Commissions: Part 3

Making and Sending the Art

Hi everyone!

Today’s newsletter is the third installment of a mini-series about working on commissions. Here are the links to revisit Part 1 or 2:

• Part 1: Create a Pricing Brochure

• Part 2: A Beginner's Guide to Contracts & Copyrights

• Part 3: It’s this newsletter! And it’s all about Making and Sending the Art.

A wedding shower invitation. It’s my favorite when clients ask if I can include their pets in a commission… of course I want to draw them! Do you spy their little lizard?

Before we get into the newsletter, I have quick announcement…

Yesterday

Adam Ming

and I hosted our first session of Art Gym!

We led 20 artists in a drawing workout all about icons. Icons have helped me hone my illustration process, so I was so excited to share about it with other artists. I hope you’ll join us!

Art Gym is available to paid subscribers of either Adam’s or my newsletter.

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Making and Sending the Art

At this point, you’ve created a pricing brochure, are in contact with a client, and you have you both discussed the project, and signed a contract. Your first payment is on it’s way to you.. woo!

So now it’s finally time to start drawing!

After you’ve completed a few commissions, you’ll find the exact steps that work best for you. In the meantime, here’s what I do when working on a commission:

1. I complete 3-4 quick rough sketches and send them to the client. They select one of the images for me to turn into final line art.

2. I send final line work to the client, and they can request one round of edits on the roughs. I complete any edits.

3. I add color and send the final art in color, and the client can quest one more round of edits. I make those edits.

4. I upload a high res version of the art to Google Drive and send the final invoice.

   1. Optional: If the client has requested printed items, such as cards or prints (like the wedding shower invite above), I order those items as soon as the final art has been approved.

      1. If you are printing materials for a client, make sure to compensate yourself not only for the cost of printing + shipping, but also for your time. It is acceptable to markup the price of printed materials, because you are spending time to print the materials, which is a service to your client.

5. I send a thank you email, and that’s it! (Com)Mission completed!

A map for a 50th wedding anniversary. Another commission featuring a few pups!

I’ll leave you with some final notes based on lessons I’ve learned from working on commissions over the past couple of years:

• Contracts: Always have a contract in place. Even if it’s for someone you know, it’s a good business practice. Plus you’ll be prepared for when you work with a client you do not know. Contracts are professional, and they protect you and your art.

• Reference photos: Ask for all the photos. It’s so helpful to have options to flip through when you’re working on sketches or adding color.

• Artwork Size: Ask the client how they want to use the art, and decide on the size from the start. Resizing digital artwork isn’t always easy. For example, an 8x10 print cannot easily be scaled down into a 4x6 card (see below). It’s actually really time consuming to rearrange everything to fit correctly. So set the size and explain ratios before starting.

Here’s a map I did as an example of how aspect ratios will affect printing your art. Make sure you and your client are aligned on the size before starting the art!

• Pricing: Never lower your price just to get a commission. Your time and your art are valuable! Instead, offer different options that still align with your rate. For example, if the price point for a detailed pet portrait is too high, I can offer to draw a small version of a dog to put on stationery, such as the commission below. Drawing this small dog was much faster than creating a larger, more detailed portrait. It is faster for me, and therefore less expensive. But my rate stayed the same.

  

• Negative feedback: If a client gets back to you with feedback that you do not agree with, don’t answer the email right away. Take some time to step away. It’s hard to have our work criticized or for someone to misunderstand our work. I’ve had this happen, and usually the email isn’t as bad the second time.

• It doesn’t need to be perfect: As artists, the eternal question is, “Is the piece finished?” There’s often more we can tweak or adjust in a piece of art, but when a client approves of the finish piece, accept that. It means it’s done. If the client is happy with it, you did your job. Send it off!

• Rounds of edits: It’s ok to limit the rounds of edits. Having two rounds is very standard, so don’t feel like you need to communicate with the client about every little detail. You’re the artist - trust your vision!

• Thank you note: Send a thank you note with the finished product, or at least in an email. It builds a little extra connection, plus it’s a nice way to end a project :)

That’s everything I can think of for now… but I am more than happy to answer any questions based on my experience. So please feel free to pop any questions in the comments, or respond directly to this post to send me an email.

And to all of the artists who have completed commissions, what other tips do you have?

I’ll see you all next week for the next Children’s Book Study, and in the meantime, did you catch all the winners of the ALA Awards announced on Monday? You can catch the replay of the awards here.

See you next week!

Katie