characters… Of course at that time (April, 2016) I was just starting, afraid of asking for more, and I was also learning a lot about art, but I did it anyway, and I was happy about it at that time.
 
Finally, at December, 2015, I got my first pen tablet and I drew this oc, Skylar Violet which is from a facebook brony group we had. It wasn’t a commission but, blah… Honestly, your Pinkie Pie is way better than this…
 
Then I started to see how other artists do their thing, watching many videos, and I made more and more artworks, most of them for free, just to showcase what I could do and also have a better portfolio, and with time new people appeared asking me if I would do commissions. I said yes, of course, and I did more, and more, and more since then, always trying to get better and learn new things.
 
Now I do things like this for $20, and this for $80. And, for the same amount of time I did my first commission, I already sold a little animation for $250 (which, believe me, was pretty cheap to be honest, but I didn’t made many animations as well, I was afraid of doing stuff wrong, so I did it cheap again).  
If you roll down all the way to the beginning on my Deviantart page you can see how I grew up as an artist.
 
@Nightmare Fuel  
  1. based on my art, what should i price it? i got a couple of recent examples of what i can do, >>1909137 and this link. i have uploaded other stuff here before, but everything is from 3 years ago. it’s really simple artwork and i don’t want to charge too much for it, so i was thinking around the $10-$20 range, but at the same time i don’t want to underprice my art either.
 
For this question, I believe you need to understand what is the value of your work. Like, my artworks for example, the medium price varies from $15 to $100 (with a couple exceptions, like that animation I said). I still think they are a little cheap (I’m still working on that, I think I’ll always be) but it is a lot more from what I started from.
 
So my advice is, see how much time you need to do them, and how much you think it worths. Like, if you had a lot of money to spend, would you pay the same price for an artwork just like yours? That’s how I thought, and yeah, I would pay that much to have an animation of mine if I had money left to spend.  

 
@Nightmare Fuel  
  1. even though i am interested, i hardly have any confidence in actually delivering the commission to other people. i’ve been told by friends that my art is great for commissions, but i always worry if i get a commission request, but i don’t do anything about it and disappoint whoever is asking for one. i also am admittedly very slow at drawing, and i worry if i promise somebody a due date, but i deliver the drawing after that date instead. i sometimes see artists say they won’t accept money until they finish off a sketch, should i do something like that?
 
Test yourself! At least that’s what I did. If someone asks you to draw something complicated like a pony riding a dinosaur, jumping from an helicopter, would you be able to do this? No?? Then you could put some rules to your artworks (for example: I don’t do perspective!!! or I only do artworks similar to the samples I have) and taking them off as you grow as an artist and learn how to do new stuff.
 
I tend to do sketches before any payment, because, for me, through the sketch I can see how much effort I’m gonna need to complete it, and it’s like I’m adding the price of the sketch to the final artwork. Other artists are absolute and wants payment first before any sketch. No matter what, don’t be silly to receive payment only after you did your thing.
 
On my case, I like challenges, so if it’s something unusual or different, I try to do them, if it’s something really crazy, I warn my commissioners things can go wrong. And they usually approve my sketches and I go for the thing.  

 
@Nightmare Fuel  
commissions aren’t something i want to take too seriously, it’s just something to keep me going while i got my own job. plus it’ll hopefully help me improve in art in whatever way i suppose. but i still would like to know just a few things before i really decide
 
Sure, nobody has the right to complain with you about this, it’s your job, your money, so you decide the value of your time and effort on it. And if you wanna get better, you just do it better.  

 
I think that’s all, I hope it can brighten your mind.
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