#commission advice
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Artists, let’s talk about Instagram commission scammers
There’s been a huge rise in commission scammers recently, mostly on Instagram. A lot of new artists don’t know what to look out for, so I figured this might help people.
How they begin
Usually the scammer will write to you asking about a commission. Something deceptively cute - mostly I encounter asks about pet portraits, with one or two photos sent. They’ll probably try to sell you a sweet little story, like “It’s for my son’s birthday”. They will insist that they love your artwork and style, even though they don’t follow you or never liked a single piece of your art.
What to look out for:
Their profiles will either be private, empty, or filled with very generic stuff, dating at most a few years back.
Their language will be very simple, rushed or downright bad. They might use weird emojis that nobody ever uses. They will probably send impatient “??” when you don’t answer immediately. They’re in a crunch - lots of people to scam, you know.
They’ll give you absolutely no guidelines. No hints on style, contents aside from (usually) the pet and often a name written on the artwork, no theme. Anything you draw will be perfect. Full artistic freedom. In reality they don’t really care for this part.
They’ll offer you a ridiculous amount of money. Usually 100 or 300 USD (EDIT: I know it might not be a lot for some work. What I mean here - way higher than your asking price, 100 and 300 are standard rates they give). They’ll often put in a phrase like “I am willing to compensate you financially” and “I want the best you can draw”, peppered with vague praise. It will most likely sound way too good to be true. That’s because it is.
Where the scam actually happens
If you agree, they will ask you for a payment method. They’ll try to get to this part as soon as possible.
Usually, they’ll insist on PayPal. And not just any PayPal. They’ll always insist on sending you a transfer immediately. None of that PayPal Invoice stuff (although some do have methods for that, too). They’ll really, REALLY want to get your PayPal email address and name for the transfer - that’s what they’re after. If you insist on any other method, they’ll just circle back to the transfer “for easiest method”. If you do provide them with the info, most likely you’ll soon get a scam email. It most likely be a message with a link that will ultimately lead to bleeding you dry. Never, and I mean NEVER click on any emails or links you get from them. It’s like with any other scam emails you can ever get.
A few things can happen here:
They overpay you and ask for the difference to be wired back. Usually it will go to a different account and you’ll never see that money again.
They’ll overpay you “for shipping costs” and ask you to forward the difference to their shipping company. Just like before, you’ll never see that money again.
The actual owner of the account (yes, they most likely use stolen accounts to wire from) will realize there’s been something sketchy going on and request a refund via official channels. Your account will be charged with fees and/or you get in trouble for fraudulent transactions.
You will transfer the money from your PayPal credit to your bank account and they will make a shitstorm when they want their money back, making your life a living hell. They will call you a scammer, a thief, make wild claims, wearing you down and forcing you into wiring money “back” - aka to their final destination account.
Never, EVER wire money to anyone. This is not how it’s supposed to go. Use PayPal Invoice for secure exchanges where the client needs to provide you with their email, not the other way around.
You can find more info on that method HERE.
What to do when you encounter a scammer:
Ask the right questions: inquire about the style, which artwork of yours they like, as much details as you can. They won’t supply you with any good answers.
Don’t let the rush of the exchange, their praise and the promise of insanely good money to get to you. That’s how they operate, that’s how they make you lose vigilance.
Don’t engage them. As soon as you realize it might be a scam, block them. The sense of urgency they create with their rushed exchange, and pressure they put on you will sooner or later get to you and you might do something that you’ll regret later.
Never wire money to anyone. Never give out your personal data. Never provide your email, name, address or credit card info.
Don’t be deceived by receiving a payment, if you somehow agree to go along with it. Just because it’s there now doesn’t mean it can’t be withdrawn.
Here is a very standard example of such an exchange. I realized it’s a scam pretty fast and went along with it, because I wanted good screenshots for you guys, so I tried going very “by the book” with it.
Please share this post, make it reach as many artists as possible. Let young or inexperienced artists know that this is going on. So many people have no idea that this is a thing. Let’s help each other out. If you think I missed any relevant info, do add it as an rb!
Also, if you know other scam methods that you think should be shared, consider rb-ing this post with them below. Having a master post of scam protection would AWESOME to have in the art community.
#art resources#artist help#artist advice#commission advice#scammers#instagram scam#please share with your fellow artists
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I do genuinely love getting extra info about a character when drawing art for a commission, and personality/history can help a ton in nailing their attitude but please also remember, if you are sending an artist a description,
you need to describe them as if I am a private detective and you witnessed your character stealing your pet or phone or car or other high value possession, and give as many physical signifiers as possible so I could recognize them at a glance
if you give me their life story but not their eye color or height or what they are wearing I can't catch them draw them accurately!
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Can I Get Some Advice On Commison Prices?
Ok, so I have been wanting to start selling commisons and I need some advice on how to price them. Most of the people I know IRL eather aren't artists (that do not buy commissions) or don't do commisons, so I don't now anyone who knows enogh about taking them for advice on how I should price them. I have already come up with some prices and was hoping that I could get artists' and clients' feedback on it. I greatly appricate any advice you have to give!
(Price sheet below the cut)
Commission Prices
Simple Art Style
Examples:
Sketch - $10 USD
Lineart - $15 USD
Flat Color - $20 USD
Finished - $25 USD
Revisions
Sketch - Free (per revision)
Lineart - Free (per revision)
Flat Color - $5 USD (per revision)
Finished - $10 USD (per revision)
Other Additions
Noise/Grain Filter - free
Cometic Aberration Filter - free
Cometic Aberration (Hand Done) - $5 USD
Glitch Filter - free
Color Script (only available for Sketch & Lineart) - $5 USD
Normal Art Style
Examples:
Bust
Sketch - $25 USD
Lineart - $30 USD
Flat Color - $45 USD
Finished - $55 USD
Waist-Up
Sketch - $30 USD
Lineart - $35 USD
Flat Color - $45 USD
Finished - $60 USD
Full Body
Sketch - $35 USD
Lineart - $40 USD
Flat Color - $55 USD
Finished - $75 USD
Backgrounds
Flat Color - Free
Gradient - Free
Transparent - Free
Flat Color w/ Border - Free
Gradient w/ Border - $1 USD
Flat Color w/ Shapes - $5 USD
Gradient w/ Shapes - $6 USD
Simple Background - $15 USD
Complex Background - $40 USD
Revisions
Sketch - Free (per revision)
Lineart - $5 USD (per revision)
Flat Color - $20 USD (per revision)
Finished - $30 USD (per revision)
Other Additions
Noise/Grain Filter - free
Cometic Aberration Filter - free
Cometic Aberration (Hand Done) - $5 USD
Glitch Filter - free
Color Script (only available for Sketch & Lineart) - $10 USD
#art#art commisions#seeking advice#seeking critique#artwork#commission#commisons#commission advice#art advice#idk what else to tag
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Hi, how are you doing?
My sister seems interested in doing commission work, and she's asking me for help with it, but I don't know anything about it. Could you help me help her?
How does the process of commissions work?
There any tips/recommendations you could give her?
Hello!
I'm definitely not an expert and definitely winging it as I go and taking what i see other artists do into consideration, so bear that in mind and take what i say with a grain of salt! I also assumed while writing this that this is about art commissions? If it's not sorry I kind of went on a tangent at the end about it but most of the advice still apply!
I'm guessing your sister has a product in mind they want to sell. Most people make a little website either pointing to the platforms they use to sell or to google forms they have for clients to fill out. I use carrd, there's a free option that lets you have a lot of creative freedom and enough elements to make a good website, and boom! Now onto selling commissions. To sell those you can either use a platform for selling stuff online, i use ko-fi because it's the most practical option, there's also v-gen, which i haven't tried but heard good things of. With that option it's easier to have fixed prices, so if something seems to hard to draw for that price it's harder to ask for more but most clients are okay with tipping an additional fee through that same platform. You can also just have a google form available where you ask the potential client to describe what they want, leave their email adress and you can get back to them and offer an accurate price for their commission idea. If they want to purchase that commission you then can send them a paypal invoice and they can pay it.
Most people I know use paypal, I saw people using Stripe or Venmo too. Ko-fi only allows you to link a Paypal or a Stripe account though. While using Paypal i would advise you to find a website that tells you how much Paypal will take from the commission, because they have a fee, and it usually stings. That way you can take that into account and raise your prices according to that so you still get the amount of money you need by selling your service. However I gotta say that Paypal always takes more than what those paypal fees conversion websites say it will, idk why.
Another website i use a lot to do pricing is calculpourcentage.com (sorry it's in french but i'm sure there are varients in other languages). It's pretty handy to calculate pricings along with the good old trusty phone calculator.
A very, very important part of selling commissions online is to have a solid Terms of Services written and available for clients to read through. It's like when you download a software or game and you have to check the litte box that says you agree with their terms of services. I know we pretty much all just scroll down and tick the box without reading but commission clients should never do that. Read the TOS!!! In your TOS you should put anything you need to make sure the client knows what their getting, any behavior or commission inquiry you will not accept, your rights to decline any commission for any reasons, your rights over the finished product, etc. I know it sounds daunting said like that but don't worry too much, it takes some time to put together but most people take whatever they need from other artists' TOS, you can frankenstein them and tadaa! perfect TOS for your needs and what you offer. You can and should absolutely update it whenever you want or need to. Here is a link to my TOS for inspiration if your sister needs some, but again, I think it's best to look for other artists TOS to maybe find some points I didn't write in mine.
Finally, to talk about the action itself of doing commissions for people, I have some advice as well. Firstly if you can, only offer things you feel up to doing. This might seem like a given but anything that makes the process less stressful and puts less pressure on yourself, you should do it. Commissions should be fun, especially if you're starting out. I know not everyone has the luxury or privilege to be able to, but if a commission inquiry makes you uncomfortable for any reason, don't accept it. I've had mostly good experiences with clients so far but there are stories going around online about scammers or people who ghost commissioners or clients, so my advice is to stay informed about possible scams, stay honest and communicate with your clients about possible delays and stuff like that.
And very important point that I almost forgot, commissioning art is a luxury, and any work needs good pay, no matter your skill level. I think every commission artist starts out by underselling themselves, and you probably will too, and it's okay. My advice is still to try and look at the price you settled on for a commission and add a little more. Keep in mind how much time you're taking to draw, gather references and so on. You will probably have to adjust your prices as times goes on. Everything I listed so far are things that can and probably will change with experience, it's how most of us learn and adjust the way we work.
Another thing is that for the majority of artists, commissions we do get are very sparce and for artists who can make it their job it's an immense workload and very hard to manage. I know it's easier said than done but my advice is to try and not let your commissions order number get you down or reflect your art's worth in your head. In my opinion art is priceless and deserves all our love and time regardless of if it's "good" or "bad", but it's pretty antithetical with literally putting a price tag on my work :') Anyway, commissions can feel demotivating or have a negative impact on your health in many ways, so if you can feel free to close them anytime you want to and try to keep time to yourself for your personal art too!
I think that's all I can come up with right now, I hope it helps you or your sister, and good luck to them if they do try out offering commissions!!
#I really hope this is somewhat clear? and it helps maybe?#this took way longer than i thought it would fgdjhd#anyway all the best!#art commissions#commission advice#arti talks
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Some tips n tricks to make commission sheets more readable
The text needs to be readable. If you don't have a program that can put text on the image, try using thicker lines or spacing it out. Too many effects can hurt readability as well.
Confusing images all in one place, what specific thing are you selling? Pick 1-3 representative images to go with your pricing info, others can go in a gallery or a separate page full of art samples.
Too much info can be overwhelming on an advertisement. Put your key info on the page, then extra details like specific TOS on a site like carrd or google docs.
Background images/designs can be distracting, try an overlay or mut the pattern a little to help the text and images stand out.
Feel free to add more suggestions!
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I’ve been thinking about selling my art/doing commission work in the future!
I’ve been thinking for a long time now that it would be nice to earn some funds doing something I enjoy :3 I’m still in the deciding stages, though, so everything is still very much up in the air. One thing I’ve been struggling to figure out is how to price my work—so I wanted to reach out and see if you guys could provide some insight! (Note: a fullbody pictured below takes me between 90 and 120 minutes)
Artwork examples:
#poll#my polls#commission advice#artwork examples#pyro kiinesisart#my art#commissions#furry artist#queer artist#nonbinary artist
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Wanting to start figuring out now to price things when I open my shop. I know I have to take the creation time and material cost into account, but I'm also not sure how to find what prices make things sellable.
Things like this.
Any advice? (RBs for reach are good.)
#craft shop#commission advice#pricing#kofi shop#crochetblr#craftblr#Text post#rambling hearts#captioned#amigurumi
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#art#art commission help#art commission how to#self employed artist#Christopher Cant#ChrisCantArt#art commission advice#commission advice#art help#commission pricing
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Art-adjecent friends, let’s talk about commission pricing
Recently a post I wrote about Instagram scammers got carried far and wide, which is AWESOME, because it’s raising awareness, but it did point my attention in one direction.
I would like to thank these really awesome people for making me think about this:
@astralmouseart @infocards @everentropy @jicklet @xlynchiex @spoonietimelordy @foervraengd
Their comments and hashtags made me realize something very very important. In the scammer post, I wrote that scammers offer ridiculous amounts of money, like 100 or 300 dollars. Since then I added an edit to the original post, but it doesn’t carry to reblogs. And I think that people need to understand that:
For beginning artists that don’t know how to price stuff $100 absolutely CAN be a ridiculous amount. Take into account that people might not know how to price their work, especially when they’re teenagers, deal with low self-esteem, other unknown issues, or…
… make very simple art, or are very fast with their work, or…
… from a country where it IS a ridiculous amount of money. People on the Internet seem to not realize that minimum wage in American McDonalds might be a stupid amount of cash for someone from countries far less economically lucky.
For example:
Minimum wage in my country (Poland) on the day of this post minimum wage is 21 PLN after tax. That’s 5.19 USD. I’m pretty lucky, honestly. $100 for me is 19 hours of work. Which is how long it would take me to make around 8 artworks of the kind scammers usually request.
Brazil’s hourly rate at current exchange rate is equivalent of 1.67 USD. That’s almost 60 hours to get $100.
I am incredibly grateful that the Internet is trying to bring things up to higher standards. But also, please remember that you might make people feel confused, inadequate, or out of place. Like I often feel when people tell me that I’m undercharging because I judge things by standards I was raised with, even though I try very hard to “not ruin the market” (this is nothing anyone said to me recently but I did get comments like that).
Be kind, don’t judge people by your standards, take into account that not everywhere is the same.
THE PART FOR ARTISTS:
Friends, the people that say we undercharge, to put it simply, are usually right. Especially when we’re new to this, or struggle with self-worth issues, it can be hard to imagine that people could be ready to pay more than your asking price.
Truth that you need to hear is:
You are absolutely worth it.
If you don’t know how to go about commission pricing, @thechekhov wrote a wonderful post about it (their advice posts are great in general!)
READ IT HERE
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How do yall evaluate your art (as in prices)? .-.
I need money, but I feel guilty asking for anything 😭
I simultaneously don't wanna sell myself short, but fear being judged cause of it. How do you even know what's the right price and what's too little/much??
Please help
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(hopefully) i'll be opening comissions soon. to begin with, yes, they will be emergency comissions, i havent had a pair of headphones for like 2 months. i get that doesn't sound like an emergency, but i need them for sensory issues. i've not been going out much (other than for school) because of that reason.
once i get those headphones tho, they'll just be regular comssions. THEY ARE NOT OPEN YET! I WILL FORMALLY ANNOUNCE ON EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY SOCIALS ONCE THEY ARE OPEN! but im hoping to hear pricing tips!!! so far, here are my price ideas:
Heads
sketch: £5
lineart: £8
colours: £10
fully rendered: £15
Busts
sketch: £8
lineart: £11
colours: £13
fully rendered: £18
Waist-up shots
sketch: £13
lineart: £16
colours: £18
fully rendered: £23
Full body shots
sketch: £18
lineart: £21
colours: £23
fully rendered: £28
Additional stuff
backgrounds - free for simple shapes, £5 for a rough background
50p to get the image w/out my @ at the bottom
props will cost extra. i'll have to pick the price then. some will be free!
these prices are applicable to 1 character. the more characters, the more it's gonna cost eg. 2 rendered bust shots = £36
difficult angles may cause higher prices depending on how much more difficult they are.
prices subject to change based on how complex/simple the prompt is. i will charge extra for full character designs. i will use pound sterling (because im from the uk), but to figure out the price in your currency, it's easy to just put it through a currency converter. plus, most of the time, these things automatically convert.
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hi! i recently started doing commissions so i wanted to ask if you have any piece of advice to give?
Hi! Sorry about the delay with getting back to you on this ❣️
I may not be the best person to ask for advice on commissions, since I’ve written only 2 commissioned works – though they were huge and I’ve put a lot of thought, effort and a part of my soul into each one. But I’m not like a regular commission writer, just to be sure.
What I can offer is that I believe in personal brands. So I believe a person comes to me and pays me to provide them with an unrepeated experience that only I can deliver. I fully allow for each commer (the person who commissions me) to give me their specifics for the plot, the main character, the scenes etc – and I use those as the roadmap, the firm string that pulls the whole story along – but my magic comes in when I manage to stick to what they’ve wanted and at the same time surprise them. Which means I always add my own personal touch. I’ll give an example: with No Cure, the commer requested that the Reader character has a Nullification power, i.e. she can nullify others’ cursed techniques and cursed energies. I used that as a basis, as if it was a canon premise, and I expanded it. So the Reader’s usage of it during her first fight against Gojo was wholly my creation, and similarly when he trains her on the temple grounds and she develops a variation to her technique, those are my expansions as well. The commer was also quite taken aback by the way Gojo justified training her on temple grounds, which also involves the technicalities of cursed techniques and energy that I have expanded.
The personal touch (that I’ve described one instance of above) requires me to put a lot of thought into each commission, which also means each commission requires a fair bit of time. So don’t be in a hurry to churn out content for your commers. I think it’s disproportionate and unfair to expect for quality work to be done in a short time. Quality does take time. I’ll be honest, in all, each of the 2 commissions that I’ve done took me about 3 months to produce – counting from the conception of the idea in the commer to my final delivery. 3 months sounds outrageous, but each commission that I’ve produced is like a standalone novel and I’m proud of them, as I’ve put in a lot of my time, thought, energy, and soul into them. So my timeline is fully justified, especially when I remember how happy, surprised and satisfied my commers have been with what I delivered.
In more practical terms, you need to set out your terms clearly (I say this both as a creator and as a lawyer) so that there’s no discrepancies and no grounds for dispute. To gauge your commer’s preferences, you can use a survey form that you can create and use on each new commer. Give your commers periodic updates on how things are going and with the updates provide some snippets of the work you've done so far (I also provide them with additional research materials: for instance, with Dimming Hearth, the theatre and 7/11 shop locations are real in Tokyo – since central Tokyo is emphasised as the stage for the AiB games – so I shared with my commer the visuals for the scenes I wrote).
In terms of smut scenes I have a rule I set for myself: if it doesn’t turn me on while I’m writing it, then the smut I wrote is no good. But I also hate scrapping stuff so I make sure it does turn me on lolol. In more practical terms it means that, since I’ve low libido lately, I get deliberately tipsy before sitting down to write my smut scenes and I write them in 1 or 2 sitting to not break the continuity of my zone. If the smut I wrote turns me on, I know it will cause a fucking waterfall for my commer.
Do your research and set a fair price for your work. I know we live in hard times – as do I. But I find that a lot of creators aren’t even aware of the fair market value of their own labour, they haven’t done the research. Look on Fiverr: there are lots of fanfiction writers on there too and check out their fees. You’ll see that what Tumblr creators often charge for their hard work is scraps compared with those. You can make a decision to charge less to attract more customers as long as it’s a valued and informed decision on your part.
As you know, I’m more of a long work writer – both my comms are above 20k words – so my tips may not be as relevant if you deliver shorter commissions, but still I hope you find something useful in here. Good luck! 🍀
#ask tawus#commission advice#writing advice#creator advice#ao3 writer#writer tips#writing tips#fanfiction#fanfiction commissions#fanfic commissions#fanfic
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I’d love to pick the brains of all people who have/currently offer commissions on drawing or writing:
What is one thing you wish you’d have known before you started offering them?
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Dear commission artist, I need your help.
To be honest, i'm looking for a job want to create art commissions but I keep hearing that they're illegal and i'm conflicted about the whole thing on whether or not I should create some online. Is fanart illegal or OCs? Because i've seen a lot of artist do fanart as well. I just a chart or a simple explanation on this, please-
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besties im in the process of opening commissions, what you guys pay for something like each of these?
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