Big change. Huge. Time to be an artist now.

[Kamiccola]

It’s decided. I’m going to open up commissions for the first time ever.

There was a thread where someone complained why it takes so long to finish a drawing. I chimed in that I could relate and that’s the reason why I never tried to do commissions. I mean, who’d pay me for all this work, right?

But then I did a double take. Is it really THAT unrealistic or am I about to undervalue myself?

The second argument is real life. Times are becoming tough. After battling cancer, my hubby is still out of work and the budget is negative. Extra income is very much needed.

I don’t expect any profits from writing just yet. Even if I published every book I’ve got, the income from that would be too small to make a dent and it could be months upon months before I’d see it.

Meanwhile, some artists get paid a thousand dollars (or more) for one piece of work.

I don’t expect to get that kind of gig immediately, but the time to money conversion certainly looks better on the art side of things.

And so I made the executive decision to put writing on the back burner and focus on art right now.

I’m working on putting a portfolio together. Then I have to figure out how long it takes me to draw to see how much I can charge, because no, I’m not going to be the starving artist who charges $50 for 10 hours of work.

It’s pretty amazing but I got my first interested client today (even before I officially opened shop). Kinda early. I don’t even know what to charge yet, but I’ll work with them and we’ll figure something out if we’re a good match.

Anyway, this is a change. Huge change but I’m trying to stay optimistic.

[Akje]

Oooh, I hope it works out well for you! ( ˆ◡ˆ)۶ ٩(˘◡˘ )

[Kamiccola]

Thanks.

She just called my drawings “soulful”

Excuse me while I shrink my head.

She showed me the commissions she got from other artists, and no pressure, but they’re quite amazing. Feeling a bit intimidated if anyone will compare. It works in my favor, though, that it’s a very different style.

We haven’t discussed money yet. Right now I’m trying to get as much info as possible so I’d know what I’m getting into.

Hmmm. Perhaps I should snoop on her commissioned artists profiles to see how much they charge.

[Kamiccola]

Grr. Figuring out the pricing is a struggle.

I found a few examples of what others charge, but I feel like physical drawings should be priced higher. I’m not discounting the skill of digital artists, but there’s no undo button when you work on paper. Considering we live in the world where AI can produce a “perfect” drawing with minimal effort, I feel like it makes it even more relevant to work with a physical medium. It stands out more.

Someone said to take your hourly pay at your day job (maybe even double it) and multiply it by the number of hours it takes to prepare the work. # of hours is still a mystery to me, I need to create some test drawings first.

Other artists also add extras for commercial license and even more for exclusivity.

I thought, okay, drawing Ruby took me maybe 3 days (it’s the freaking hair, took forever). Let’s estimate the hours as 3 each day, plus an hour for the touch ups I did later =10 hours to create a portrait of that quality.

Then I was going to multiply that by my hourly wage, and I realized that this formula likely was intended for people who have a “starving artist’s” typical sucky job. I’m paid a good wage, which I think in the art world would be considered a seasoned professional’s rate, and as seasoned as I might be, I’m still pretty fresh when it comes to my art expertise.

So maybe cut that total in half? That gives me a ballpark to start from.

But then I did some more digging. This author that contacted me has commissioned before. So I thought, let’s see if I can track down who did this work.

So far I tracked down one of them. And yikes, this person charges as little as €50.
But also, the quality of the work they put as examples is pretty plain. So I feel it’s not someone I want to compare myself to.

I haven’t found who did the gorgeous work for her yet. I’m thinking I should charge less than they did since they did the background and full body where she just wants a portrait from me. I hope they make their prices public.

The hunt is on.

[alcoholandcaffeine]

I’m not sure if I’m supposed to share this publicly but I’ll DM you some stuff

[Kamiccola]

I did some research.
Some artists charge as little as $15!!! Can you imagine?
I don’t know what country they’re in, but that’s just a no-go.
I found a few who charge the rates I’d love to charge, but considering just how few there are and the vibes I got from their portfolios, I don’t think I can count myself to be in the same league. Maybe one day.

I chose to stick to the most common/midrange and that’s about $60-80 (for a bust). I’m not super concerned about being competitive. If someone doesn’t want to pay that much, they can go to the cheaper artists, there are plenty of them. I’m not running a charity here. In fact, I kinda need charity myself which is why I’m planning to do this.

But if that was the price I would use, I was worried about the time investment.

Here’s where a test drawing came into play.

All weekend long I tried to start. I kept being pulled away from the task, but finally I finished something.
Took me a bit over 3 hours which makes me feel a bit better about it all. I could do that.
What I really need is more practice to become faster.

And some business acumen. My anxiety is not loving the “state your terms and conditions” bit.

[Kamiccola]

I was very doubtful. This author asked for a type of a character I’ve never drawn before so I was excited but also worried if I could deliver, but when sketching, I actually found myself being… competent or something? Like, what’s up with that?

So I sent in a sketch, doubtful again because what if she hates it, what if the character is nothing like what she imagined (I know I’m very picky about that so naturally I expect everyone to be), but she loved it. Omg. Time to ask for money. Omg. I’m trying not to freak out, at least not until I get paid, but I keep waiting for something to go terribly wrong and so far it’s been a great experience.

In other news, how TF do I draw lace? I’m going to have to practice it on the side.

[alcoholandcaffeine]

get that baggggg

[TheTigerWriter]

Awesome! Sometimes it’s good to just try and see.

I was trying to find where your art was and found you on IG, so I followed

If I want to commission you, where would I go?

[Kamiccola]

Aww, thanks.

I’m getting a commission page ready.

I’ll open it officially on ko-fi, though I’ll also have a gallery on my site. I just don’t want to have to deal with payments on my site (I was going to use woocommerce but I think my site is too slow to use it. Side effects of using the cheapest hosting available).

However, after looking at some of the Stripe features, it looks like I can use it as a storefront. It might have even more options than ko-fi but the set up is more complex. I’ll use ko-fi for now until I figure that out.