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/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

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2176270 No.2176270 [Reply] [Original]

How does one into commissions?

Just tumblr, an email and a paypal account?

Is there any way to more aggressive to promote yourself, here on 4chan for example?

>> No.2176272

>>2176270
use deviantart and try to get yourself known

>> No.2176274

>>2176272
I already have a DA.account, and getting seen on that site seems rather hard. I'm not super good, but I've seen far worse up for sale, and I'm thinking if I just start low enough, some might be interested.

Also, to make it easier to get into the business, I'm thinking of doing mostly NSFW art, which isn't allowed on DA.

>> No.2176278

Related:
how does one do tax after comissions?

>> No.2176285

>>2176274
>I'm thinking of doing mostly NSFW art, which isn't allowed on DA.

NSFW is allowed on DA, just not porn.

>> No.2176287

PANDER

PANDER LIKE IT'S GOING TO KILL YOU IF YOU DON'T

DRAW POPULAR ANIME/VIDEO GAMES/CARTOONS/TV

GO INTO DRAW THREADS ON OTHER BOARDS AND DRAW THEIR SHIT

REMEMBER TO SAMEFAG AND REPLY TO YOURSELF WITH "MMMM THAT'S NICE. TUMBLR?"

>> No.2176288

>>2176274
post deviantart babe

>> No.2176319

>>2176287

>all my knowledge of how to become a professional artist comes from Kronprinz threads on /ic/

>> No.2176322

>>2176319
And guess what? He makes a decent living off tracing shit and slapping on blur, CA to hide the bad parts and people love him for it

>> No.2176327 [DELETED] 

>>2176285
Well, by NSFW I kinda meant porn..

>>2176287
Thank you for the advice, I'll look it up!

>>2176288
I don't really post my DA on 4chan, but my tumblr is puskinart.tumblr.com (NSFW-warning), if you are interested. I was thinking maybe round 5$ for a plain sketch such as the recent cow girl, more for more advanced stuff.

Also, should I start with high prices, or heighten them as I improve/gain popularity? (The later I guess?)

>> No.2176333
File: 32 KB, 466x252, artistshatehim.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
2176333

>>2176319
>>2176322
when a japanese person traces/plagiarizes, he gets crucified by his peers and loses his job
when a russian person traces/plagiarizes he just gets more money

:^)

>> No.2176334

>>2176285
Well, by NSFW I kinda meant porn..

>>2176287
Thank you for the advice, I'll keep it in mind!
Also, by pandering, do you mean the whole "you like/comment on my pic - I like/comment on yours" or just drawing what seems to be popular in the community at the time?

>>2176288
I don't post my DA on 4chan, but my tumblr is puskinart.tumblr.com (NSFW-warning), if you are interested.

As for pricing, I was thinking around 5$ for something like the cow girl sketch I recently uploaded, more for more advanced stuff.

Also, should I start pricing high, or heighten once I improve/get popular? (the later I guess?)

>> No.2176346

>>2176334
>Also, by pandering, do you mean the whole >"you like/comment on my pic - I like/comment >on yours" or just drawing what seems to be >popular in the community at the time?


Yes.

Go to the self promotion thread that's going on right now and follow everyone that's there. Remember to be polite.

>> No.2176559

>>2176270
Get a portfolio going, and DON'T release it all at once. Tons of people browse the new queue on any given platform, so by releasing a couple here and there you greatly increase early exposure.

As others have said, kiss ass. Be talky and shit, in general. Like, spend at least a half hour or hour every day just friending/faving/following people and posting on their pages and shit. "Omg, love your stuff" type shit. Oh, and ALWAYS thank people when they fav/follow you or comment on your shit. Sign up for as many platforms as possible, and just be involved in everything. Tumblr, Reddit, DA, Instagram, Twitter. Just be present all the fucking time. Don't expect to dump your portfolio, open commissions, and just sit around while the $$ roles in. Be super active.

The artists you see that "make it" have made a business out of it. With marketing on social media, having twitter and instagram and shit. Contests and freebies and gift art. The people you see that make more than minimum wage doing art commissions are either one of the rare few whose stars aligned, or more likely they work more than 40 hours a week between actually working and doing all the other shit.

>> No.2176844

>>2176334
Don't wanna lowball yourself too bad. 10 for a sketch should be okay.

>> No.2176846

>>2176270
you have to be a cute dog

>> No.2176863

>>2176278
Buttcoin wallet, don't report it.

More realistically, you write it off as a hobby and it isn't taxed below a certain amount.

>> No.2176867

>>2176334
Never undersell yourself. If you have the followers, offer raffles for free art, which only makes the value you normally place on it seem better.

I'm in a niche with low quality overall and never worked for less than $15/hour or 10 per piece, whichever was more, even when I was shit. Your mileage may vary, but the fact is that there is always someone worse than you charging more and getting away with it.

>> No.2176871

>>2176867
How do you charge exactly? $10 for the completed piece, or $10 for every hour it took?

$10 hardly seems worth the investment if it took longer than five hours. You'd be paying that for the electricity you used.

>> No.2176885

>>2176871
I don't charge less than $15 for a sketch, more for any sort of background work or extra characters. Those usually take about half an hour or less. Flat color starts at $40. That takes as long as it takes but averages around $25/hr, usually more. It's all about being efficient.

Soon as I get some speed and consistency down, I'm going to start doing watercolors and mailing that shit out. Then I figure I can pull whatever number I make up,. I was thinking $80 for a portrait and 2-300 for a scene. You can't exactly sit fucking around with watercolor for 5 hours, not counting drying times, so I hope I'm looking at money. I don't know of many that even do traditional art commissions.

>> No.2176913

Actualy, what I'd like to know if there's a way to detach your real name from accepting commissions/money. From what I know, paypal forces you to use your real name right?

>> No.2176915

>>2176885
Lots of people sell watercolors on Etsy, you could try going there.

>> No.2176919

>>2176559

Can you make a living without doing all of the social media shit? I like making art but I have very little interest in self promotion.

>> No.2176935

>>2176913
>paypal forces you to use your real name right?
yes, but if you have a business account there'll only be your company's name displayed to the buyer as far as i know.

>> No.2176940

>>2176935
kek
so i can just make a business paypal account and won;t get banned

>> No.2176943

>>2176935
That's interesting to know, thanks!

Does that mean when you make it a business account, it'll start taxing you though?

>>2176863 mentions that if it's below a certain amount you won't have to worry about it, but if you have a "company" wouldn't that mean you'd have to start paying?

>> No.2176950

>>2176940
>>2176943
i'm not sure if it's accurate i think i have read this somewhere.
i don't know what the conditions are to creating a business acc.

>it'll start taxing you
in my country you have a certain amount that's tax free, but yes, you'll probaby have to pay taxes eventually

>> No.2176955

>>2176950
>you'll probaby have to pay taxes eventually
That sucks. Worst part is that Paypal requires identification so if one of your commissioners leaves a stupid note like "make his cock bigger" then Paypal can shut you down and prevent you from using them all together. Paypal is way too valuable to risk that.

>> No.2176956

>>2176943
Don't quote me on hobby law as I'm not sure about the specifics, just what I've heard from a dude who did etsy type stuff. I don't know where art commissions fall as it's technically a service, but generally you can operate a "company" as a hobby. You have to report everything, but it won't be taxed unless you make too much, in which case the full amount is taxed and you are considered a small business. In that case you need to save half your earnings or more because you never know what the fuck you'll be taxed.

>> No.2176960

>>2176885
Question for you and any other anons taking commissions, how do you know if you've gotten a following big enough to get a commissions for let's say, $15 dollar sketches?

I've got 600-ish followers on Tumblr from mostly fanart but I'm not sure if many of them would offer to give me money, especially considering my skill level.

>> No.2176966
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2176966

>>2176960
Like I said, I'm in a niche so things work a bit different. You can charge whatever you want if you think its worth the price. The real trick in my circles is to make up sine kind of bullshit sob story and offer them "cheap" but still enough to pay your "bills". You get all kinds of followers the first time you do that just because it gets reposted.

>> No.2176974

>>2176919
Well, maybe. Impossible to say. It's just that social media helps massively. Being really active where you host your shit might be enough though. What sort of stuff are you doing? People that do hentai and furry shit can get by just being active on their sites. Like Hentai Foundry, FA, and E621 because they are so active and are practically social sites with how much people fucking talk around there. But yeah, what are you looking to do?

>> No.2176975
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2176975

hope this kinda helps

>> No.2176980

Any alternatives to paypal?

>> No.2176990

>>2176955
Yeah, be sure that what you're selling isn't obvious at all. If anything about a transaction reveals that it is for porn shit, they'll shut you down. So tell your customers that too. Talk about shit only outside of PayPal, through Skype or email or whatever. I can't find it now, but PayPal has it laid out very clearly that digital goods of pornographic nature are strictly prohibited.

>> No.2177029
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2177029

>>2176974

I'm interested in doing concept art stuff mostly, definitely not incredibly heavily rendered illustrations.

I would be interested in doing hentai stuff if I knew I could make decent money at it.

Here is a quick design I did recently for reference of my skill level.

>> No.2177041

>>2177029
Nice! Well, the Indie Game scene is fucking massive and so that's a market to get into. Based off that goblin I'd imagine you could definitely get by doing concept art and illustration for Indie games. Indie Developers often want sharp art to show off, since they're games rarely suffice. So the only risk is that your work may be tied to a bunch of failed games.

And you can absolutely make money in Hentai. At your skill level, I'd say you could make decent cash. If it's something you want to do, find a particular corner to work in. Like WoW characters [people pay out the ass for hentai of their WoW characters] or something like that.

>> No.2177048

>>2177029
You have to find a media outlet that fits your output, obviously, but that is tricky. You want to reach the largest number of people without being drowned out. Tumblr is pretty worthless for that and is nothing but a shitty blog at this point.

Like anon says, >>2177041 WoW characters are a good bet and doing art for indie games could be a good fit. The downside to indies is you tend to be working for free or cheap, but it's a good way to get seen and make connections.

Your style is interesting but could be taken much further with the size and angularity of your rectangular forms and the way you shade. For the shading, look into even more watercolor.

>> No.2177095

>>2177041 Thank you. I'm guessing you'd post on indie game development forums to get a job doing concept art for them?

Doing wow hentai is a good suggestion, it would fit with my interests and style.

>>2177048

What sites would you recommend for what I'm doing which is mostly world building character concepts?

Also, I am trying to find a shape design language I like, while retaining some hint of realism.I'll definitely take your advice into consideration.

>> No.2177119

Never, ever, ever take career advice from /ic/. The people in this community are severely misguided and phenomenally retarded.

Get your information elsewhere and save yourself the headache down the road.

>> No.2177131

>>2176935
Not entirely accurate.
When you do a transaction with someone over paypal, the transactions show up in a list on your summary page, and there it will always show the name of the account is under, not the business name. The thing I'm gonna try is having a dummy account with a fake name that I can use to receive money to send to my real account.

>> No.2177134

>>2176960
I have half as many followers and charge $15 for sketches, but people usually go for shading or color. It's not about how many followers you have, it's about appealing to people so they want to buy.

>> No.2177142

>>2176333
Kron don't trace.
And he live and work now in Japan. So your post don't make any sense :^)

>> No.2177223

>>2176960
if you're just charging that much it's just a waste of time in my opinion.. but you don't really need thousands of followers especially if you're doing anything niche.

>>2176980
payoneer maybe if you don't mind the fees

>>2177142
ahaha
his patreon billing address says otherwise unless he moves every month. you can argue all day he doesn't trace but he definitely plagiarizes the fuck out of shit and doesn't care about crediting the original source.

>> No.2177406

Is there a way to take commissions anonymously? I've been getting commissioned to draw some pretty fucked up stuff lately since I accidentally tapped into a few certain crowds but it's nothing I want my name associated with.

>> No.2177408

>>2177406
You can take them anonymously by just setting up extra tumblr/da/email accounts using a pseudonym. Taking payments anonymously is the issue.

>> No.2177419

>>2177408
Well, that's what I meant. Receiving the payment. I've heard you can upgrade your paypal account to a business account and it doesn't show your name but that was from posts that were at least 2-3 years old so I'm not sure if you can still do that.

>> No.2177445

>>2177419
Well see>>2177131

>> No.2177538

>>2177223
Any downside to payoneer other than fees? Will they allow pron for money or is against the rule like paypal?

>> No.2177698

I'm planning on starting commissions soon as well. Is it rude to request payment upfront? I don't want to get scammed, but I'm not sure how things are usually done.

>> No.2177702

>>2177698
No, it's quite common to get payment before delivering.
You should present lots of work samples to gain trust tough i think.

>> No.2178027

>>2177698
I do payment up front for anything under $100. If goes above it, I'll offer split payments but they don't get the finished piece until it's all paid for.

I don't know anyone who delivers first without payment. Just don't do it.

>> No.2178223

>>2178027
And be especially wary of Indians.

>> No.2178883

He's one of the most important tips I learned.

Unless you can use it to showcase your skills and get significantly more clients, it can be more prudent to turn certain requests down. Sometimes certain projects aren't worth the time and effort and the only thing that makes it worthwhile is the flood of less involved requests. It's also why I try not to post anything I can't reliably replicate.

Turning down commissions can seem strange at first, but saves your ass and is worth it. Unless you like losing money by practicing a technique on the clock or not being efficient enough to meet your price or skilled enough to raise it. It definitely shouldn't become a habit where you get lazy and never challenge yourself, but it should always be an option.

Now, when I do one of those showcase type pieces that's worth featuring or pinning or whatever, it becomes worth it, but it usually means I may as well have done it for free in the first place. Don't work for free.