Charging Commision?

Charge for materials first and foremost. Then consider tacking on 25 bucks for a sig or 60 for a portrait/sig. That's what I did (minus materials) for screenshot sigs. Always ALWAYS have your materials paid for though - whether you have to buy something new or not. Poser is way more expensive, but figure in the time to set up, render and how difficult the overall portraits are. You might want to offer guildies a slight discount or a trade.

wow, I didnt realise as much as that lol.

consider how long you work on things.

do you spend over 8 hours on something? thats a full work day. how many people do you know work for $20/day ?

Yeah I'm toying with taking on selected commissions again.. Not sure I should since I take a while to make a piece between RL commitments so I don't want a huge list of people waiting. And they're right Jet. Think of how many hours you can spend just on posing and tweaking lighting. Not to mention searching for the right components before you even begin. And there will probably be at least one change someone wants which requires you to go back and fiddle before you move on to postwork.. so 60 bucks sounds like a lot of cash (and it is) but not for all the time you will put in! And if they need / want a specific item or character pack to make the pick you should discuss up front making them pay for it in addition to your price, or at the very least 1/2 if it is something you can use for lots of pieces. (RDNA's Fantasy plate armor comes to mind for that)

Back when I did commissions for EQ1 I charged around 20-50k plat depending on what all was involved (was roughly 35-70 bucks I think it depending on the going rate of plat at the time) but that was mostly screenshot manips and I was just doing a sig and maybe an av.

Oh.. You should always cut guildies a deal though, especially if they will use your work on a server or class forum that could generate you some referrals =D

Well, in the craft world I've always been told that if you make things as a hobby, you NEVER recoup your time, and should be happy with materials + 10%. That's what I've always used when selling hand painted sweatshirts, tote bags, and baby t's or onesies (which I've sold a LOT of), plus Christmas ornaments. However, never having sold art, I'm not sure it follows.

However, if you want to make any money at all, you can really only charge what the market will allow. Getting these suggestions should help determine that :)

MMO players are pretty vain, especially if they're hardcore. I wasn't quite hardcore but OMG I was so vain - I'd pay upwards to 100 dollars for an image of my character if done right. Shit I paid 50 bucks for a pixel doll once. 80-100 wouldn't make someone blink an eye - especially for something as complex as freehand or poser. I charged 60 for a portrait/sig/av and I was churning them things out like a factory at one point. This was at the height of eq back in 2003ish though - screenshot sigs were so new and cool. Poser has definitely made a place for itself in the MMO.

Just remember, if you're confident about the amount you're paying, people won't question it. Question your own price, they will too.

I've been buying 2D graphics for the past...6-7 years...mostly to use on my website, and have never paid over $20 for an entire set of graphics. Recently I've begun buying commissioned pieces, mainly for my rp characters, but have yet to pay more than $25. Granted, that was for freehand, and required no materials, such as poser pieces, etc.

The only thing I would be willing to pay $100 or more for would be an actual character figurine, painting, or drawing...but that's me. Like I said, if the market is there, go for it.

Very interesting views here.

I have been toying with the idea of charging a small fee for a while now, but never thought my stuff was good enough to warrant it til recently. There is also the fact that I am quite shy about asking for money lol. I enjoy doing the art, and even do spontaneous ones for friends just because I want to, but the cost is mounting up for the Poser stuff, and money is tight. The extra $60 would go quite far atm lol, and even if I did like 2 a week, thats still a great boost to my income.

I love doing art, I always did, but the kinda family I grew up in, (my step-father was a neuclear scientist) pushed me into more acedemic subjects at school. I didn't continue art as a subject past age 13. Later I tried to do it at higher education but they wanted a huge ass portfolio etc, which I did not have. So I have since had to just take my raw talent and teach myself, and learn more from here since I got into 3D.
I'm not trying to be big headed when I say I have talent, I know its there even if sometimes I am frustrated and can produce nothing worthwhile. Even in 3D, which some say is just throwing stuff together in program, needs that artistic flair to make a piece. My Mum is forever despairing at how she uses the exact same figure/outift etc as me, yet hers just lacks...something. She misses what comes second nature to me, and I have no words to describe to her what is missing.

Ok, I started rambling there, but basically I would love to be able to make a little bit money out of something I actually enjoy doing. Even if its just enough to get myself some new materials to play with every few weeks would do me. It would take some of the strain of more pressing money matters.

From my sales page:

# Signature Only: $40 USD
# Desktop or Magelo Background: $55 USD
# Sig & Magelo: $77 USD
# Sig, Magelo & Desktop: $97 USD

$25 extra for additional figures in your artwork.

I always have a 5-10 person long waiting list and people tell me I charge too little... :) Hope that helps.

Also, as Vex said consider the amount of time you spend on a project. Is 8 hours of your time only worth $20? If its taking you only 2 hours to pump something out and you are happy with $20 then by all means charge that. I've never had anyone tell me I charge too much, and often times peope tip me more when the image is complete.

If someone wants quality then they will pay for it, if they don't then IMO they can go to someone who charges far less (or does it free) and gives them crap for quality.

-Sabby

P.S. As far as accepting plat? I recommend going to IGE.com (or any other plat sales site) and finding out what they charge for it. If you can get 200k for $40 (your sig price) then charge 200k. I made the mistake of offering my stuff for too little plat, I had people buying plat to pay me. Nope, nope, never again! :)

I know a friend who is well.. I just have to say.. an art whore. This person gets gobs and gobs of art and has paid a couple hundred bucks for one piece (that's just what I know of). Granted at the higher priced ones especially in freehand most artists will send you the original or a print suitable for framing but still.. Roz is right. The majority of MMO people who are commissioning pieces will pay to get what they want.

And Sabby yes you charge too little. For that price I'm tempted to say screw making my own stuff I'll buy a sig from you! *giggle*

I'm one of the so-called "Art Whores" from City of Heroes, and there is a dedicated Fan Art community that just loves getting their player created Heroes and Villains immortalized by an artist.

From personal experience I haunt deviantArt a lot, keeping an eye out on prospective "freebies" on the Projects Forum, and looking for interesting artists advertising sales and specials in the Job Services Forums.

However a lot of commissions that I got were generated by word of mouth by other City of Heroes and City of Villains players.

The lowest price I've ever paid for a commission is around $5.00, the highest has got to be close to around $500.00.

And now the interest in the CoX Fanart community is slowly moving towards getting actual sculptures of their Heroes and Villains. A company already does this for the WoW community, so it won't be to far away before some savvy super-sculpey or resin sculptor taps into the potential market.

:bounce

The only problem is that you can't buy these yet...you have to enter a lottery, and hope your name is chosen for the few they do each month :P

pulyx on DA does amazing WOW/MMO commissions and only charges about 100 - I'm so tempted. O_o

i'm really interested in this topic as well - can someone point me rather to where to offer myself to do commissions? since i dont play rpg i dont have a clue...

Lol, I don't know really either, I just had people asking me was all. I do have a site but its kinda fubared atm til I can figure out how to make myself a new one /sigh.

Pats!

Your stuff is really awesome. I think if you just posted on DA you do commissioned work you'd be able to get bites! Lots of people want fantasy artwork in general, not just RPG characters...

Well what can I add to this that hasn't already been said. I guess nothing, so + 1 to my post count. However as others have said, you really need to base your prices on what you feel your time is worth. If people are coming to you, then your stuff is good enough. If they don't want to pay the amount that your time is worth to you, then don't do the commission. Someone will pay. I undercharged when I played EQ. I was charging between 10k to 20k in plat. I didn't care though. Gave me something to do, and it was making plat quicker than selling stuff in the Bazaar. I didn't raid, so I didn't get phat lewts to sell, so it made it easier to buy my epics and gear, to make sigs. :) Just don't sell yourself short.

thank you sab! you're very kind!
i'll post @ dA, and maybe i could try and post around in some forums and see if people come or not :D

Ah, thanks for clarifying that, I had no idea this was lottery driven.

At the moment I'm dealing with Eric Diaz on my Comrade Hero Project, to get my City of Heroes signature character created in resin.

This will take a lot of time and planning as I have to get the initial character rotational sketches done, work out the pricing and model scale and then hand it over to Eric.

I'm realistically looking at a four to six month project.

I was wondering if some of the more veteran members of TAC could start a stickied thread regarding setting up your own Private Commission Business - sharing their thoughts, advice, knowledge and any pitfalls to avoid and things to be wary of?

The City of Heroes FanArt Forum has a similar thread but it's designed to give advice on how to Commission Artists (unfortunately I can't post the thread as you need an active City of Heroes account to access the Official Forums)

Well we have the artist website thread to advertise for those who have sites and take commissions. We can start a new one though for those who are interested in giving or getting advice on commissions.