how do real-life-money commissions work?

[cadeae]

sorry if some of these questions are silly... i don't know any artists i can ask and never bought a commission myself. sweatdrop

how are commissions usually submitted? if through email, should i set up a separate account only for commissions?
at what point in the process should you ask for payment?
what should you do in the event you cannot complete the commission?
do i have to send the commissioner a print of their art or is the digital copy enough?
what happens if a commissioner reproduces their commission and sells it? are they allowed to do that?
can i legally accept commissions for fanart?

[SailorVera]

1. Once you've laid your ground rules or what you will/will not draw people will message you via e-mail or whatever else you've set up as a way of communication about what they're interested in. Remember: you don't have to commit to everything people bring to the table. If you're not comfortable drawing the subject matter for whatever reasons you have you can decline without reason. Usually stating this in your rules helps weed out future problems.

2. After you've agreed to do the work and have hammered out an approximate time line and other details with the client you should ask for HALF the money up front so that in the event they wind up being a deadbeat and not paying you, you still have half the funds. The rest should obviously be paid upon completion.

3. Inform your client ASAP and refund the money when they understand. Some will be okay with a longer wait and will want you to hang onto the money just in case you can finish later. Be honest and clear with your clients. You don't need to provide your life details, they probably won't care, but being upfront with people is a good thing when money is involved.

4. This is up to you in how you set your terms. If you say you'll provide only a digital copy, then state it will be a 4x4" 350dpi image (or whatever your dimensions that you work in). Otherwise, say it will be a print. Print at a professional place, not your home printer. You'll have to do test prints to make sure your colours will come out as close to true to life as possible. This will take time and money. Calibrate your screen as best as you can in advance. You may need to bring your monitor somewhere to have it calibrated if you don't know how to do so yourself.

5. State in your terms that you retain the right to the image and that they can't do x, y, and z with image. They can use it for personal use or whatever else you agree on. If they want to use it for commercial reasons or want you to sell the rights to the image explain to them that you'll be charging a lot more for that. Typically it should range anywhere from a 300-600% price increase. Do some research on this stuff if you're worried. If they start selling it you'll have to deal with it yourself up to and including legal action. Keep your records of e-mails for this and state all these things as an agreement that they won't do x, y and z to image and that payment for the image is that agreement that they've read and understood the conditions.

6. This is iffy. Disney hates people sticking their fingers into their pies and has gone after people for it. You'll often see people selling prints of everything from Disney to anime to DC and Marvel at cons/expos with little to no issue, but it's best you educate yourself. There are some laws depending where you live to protect artists from getting sued (such as parody law). Research is key.


Hope this helps. You'll still need to do some looking into things on your own though.

[Beena the Mystery]

1. Usually people well set up a post on a social media site (tumblr, dA, etc) and will ask people to send them a private message on that site or to email them if they're interested. You don't need a separate email, but it's a good idea to have a professional email for commissions.

2. This depends on your choice. Often people will ask for all the money upfront, after the commission has been sent, or done in payments (ex. half the money upfront, half the money at the end)

3. Contact the commissioner immediately. Offer their money back (if you've already taken it), and apologize.

4. Usually people just do the digital copy. You can discuss on sending a print, but that will cost more for the commissioner (fees for printing + shipping). You can also send them a print-ready PDF of the work if they wish to print it themself

5. This is your choice. if you're really concerned about the commissioner selling your work, write up a contract that gives you the rights to the work and forbids the profit of your work.

6. Legally, no. People do it anyways though. For huge franchises like Nintendo and Sony, they don't really care. Smaller franchises like Homestuck and Welcome to Night Vale are more concerned about these things. It's always best to ask if you're not sure.

Also make sure you have a PayPal account, most people do transactions this way.

[Rockabuddy]

How are commissions usually submitted?
They are submitted by any means of communication that you, as the vendor, designate as acceptable. This means "Email me," "Call me," "Note me on Deviant Art," or all of the above. For commissions with others online, email is usually the best.

Should I set up a separate account only for commissions?
If you designate email as your primary method of contact and your email address looks amateurish, you should for the sake of appearances. People will move on to a new artist for the smallest of reasons, so you want to get rid of everything in between you and opportunity, including the possibility that they may think you are immature because you have an immature email address (if you have one).

How do you know if you should set up a new email address for sure? Well, for one, would you NOT want your boss or your mother to know what the email address is (pragmatically speaking), like "bigtitties24@email?" Does your email make reference to a fandom, like "findingmysasuke@email?" Is it incredily long or hard to remember?

At what point in the process should you ask for payment?
As soon as the commission that your client has in mind is clear enough that you could, in theory, actually create this thing they're wanting (or a phase of it, for complicated projects). You ask for payment before you do any work at all whatsoever, or some portion of it as an insurance against those who run away with your work without paying.

There is such thing as "spec work" which is "Make me stuff, and I'll decide what I like and whether I'll pay you," and there are people who do agree to doing work before getting paid for it. Do that at your own risk. Just because someone is nice to you doesn't mean they'll actually pay you!

What if you can't complete the commission?
1. Cover your bases before you start by asking whether this commission is time-sensitive and having a refund policy somewhere (a terms of service, like on a Google Doc which is publicly viewable).
2. Approach your client and say that you aren't able to complete the commission, whether at all or until a certain date. If it's until a certain date, and you want the opportunity to finish it, discuss with your client what THEY are comfortable as a course of future action. Usually you will want to say "I can't resume work on this until <Date.> I'm very sorry for the inconvenience. Are you comfortable with waiting until <date> to reconvene?" If they are, good! If they're not, enact your refund policy.

Refund Policy: Every artist has their own idea of what is and isn't fair for a refund policy. Find out what is good for you personally, and find this out BEFORE you start commissioning people. You can change it later, so long as you don't change it on a client you currently are working with.

do i have to send the commissioner a print of their art or is the digital copy enough?
Usually, people are satisfied with a digital copy. It is of relatively little trouble to send them two files: one for display online (72 DPI) and one which is high quality for printing (300 DPI). Remember that it costs money to send prints!

What happens if a commissioner reproduces their commission and sells it? Are they allowed to do that?
ETA: Lol I misread that question as "Can I resell what I sold to a client as a print." State your terms first before going in, whether by a general Terms Of Service that says Don't Do That or a contract specifically written between yourself and that person. Approach that individual and tell them to stop. They usually won't because they didn't care in the first place. If they're selling it on some place that is like Cafepress, contact the source next and ask them to get this fixed. Try to signal boost your plea with social media, but be respectful doing so.


can i legally accept commissions for fanart?
Again I can not give you legal advice. From what I understand as a non-lawyer, though, the answer is, "yes, you can." Here is an in-depth response to that question in The Truth About Selling Fan Art.

If you live in the United States, save 20% of what you make off of commissions in case you get hit by the tax man.

[cadeae]

thanks guys! emotion_kirakira

[Little-Missy-Moo]

In addition to the above advice;

Set deadlines for various stages. (Lines, colours, first draft, second draft, final). Also note how many changes and revisions you're willing to do at each stage.

*story time*

In one of my first commissions I did not set a deadline for each stage of the work. I also did not limit the amount of revisions the client could request.

This led to the client saying things like 'I don't want to pay you yet in case I need to change my mind'. Or 'It's perfect, but just keep working and go through more ideas just in case.' Also, 'Could you angle this part of the letter slightly? Show me how it looks.' (5 times, for 5 different letters.)

This attitude and freedom places you in a difficult position. You may find you have to decline other commissions just in case this client needs you available throughout the week. You also spend lots of time working without a goal. You almost feel like you're wasting your time as you could have been doing and finishing other paid work. (The client isn't giving you more money for the amount of exploration and work they're further requesting. You're trapped because you never specified the amount of deadlines or revisions. ;_; )

*end story time*

Don't make my n00b mistake. Be prepared to the strictest detail. emotion_donotwant

[Beena the Mystery]

Little-Missy-Moo

In one of my first commissions I did not set a deadline for each stage of the work. I also did not limit the amount of revisions the client could request.

This led to the client saying things like 'I don't want to pay you yet in case I need to change my mind'. Or 'It's perfect, but just keep working and go through more ideas just in case.' Also, 'Could you angle this part of the letter slightly? Show me how it looks.' (5 times, for 5 different letters.

This is also very important!! I forgot to mention this in my post before. With your price should include a certain amount of revisions, should the commissioner need any. And mention that any additions revisions will cost extra.

[NarpyTheCrimeDog]

Everyone pretty much covered it. However, I want to mention something about planning for prints. Any time ANYTHING you draw is going to print, use CMYK, not RGB.