Pattern Commission Advice

[glacidea.livejournal.com]

Guttentag, first time poster here. I was asked today for a commission I never have been asked for before. Now I am no stranger to commissioning and have been taking them for a few years now. I've had my fair share of screw-ups and becoming overloaded, making all the usual commissioning mistakes, but I've gotten into a good tempo now. Recently, I've been making and selling patterns, just to try something new. I made a MLP one and a dino and such. I just do it as a side hobby to bring in some extra money every now and then.

I received an email today asking to commission a pattern from me. I had never thought of taking pattern commissions before and so I am baffled as to what to do. I was thinking cost for how many pieces it would be, extra cost if I am unable to sell it normally, there should be something about commercial use, etc etc. I've never done anything like this before, so I would greatly appreciate advice and tips, plus pricing information and such.

I make plush, which is obvious from the above paragraph (examples here: loneplushieinfo.webs.com/ so you can judge based on my skill for like...pricing). My commission prices are usually in the 150 to 300 range and obviously a pattern won't be NEAR that much. So yes, just all advice and everything will be GREATLY appreciated <3

Comments

[kadaria.livejournal.com]

I was wondering about that too since Pokemon and MLP are copyrighted characters. I thought we had a similar issue with someone making Pokemon scarves and getting upset when another artist did the same thing.

[glacidea.livejournal.com]

I know the Pokemon/Nintendo company is VERY aware of our selling custom plushies and they actually support and encourage it because it is another way of advertising. As long as we don't claim them to be official and make sure it's obvious that it' a custom, they're cool beans. Most of Japanese brands share this view. America is much less supportive, but I know that Hasbro was aware of a popular Transformer artist selling transformer plushies she made and really didn't care. Most often, if you don't claim it to be yours, then they're not going to waste hundreds of thousands in lawsuit dollars on one isolated instance. Plus at cons, sometimes the official people are there and they must be aware that at the artist alley tables, there is tons of fanworks being sold and they sometimes even buy those works, so yeah.

I didn't advertise my pony pattern strictly as a MLP pattern. I say that it's a pony pattern and that it works really well with MLP characters :3 the example is actually the naked pattern and then I show that I used it to make PinkiePie. So there's that.

And anyone can make Pokemon scarves, though I could see it being irritating to have another artist making your same thing.