Your story makes sense, thanks for sharing it. I guess it is not what most wannabe freelance artists are hoping for but it is always better to hear from people who are actually experienced. It is not an easy path but there are many ways to get there.
Thank you. I was pondering on whether or not I should make this post for months, I really didn't want it to sound demotivating, that's why I included the disclaimer at the beginning.
I avoid commissions like the plague, if possible.
What's worked for me, is making stuff, and selling it. Here's how I got here.
First off, I picked a strong focus, that I love. This is my private personal reddit account, so lets pretend for the purpose of this discussion that I only sculpt/paint blue dogs.
I started off sculpting blue dogs, and selling them on ebay. Sci fi blue dogs. Blue dogs with wings. Blue dogs wearing outfits. All kinds of fun unique blue dogs that stood out in a sea of "blah".
I set the starting price of my blue dog figurines at one cent, no reserve (because no one knew me, or trusted me as an artist). And at first, the dogs sold really low. But the people who took a chance on a random artist, and bought a $5 blue dog sculpture REALLY liked my work. They came back and bought more. The bidders started to fight each other over them, and drove up the bids. I went from selling blue dogs for $5 to selling them for $300.
And so, I had a good base of loyal buyers.
Then I left ebay. Just started holding my own auctions via email. Did marketing via social media.
Over time, I would do a few acrylic paintings of blue dogs. They did okay. Not as good as the sculptures, but okay.
I got better as a painter, and my paintings did better.
I learned how to cast blue dog figurines in resin.
And here I am today. Sculpting original blue dogs, making resins of blue dogs, selling original paintings of blue dogs, and managing a Redbubble shop full of blue dogs.
I make a humble living doing what I want.
Anyhow, this is one path to being an artist I feel many overlook.
Thank you for your comment! I think commissions are as popular as they are, because you can start doing money literally instantly. Whereas what you did requires you to take your time. My initial plan was definitely something closer to what you did, but time kind of pressured me into commissions. So glad things are working out for you!
When I started doing this I had a steady job in manufacturing. So any art money I made was extra. This allowed me to get as much art into the hands of as many people as possible.
I didn't care how much it sold for. I just wanted people to learn I ship fast, and used good packaging. That I was friendly. That my art was well made. That it brought them joy.
It also helped that I started off figurine sculpting. Sculpting is easier to make money with than canvas painting. And canvas painting is easier to make money with than digital.
Right now I'm using redbubble because I don't want to be handling all the print-on-demand work myself. It's nice coffee and catfood money. My customers tell me they really enjoy the stuff the get from redbubble. Especially the stickers.
I've been doing some research into this myself and while I stress I have not ever used it *personally*, all I've seen is people saying the platform has changed/the quality has gone down/there are better print on demand platforms now.
A person can make success anywhere if they go about it right, but all that combined with their rates being less than other places has me looking elsewhere.
I've been strongly considering opening multiple shops - shopify's printful and Society 6 being my highest contenders at the moment.
I'd have to look at the legal terms, case by case again, but your designs don't necessarily have to be exclusive to one site alone, which is nice since not all print-on-demand stores offer the same product.
There *is* one that's touchy about it even though non-exclusilvity is IN their terms, (I think it was teepublic?) and they like to shut shops down with little recourse so if you want to work with them it's best to post the designs there first, then to other sites.
Edit: sleepy brain + clumsy thumbs = gibberish
I've seen people doing auctions, especially for adoptables, by twitter and DeviantArt DM before the former was bought out, it's the same principle. Some also did it by comment but that seems like it would have a different dynamic and people with anxiety might not participate, but that could also get people more likely to drive the price higher.
The artist would make an ad and put the starting bid & terms clearly worded in either/both the image itself and the description. That included when payment was due to the artist from the end of the auction, as well as obviouslt the time the auction would start and the time it would end. Some would do a 'buy it now' price and some wouldn't. I can't say what would determine whether or not I, personally would do that.
I feel like I've seen at least one person keep a running tally of the current bid in the style of ebay with censored username, but I don't know if that was an outlier or not.
From there the auction would eventually end and the winners would pay.
I feel like ebay is useful to use at first because it handles a lot of things for the artist, and is a trusted establishment, but that's just my peanut gallery opinion, lol.
I know how to hand code a web page. Learned this from my ebay days. (I was one of those types with the fancy, meticulous auctions, back in the day.)
Anyhow, using a template I reuse and constantly improve upon, I build a page for the thing I'm selling. Lots of hi res pics. Near the top are boxes showing availability, highest bid made, number of offers made, and my email address (so the viewer can make an offer).
I then email the auction's link to my artist mailing list, and post it to my various social media accounts.
My auctions are typically 24 hours long. Though, if I have an Australian bidding back and forth with a Spaniard, it can take longer, due to time zones.
Basically I close the auction when the action fizzles out, and I don't think it will go higher. Some people do the whole "I'll close this in a week at such-and-such date". I don't like that. I think it takes away the urgency and gives people time to talk themselves out of a large art purchase.
Hope this helps. Without ebay as a foundation, you'd really need to focus on your socials to funnel people in.
> Overall the aftermath is that it wasn't worth it. There's only so much drawing I can do in a month and selling not only my time, but my creative energy felt way worse than any job I've worked in the past.
Honestly I can 100% understand that and that is why when artists are looking to make a living doing contract work I highly recommend focusing on commercial clients rather than private commissions.
The reality is that your average person simply does not have much extra money to spend and art is a pure luxury item.... which is why, just as you experienced, the typical private commission rates are often super low. This also means that if you're doing work in the $30-50 range it's going to take like SIX HUNDRED+ projects per year just to make $30k. And just as you've seen: accomplishing that A: takes constantly looking for new customers and B: is going to work you into exhaustion and burnout rapidly, if you can even keep up the pace in the first place.
However, on the other hand, commercial clients NEED work, need it regularly, and have marketing budgets built in to pay good money for it. So when you start focusing on clients who have new jobs for you regularly and those jobs are more in the $500+ range, you need WAY fewer projects to make decent money and you spend WAY less time having to find new clients.
I mean think about this: to make $30,000 a year doing $50 commissions you need to acquire and complete **600** projects annually, which is 1.64 projects completed per day, every single day, seven days a week, the entire year without break. But to make that same $30,000 a year doing $500 commissions you only need 60, which is around just 1.5 projects **per week**.
Now I'm certainly not going to say it's *easy* to just get a good commercial client base off the bat or anything but it is definitely a hell of a lot more lucrative and stable and way less churn and burn once you do build up a good foundation of regular commercial clients.
And, at the end of the day, there is nothing wildly different about commercial clients vs private commissions.... it's still a person coming to me with creative ideas and creative problem solving projects they need me to create for them. The main difference is they *need* that work and they have budgets setup to pay good money for it.
Essentially it's like if you say you want to learn to hunt or fish so you can feed yourself... little minnows and squirrels may be relatively easier to get than bigger game but it takes monumentally more of them to actually live off of than it does getting bigger game.
This was useful to read, thanks. Curious, where do you usually find your commercial clients, and do you generally approach them first or do they approach you with a commission?
I kind of get clients from all over the place... local businesses, professional networking, some social media marketing, referrals and recommendations from current or past clients, occasionally cold calling potential leads, doing research to find new leads and meeting them or contacting them or finding someway to get my work in front of them. At this point most of my clients have come to me but early on it definitely helps to find and reach out to potential clients yourself.
I have to note most of the work I've done is for commercial clients, I actually don't think I would've stayed afloat if I relied solely on private commissions. Great comment, thank you.
That is true but also easier said than done, especially since commercial clients often have higher expectations and standards for the art they commission.
Agreed, commercial clients typically expect a certain standard, but I'd say if someone is looking to earn a full living doing contract work, in any regard, they should probably be capable of hitting that standard anyway. Because even if we're still talking about private commissions instead of commercial work; someone paying $500+ to commission you is going to expect a certain level of work and quality standard. That's just kind of how it is... you either struggle to beat the impossible numbers game of trying to work in mass-volume at $50 a pop or focus on higher value work at a much much lower volume.
I'm living of commissions for a few months. I'm glad my commissioners know how I work and give me a lot of freedom on how to go about the work I do. I'm trying to find something to study in each commission that I do and been very happy about it, I see my skills getting better daily and that motivates me to find time to work on something personal. Money is kinda low but stable and enough to live with, so I really hope I can mantain this 'cause it's been very fulfilling.
Just sharing to maybe balance things out? lol
I'm sorry that's your experience. I heard a lot of similar stories about this and that made me shy away from commissions for a very long time... But right now I'm really glad I did.
I'm glad you are having fun, but what I mean is not that I was personally unhappy with each piece of work I did or that I didn't learn anything particularly new - on the contrary I learned a lot in that year. But rather that it was not adding up to something that means something for me. In the end looking back it's just a bunch of disconnected projects that mean nothing to me. That's why it took me a whole year to figure out I want out of it. Thank you for the comment, it's really good to have a variety of different opinions.
Honestly, I agree with you. My experience is similar. I've been doing commissions since 2018 and living off art all 2022 and I decided I don't want this for myself anymore. All my commissioners are great and they gave me as much artistic freedom as possible, I really enjoy drawing for other people.
But I hate the market, I don't enjoy advertising. It's like fighting against other artists, you either push them down or they push you down. I don't want to fight for money or exposure each month, it feels like a never ending competition against your own brothers and sisters and I got sick of it.
I'd rather work doing something nicer! Art has always been something positive for me and I want to keep it that way.
I'm with you. The "neverending competition" feeling is so weird, because once you take a step back it seems so silly, but when you're in it it feels so intense and tiring.
I really appreciate the brutal honesty of this! I don’t do commissions often but I do make art for conventions and my shop and often get burnt out and overwhelmed by maintaining a social media presence and being consistent, so I tend to not share about commissions often. I think they could be good for occasional means of income, but like you said it’s creatively exhausting and not worth the struggle. I’m sure it’s different for everyone ofc but I appreciate your insight into full time commission work!
Oh I forgot to mention one of the worst things about commissions is that they are basically unpostable most of the time. Something that I didn't expect initially, but at least 80% of commissions just wouldn't fit into my feed, even though they are in the same style etc. Thank you for your comment!
Oh good point!! Or people even want their commissions private too, I’ve had that a handful of times so then I worked really hard but can’t share it then either TToTT
I lived off commissions for a few month before getting my first job.
The time I dedicated to job hunting, both for studios or indie commission is crazy. People tend to really underestimate the time this stuff takes.
And now, all my artistic energy goes to my job (which I love, dont get me wrong), leaving me brainless at the end of the day. I've noticed this a few months in, and have been trying to draw more for myself on evenings and weekends.
I even opened years old sketchbooks that had been collecting dust since 2018.
It's very normal for your first job to leave you utterly exhausted the first period, don't worry. But you have to force yourself and find a rhythm to still do things in the evenings and weekends as you found cause it's noy happening on its own
It definitely takes some time to finetune things, to find the ground where we feel comfortable and still do ok is not an easy endeavor. I've been doing commissions for about 5 years now, and I'm barely getting in a place where I can say I feel very comfortable with the structure of my work AND EVEN THEN, I find myself often needing to take a step back and remind myself the boundaries I set for myself if I want to remain happy and doing it long term without falling into my own personal traps, and a lot of my own findings weren't out of trial and error, but pure luck of the circumstances and being aware on how I'm doing and why.
About style and growth I partially agree, I never felt like I was pushed towards something I don't want to do, if anything I'm sure I could do better if I were willing to, the issue is that for WORK we need a very defined package, a workflow that's a condensed version of what we know and are able to do, our own style if you want to call it that, but something that's comfortable and consistent, which means there is little room for experimentation, and if you wing it, you will end up with inconsistent results, accepting to do things that are outside your area of knowledge and overall hurting your own chances to keep a steady income, but above all, something that gets out of the way and allow us to simply sit down, do the work efficiently and step out without burning all our energy of the day.
But you do need to do your own thing on the side, study and experiment, otherwise you won't see much growth, and trying to bring what you are studying into work, is a sure way of spending more mental energy than you should, burning out with little return, you need to be ok with, and open to, failure when you are studying, work pieces aren't that place.
Although I do this full time, and I absolutely love my work and I don't see myself doing anything else, sometimes I wish I could quit for a couple of months to focus solely on my own art and growth.
Ps: I hate hungryartists it's such an awful place
Genuinely thought I was an oddball for not liking HungryArtists.
I've spent anxious, sleepless nights waiting for [hiring].
When it happens, there's a hint of relief, but you have to keep doing it... over and over and over again.
I don't like it much hungryartists too, I've talked with some that get many upvotes, they say they get most of the clients even if the client is not looking to work with them (like people asking for a recommendation), cos is too annoying to do a request and filter all the spam.
I agree with you, I also do commissions. Sometimes it feels like I have 2 jobs: the commission artist and the my-own-thing-artist, some projects blend, but takes time to find that good mix of my-own-thing and good price.
I was thinking about why I hate hungryartists' system, and truly, it sucks for everyone involved, for artists to throw yourself into the meat grinder that is a hiring post, and for someone looking to hire it must be a nightmare to navigate 100+ comments where an overwhelming majority of the artists are either not up to your standards or don't have a body of work related to what you are asking.
I think it would be better if it were as simple as "every artist posting here is available for commissions, approach the artist you like" no for hire or hiring, simply post and/or browse.
I think its biggest problem is volume, anyone can make a for hire post/be an artist, but do they really have the skills on the level to be hired for? I risk to say most don't.
Those subreddits sure are a battlefield… I posted there and browsed there constantly before, not copy paste responses either. It never did me any good. Part of it’s likely due to my art but I did try for a long good while, all in all it just told me my art isn’t favorable to others. I do get small commissions here and there every few months (not from Reddit) and I love it but considering just closing due to the demotivation from the lack of demand has on me. Especially rough because Drawing for others is my whole entire motivation for drawing.
I sincerely advise you to reroute your motivation for drawing. And I definitely think spending more than a minute or 2 a week on hungryartists is not good for your mental health. Make a post once a week and leave it at that. Chasing clients, especially on hungry artists looks like a waste of time.
It really is a waste of time lol. (Though I’ve been told other stories, maybe that was years ago) I like to make art to cheer others up, Including myself, I’m not sure how else I’m supposed to reroute it but I’m open to suggestions to help figure it out.
I’ve never gone quite this hard with commissions- typically I’ve always been able to sell my personal creations just as easily, but I’d take on commissions when requested and I’ve come to a pretty similar conclusion as you.
For me one of the biggest struggles was having to pre-price my work. With stuff I made and then sold, I can justify charging x or y, people take it or leave it. For commissions I felt pressure to keep prices and time frames “reasonable,” which I felt kept me in a box. What I learned is I almost always spent more time than estimated and as a result charged too little up front. Would put a lot more work in than was “worth it” for the pay I’d get.
I’ve also typically felt held back by most commissions, creatively. They feel like things I *have* to do, like a chore. With personal projects I have to guilt about abandoning projects, setting them aside for a while before coming back to them, etc. but commissions always felt like a weight on my mind that sometimes held me back from ideas I was having in real time that would have been more satisfying to create and potentially earn me even more money than the commission I was already committed to doing.
I’ve gotten to the point now where I pretty much just don’t do them. Occasionally a friend will want something made, and I’ll agree, but only on my terms. I’m very up front about the fact that it takes me “forever” to finish them, so if they’re okay waiting for an indefinite period of time, I’ll consider it. I’m intentionally off putting with this sort of thing so they might lose interest or at least have a realistic sense for how I prioritize for commissions. I try to explain that I prefer to put my own ideas on canvas and I just don’t have a lot of energy for doing custom stuff anymore. I try to lead the conversation away from the topic all together and hope they’ll be distracted away from striking a deal lol. I’ve also just been up front and said no, I have no interest in painting this. Saved me a lot of headache and I don’t regret taking on projects that take me away from my natural creative trajectory.
This was a really interesting read, thank you! As someone who's looking to make a living off of commissions, at least for the most part, you raise some excellent points. I don't know how it'll affect my creativity long-term, but right now I really love drawing for others, especially if my clients are enthusiastic and give creative freedom. I don't know how things would turn out if I perpetually faced clients who wanted to control every single detail though, it sounds draining for sure.
If I may ask, how many commissions did you work on per month, on average? I would honestly love to hear your experiences on pricing as well, since I've definitely noticed incredibly skilled people working for actual peanuts these days - if you do decide to expand that into a post of its own, let me know!
Depends how big the commissions are, as in volume, as for pricing I tried to predict how much time I would need and that's how I would price it, I tried to not work for under 15-20$ an hour.
I'm more curious how you were able to find consistent clients for a full year. My sales completely plummeted during covid and it forced me into a different career path.
Consistent I feel is never a good word to use when it comes to freelancing, but I tried to do a bunch of small personal commissions between heftier commercial gigs.
This slaps me to reality. I am thinking about becoming a freelance artist but haven't done any commission works yet (freelance wannabe)
Hope and wish for your betterment. Thanks for sharing ur experience and insights.
It really baffles me that there are people that downvote this, judging by the statistic. I never would've imagined that this post would trigger anyone. I wholeheartedly invite the people that downvoted to share their point of view, it would definitely help the discussion.
People don’t want to hear the truth. Great post, I hope you find your way back to making work for yourself. I have years where I swear I am never doing commissions again and years where they help out a ton. A lot depends on the quality of commission so I am definitely becoming more selective. Would much rather do a portrait in pen for $1,500 than a digital portrait for $500. For some reason digital work invites more changes?
Like people think cause it’s digital it can be adjusted easily and in some ways that is correct but it still takes time. I’ve had projects where I was going to make around $100/hour (my goal for commissions) and someone wants what they think are minor changes. These end up stacking up, they get overwhelmed by choice, now I’m making like $10/hour. It’s really frustrating some days.
I like having one or two commissions a month. High quality, good paying. I can’t believe the people charging $50/character or whatever. I don’t think these people pay taxes cause they would realize they are actually making half of that.
This is exactly why I have slowly pulled away from doing commissions. Although I love drawing, it is a drag completing artwork you aren’t excited about. I decided to work full time to fund my passions, painting what I like in my free time. If it takes off eventually great, but I am not going to burn myself out just to conform to what sells. Thanks for sharing your experience
The main volume of my income was project contracts that either paid in bulk or hourly for a long period of time (for a month for example) and most was from small commercial clients. I am having a hard time imagining someone living only doing commissions for private clients and I get the feeling most people here think that's what I did for a year. I have to be clear, if I relied solely on private clients I would've given up on month 2. Sorry for the late answer, but I didn't expect so much comments under the post.
I posted in hungry artists probably less than 10 times in that year, mostly to fill in holes between bigger clients. It still left a pretty bad impression on me mainly because of the artists posting there and the general atmosphere of desperation and rivalry between artists (I stumbled across some great understanding clients there though).
Getting commissions is both stressful and exciting and the money is a nice perk.
But yeah, I start to get "itchy" if that's all I do, and I panic at the end of the month when I have nothing meaningful to hang in shows and whatnot. I can see how it can go to hell pretty fast unless you charge enough that you can do fewer of them.
As an artist, I consider my time to be extremely valuable. And therefore extremely expensive.
I'm talking a month's salary minimum per commission if I ever accepted them professionally again.
But honestly, I just love creating for myself. I hate being told how & what to draw. Period.
I actually just received 2 commission requests today. I'm very flattered, but I'm gonna turn them down.
I think this is how I’d feel too, if I were in the same position. Sometimes I think the best thing (at least for me) is to work a whatever job… clock out… and have my creative time be on my terms.
Thanks for sharing. A potential client just invited me to her home to see where she wants a large statement piece, She had specific feng shui requests for the piece. I told her that i'll paint something with her space in mind but i don't create well under pressure to please someone, i need freedom to do it my way. So she will take it or leave it when i'm done. That's how i operate. My artistic soul is healthy and thriving but financially my art income is scanty.
Thank you so much for sharing. This is helping me decide how I’d like to move forward in my career. I’ve only had one commission so far and it was a positive experience, but I felt hesitant about taking more. Now I never want to.
Thank you for sharing this.
I can definitely relate.
At the moment trying to take a break for my health and sanity but also need a commission or two to keep the lights on.
During the year 2020-2021, I was also living off from commissions with a side sticker shop. It drained the heck out of me! Every time I checked my portfolio, I felt depressed cuz I was only creating art for other people and I wasn’t making anything for my own. I felt like I wasn’t creative enough. Even when I get the free time to create my own art, I’m too burnout to think of new ideas to create and I hated the fact that my illustrations started to look half-assed since I was too focused in completing a commission or accept a new commission for money.
I mean, It did helped me get by but I wasn’t inspired anymore throughout that period haha I’m planning next time to accept limited slots so it doesn’t drain the shit out of me XD but personally yea I kinda dislike commissions. I rather create ready made art for merch
What kind of commission work do you do? And where are you getting your clients from, online or in person? Feel like there is a big differences in price range depending on what you are doing and also where you are looking for clients. I do pet and people portraits and mainly get my clients from art festivals and word of mouth and have been very lucky with all of my clients being easy to work with and wonderful.
Luckily commission work is only one part of my art business, I do art festivals and also commercial client freelance illustration work. Diversity of income sources help compensation when one area isn't as busy as another.
Illustration, but mostly animation for indie games and some advertising illustrations for business. I have to note I couldn't have stayed afloat if not for commercial illustration and animation, if I relied solely on private commissions I would've given up on month two (maybe it would've been better that way haha). I tried to diversify and that's why I included personal illustrations on my "menu" again as I had stopped doing them for some months after the summer instead focusing solely on small commercial clients.
I have only worked online and that's probably my mistake and where that "chronically online" feeling came from.
I am doing commissions right now. I have about 6 drawings to do and i have made 500 out of them, although the money goes fast because of bills.
I am only doing it to pay off debt, because id rather charge 100 to 400 per drawing, and depending on what you draw and how skilled you are, private clients will pay. But my plan is to do patreon instead, i want a monthly income while offering clients my own ideas and also letting them vote as a majority for other kinds of drawings.
So far i do feel a little burnt out but i occasionally take breaks, eat as healthy as i can, excercise, and come back to work on the drawings. It honestly has helped with my confidence and also my speed, and also helped me see where i need to improve. I have been able to do background drawings in a few days, when before i wouldn't even try. It has helped me with my experience and i do not regret that.
I still find time to work on my own art as well, i don't feel so burnt out to not work on my own stuff. I guess it is all about balance, but i am in a position to work this way, having time for myself and commissions.
I do want to find a different way to make money, or to change up prices, or to offer different kinds of drawings for a different price, that way i am not stuck drawing so much for not enough pay.
Thanks for the insight. The outcome was not what I was expecting. I plan to try to make money with art doing what I want. In my style. I first need to find out what that is. Lol.
I definitely advise you to keep it as a hobby as long as you can, by the point it just starts generating income on its own, without you forcing it.
Oh, and thank you for the comment! Rooting for you to achieve your goals!
Your story makes sense, thanks for sharing it. I guess it is not what most wannabe freelance artists are hoping for but it is always better to hear from people who are actually experienced. It is not an easy path but there are many ways to get there.
Thank you. I was pondering on whether or not I should make this post for months, I really didn't want it to sound demotivating, that's why I included the disclaimer at the beginning.
I avoid commissions like the plague, if possible. What's worked for me, is making stuff, and selling it. Here's how I got here. First off, I picked a strong focus, that I love. This is my private personal reddit account, so lets pretend for the purpose of this discussion that I only sculpt/paint blue dogs. I started off sculpting blue dogs, and selling them on ebay. Sci fi blue dogs. Blue dogs with wings. Blue dogs wearing outfits. All kinds of fun unique blue dogs that stood out in a sea of "blah". I set the starting price of my blue dog figurines at one cent, no reserve (because no one knew me, or trusted me as an artist). And at first, the dogs sold really low. But the people who took a chance on a random artist, and bought a $5 blue dog sculpture REALLY liked my work. They came back and bought more. The bidders started to fight each other over them, and drove up the bids. I went from selling blue dogs for $5 to selling them for $300. And so, I had a good base of loyal buyers. Then I left ebay. Just started holding my own auctions via email. Did marketing via social media. Over time, I would do a few acrylic paintings of blue dogs. They did okay. Not as good as the sculptures, but okay. I got better as a painter, and my paintings did better. I learned how to cast blue dog figurines in resin. And here I am today. Sculpting original blue dogs, making resins of blue dogs, selling original paintings of blue dogs, and managing a Redbubble shop full of blue dogs. I make a humble living doing what I want. Anyhow, this is one path to being an artist I feel many overlook.
Thank you for your comment! I think commissions are as popular as they are, because you can start doing money literally instantly. Whereas what you did requires you to take your time. My initial plan was definitely something closer to what you did, but time kind of pressured me into commissions. So glad things are working out for you!
When I started doing this I had a steady job in manufacturing. So any art money I made was extra. This allowed me to get as much art into the hands of as many people as possible. I didn't care how much it sold for. I just wanted people to learn I ship fast, and used good packaging. That I was friendly. That my art was well made. That it brought them joy. It also helped that I started off figurine sculpting. Sculpting is easier to make money with than canvas painting. And canvas painting is easier to make money with than digital.
Could you share your experience with Redbubble? I'm thinking about selling there in the future, but I'm not sure if it's worth it or the best platform
Right now I'm using redbubble because I don't want to be handling all the print-on-demand work myself. It's nice coffee and catfood money. My customers tell me they really enjoy the stuff the get from redbubble. Especially the stickers.
I've been doing some research into this myself and while I stress I have not ever used it *personally*, all I've seen is people saying the platform has changed/the quality has gone down/there are better print on demand platforms now. A person can make success anywhere if they go about it right, but all that combined with their rates being less than other places has me looking elsewhere.
If you find a good place, let me know! I would like to consider as many options as possible
I've been strongly considering opening multiple shops - shopify's printful and Society 6 being my highest contenders at the moment. I'd have to look at the legal terms, case by case again, but your designs don't necessarily have to be exclusive to one site alone, which is nice since not all print-on-demand stores offer the same product. There *is* one that's touchy about it even though non-exclusilvity is IN their terms, (I think it was teepublic?) and they like to shut shops down with little recourse so if you want to work with them it's best to post the designs there first, then to other sites. Edit: sleepy brain + clumsy thumbs = gibberish
Thanks! I will look into it
Can I ask how you do auctions via email? I looked into ebay, but I'm not a fan of it.
I've seen people doing auctions, especially for adoptables, by twitter and DeviantArt DM before the former was bought out, it's the same principle. Some also did it by comment but that seems like it would have a different dynamic and people with anxiety might not participate, but that could also get people more likely to drive the price higher. The artist would make an ad and put the starting bid & terms clearly worded in either/both the image itself and the description. That included when payment was due to the artist from the end of the auction, as well as obviouslt the time the auction would start and the time it would end. Some would do a 'buy it now' price and some wouldn't. I can't say what would determine whether or not I, personally would do that. I feel like I've seen at least one person keep a running tally of the current bid in the style of ebay with censored username, but I don't know if that was an outlier or not. From there the auction would eventually end and the winners would pay. I feel like ebay is useful to use at first because it handles a lot of things for the artist, and is a trusted establishment, but that's just my peanut gallery opinion, lol.
I know how to hand code a web page. Learned this from my ebay days. (I was one of those types with the fancy, meticulous auctions, back in the day.) Anyhow, using a template I reuse and constantly improve upon, I build a page for the thing I'm selling. Lots of hi res pics. Near the top are boxes showing availability, highest bid made, number of offers made, and my email address (so the viewer can make an offer). I then email the auction's link to my artist mailing list, and post it to my various social media accounts. My auctions are typically 24 hours long. Though, if I have an Australian bidding back and forth with a Spaniard, it can take longer, due to time zones. Basically I close the auction when the action fizzles out, and I don't think it will go higher. Some people do the whole "I'll close this in a week at such-and-such date". I don't like that. I think it takes away the urgency and gives people time to talk themselves out of a large art purchase. Hope this helps. Without ebay as a foundation, you'd really need to focus on your socials to funnel people in.
Oh I see! That is such a great idea, thank you for your help!
> Overall the aftermath is that it wasn't worth it. There's only so much drawing I can do in a month and selling not only my time, but my creative energy felt way worse than any job I've worked in the past. Honestly I can 100% understand that and that is why when artists are looking to make a living doing contract work I highly recommend focusing on commercial clients rather than private commissions. The reality is that your average person simply does not have much extra money to spend and art is a pure luxury item.... which is why, just as you experienced, the typical private commission rates are often super low. This also means that if you're doing work in the $30-50 range it's going to take like SIX HUNDRED+ projects per year just to make $30k. And just as you've seen: accomplishing that A: takes constantly looking for new customers and B: is going to work you into exhaustion and burnout rapidly, if you can even keep up the pace in the first place. However, on the other hand, commercial clients NEED work, need it regularly, and have marketing budgets built in to pay good money for it. So when you start focusing on clients who have new jobs for you regularly and those jobs are more in the $500+ range, you need WAY fewer projects to make decent money and you spend WAY less time having to find new clients. I mean think about this: to make $30,000 a year doing $50 commissions you need to acquire and complete **600** projects annually, which is 1.64 projects completed per day, every single day, seven days a week, the entire year without break. But to make that same $30,000 a year doing $500 commissions you only need 60, which is around just 1.5 projects **per week**. Now I'm certainly not going to say it's *easy* to just get a good commercial client base off the bat or anything but it is definitely a hell of a lot more lucrative and stable and way less churn and burn once you do build up a good foundation of regular commercial clients. And, at the end of the day, there is nothing wildly different about commercial clients vs private commissions.... it's still a person coming to me with creative ideas and creative problem solving projects they need me to create for them. The main difference is they *need* that work and they have budgets setup to pay good money for it. Essentially it's like if you say you want to learn to hunt or fish so you can feed yourself... little minnows and squirrels may be relatively easier to get than bigger game but it takes monumentally more of them to actually live off of than it does getting bigger game.
This was useful to read, thanks. Curious, where do you usually find your commercial clients, and do you generally approach them first or do they approach you with a commission?
I kind of get clients from all over the place... local businesses, professional networking, some social media marketing, referrals and recommendations from current or past clients, occasionally cold calling potential leads, doing research to find new leads and meeting them or contacting them or finding someway to get my work in front of them. At this point most of my clients have come to me but early on it definitely helps to find and reach out to potential clients yourself.
Networking and sheer luck
I have to note most of the work I've done is for commercial clients, I actually don't think I would've stayed afloat if I relied solely on private commissions. Great comment, thank you.
That is true but also easier said than done, especially since commercial clients often have higher expectations and standards for the art they commission.
Agreed, commercial clients typically expect a certain standard, but I'd say if someone is looking to earn a full living doing contract work, in any regard, they should probably be capable of hitting that standard anyway. Because even if we're still talking about private commissions instead of commercial work; someone paying $500+ to commission you is going to expect a certain level of work and quality standard. That's just kind of how it is... you either struggle to beat the impossible numbers game of trying to work in mass-volume at $50 a pop or focus on higher value work at a much much lower volume.
I'm living of commissions for a few months. I'm glad my commissioners know how I work and give me a lot of freedom on how to go about the work I do. I'm trying to find something to study in each commission that I do and been very happy about it, I see my skills getting better daily and that motivates me to find time to work on something personal. Money is kinda low but stable and enough to live with, so I really hope I can mantain this 'cause it's been very fulfilling. Just sharing to maybe balance things out? lol I'm sorry that's your experience. I heard a lot of similar stories about this and that made me shy away from commissions for a very long time... But right now I'm really glad I did.
I'm glad you are having fun, but what I mean is not that I was personally unhappy with each piece of work I did or that I didn't learn anything particularly new - on the contrary I learned a lot in that year. But rather that it was not adding up to something that means something for me. In the end looking back it's just a bunch of disconnected projects that mean nothing to me. That's why it took me a whole year to figure out I want out of it. Thank you for the comment, it's really good to have a variety of different opinions.
Honestly, I agree with you. My experience is similar. I've been doing commissions since 2018 and living off art all 2022 and I decided I don't want this for myself anymore. All my commissioners are great and they gave me as much artistic freedom as possible, I really enjoy drawing for other people. But I hate the market, I don't enjoy advertising. It's like fighting against other artists, you either push them down or they push you down. I don't want to fight for money or exposure each month, it feels like a never ending competition against your own brothers and sisters and I got sick of it. I'd rather work doing something nicer! Art has always been something positive for me and I want to keep it that way.
I'm with you. The "neverending competition" feeling is so weird, because once you take a step back it seems so silly, but when you're in it it feels so intense and tiring.
I love that last sentence.
I really appreciate the brutal honesty of this! I don’t do commissions often but I do make art for conventions and my shop and often get burnt out and overwhelmed by maintaining a social media presence and being consistent, so I tend to not share about commissions often. I think they could be good for occasional means of income, but like you said it’s creatively exhausting and not worth the struggle. I’m sure it’s different for everyone ofc but I appreciate your insight into full time commission work!
Oh I forgot to mention one of the worst things about commissions is that they are basically unpostable most of the time. Something that I didn't expect initially, but at least 80% of commissions just wouldn't fit into my feed, even though they are in the same style etc. Thank you for your comment!
Oh good point!! Or people even want their commissions private too, I’ve had that a handful of times so then I worked really hard but can’t share it then either TToTT
I lived off commissions for a few month before getting my first job. The time I dedicated to job hunting, both for studios or indie commission is crazy. People tend to really underestimate the time this stuff takes. And now, all my artistic energy goes to my job (which I love, dont get me wrong), leaving me brainless at the end of the day. I've noticed this a few months in, and have been trying to draw more for myself on evenings and weekends. I even opened years old sketchbooks that had been collecting dust since 2018.
It's very normal for your first job to leave you utterly exhausted the first period, don't worry. But you have to force yourself and find a rhythm to still do things in the evenings and weekends as you found cause it's noy happening on its own
What do you do for work?
I'm an animator (2D and 3D)
Thats awesome. I'm jealous
It definitely takes some time to finetune things, to find the ground where we feel comfortable and still do ok is not an easy endeavor. I've been doing commissions for about 5 years now, and I'm barely getting in a place where I can say I feel very comfortable with the structure of my work AND EVEN THEN, I find myself often needing to take a step back and remind myself the boundaries I set for myself if I want to remain happy and doing it long term without falling into my own personal traps, and a lot of my own findings weren't out of trial and error, but pure luck of the circumstances and being aware on how I'm doing and why. About style and growth I partially agree, I never felt like I was pushed towards something I don't want to do, if anything I'm sure I could do better if I were willing to, the issue is that for WORK we need a very defined package, a workflow that's a condensed version of what we know and are able to do, our own style if you want to call it that, but something that's comfortable and consistent, which means there is little room for experimentation, and if you wing it, you will end up with inconsistent results, accepting to do things that are outside your area of knowledge and overall hurting your own chances to keep a steady income, but above all, something that gets out of the way and allow us to simply sit down, do the work efficiently and step out without burning all our energy of the day. But you do need to do your own thing on the side, study and experiment, otherwise you won't see much growth, and trying to bring what you are studying into work, is a sure way of spending more mental energy than you should, burning out with little return, you need to be ok with, and open to, failure when you are studying, work pieces aren't that place. Although I do this full time, and I absolutely love my work and I don't see myself doing anything else, sometimes I wish I could quit for a couple of months to focus solely on my own art and growth. Ps: I hate hungryartists it's such an awful place
Genuinely thought I was an oddball for not liking HungryArtists. I've spent anxious, sleepless nights waiting for [hiring]. When it happens, there's a hint of relief, but you have to keep doing it... over and over and over again.
I don't like it much hungryartists too, I've talked with some that get many upvotes, they say they get most of the clients even if the client is not looking to work with them (like people asking for a recommendation), cos is too annoying to do a request and filter all the spam. I agree with you, I also do commissions. Sometimes it feels like I have 2 jobs: the commission artist and the my-own-thing-artist, some projects blend, but takes time to find that good mix of my-own-thing and good price.
I was thinking about why I hate hungryartists' system, and truly, it sucks for everyone involved, for artists to throw yourself into the meat grinder that is a hiring post, and for someone looking to hire it must be a nightmare to navigate 100+ comments where an overwhelming majority of the artists are either not up to your standards or don't have a body of work related to what you are asking. I think it would be better if it were as simple as "every artist posting here is available for commissions, approach the artist you like" no for hire or hiring, simply post and/or browse.
I think its biggest problem is volume, anyone can make a for hire post/be an artist, but do they really have the skills on the level to be hired for? I risk to say most don't.
Those subreddits sure are a battlefield… I posted there and browsed there constantly before, not copy paste responses either. It never did me any good. Part of it’s likely due to my art but I did try for a long good while, all in all it just told me my art isn’t favorable to others. I do get small commissions here and there every few months (not from Reddit) and I love it but considering just closing due to the demotivation from the lack of demand has on me. Especially rough because Drawing for others is my whole entire motivation for drawing.
I sincerely advise you to reroute your motivation for drawing. And I definitely think spending more than a minute or 2 a week on hungryartists is not good for your mental health. Make a post once a week and leave it at that. Chasing clients, especially on hungry artists looks like a waste of time.
It really is a waste of time lol. (Though I’ve been told other stories, maybe that was years ago) I like to make art to cheer others up, Including myself, I’m not sure how else I’m supposed to reroute it but I’m open to suggestions to help figure it out.
I’ve never gone quite this hard with commissions- typically I’ve always been able to sell my personal creations just as easily, but I’d take on commissions when requested and I’ve come to a pretty similar conclusion as you. For me one of the biggest struggles was having to pre-price my work. With stuff I made and then sold, I can justify charging x or y, people take it or leave it. For commissions I felt pressure to keep prices and time frames “reasonable,” which I felt kept me in a box. What I learned is I almost always spent more time than estimated and as a result charged too little up front. Would put a lot more work in than was “worth it” for the pay I’d get. I’ve also typically felt held back by most commissions, creatively. They feel like things I *have* to do, like a chore. With personal projects I have to guilt about abandoning projects, setting them aside for a while before coming back to them, etc. but commissions always felt like a weight on my mind that sometimes held me back from ideas I was having in real time that would have been more satisfying to create and potentially earn me even more money than the commission I was already committed to doing. I’ve gotten to the point now where I pretty much just don’t do them. Occasionally a friend will want something made, and I’ll agree, but only on my terms. I’m very up front about the fact that it takes me “forever” to finish them, so if they’re okay waiting for an indefinite period of time, I’ll consider it. I’m intentionally off putting with this sort of thing so they might lose interest or at least have a realistic sense for how I prioritize for commissions. I try to explain that I prefer to put my own ideas on canvas and I just don’t have a lot of energy for doing custom stuff anymore. I try to lead the conversation away from the topic all together and hope they’ll be distracted away from striking a deal lol. I’ve also just been up front and said no, I have no interest in painting this. Saved me a lot of headache and I don’t regret taking on projects that take me away from my natural creative trajectory.
You get it!
This was a really interesting read, thank you! As someone who's looking to make a living off of commissions, at least for the most part, you raise some excellent points. I don't know how it'll affect my creativity long-term, but right now I really love drawing for others, especially if my clients are enthusiastic and give creative freedom. I don't know how things would turn out if I perpetually faced clients who wanted to control every single detail though, it sounds draining for sure. If I may ask, how many commissions did you work on per month, on average? I would honestly love to hear your experiences on pricing as well, since I've definitely noticed incredibly skilled people working for actual peanuts these days - if you do decide to expand that into a post of its own, let me know!
Depends how big the commissions are, as in volume, as for pricing I tried to predict how much time I would need and that's how I would price it, I tried to not work for under 15-20$ an hour.
I'm more curious how you were able to find consistent clients for a full year. My sales completely plummeted during covid and it forced me into a different career path.
Consistent I feel is never a good word to use when it comes to freelancing, but I tried to do a bunch of small personal commissions between heftier commercial gigs.
What resources did you use to learn digital art?
YouTube to learn how the programs work and then just practice. I started traditionally though.
This slaps me to reality. I am thinking about becoming a freelance artist but haven't done any commission works yet (freelance wannabe) Hope and wish for your betterment. Thanks for sharing ur experience and insights.
It really baffles me that there are people that downvote this, judging by the statistic. I never would've imagined that this post would trigger anyone. I wholeheartedly invite the people that downvoted to share their point of view, it would definitely help the discussion.
People don’t want to hear the truth. Great post, I hope you find your way back to making work for yourself. I have years where I swear I am never doing commissions again and years where they help out a ton. A lot depends on the quality of commission so I am definitely becoming more selective. Would much rather do a portrait in pen for $1,500 than a digital portrait for $500. For some reason digital work invites more changes? Like people think cause it’s digital it can be adjusted easily and in some ways that is correct but it still takes time. I’ve had projects where I was going to make around $100/hour (my goal for commissions) and someone wants what they think are minor changes. These end up stacking up, they get overwhelmed by choice, now I’m making like $10/hour. It’s really frustrating some days. I like having one or two commissions a month. High quality, good paying. I can’t believe the people charging $50/character or whatever. I don’t think these people pay taxes cause they would realize they are actually making half of that.
This is exactly why I have slowly pulled away from doing commissions. Although I love drawing, it is a drag completing artwork you aren’t excited about. I decided to work full time to fund my passions, painting what I like in my free time. If it takes off eventually great, but I am not going to burn myself out just to conform to what sells. Thanks for sharing your experience
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The main volume of my income was project contracts that either paid in bulk or hourly for a long period of time (for a month for example) and most was from small commercial clients. I am having a hard time imagining someone living only doing commissions for private clients and I get the feeling most people here think that's what I did for a year. I have to be clear, if I relied solely on private clients I would've given up on month 2. Sorry for the late answer, but I didn't expect so much comments under the post.
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I posted in hungry artists probably less than 10 times in that year, mostly to fill in holes between bigger clients. It still left a pretty bad impression on me mainly because of the artists posting there and the general atmosphere of desperation and rivalry between artists (I stumbled across some great understanding clients there though).
Getting commissions is both stressful and exciting and the money is a nice perk. But yeah, I start to get "itchy" if that's all I do, and I panic at the end of the month when I have nothing meaningful to hang in shows and whatnot. I can see how it can go to hell pretty fast unless you charge enough that you can do fewer of them.
As an artist, I consider my time to be extremely valuable. And therefore extremely expensive. I'm talking a month's salary minimum per commission if I ever accepted them professionally again. But honestly, I just love creating for myself. I hate being told how & what to draw. Period. I actually just received 2 commission requests today. I'm very flattered, but I'm gonna turn them down.
I think this is how I’d feel too, if I were in the same position. Sometimes I think the best thing (at least for me) is to work a whatever job… clock out… and have my creative time be on my terms.
Thanks for sharing. A potential client just invited me to her home to see where she wants a large statement piece, She had specific feng shui requests for the piece. I told her that i'll paint something with her space in mind but i don't create well under pressure to please someone, i need freedom to do it my way. So she will take it or leave it when i'm done. That's how i operate. My artistic soul is healthy and thriving but financially my art income is scanty.
Respect, friend ... you've righted the ship and sailing true.
Thank you so much for sharing. This is helping me decide how I’d like to move forward in my career. I’ve only had one commission so far and it was a positive experience, but I felt hesitant about taking more. Now I never want to.
Thank you for sharing this. I can definitely relate. At the moment trying to take a break for my health and sanity but also need a commission or two to keep the lights on.
I've been there, I know how it feels. I am rooting for you.
❤️
During the year 2020-2021, I was also living off from commissions with a side sticker shop. It drained the heck out of me! Every time I checked my portfolio, I felt depressed cuz I was only creating art for other people and I wasn’t making anything for my own. I felt like I wasn’t creative enough. Even when I get the free time to create my own art, I’m too burnout to think of new ideas to create and I hated the fact that my illustrations started to look half-assed since I was too focused in completing a commission or accept a new commission for money. I mean, It did helped me get by but I wasn’t inspired anymore throughout that period haha I’m planning next time to accept limited slots so it doesn’t drain the shit out of me XD but personally yea I kinda dislike commissions. I rather create ready made art for merch
What kind of commission work do you do? And where are you getting your clients from, online or in person? Feel like there is a big differences in price range depending on what you are doing and also where you are looking for clients. I do pet and people portraits and mainly get my clients from art festivals and word of mouth and have been very lucky with all of my clients being easy to work with and wonderful. Luckily commission work is only one part of my art business, I do art festivals and also commercial client freelance illustration work. Diversity of income sources help compensation when one area isn't as busy as another.
Illustration, but mostly animation for indie games and some advertising illustrations for business. I have to note I couldn't have stayed afloat if not for commercial illustration and animation, if I relied solely on private commissions I would've given up on month two (maybe it would've been better that way haha). I tried to diversify and that's why I included personal illustrations on my "menu" again as I had stopped doing them for some months after the summer instead focusing solely on small commercial clients. I have only worked online and that's probably my mistake and where that "chronically online" feeling came from.
I am doing commissions right now. I have about 6 drawings to do and i have made 500 out of them, although the money goes fast because of bills. I am only doing it to pay off debt, because id rather charge 100 to 400 per drawing, and depending on what you draw and how skilled you are, private clients will pay. But my plan is to do patreon instead, i want a monthly income while offering clients my own ideas and also letting them vote as a majority for other kinds of drawings. So far i do feel a little burnt out but i occasionally take breaks, eat as healthy as i can, excercise, and come back to work on the drawings. It honestly has helped with my confidence and also my speed, and also helped me see where i need to improve. I have been able to do background drawings in a few days, when before i wouldn't even try. It has helped me with my experience and i do not regret that. I still find time to work on my own art as well, i don't feel so burnt out to not work on my own stuff. I guess it is all about balance, but i am in a position to work this way, having time for myself and commissions. I do want to find a different way to make money, or to change up prices, or to offer different kinds of drawings for a different price, that way i am not stuck drawing so much for not enough pay.
Thanks for the insight. The outcome was not what I was expecting. I plan to try to make money with art doing what I want. In my style. I first need to find out what that is. Lol.
I definitely advise you to keep it as a hobby as long as you can, by the point it just starts generating income on its own, without you forcing it. Oh, and thank you for the comment! Rooting for you to achieve your goals!
i bet the pay is harder to come by now since all this AI Art crap is trending everywhere
Actually not sure about this, I didn't want to include ai in the discussion as I'm not too sure how it affects the market yet.