Welcome to Gaia! :: Requests and Commissions Rules and Guidelines!

• What is the purpose of this forum?
  
  Requests and Commissions (R&C) is a subforum of the Mini Shops forum where users come together to buy and sell one of a kind original artworks.
  
  Remember that all rules in the main Mini Shops FAQ apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them as well as the rules given here.
  
  
• That's great, but what does it mean?
  
  It means that if you are an artist who wishes to earn Gaia gold or items by creating original art, you can come here and make a store or auction thread to sell your skills to willing buyers.
  
  It means that if you are looking for an original artwork you can create a thread looking for artists or look through artists' threads. Do remember that this is a forum for paying commissions, though, so if you want free art, please make a thread in the Art Freebies Forum.
  
  Before you get started in R&C, it might also be useful for you to check out the Mini Shops Assistance and Suggestions Forum, where you can get helpful advice from other users or even find users to set up shop with.
  
  
• What falls under 'one of a kind original art' in this forum?
  
  The only art sold here is commissioned art that is entirely original and built from the ground up according to user specifications.
  
  The most common sort of art users offer or request is avatar art, art of your Gaia character. However commissions are by no means restricted to this. Many artists are willing to do fan art or art of your own original character. Some may even offer original writing or other non-visual art.
  
  While creations such as dolls, plushies, or banners for example are all also 'original' in that each is a unique creation, they are constructed around a specific template that the artist and buyer then work together to customize. As such, stores and auctions offering these products should be made in the main Mini Shops forum.
  

For further information and elaboration on the R&C Rules and for guidelines on how to go about properly selling and requesting art, please read the following posts before you get started in this forum.

Thanks!

1. Forum Rules
   
   
2. Guidelines for Artists
   
   
3. Guidelines for Commissioners
   
   
4. Protecting Yourself from Being Scammed

<center>Guidelines for Artists</center>

We strongly encourage artists to follow all these guidelines in order to eliminate any potential problems that could arise from a lack of clarity in art selling threads and make the selling process as smooth as possible.

• Use the Mini Shops Assistance and Suggestions forum. There you can find other users to set up stores/auctions with, get helpful advice on setting up your own thread, and see what prices users are willing to pay for your art.
  
  
• Only offer commissions when you think you have the time to do them, so that you don't have customers waiting forever. Close waitlists or keep them small if necessary.
  
  
• Inform customers of the realistic time period it will take to complete a piece before accepting a commission.
  
  
• Let users know what sort of art you are willing to to draw. Willing to do couples? Original Characters? Or just want to do single avatar portraits? Make sure you specify.
  
  
• If you wish to have specific restrictions on the useage of the art, make them very clear and keep a copy of them for your records to avoid later problems.
  
  
• Include samples of your work and keep samples accurate to the quality of the art that will be received for the commission. Do not show a very high quality sample that took many many hours, give the impression the buyer will receive a work of that quality, and then deliver a peice that took half that time. This is gross misrepresentation and is not permitted, as it is a form of scamming.
  
  
• Clearly mark how much you want for your commissions in gold and/or which items you will accept as payment and what you value them at. If you are uncertain as to what items you will accept, request that users ask before bidding/commissioning.
  
  
• We understand that real life commitments sometimes interefere with your ability to complete a request or end your auction on time. If for whatever reason you do need to close your store before requests are completed, give a reason and state if/when you will be operational again. Give plenty of notice in advance if possible. Refund the customer's money if you absolutely cannot complete the commission.
  
  
• If your thread is on the first page, it is not necessary to bump it. However, conversation in threads is natural and encouraged to help enrich the R&C community. Threads do not need to be 'on topic' in posting, however thread makers do have final say over their thread content and are free to request users to end certain conversations or leave the thread.
  
  
• Do not hesitate to contact a moderator if you have a problem with a user such as failure to pay for a finished commission or harassment for a commission.
  

Auction Specific:


• Tell bidders what exactly they are bidding for. If you plan on only doing avatar art, or a waist up sketch, or a full body if bidding passes a certain point, please say so.
  
  
• Inform bidders that bid retractions are not allowed to prevent problems.
  
  
• Give a starting bid which you are willing to accept. Starting bids should be the minimum amount you'd accept for the auction. They are not a means to gain interest to the auction.
  
  
• Set a firm time for when the auction will end, noting down the date, time and in which time zone you're referring to.
  
  
• Do not extend auctions past the end time after they've ended simply because you aren't satisfied with the end price. This can generally be avoided if you've made a proper starting bid.
  
  
• Keep note of the 2nd highest bidder in case the auction winner backs out.
  

Introduction
To help you protect your art from theft or scamming, we have come up with this section so you can be informed. We hope you find this helpful.

~The Gaiaonline Staff~

Why watermark?
Hypothetically let's say you have a shop and someone commissions you to do something for them. They want to see the nearly finished product before they pay you. At that point they may turn you down or never pay you and you won't finish the image... however they would have access to the unfinished drawing and could try to use it without paying for it.

How is that allowed? It's not... but some people do it anyway. This is why we encourage you to watermark your unfinished pieces before you show them to the person that commissioned you.

What's an easy way to watermark?

Here we have a shady looking Labtech as example:


You want the mark to be large and obnoxious enough that removing it would ruin the image:



This is the easiest way to do it. Just open it in Paint or any similar editing program and place your marks in highly visible spots to make it clear that it is intended to be a sample.

If the commissioner complains, please remind them politely that it is good business practice to protect your work. If they further complain, please refer them to an R&C mod.

Sign your work
We don't mean in the margin next to the image. That is easily cropped out and could be easily stolen. Find a spot somewhere in the image and add in some form of identifying mark... if it's somewhat easy to read, then it can be traced back to you.


What is the safest way to complete a transaction?
1. Take the request
2. Commissioner sends a trade.
3. Artist draws request (rough drafts or final) and watermarks it before sending it to commissioner for review.
4. Artist confirms trade.
5. Commissioner completes trade and artist sends non-watermarked art.

If there are to be corrections made, go back to step 3 and repeat. You can also add in rough drafts for approval this way. When commissioner is satisfied, they can move to step 5. This way commissioner can't run away with completed image without paying... and the commissioner doesn't lose anything if the artist doesn't finish the piece.

If you have any questions, pm an R&C moderator.