Questions about Commissions

[Kohitsu Mori]

I've recently been thinking about starting to do commissions. Although, I'm kind of new to the concept, so I was wondering if those of you who are familiar with the process could teach some things about it, like how to set up commissions and what to expect and such.

I think I need to create a paypal account before I start taking commissions. And I'm not exactly sure how to start it up. I'm willing to do art commissions like sketches, drawings, paintings, half-fursuits (I've still yet to teach myself how to make a full body fursuit, might be available for commissioning fullsuits when I acquire the skill), wall murals (probably local only), video editing... Well anyways I'm just asking for help because I've never done commissions before and would like to know how the process works.

[Kobuk]

How about this for starters?
http://forums.furtopia.org/index.php/topic,31442.0.html

[Kohitsu Mori]

Oh... hehe... it's right at the top of the board. *facepalm* XDDD

I'll give it a read, then I'll post anything if I have anymore questions. ^^

[millislim]

both paypal and furaffinity is free to sign up
paypal does need a banking account so if you don't have that you'd have to find some other form of payment.
I got into commissions after being on this site a little while. I knew I would eventually offer commissions but didn't know where to start either. So, I offered free art...seriously! I just made a thread in the art section giving away art work. It worked for me on two levels

1. You get to hear requests like you would in a commission. You never know what someone will ask you to draw so doing requests gets you drawing practice and warms up your ears to hear and understand what someone wants done. This will also get you "mistake" experience...you're gonna make em...maybe you drew the ears too big or the fur color is off...this is how you get that thick skin.

2. You begin to develop your style and get used to your personal speed. There's nothing worse than an artist trying to take on too many commissions because they didn't know how long it would take. Also, know what you will and will not draw...be clear about it. Same with prices.

Once you feel comfortable enough with your skills and working with people you can open your business doors...don't expect a flood of commissions to come barreling at you....it didn't for me...but some of my first commissions came from people I did free art work for. Even tho this is a great site for more intimate interactions and critique your big crowds are out there on Furaffinity.  I have a deviantart account but never got a single commission from there.

Completing a Commission from start to finish (the Millislim way)
This is how one typically goes for me...you can try this or do your own way but I thought I'd post it so you could get a rough idea.

-Someone will message you saying they want a commission.

-I give them the price quote and create a presketch. (I'm not sure how many other artists do this but I don't accept money upfront. I'd rather they see what I could do for them and give them to opportunity to walk away if I'm not able to create what they envision. Plus I find people are not as pushy or anxious about the commission when you don't have their money. You are taking a risk by doing this since they could just not pay and take the presketch with them...this has never happened to me)

-Once the presketch is approved (or not approved and the mistakes fixed to the customers liking) you can continue with finishing the drawing. They generally either pay me now or after I finish.

Side notes: try to finish commissions in a timely manner....people HATE late artists! If it takes you a long time to do a commission thats okay...but let the commissioner know so they don't think you've disappeared. Be honest about what you can and cannot draw. If armor is hard for you but you're still willing to try it, let the commissioner know. And sometimes you just take a loss, if you royally messed up, took WAY too long, etc...I've given away the commission for free...if it's my mistake I'd rather the commissioner walk away with at least a professional experience and not fear coming back to me in the future...word of mouth is very powerful advertising and if you wrong a commissioner better believe others will soon know what you did.