cervine sister

you can draw literally anything

never artistically bored

constraints of reality cannot contain you

UNLIMITED POWER

cons:

no brand recognition

this is something that I started to write like 2 years ago, but it got WAY too long and then my life got crazy so I never edited it down, BUT….. now is finally the time. I’m gonna just get right into it - I am basing all of this on what I’ve learned via having steady freelance work for the past 4 ½ years!

Communications

- my favored chat client is Discord. if you don’t want your work life bleeding into your personal life, make a separate account that you use solely for communicating with your commissioners. it’s fast, logs are searchable, and the way links appear as images is great for sending references back and forth. I have it set so that Discord recognizes my art program as a game and shows how long I’ve been using it, which is great for gauging your hourly rates as well!

- SEND SKETCHES EARLY. like VERY early. just get enough information down so that your commissioner can see the idea for the pose and composition. we’re talking almost stick-figures here:

this will save you so much time and pain in the case that you have to rework something. don’t be afraid of showing your process - your commissioner already knows your final product looks good! it’s why they want to pay you in the first place!

- send lots of updates! ask clarifying questions! get to know the character you’re being commissioned to draw! virtually all of the people who commission me are other Creatives (writers and roleplayers), and it REALLY helps put you in a good headspace if you think of commissions as a collaboration rather than just a job. good communication will often lead to repeat clients, which are immense pillars of support for my art.

- be polite, but keep it casual. again, unless you’re doing work for a big company your commissioners are usually going to  be your peers. no need to stress about overly formal business-email style communications.

Payment And Pricing

- Paypal is the norm and it’s what I use for 99% of circumstances so that’s what I’m gonna talk about. (rarely there have been instances where Paypal was not an option, so I chose to get paid via Amazon gift card instead….. though this made tracking down my income more complicated that year for taxes ahaha)

- invoices are your friend. Paypal loves when you send invoices because it’s within their TOS. you very much want to be within their TOS. Paypal DOES TAKE A CUT out of invoice payments though! if you want to avoid this cut, you can use an invoice calculator online and then factor the fee into the price of your commission. invoices also allow your clients to tip you, which is an added bonus.

- be sure to set the invoice type as either ‘Digital goods’ or ‘Service’, so that it doesn’t ask your client for shipping information. you can also edit the tracking information on payments via the Activity tab, and selecting ‘Order Processed/Service Rendered’ also stops it from asking for a tracking number.

- when deciding your rates, you want to factor in how long it takes you to complete an artwork but you also don’t want to punish yourself for working quickly! add in the time you spend looking at references AND the time you spend corresponding with your clients to help round this out. deciding on pricing is a personal thing that varies on the individual, but $15 an hour is what I started out with for basing my flat rates off of. my flat rates are a base price that varies on design complexity, so there is still some flexibility there.

- when you take payment is up to you - some people do all upfront, some half upfront and the rest on completion, etc…. personally, I take payment once the commissioner gives their approval on the sketch, but other times people will pay me early. for trusted repeat clients I will often times let them pay later as well! whatever you do, don’t hand over a completed artwork without payment if it’s someone you’re not familiar with!

Closing Thoughts