Commissions of Fan Art (and other inquires)

[otherscape.livejournal.com]

Hello! First time poster here. :)

I was thinking of starting commissions soon and I have a few questions concerning copyright. I've looked through the tags and although I saw hints of this subject, I don't believe it's been fully discussed.

My first question is concerning commissions of fan art. I know selling prints of fan art has been discussed many times here, but I'm strictly talking about someone commissioning an image featuring a copyrighted character and using it for strictly non-commercial reasons, and the artist who drew the commission doesn't sell prints of that picture. I've heard two views on this. 1) The artist is breaking the law because they drew the image of a copyrighted character for money. And, 2) even though what the artist drew had a copyrighted character on it, the image itself is still original and belongs to the artist. Needless to say, I'm confused. I've done some research on this, but all I really get is opinion pieces and articles concerning the selling of fanart, which is not what I'm looking for. Or is selling fanart technically the same as a commission of someone's character, since both times the artist receives money?

This leads into my second question: does the artist own the rights to the image or does the commissioner, especially when the commission involves the commissioner's characters? Some artist's TOS's state that they own the copyright to the image even though the commissioner owns the physical image. Does this still hold true (if it ever did) if the commission depicts characters that don't belong to either the artist or the commissioner?

I'd love to hear opinions on this as well as good links concerning these subjects. I know a lot of what I'm asking is probably obvious, but I just want to be super sure about this subject before I write my TOS or conduct business practices.

Thank you.

Commissions of Fan Art (and other inquires)

[otherscape.livejournal.com]

Hello! First time poster here. :)

I was thinking of starting commissions soon and I have a few questions concerning copyright. I've looked through the tags and although I saw hints of this subject, I don't believe it's been fully discussed.

My first question is concerning commissions of fan art. I know selling prints of fan art has been discussed many times here, but I'm strictly talking about someone commissioning an image featuring a copyrighted character and using it for strictly non-commercial reasons, and the artist who drew the commission doesn't sell prints of that picture. I've heard two views on this. 1) The artist is breaking the law because they drew the image of a copyrighted character for money. And, 2) even though what the artist drew had a copyrighted character on it, the image itself is still original and belongs to the artist. Needless to say, I'm confused. I've done some research on this, but all I really get is opinion pieces and articles concerning the selling of fanart, which is not what I'm looking for. Or is selling fanart technically the same as a commission of someone's character, since both times the artist receives money?

This leads into my second question: does the artist own the rights to the image or does the commissioner, especially when the commission involves the commissioner's characters? Some artist's TOS's state that they own the copyright to the image even though the commissioner owns the physical image. Does this still hold true (if it ever did) if the commission depicts characters that don't belong to either the artist or the commissioner?

I'd love to hear opinions on this as well as good links concerning these subjects. I know a lot of what I'm asking is probably obvious, but I just want to be super sure about this subject before I write my TOS or conduct business practices.

Thank you.

Licensing art

[kiriska.livejournal.com]

Okay. Looking for advice about licensing commissioned art to the commissioner commercial use.

So I am potentially going to be doing a lot of art for a guy making a tabletop RPG -- he'll be using all of the art in a guidebook that will eventually be for sale. Since this is something a lot of people want to do and since I don't know enough about the project to really form an opinion about how likely it is to be commercially successful, I would rather not deal with royalty payments that may or may not ever happen and would prefer a lump sum one-time licensing fee per image.

The guy pointed out that a flat-rate fee per image (in addition to the cost of the commission itself) would add up quickly for him, since he would need dozens and dozens of images. I understand this, and I understand that this is a very indie project and that he isn't a big business with lots of funds. I do want to be as reasonable and fair to him as possible, but I want to be fair to myself as well, and in the event that this guidebook is wildly successful, I don't want to have given away usage of the art for little more than what the art itself cost.

So I'm not really sure what would be a good compromise. I was thinking about percentages, like maybe a 5% licensing fee on top of the cost of each image, though some of the smaller images would be something like $20, so 5% is only a dollar, which seems.. silly? I don't know.

Advice?

Licensing art

[kiriska.livejournal.com]

Okay. Looking for advice about licensing commissioned art to the commissioner commercial use.

So I am potentially going to be doing a lot of art for a guy making a tabletop RPG -- he'll be using all of the art in a guidebook that will eventually be for sale. Since this is something a lot of people want to do and since I don't know enough about the project to really form an opinion about how likely it is to be commercially successful, I would rather not deal with royalty payments that may or may not ever happen and would prefer a lump sum one-time licensing fee per image.

The guy pointed out that a flat-rate fee per image (in addition to the cost of the commission itself) would add up quickly for him, since he would need dozens and dozens of images. I understand this, and I understand that this is a very indie project and that he isn't a big business with lots of funds. I do want to be as reasonable and fair to him as possible, but I want to be fair to myself as well, and in the event that this guidebook is wildly successful, I don't want to have given away usage of the art for little more than what the art itself cost.

So I'm not really sure what would be a good compromise. I was thinking about percentages, like maybe a 5% licensing fee on top of the cost of each image, though some of the smaller images would be something like $20, so 5% is only a dollar, which seems.. silly? I don't know.

Advice?

Licensing art

[kiriska.livejournal.com]

Okay. Looking for advice about licensing commissioned art to the commissioner commercial use.

So I am potentially going to be doing a lot of art for a guy making a tabletop RPG -- he'll be using all of the art in a guidebook that will eventually be for sale. Since this is something a lot of people want to do and since I don't know enough about the project to really form an opinion about how likely it is to be commercially successful, I would rather not deal with royalty payments that may or may not ever happen and would prefer a lump sum one-time licensing fee per image.

The guy pointed out that a flat-rate fee per image (in addition to the cost of the commission itself) would add up quickly for him, since he would need dozens and dozens of images. I understand this, and I understand that this is a very indie project and that he isn't a big business with lots of funds. I do want to be as reasonable and fair to him as possible, but I want to be fair to myself as well, and in the event that this guidebook is wildly successful, I don't want to have given away usage of the art for little more than what the art itself cost.

So I'm not really sure what would be a good compromise. I was thinking about percentages, like maybe a 5% licensing fee on top of the cost of each image, though some of the smaller images would be something like $20, so 5% is only a dollar, which seems.. silly? I don't know.

Advice?

[edited] please beware of this artist, Pollypuma

[poizenkat.livejournal.com]

 How should i approach an artist that is obviously having an attitude with a client?

( cutcutcut )

Thanks,

Blue

[edited] please beware of this artist, Pollypuma

[poizenkat.livejournal.com]

 How should i approach an artist that is obviously having an attitude with a client?

( cutcutcut )

Thanks,

Blue

[edited] please beware of this artist, Pollypuma

[poizenkat.livejournal.com]

 How should i approach an artist that is obviously having an attitude with a client?

( cutcutcut )

Thanks,

Blue

LOOKING FOR: customer from AC

[dizziness.livejournal.com]

Long time reader, first time poster.

H E L P! I have never had this happen. A commission has been returned to me with "REF" written on it. Has anyone had a package refused?
( pic image of front of package in question )

Anywho, I'm looking to contact Soulfire...

LOOKING FOR: customer from AC

[dizziness.livejournal.com]

Long time reader, first time poster.

H E L P! I have never had this happen. A commission has been returned to me with "REF" written on it. Has anyone had a package refused?
( pic image of front of package in question )

Anywho, I'm looking to contact Soulfire...