(no subject)

[kaputotter.livejournal.com]

I've seen far to many people post about being burned, so I'm going to offer a very simple and easy tip for commissions.


Ask for 100% payment, after your sketch has been approved by your client, but before you do any finalizing work.


This is a valuable practice for several reasons.

You'll get your money -- all of it -- before you really sit down to do one of the most time-consuming parts of this process.

No artist likes working without compensation. Do yourself a favor and ask to get the cash in hand before you finish. I know it's tempting to finish certain projects when you're excited about them, but stay patient. This also works both ways; if you are an artist who procrastinates, having the cash in hand may motivate you to finish the project. This is just my personal feeling, but I also see the sketch as being the most difficult part of the whole commission, and once the sketch is approved and I have recieved the cash, I feel like it's all downhill from there (in the best way) and it is much easier for me to finish the commission.

Some artists make the traditional freelance illustration 50/50 rule a habit. (This is the method by which you recieve 50% of the payment up front and 50% upon completion.) In the real world, in mainstream freelance illustration, this is a good model to follow -- but only when we're talking about compensation in the thousands of dollars! For furry art, this model simply isn't very practical, and in fact it can be a pain in the ass to ask for a client to send you two seperate payments, especially if they do not use PayPal and must resort to snail-mailing a check(s) or money order(s). By asking for 100% payment at the appropriate time, you are actually doing not only yourself a favor, but also your client, who may be more interested in commissioning you if they only need to make one payment, one time.

Furthermore, with regards to the above,

You will give yourself and your client a tangible illustration of the work in progress, so that you have an accurate measure of what to charge them.

For many commission scenarios, we do not know how complex they will end up being. Sometimes we as artists will surprise ourselves with the depth to which we'll go for a project that is particularly exciting. Sometimes clients will surprise us with details that they failed to include with their original description. Giving them a sketch will encourage them to cough up those details, because they will have a visual cue for reminding them what they have omitted. When the sketch is approved, you will have something solid that you can ask for a price on much more reliably than if you simply pulled a number out of thin air and hoped you were correct. This will save both you and your client frustration, because they, too, will be able to understand more fully WHY you are charging them your sum.

You'll demonstrate to your client that you are serious about working with them.

Has your client been burned before? I've worked with buyers who have been very unhappy with their past commissions, and as a result they're twice-shy. I've helped restore their faith by demonstrating to them that I am willing to show them proof of my labor before they have paid. However, once again, this happy medium ensures me that I need not get too deeply into a commission without being compensated for it first!

Your client will 'fall in love' with the sketch, and it will be further cemented into their minds as something that they want to commit to.

Most artists have run into fans who have said to them, full of hot air, "I really love your work and would like to commission you!" but as soon as you begin to talk turkey with them, they become frightened of committment and cease being serious. Providing material for your client on which they will form an attachment is a good way to encourage them to see their business dealings with you to the end. If they decide to back out anyway, you are only out the time you spent on the sketch!

This method encourages communication between yourself and your client.

If there's one thing furry commissions need more of in general, it's communication! By using this method of asking for payment at a certain time, you are setting yourself up for good communication: specifically, that you are willing to talk to your client about the details of the commission, and get those details right, before you commit to anything in stone.

Now. This may feel like a double-edged sword for some of you, especially those who are either on the impatient or lazy side, or perhaps not particularly excited about working with a client in such depth. I know artists who would much rather have freedom with their commissions than to be directed down to the last detail. While I can sympathize with you, I've learned from firsthand experience that it is much more beneficial for both parties if you go out of your way to make your client happy. Yes, even if this means making numerous changes to the sketch by request.

HOWEVER: You don't have to worry about making excessive changes without compensation!
Don't allow yourself to be bullied around simply because you haven't gotten it right yet. If worse comes to worse, simply charge your client more money for the services rendered. If a client is picky enough to ask you to start over from scratch three times? Charge the client $20 a sketch, and so on. If they balk at this negotiation, ask them to pick their favorite of the sketches, take it or leave it. Handle yourself with professional candor; all you need do is explain that your time is directly equal to your money and that they must compensate you for your time, period.

MOREOVER: Isn't it better to get the changes you need to make out of the way at the sketch stage, rather than to be given the unfortunate news that you did something totally wrong only after you have finished the picture?!?! Seriously! Which kind of disappointment would you rather experience -- something that is relatively easy to fix, or something that may never be changed?

I want to encourage each and every one of you to do your best and go out of your way to make your client happy. Doing so makes you BOTH happy; a happy client means repeat business, a good reputation for YOU, a sense of satisfaction that you made someone happy, AND that you made money by doing it!

Comments

[moonstone-wind.livejournal.com]

Good tips :) Yeah I always ask for full pay AFTER an approved sketch is completed. Not before.

[monalisa-od.livejournal.com]

It makes sense, but I have also noticed that other fellow artists get burned more often than not by people who are simply satisfied with the sketch only. Then again, these are the same people who will live off of RealAudio samples than pay for a CD or a song from iTunes. I can't say much that's good about those types. ;P

True, the artist is only out the time for the sketch- but for those that still manage to put a lot of work into those sketches (and somehow manage to take eons in completing it), they were in essence, working for free. I suppose it all boils down to the type of person who's approached you about the job. I always do research on my clients - I talk to their friends for a little bit, I talk to other artists, and I usually try to keep clients who prove to be communicative. Unfortunately, you see both artists and commissioners rush headlong into these types of agreements and neither comes out happy. ;P

It's good advice though - I'll likely put it to use once I open the queue again.

[razzek.livejournal.com]

I daresay this is the most useful thing I've ever read on the subject of commissions. It's so simple, but it's a great idea! I rather like the thought of starting with that sketch, getting the hard part out of the way, and then getting paid to make it look good (because my pencil sketches are atrocious, though they get the point across :P). Thanks muchly, Kaput.

[kaputotter.livejournal.com]

I must have really phenomenal luck, then.

I've been holding commissions for seven years now, and have known about 100 seperate different clients. And not once -- not even ONCE -- has any of them ever said "you know what, sorry, I can't do this" after I've shown them the sketch. It just hasn't happened to me.

Most people who are serious enough to even ask me about it? They're serious enough to see it through. :)

I can't say my experience is universal. But, I do think it's more rare.

[monalisa-od.livejournal.com]

You seem to be a more classic furry artist with your head on straight, and hence, don't attract as many deadbeats. You look to have somewhat of a fine art style in your pieces, and don't rely on a lot of gimmicks like the newer class of "Flashy CG with anime eyes and hair!!" furry artists. It seems the really young furry and anime fans (IE, those who haven't held a job, or are prone to changing fancy) are pretty bad with paying artists after a job is finished. Of course, there are exceptions to this that I've dealt with personally- but I guess it does depend on what audience you reach with your art, that determines what sort of clientele will approach you for a job.

[kaputotter.livejournal.com]

That's a good point. And also, thanks. :)

[auradeva.livejournal.com]

You do have good luck then! I got burned a few times before I got pissed off enough to never accept any commissions without at leas the cost of the sketch up front.

[matrices.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you say this, since this is almost exactly how I do my commissions.

I do a sketch to capture the expression, gestures, positioning on the page, and the general details of the characters, enough to remind the commissioner what may be left out, or for them to fall in love with it.

I have been a little afraid someone will take my sketch and run off with it, especially if all their reference images are just sketches... but I haven't had a problem with this method yet...

Plus I'm not as overwhelmed as when I was new to doing commissions and got burned out, because I was trying to do fully rendered images BEFORE payment since I was worried I wouldn't be able to commit.. and when I got burned out on doing that, I asked for payment beforehand, and wasn't able to produce exactly what the commissioner wanted, and totally got burned out (for years until now)...

This way I don't have as much of a loss.. (plus trying to convince someone who still wants art from me that I'm giving them a refund because I am unable to draw their character isn't as easy as people think it is)

[thornwolf.livejournal.com]

This is how I work. This is also why I allow payment plans. I only do the amount of work I'm paid for.

[wolfcatt.livejournal.com]

Well said! That's exactly how I do it and I've had no problems thus far. Good advice :)

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

I agree, that's how I work mostly, sketch done first, it takes me 10 minutes to an hour to sketch something out, I just had a client back out due to a personal crisis in their life coupled with my receiving an injury that dragged their commission out, I am only out the 30 minutes for their sketch and I'm keeping the sketch anyway since I'm fond of the piece. I may even finish it when I have a moment anyway since the commission was killed due to issues on both sides so the erstwhile commissioner might just get a free piece of fanart instead since there was no bad blood, I couldn't help hurting my shoulder and having it in a sling for a month, they couldn't help having a crisis.

I put a limit on how many revisions I'll do for free, after the first few they are charged a fee for each revision and after a certain number of revisions they either have to be satisfied or I'll charge them a kill fee and advise them to go elsewhere since I apparently can't satisfy them. I won't sit around and make endless bloody revisions, the limit on revisions is reasonable though. Now I just need to solve my procrastination problem. D:

[martes.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I've seen too many people (including myself) get burned by flakey artists to be comfortable with prepayment. I will not prepay unless the artist has a very good reputation for actually getting the work done in a timely manner. On the same token, I won't ask for prepayment myself while doing a commission. So far I've had only one person burn me for payment, and in that case I just sold the picture for more than he was going to pay. If you want to hear horror stories about people running off with prepayments, just ask vickimfox or akaban_guy.

[yiffyraptor.livejournal.com]

HELL YES.

Thank god - a common-sense way to go about this business. :) As a frequent commissioner, I can agree with each and every point there. I LOVE giving artists that I like money, and it really disappoints me on those times when they don't follow through (I've always been the type to pay up front, but I got burned a lot by that, so I gravitate more to this system here.)

Geez, now I'm even more glad I gave moneys to you. ;)

[sunhawk.livejournal.com]

thanks for the advice :)

[lemonfruitpie.livejournal.com]

Thank you SO MUCH for posting this :D I will definately keep these points in mind for the future!

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is how I've been doing it for a while now.

I USED to ask for payment after completing the picture, back when I was younger. But I swear, I got ripped off so many times it's not even close to being funny. So I got pissed and changed my rules so that after they approve of a sketch, I wait for payment before completing it.

So far I haven't been ripped with this new system.

[khakiwolf.livejournal.com]

Good points. I tend to wait until the piece is done so they can see the final product they are paying for. Maybe I'm just too nice like that. But I've never been burned.

I'll have to try this in the future.