And welcome once again to the Corner Store. I’m going to have to come up with some good material if I want this to last (honestly I’m still shocked that VGDJ is one episode away from the big 60). This week I’ll talk about some guidelines when looking for an artist to hire on commission.
As far as the second part of that statement goes the best
advice I can give is look within your pricing range. There’s plenty of
good artists out there who’ll work for you and not charge you through
the nose. The main reason for this is because they have jobs and they
are only doing commission work for fun, or to bring in some extra cash.
Depending
on who you are you might like to find someone who can accept payments
through an EFT service like Paypal. But first things first: no matter
who you choose, get into contact with him/her and make sure that
commissions are even open. It would be very time-consuming to send an
awesome idea just to find out that all the slots are full for that
month, or that the artist doesn’t want or need to accept any more.
Browse
the market. Don’t be afraid to contact several artists at once; it’s
important to view several different styles and see which one better
fits what you’d like to have done. Also, artist community sites are a
good place to start looking as, at least according to my experience,
artists will link to others of similar skill or interest in their
profiles, which I think serves a dual purpose in that A) they’re
helping their friends get pageviews and B) they are spreading the work
load, effectively generating revenue for their compatriots and not
hogging the loot all for themselves.
Regardless of who you
choose most artists are perfectly willing to give you a preview sketch
before any money changes hands or work begins; this is so that the
customer (you) can change things if needed and also to guarantee that
the artist is on the same page as you.
Of course a good customer
also needs to be patient: some artists will start on your idea as soon
as payment is received but even so it still takes time so be prepared
to wait several weeks, though it’s perfectly acceptable (though
politeness is highly encouraged) to ask for a progress update if the
wait time exceeds one month.
This is about all I have to say
about the subject of artists and commissions, but likely you can find
someone just by browsing forums. No matter what you do, remember this
one last thing: respect the artist, praise them, it makes them happy
and willing to accept you as a repeat customer.
