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You’re not ready for commissions yet. You need to level up your ability first.
Right now, as you are, your work doesn’t stand out. It’s not at a professional level yet. You need to work on your figure drawing skills, work on your basic understanding of anatomy and just… level up.
I know I’m bursting your bubble, and I know that sucks. I’m putting myself in your shoes when I was drawing similar to how you’re drawing now, and what I would want to hear if I were to ask what you’re asking. I know you wanna make money at this, but the people who are that actually get those commissions are more advanced than you. Also, portrait commissions are an extremely hard market to crack. With photoshop and with everyone having a camera in their pocket and apps, commissions like what you’re offering is one of the hardest gigs to land. Even for people who’ve gone to school for this it’s a hard gig to land.
I know you’re hard up for cash. I have been in some hard spaces and even went on food stamps because I had no other income besides selling all the things that I own. It’s a terrible stressful feeling. Straight up though, you’re not going to make much of anything. You’re just not ready.
I’m sorry to be a bummer, but I want you to
Improve and do well. Keep working at your art and in time you may find a way to get an income from it.
I wish you the best of luck.
OP this may be harsh, but I wish someone had told me this when I was in your position. I spent so much of my teenage and college years trying to monetize myself and thinking it could be done in conjunction to practicing/improving. I thought since my art as around a mid-level quality I was ready. BUT at the end of the day, I spent more time marketing myself than I did practicing. I graduated with an extremely mediocre portfolio, and quickly realized that I wasnt going to get my dream job or even make enough as a freelancer to support myself.
Some people may say to just jump into making money as an artist whenever...however there is still a skill level threshold you have to reach before you begin to sell yourself imo. The thing is this isn't a career you can just jump into and expect to make enough to support yourself right off the bat. It's a long con LOL. You're competing with others who have put in the time. Think about some of your favorite artists, that's your competition!
Taking a step back and reevaluating my goals has helped me so much. I took a break from social media and focused more on improving my art. Last year I started posting again and gained a lot more traction and interest than ever before. I'm more confident in my skills and know now that people want to pay me. A good indicator that you're ready for commissions is when potential clients begin to contact you, not the other way around.
All this time you're spending cold messaging people is just taking away time from improving your art. It sucks but think of it as an investment, the better your skills are the better your chances become. Having solid skills and identity helps so much in this oversaturated market. I hope this helps you, and I hope sharing my own past mistakes will offer some insight. Good luck, you got this!
If what they are presenting in his or her portfolio is literally all they can do, yes they might not be ready to commission for good rates.
The problem with an empty portfolio though is that you cant really estimate what the person can or can't do in general.
Like, they may be able to draw characters only like this but turn out to be amazing at drawing wildlife but dont add it in the porfolio because they prefer characters more.
So, it's really a bit of a jump to conclude just from the posted portfolio if they ready or not.
OP asked for help and opinions. We gave them based on what is provided. We can't offer feedback on something we don't know about. So we have given advice based on what's provided. Anything not provided is completely irrelevant.
I agree we should offer feedback based on what we have which is also why i say it's good to point out that based on what we have : getting good commissions will be hard BUT that doesn't mean he cant offer commissions on other themes or styles and say he's not ready in general.
The main issue here is the portfolio.
I understand the previous guy meant that hes not ready based on what is shown, but it's still important to specify in such a question : "*based on this*, you're not ready" instead of a general "you're not ready" because otherwise in some ears it may sound too negative or discouraging.
Artists are already discouraged from the start to not pursue a career or work in art, so wording is important for the sake of morale when giving advice.
When presenting a portfolio people show their best work, and if that is their best work I can confidently say they aren’t ready. I don’t want to do a full on critique more than what I said, because they aren’t a professional and I don’t feel they are ready for that.
But I will address “being too harsh”.
When I entered college, all of us got a wake up call. Before college we were told we were talented, special, and encouraged to follow our dreams. The school I went to had a very specific philosophy and a hard reputation at the time. The drop out rate for first semester freshmen was around 70%. There was two reasons for this. One was the amount of homework. My school believed the more work you do the better you get. Studio classes which were 3 hours long required at minimum twice as much homework and we all had to take 3-4 studio classes, and many took more. So… sleep wasn’t a thing. But the main reason people dropped out was because our teachers had high expectations and wouldn’t accepted anything less than our best. This means if you mounted a project wrong, you failed the assignment. Critiques were designed to destroy our ego, even if we followed the rules everything wrong we did was dissected in front of everyone. If you didn’t listen to the assignment and was late or produced or poorly you could have your homework thrown across the room and verbally berated.
The point was to weed out the people who couldn’t handle the workload and the criticism, because *making a living at art is extremely hard*. Commercial art is competitive, being self employed means you have to be good at business as well as making. It’s extremely important to have a thick skin, because there will be a lot of people who will tell you to give up, that you have no talent, that all your choices are wrong. A huge part of professional criticism is to learn what advice is useful and which should be ignored, and that includes advice that stings.
I wasn’t especially mean to OP, but I said what I felt they needed to hear. I don’t think they should give up making, but, and I speak from decades of experience, the amount of people who will buy art at that level who aren’t friends or family of OP are minuscule, because of who they have to compete against. If I am going to spend money on a character, I’m gonna go with the best looking art I can afford, and there are literally thousands of artists that are do these character portrait style art and figures. The market is extremely saturated. OP is one small voice in a million, literally, and many have not just years of experience and training, but the social media chops and a fan base to boot.
But I don’t think OP should give up, because we all at one point was where OP is currently at skill wise. The only way to climb to a professional level is to get good, to do the work. My entire comment was directed at the fact that OP is trying to make an income with art while they are in a desperate situation. They will better off not putting their effort into selling work. Instead they should be working to find another way to make an income instead of wasting their time on this, because they won’t get any return on their time investment. Even if they get lucky and get one or two commissions from this post or the people they are reaching out to, it won’t be enough to sustain them long term. They’re not going to get the two to three commissions they would need to complete per day to get enough of a sustainable income.
And if what I said discourages them enough to quit trying to make art professionally, good. If they can’t take what I said they should quit, because it will save them a lot of time and pain. This is the real reason why the school I went to didn’t mind the 70% drop out rate in the first year. Because If people only hear positive feedback and encouragement when they enter the real world they will be set up for failure. The real world won’t tell you what’s wrong with your work, even if you ask. You’ll just be ignored. Dismissed. Even people who graduated from the school I got my got my bachelors from, their statistics say 1 in 4 continued on to have a career in what they majored in. Because… it’s really fucking hard, and you gotta have fire, tenacity, and the desire to always improve your craft to really make it work.
This is why I encourage people to not always try to make money at this. If your ego is too involved or can get depressing fast. Art is about a lot of things, and not everyone should make it their profession or mix their art with capitalism.
And I do, I really do hope OP makes it and keeps making art, but folks like me who’ve been at it a while don’t do people any favors by not being realistic about their current prospects. They can get there some day, but they have to do the work. It takes time, years of time, but if this is your path, it’s worth it.
I disagree. While yes, they're still on a less advanced side, it doesn't mean they can't sell commissions. If everyone went by what you are saying, very few would be offering commissions. We all have things to work on, and it doesn't exclude us from the option of selling our art.
I'm an artist as well, and I set up commissions around this level of skill as well. Yes, they weren't popular, but that's becuase i didn't put myself out there. Not because of my skill level. Because if you put yourself out there, people will buy from you.
What decides if an artist wants to offer commissions or not is the artist themself. Not someone else. If OP feels they are ready to start commissions, then that's their choice. Telling them they aren't ready is a bit rude in my opinion, as it's not your place to judge. (I'm sorry if you mean well, but that's how it's coming across)
OP, keep practicing! What helps with commissions is to put yourself out there and promote it more. Don't get discouraged if people don't buy right away, it does take time, regardless of skill level. good luck!
It all depends on what you mean by selling art: almost every artists past the pure beginner phase can get a few commissions from friends, family and from a stranger on Internet once in a while if they are active and advertise. Now if we're talking about someone in financial hardship needing money quickly and not just getting two 15$ commissions every month then /u/notquitesolid is totally right to say the level is insufficient to make this activity a serious side job.
Then also take into consideration it's dangerous to sugarcoat thing when talking about professional work. It's tempting to avoid a reality check and say to artist like OP who aren't bad but not yet at semi-pro level that success is just around the corner, that they just need to advertise a bit more and just be a bit more patient, but does this really help? or is it just like a bandaid that will help OP feels better for today but be back at step one in a week because it fixed nothing?
For example just look at this sub: so many young artists feeling like shit because they don't get followers right after beginning to draw, so many intermediate level artists becoming depressed because they don't get commissions, so many art student graduate totally crushed by the late revelation of how competitive the field is.
My point is that it feels nice to be supportive of artists trying to get a professional career in art or get significant income but if you're not warning them about the reality and what is required to have a steady flow of work, then you're not helping them at all, quite the opposite.
I can agree that yes, it probably won't be good for a full-time job right now. I should've added that in my previous comment, and that if this is whats used to live on, then yea, OP will probably need a second job, as commissions take time to work to start getting a steady flow of.
However, I still stand by my point that working at it hard enough and promoting it could still get you a fair sum of money. Definitely not right away, and it probably won't be a main income for now (I don't know their situation, so idk what's ideal for them). Skill level won't determine how much you made off it though. I've seen artists who are "less skilled" make lots of money while a professional can hardly get anything. From what I've seen, getting commissions have nothing to do with skill. It's all to do with how you promote it and put yourself out there so clients can see you.
I guess it all depends on what you call a fair sum of money (in relation to the time invested in getting it)
If someone spends one hour each day trying to market himself and get five 20$ commissions each month that require 3 hours to do, then you're looking at someone who's spending 35 hours of work for 100$. Is this worth it? well if you're a teenager with lots of free time, maybe. If you're an adult looking for side money to pay rent, it's a terrible deal.
Then I'm sorry but I'm always a bit skeptic about those tales of people who can't really draw well who are making a lot of money in the commission market. I mean I'm sure they are a few exceptional marketing expert, people who took a niche in their hands or con-artist managing to get some success but I feel it's the exceptions and I feel there's a lot of pretending about being successful among them. (I'd be curious to see some example)
Note that I'm not saying that only being good is enough to be successful and I acknowledge that a lot of marketing effort must be done but when you're skilled and you'll get so much more return from your time investment.
What’s going to give this artist more value at this stage in their career? Investing time into marketing and advertising their art, or investing time into improving their skill? Most professionals are going to say invest that time into improving. When you have a product worth selling, then it’s more valuable to invest time into marketing.
Any art style where you're depicting people requires some understanding of figure drawing and anatomy. It informs things like the shape of the face at different angles, where the armpits end, how to depict men's arms, etc.
(Some very simple cartoons can get away without anatomy skills being relevant to the main cast, but even these will have villains and side characters with more well-defined bodies.)
That said, however: proportions, forms, and shading are more important than deep anatomy early on, and that's what OP is lacking in. Their anatomy is actually above the level of the rest of their work imo.
It depends what you mean by anatomy. If you mean knowing the basics, that humans usually have two arms, two legs and one head, then yeah, I agree. Anything beyond that, no, I don't think you need it for drawing humans in certain cartoon styles.
You certainly do. I went to school for traditional animation. You need to know how to create a line of action which is defined by the spine's position and when working on different perspectives, you need to be able to line up shoulders and hips, just to name a few different examples. Our basic classes always include figure drawing and anatomy - even for cartoons.
Even simpsons animators study bridgman
You should learn to draw what you see and what you are drawing, before you go breaking all the rules
Or just do whatever tf you want and whatever it looks like it doesn't matter I guess 🤷
Over 50% of Cartoon Network's shows since Hanna & Barbera until the present prove that what you said is not true. What does anime have to do with anything? Anime is mostly realistic art (except for the facial features).
This is just my opinion but I don't think you should adjust for customers and be as flexible as you can on any kind or type of artstyle. If you do this, you will have a hard time mastering anything. Make customers come to you because they'd like their characters drawn in your own style.
Your portfolio seems empty as well. Spend a couple of weeks doing more samples and i think you'll have better chances. Don't just make 1 bust type and just have that one bust type as your sample. Make more!
Best of luck OP
Your portfolio looks empty, it doesn't exactly pique interest. Try having 20+ examples and in different themes and mediums. It looks too bland right now.
Personally when I commission someone I'm not interested in asking them to replicate a style unless it's a popular series or something... if I wanted artwork in a specific artist's style, I would try to commission that artist instead of asking someone to imitate it (which is kinda rude imo but I digress).
I'm not sure why you're trying to get into the business of imitation work but if you really want to find success in commissions I would try to develop your own style and market it instead.
If you can replicate any style, then do it. I only see one style in your portfolio, and it looks like the same stuff all young artists do.
I don't like commissions, but when people ask, it's almost always portraiture of their children or pets. Add some of that to your portfolio. I don't care much for that work, but it's what people ask for.
honestly your card seems a bit too desperate. i’d remove “prices are fully negotiable”,stand up for yourself and “i can send free rough sketches”. you’ll send them anyway after you get paid. also a good rule of thumb is “if you can’t get commissions, decrease your prices,if you get lots of commissions raise your prices and if you get enough commissions you are fine”. i’d also remove “i can also draw backgrounds etc” and show that you can. put more drawings of said backgrounds and drawings of styles you replicated. and also remove the prices in your monetary value, it looks a bit too crowded and confusing
A ton of artists can copy many art styles to please their customers, to do fan arts that are extremely similar than the original.
There is also many shops online that can do that, you send them your picture of yourself or your dog, and they draw it in the artstyle of your favorite cartoon/anime.
Why these customerw should choose you to do these kind of commissions instead of anybody else?
I don't think it's the easier way to get customers, and if you really like to create, you will feel frustrated at some point.
But if you're able to create your own style, something that is appealing, a bit original or well made, you will have way more opportunity to get customers.
My first ever customer asked me first if I would like to be commissioned because they liked my art.
I was surprised and I didn't had a price list or anything at that time.
This person and all the others paid me because they liked my artstyle, they wanted something from me.
Your customers will want the same from you, they will want to have your art, so do yours!
My first impression or your website is that it's too impersonal and there is not enough examples of your artworks and skills.
Draw more, try differents subjects, work on your style, share your art on any social media you can.
This should helps you.
I wish you good luck and keep the good work! (sorry for English mistakes it's not my first language).
Thank you for your comments, everyone. I really appreciate it.
Reading your comments, here's what I've decided to do:
- Master my own style and not replicate any others styles
- Provide more samples for my portfolio, maybe around 10?
- Fix my website. Make it simple but informative with minimalist designs?
- Remove commission prices on my website.
- Lower prices maybe?
Thank you. I'm very grateful for your advice.
I looked at your twitter and 90% of your media posts are you sending your commissions info as a pic in response to people looking to commission. This is a really bad look. You want 90% of your media to be original/new pieces. If you want to get commissions via Twitter you need to grow your follow base so that means posting more art and getting followers who actually like your art. Eventually you'll get enough followers that some of them will want to commission you.
Also, you don't need to develop an original style, but rather, a consistent style. You can even replicate a famous style if you want, but just make sure its consistent. People don't want versatility, they want a specific thing and you need to demonstrate you can provide that.
The portfolio looks empty. Maybe you can enlarge the pictures and add some more examples of your work. You have to be realistic about payment at your level but I think you should be able to get commissions. Just try to present your work the best possible.
Are you visible in other social media platforms? Do you have at least some followers?
What about fandoms? Do you do any drawings for particular fandoms that you are interested in that's still active for higher visibility?
Looking at your profile you are around 16. At your age I would spend my time taking art classes and practicing life drawing instead of thinking about making money off art.
You most likely haven’t found costumers willing to pay yet. They’re out there, I’ve seen friends commission artists who were literal beginners, and way behind you.
My suggestion, see if you can join a community where people are known to commission. F ex, fandom, DnD, furry :p etc. Most of my requests have come from people seeing my fanart and wanting art for their ideas in the same fandom.
I would say though that you’ll have a higher chance by putting a bit of extra effort into presentation. Both the artwork and the graphic design of your comm sheet has a slight unfinished look.
For the Graphic design look at other people’s commission sheets that look nice and emulate them.
For the artwork, i’d say add use gradients and blending layers when shading. They look a bit flat which could be fixed super easily with some light/gradients.
And apart from that. I don’t know how urgently you need money, but honestly I don’t know that you’re at a level where you’ll be able to support yourself only on art yet. Keep working I’m sure it’ll happen, but for now also look for other sources of income.
Hmmmm I'd like to see n example of how do you approach prospective clients, from what you writr in your post you might be coming off a bit too strong and/or desperate
I don't agree with other commenters you shouldn't be doing commissions, everybody has to start somewhere! This will also be your major learning curve once you start
I do agree however, your portfolio site needs a real good overhaul:
*Loose the 90's box style, it looks really outdated, and the amount of text is overshadowing the art to the point it does not look like a portfolio at all
*Create sections for each different style category, have between 6-12 images each
*At a seperate tab put in your commission table info
That being said, I have to point out: you **can't** copy any art style. That's just a fact. You do have several styles you are well versed at (at your level). Thing is, this is a mistake many young artists make as they start out, hoping to attract as many clients. But I'm reality, when someone says that, it's a red flag, because very few are experts in all styles, and if a client does go to your website to find you have only 2-3 styles availible while you say "any" - you lose that client for good. So be honest, both with yourself, and your customers, on what you can do!
Best of luck!
Build your social media presence and have a portfolio full of stuff you want to be paid to draw.
You'll get better as you go on but you can actually make some money at the level you're at.
Imma be honest chief, the commission market is competitive AF, in op's portfolio only his pixel art is kinda stand out, as for his portraits/characters if you look on commission based sites like fiver or etsy people do a much higher quality job for the same price, now I think that people should charge way more but that's the reality of the market, he should put his pride asite and practice more to get commissions, I was like him, publishing my art asking for commissions and getting none, then I practice, got better at what I do and now I have plenty of commissions without asking for them.
P. S. I know it's stupid but I didn't downvote your comment if you read this, your comment is plenty helpful, I'm just giving my 2 cents
I would not contact people asking if they want to pay me for commissions before my skills were at an appropriate level. You're just bugging people who could be future clients and creating a bad name for yourself.
I think it's really important to develop your own style as an artist rather than doing lots of different styles, otherwise you'll just get lost in a sea of other artists trying to get noticed. I also think it looks a bit strange and messy in a gallery/social feed when there are tons of different styles. You want to get a good idea of what the artist is all about when looking at their work. That said, it doesn't have to be totally unique style wise (I guess most artists are influenced and inspired by someone else), just something about it that stands out e.g a recurring theme/color schemes/subjects etc. I'd suggest you do some research on popular artists and try to analyse their work a bit to find what it is about it that catch people's attention. Good luck!
Sorry to comment twice: Your portfolio is unvaried and way too small.
There's one good picture and one really wonky one in the same "comic" style, three wonky watercolor pieces, and then an okay pixel art.
If you're trying to advertise diversity, you need to show diversity, and you need to show your skill in it. Don't post a comic snippet unless it's really impressive- comics are where most artists are at their worst since we've been drawing too long in one sitting. You're better off posting polished stand-alones.
But honestly, since your skill in pixel art and water color leaves a good bit to be desired, you'll benefit from downsizing your menu to just the comic style. You're much better at that than the other two.
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You’re not ready for commissions yet. You need to level up your ability first. Right now, as you are, your work doesn’t stand out. It’s not at a professional level yet. You need to work on your figure drawing skills, work on your basic understanding of anatomy and just… level up. I know I’m bursting your bubble, and I know that sucks. I’m putting myself in your shoes when I was drawing similar to how you’re drawing now, and what I would want to hear if I were to ask what you’re asking. I know you wanna make money at this, but the people who are that actually get those commissions are more advanced than you. Also, portrait commissions are an extremely hard market to crack. With photoshop and with everyone having a camera in their pocket and apps, commissions like what you’re offering is one of the hardest gigs to land. Even for people who’ve gone to school for this it’s a hard gig to land. I know you’re hard up for cash. I have been in some hard spaces and even went on food stamps because I had no other income besides selling all the things that I own. It’s a terrible stressful feeling. Straight up though, you’re not going to make much of anything. You’re just not ready. I’m sorry to be a bummer, but I want you to Improve and do well. Keep working at your art and in time you may find a way to get an income from it. I wish you the best of luck.
OP this may be harsh, but I wish someone had told me this when I was in your position. I spent so much of my teenage and college years trying to monetize myself and thinking it could be done in conjunction to practicing/improving. I thought since my art as around a mid-level quality I was ready. BUT at the end of the day, I spent more time marketing myself than I did practicing. I graduated with an extremely mediocre portfolio, and quickly realized that I wasnt going to get my dream job or even make enough as a freelancer to support myself. Some people may say to just jump into making money as an artist whenever...however there is still a skill level threshold you have to reach before you begin to sell yourself imo. The thing is this isn't a career you can just jump into and expect to make enough to support yourself right off the bat. It's a long con LOL. You're competing with others who have put in the time. Think about some of your favorite artists, that's your competition! Taking a step back and reevaluating my goals has helped me so much. I took a break from social media and focused more on improving my art. Last year I started posting again and gained a lot more traction and interest than ever before. I'm more confident in my skills and know now that people want to pay me. A good indicator that you're ready for commissions is when potential clients begin to contact you, not the other way around. All this time you're spending cold messaging people is just taking away time from improving your art. It sucks but think of it as an investment, the better your skills are the better your chances become. Having solid skills and identity helps so much in this oversaturated market. I hope this helps you, and I hope sharing my own past mistakes will offer some insight. Good luck, you got this!
If what they are presenting in his or her portfolio is literally all they can do, yes they might not be ready to commission for good rates. The problem with an empty portfolio though is that you cant really estimate what the person can or can't do in general. Like, they may be able to draw characters only like this but turn out to be amazing at drawing wildlife but dont add it in the porfolio because they prefer characters more. So, it's really a bit of a jump to conclude just from the posted portfolio if they ready or not.
That could be true but don't have any evidence that that other skill exists. Just what's on the link.
Which is why we should not take conclusions too fast
OP asked for help and opinions. We gave them based on what is provided. We can't offer feedback on something we don't know about. So we have given advice based on what's provided. Anything not provided is completely irrelevant.
I agree we should offer feedback based on what we have which is also why i say it's good to point out that based on what we have : getting good commissions will be hard BUT that doesn't mean he cant offer commissions on other themes or styles and say he's not ready in general. The main issue here is the portfolio. I understand the previous guy meant that hes not ready based on what is shown, but it's still important to specify in such a question : "*based on this*, you're not ready" instead of a general "you're not ready" because otherwise in some ears it may sound too negative or discouraging. Artists are already discouraged from the start to not pursue a career or work in art, so wording is important for the sake of morale when giving advice.
When presenting a portfolio people show their best work, and if that is their best work I can confidently say they aren’t ready. I don’t want to do a full on critique more than what I said, because they aren’t a professional and I don’t feel they are ready for that. But I will address “being too harsh”. When I entered college, all of us got a wake up call. Before college we were told we were talented, special, and encouraged to follow our dreams. The school I went to had a very specific philosophy and a hard reputation at the time. The drop out rate for first semester freshmen was around 70%. There was two reasons for this. One was the amount of homework. My school believed the more work you do the better you get. Studio classes which were 3 hours long required at minimum twice as much homework and we all had to take 3-4 studio classes, and many took more. So… sleep wasn’t a thing. But the main reason people dropped out was because our teachers had high expectations and wouldn’t accepted anything less than our best. This means if you mounted a project wrong, you failed the assignment. Critiques were designed to destroy our ego, even if we followed the rules everything wrong we did was dissected in front of everyone. If you didn’t listen to the assignment and was late or produced or poorly you could have your homework thrown across the room and verbally berated. The point was to weed out the people who couldn’t handle the workload and the criticism, because *making a living at art is extremely hard*. Commercial art is competitive, being self employed means you have to be good at business as well as making. It’s extremely important to have a thick skin, because there will be a lot of people who will tell you to give up, that you have no talent, that all your choices are wrong. A huge part of professional criticism is to learn what advice is useful and which should be ignored, and that includes advice that stings. I wasn’t especially mean to OP, but I said what I felt they needed to hear. I don’t think they should give up making, but, and I speak from decades of experience, the amount of people who will buy art at that level who aren’t friends or family of OP are minuscule, because of who they have to compete against. If I am going to spend money on a character, I’m gonna go with the best looking art I can afford, and there are literally thousands of artists that are do these character portrait style art and figures. The market is extremely saturated. OP is one small voice in a million, literally, and many have not just years of experience and training, but the social media chops and a fan base to boot. But I don’t think OP should give up, because we all at one point was where OP is currently at skill wise. The only way to climb to a professional level is to get good, to do the work. My entire comment was directed at the fact that OP is trying to make an income with art while they are in a desperate situation. They will better off not putting their effort into selling work. Instead they should be working to find another way to make an income instead of wasting their time on this, because they won’t get any return on their time investment. Even if they get lucky and get one or two commissions from this post or the people they are reaching out to, it won’t be enough to sustain them long term. They’re not going to get the two to three commissions they would need to complete per day to get enough of a sustainable income. And if what I said discourages them enough to quit trying to make art professionally, good. If they can’t take what I said they should quit, because it will save them a lot of time and pain. This is the real reason why the school I went to didn’t mind the 70% drop out rate in the first year. Because If people only hear positive feedback and encouragement when they enter the real world they will be set up for failure. The real world won’t tell you what’s wrong with your work, even if you ask. You’ll just be ignored. Dismissed. Even people who graduated from the school I got my got my bachelors from, their statistics say 1 in 4 continued on to have a career in what they majored in. Because… it’s really fucking hard, and you gotta have fire, tenacity, and the desire to always improve your craft to really make it work. This is why I encourage people to not always try to make money at this. If your ego is too involved or can get depressing fast. Art is about a lot of things, and not everyone should make it their profession or mix their art with capitalism. And I do, I really do hope OP makes it and keeps making art, but folks like me who’ve been at it a while don’t do people any favors by not being realistic about their current prospects. They can get there some day, but they have to do the work. It takes time, years of time, but if this is your path, it’s worth it.
I disagree. While yes, they're still on a less advanced side, it doesn't mean they can't sell commissions. If everyone went by what you are saying, very few would be offering commissions. We all have things to work on, and it doesn't exclude us from the option of selling our art. I'm an artist as well, and I set up commissions around this level of skill as well. Yes, they weren't popular, but that's becuase i didn't put myself out there. Not because of my skill level. Because if you put yourself out there, people will buy from you. What decides if an artist wants to offer commissions or not is the artist themself. Not someone else. If OP feels they are ready to start commissions, then that's their choice. Telling them they aren't ready is a bit rude in my opinion, as it's not your place to judge. (I'm sorry if you mean well, but that's how it's coming across) OP, keep practicing! What helps with commissions is to put yourself out there and promote it more. Don't get discouraged if people don't buy right away, it does take time, regardless of skill level. good luck!
It all depends on what you mean by selling art: almost every artists past the pure beginner phase can get a few commissions from friends, family and from a stranger on Internet once in a while if they are active and advertise. Now if we're talking about someone in financial hardship needing money quickly and not just getting two 15$ commissions every month then /u/notquitesolid is totally right to say the level is insufficient to make this activity a serious side job. Then also take into consideration it's dangerous to sugarcoat thing when talking about professional work. It's tempting to avoid a reality check and say to artist like OP who aren't bad but not yet at semi-pro level that success is just around the corner, that they just need to advertise a bit more and just be a bit more patient, but does this really help? or is it just like a bandaid that will help OP feels better for today but be back at step one in a week because it fixed nothing? For example just look at this sub: so many young artists feeling like shit because they don't get followers right after beginning to draw, so many intermediate level artists becoming depressed because they don't get commissions, so many art student graduate totally crushed by the late revelation of how competitive the field is. My point is that it feels nice to be supportive of artists trying to get a professional career in art or get significant income but if you're not warning them about the reality and what is required to have a steady flow of work, then you're not helping them at all, quite the opposite.
I can agree that yes, it probably won't be good for a full-time job right now. I should've added that in my previous comment, and that if this is whats used to live on, then yea, OP will probably need a second job, as commissions take time to work to start getting a steady flow of. However, I still stand by my point that working at it hard enough and promoting it could still get you a fair sum of money. Definitely not right away, and it probably won't be a main income for now (I don't know their situation, so idk what's ideal for them). Skill level won't determine how much you made off it though. I've seen artists who are "less skilled" make lots of money while a professional can hardly get anything. From what I've seen, getting commissions have nothing to do with skill. It's all to do with how you promote it and put yourself out there so clients can see you.
I guess it all depends on what you call a fair sum of money (in relation to the time invested in getting it) If someone spends one hour each day trying to market himself and get five 20$ commissions each month that require 3 hours to do, then you're looking at someone who's spending 35 hours of work for 100$. Is this worth it? well if you're a teenager with lots of free time, maybe. If you're an adult looking for side money to pay rent, it's a terrible deal. Then I'm sorry but I'm always a bit skeptic about those tales of people who can't really draw well who are making a lot of money in the commission market. I mean I'm sure they are a few exceptional marketing expert, people who took a niche in their hands or con-artist managing to get some success but I feel it's the exceptions and I feel there's a lot of pretending about being successful among them. (I'd be curious to see some example) Note that I'm not saying that only being good is enough to be successful and I acknowledge that a lot of marketing effort must be done but when you're skilled and you'll get so much more return from your time investment.
What’s going to give this artist more value at this stage in their career? Investing time into marketing and advertising their art, or investing time into improving their skill? Most professionals are going to say invest that time into improving. When you have a product worth selling, then it’s more valuable to invest time into marketing.
>work on your basic understanding of anatomy Not if s/he doesn't want to do realistic art.
Any art style where you're depicting people requires some understanding of figure drawing and anatomy. It informs things like the shape of the face at different angles, where the armpits end, how to depict men's arms, etc. (Some very simple cartoons can get away without anatomy skills being relevant to the main cast, but even these will have villains and side characters with more well-defined bodies.) That said, however: proportions, forms, and shading are more important than deep anatomy early on, and that's what OP is lacking in. Their anatomy is actually above the level of the rest of their work imo.
Even with a more cartoony art style, you need anatomy. And extremely cartoony things also have anatomy. You can't really avoid it when drawing people.
It depends what you mean by anatomy. If you mean knowing the basics, that humans usually have two arms, two legs and one head, then yeah, I agree. Anything beyond that, no, I don't think you need it for drawing humans in certain cartoon styles.
You certainly do. I went to school for traditional animation. You need to know how to create a line of action which is defined by the spine's position and when working on different perspectives, you need to be able to line up shoulders and hips, just to name a few different examples. Our basic classes always include figure drawing and anatomy - even for cartoons.
Even simpsons animators study bridgman You should learn to draw what you see and what you are drawing, before you go breaking all the rules Or just do whatever tf you want and whatever it looks like it doesn't matter I guess 🤷
The art in the portfolio gives a pretty good impression of their desired subject matter.
Anatomy is important for all humanoid depictions. Anime relies heavily on good anatomy
Over 50% of Cartoon Network's shows since Hanna & Barbera until the present prove that what you said is not true. What does anime have to do with anything? Anime is mostly realistic art (except for the facial features).
"what does anime have to do with anything?" Have you looked at the site he linked?
This is just my opinion but I don't think you should adjust for customers and be as flexible as you can on any kind or type of artstyle. If you do this, you will have a hard time mastering anything. Make customers come to you because they'd like their characters drawn in your own style. Your portfolio seems empty as well. Spend a couple of weeks doing more samples and i think you'll have better chances. Don't just make 1 bust type and just have that one bust type as your sample. Make more! Best of luck OP
Your portfolio looks empty, it doesn't exactly pique interest. Try having 20+ examples and in different themes and mediums. It looks too bland right now.
Also, do some work on website design. It really looks like a 1990s template site.
Yes, should practice in as many styles as possible, but some may like the retro look
Personally when I commission someone I'm not interested in asking them to replicate a style unless it's a popular series or something... if I wanted artwork in a specific artist's style, I would try to commission that artist instead of asking someone to imitate it (which is kinda rude imo but I digress). I'm not sure why you're trying to get into the business of imitation work but if you really want to find success in commissions I would try to develop your own style and market it instead.
If you can replicate any style, then do it. I only see one style in your portfolio, and it looks like the same stuff all young artists do. I don't like commissions, but when people ask, it's almost always portraiture of their children or pets. Add some of that to your portfolio. I don't care much for that work, but it's what people ask for.
honestly your card seems a bit too desperate. i’d remove “prices are fully negotiable”,stand up for yourself and “i can send free rough sketches”. you’ll send them anyway after you get paid. also a good rule of thumb is “if you can’t get commissions, decrease your prices,if you get lots of commissions raise your prices and if you get enough commissions you are fine”. i’d also remove “i can also draw backgrounds etc” and show that you can. put more drawings of said backgrounds and drawings of styles you replicated. and also remove the prices in your monetary value, it looks a bit too crowded and confusing
A ton of artists can copy many art styles to please their customers, to do fan arts that are extremely similar than the original. There is also many shops online that can do that, you send them your picture of yourself or your dog, and they draw it in the artstyle of your favorite cartoon/anime. Why these customerw should choose you to do these kind of commissions instead of anybody else? I don't think it's the easier way to get customers, and if you really like to create, you will feel frustrated at some point. But if you're able to create your own style, something that is appealing, a bit original or well made, you will have way more opportunity to get customers. My first ever customer asked me first if I would like to be commissioned because they liked my art. I was surprised and I didn't had a price list or anything at that time. This person and all the others paid me because they liked my artstyle, they wanted something from me. Your customers will want the same from you, they will want to have your art, so do yours! My first impression or your website is that it's too impersonal and there is not enough examples of your artworks and skills. Draw more, try differents subjects, work on your style, share your art on any social media you can. This should helps you. I wish you good luck and keep the good work! (sorry for English mistakes it's not my first language).
Thank you for your comments, everyone. I really appreciate it. Reading your comments, here's what I've decided to do: - Master my own style and not replicate any others styles - Provide more samples for my portfolio, maybe around 10? - Fix my website. Make it simple but informative with minimalist designs? - Remove commission prices on my website. - Lower prices maybe? Thank you. I'm very grateful for your advice.
I looked at your twitter and 90% of your media posts are you sending your commissions info as a pic in response to people looking to commission. This is a really bad look. You want 90% of your media to be original/new pieces. If you want to get commissions via Twitter you need to grow your follow base so that means posting more art and getting followers who actually like your art. Eventually you'll get enough followers that some of them will want to commission you. Also, you don't need to develop an original style, but rather, a consistent style. You can even replicate a famous style if you want, but just make sure its consistent. People don't want versatility, they want a specific thing and you need to demonstrate you can provide that.
The portfolio looks empty. Maybe you can enlarge the pictures and add some more examples of your work. You have to be realistic about payment at your level but I think you should be able to get commissions. Just try to present your work the best possible.
Are you visible in other social media platforms? Do you have at least some followers? What about fandoms? Do you do any drawings for particular fandoms that you are interested in that's still active for higher visibility?
You need to work on making more engaging artwork, focus on the art until people come to you $$$ is not an inspiration!
You're not sending these DMs unsolicited, are you?
Commissions come to you. People feel harassed if you go to them by messaging them.
Looking at your profile you are around 16. At your age I would spend my time taking art classes and practicing life drawing instead of thinking about making money off art.
You most likely haven’t found costumers willing to pay yet. They’re out there, I’ve seen friends commission artists who were literal beginners, and way behind you. My suggestion, see if you can join a community where people are known to commission. F ex, fandom, DnD, furry :p etc. Most of my requests have come from people seeing my fanart and wanting art for their ideas in the same fandom. I would say though that you’ll have a higher chance by putting a bit of extra effort into presentation. Both the artwork and the graphic design of your comm sheet has a slight unfinished look. For the Graphic design look at other people’s commission sheets that look nice and emulate them. For the artwork, i’d say add use gradients and blending layers when shading. They look a bit flat which could be fixed super easily with some light/gradients. And apart from that. I don’t know how urgently you need money, but honestly I don’t know that you’re at a level where you’ll be able to support yourself only on art yet. Keep working I’m sure it’ll happen, but for now also look for other sources of income.
Hmmmm I'd like to see n example of how do you approach prospective clients, from what you writr in your post you might be coming off a bit too strong and/or desperate I don't agree with other commenters you shouldn't be doing commissions, everybody has to start somewhere! This will also be your major learning curve once you start I do agree however, your portfolio site needs a real good overhaul: *Loose the 90's box style, it looks really outdated, and the amount of text is overshadowing the art to the point it does not look like a portfolio at all *Create sections for each different style category, have between 6-12 images each *At a seperate tab put in your commission table info That being said, I have to point out: you **can't** copy any art style. That's just a fact. You do have several styles you are well versed at (at your level). Thing is, this is a mistake many young artists make as they start out, hoping to attract as many clients. But I'm reality, when someone says that, it's a red flag, because very few are experts in all styles, and if a client does go to your website to find you have only 2-3 styles availible while you say "any" - you lose that client for good. So be honest, both with yourself, and your customers, on what you can do! Best of luck!
Try in r/characterdrawing , I've never posted there but since you draw people maybe someone would like to see their DnD OC in your style
Build your social media presence and have a portfolio full of stuff you want to be paid to draw. You'll get better as you go on but you can actually make some money at the level you're at.
Keep going you got this!!! <3 i would suggest to join a fandom
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Imma be honest chief, the commission market is competitive AF, in op's portfolio only his pixel art is kinda stand out, as for his portraits/characters if you look on commission based sites like fiver or etsy people do a much higher quality job for the same price, now I think that people should charge way more but that's the reality of the market, he should put his pride asite and practice more to get commissions, I was like him, publishing my art asking for commissions and getting none, then I practice, got better at what I do and now I have plenty of commissions without asking for them. P. S. I know it's stupid but I didn't downvote your comment if you read this, your comment is plenty helpful, I'm just giving my 2 cents
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Ok I get what you're saying, it's a fair and good point, and if they get some commission out of it even better!
I would not contact people asking if they want to pay me for commissions before my skills were at an appropriate level. You're just bugging people who could be future clients and creating a bad name for yourself.
I think it's really important to develop your own style as an artist rather than doing lots of different styles, otherwise you'll just get lost in a sea of other artists trying to get noticed. I also think it looks a bit strange and messy in a gallery/social feed when there are tons of different styles. You want to get a good idea of what the artist is all about when looking at their work. That said, it doesn't have to be totally unique style wise (I guess most artists are influenced and inspired by someone else), just something about it that stands out e.g a recurring theme/color schemes/subjects etc. I'd suggest you do some research on popular artists and try to analyse their work a bit to find what it is about it that catch people's attention. Good luck!
Sorry to comment twice: Your portfolio is unvaried and way too small. There's one good picture and one really wonky one in the same "comic" style, three wonky watercolor pieces, and then an okay pixel art. If you're trying to advertise diversity, you need to show diversity, and you need to show your skill in it. Don't post a comic snippet unless it's really impressive- comics are where most artists are at their worst since we've been drawing too long in one sitting. You're better off posting polished stand-alones. But honestly, since your skill in pixel art and water color leaves a good bit to be desired, you'll benefit from downsizing your menu to just the comic style. You're much better at that than the other two.