# commissions for writing



## AnthroHorse (Apr 6, 2008)

How many of you have commissions of characters in your stories done?
I do it about 50% of the time.


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## Xipoid (Apr 6, 2008)

I do not receive any sort of commissions, and in truth I personally see no point in commissioning a writer.


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## AnthroHorse (Apr 7, 2008)

Not someone paying a writer. A writer paying an artist for art to draw there characters.


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## Hakumei Ookami (Apr 7, 2008)

I would do that if I had the money. Heck, it'd be a great idea if I could, and I wish I could, but alas I cannot.


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## Toonces (Apr 7, 2008)

I've done it in different ways. I've done a couple of art/story collabs with artists. I wrote a story for FlamingBeaver and he drew this picture. It was great because he likes my stories, I like his art, and we both got to work together on making two pieces that ended up getting a lot of good reviews. I got a few watches out of it too.

I've written a commissioned story for a guy whose also commissioned artwork for that story, some of which you can find in the infobox. That's not really something you can control as an author, though, though it was really neat to see art of the story. 

The story I wrote for ClubStripes included eight illustrations. They weren't commissions, but it was still ridiculously fun to work with Meesh and see my characters come to life in the second dimension. 

There's also been one time where I was so tremendously late on a commission for someone that I took about $25 of the commission money and surprised him with a commission of a scene from the story. It was supposed to be a surprise, though it slipped out, but he was still really excited to learn that he was getting a pic from one of his favorite authors. Unfortunately it's not done yet, but it's not like the artist's taken any more time than I have.

I've got two more collabs coming up with Dramamine and Artdecade and working on them has given writing a whole new dimension of rewards. The stories as essentially gifts, they're the artists' ideas that I simply put to paper, but that makes it all the more fun to write and wait to see how they put their spin on the characters and situations in their art. It is really the most rewarding thing I've done as a furry writer. I think more writers need to find story-inclined artists and set these up. I've abandoned commissions almost entirely for these, now.

The point being I really recommend stories with art. There are any number of reasons you might want to get illustrations to accompany a story, but usually the actual process of making the picture with an artist, especially if that artist is in on the creation of the story as well. If you can find an artist to do a collaboration with, do it. If you can find an artist who'll do a commission of the characters, do it (would it be shallow to mention the extra attention your work immediately gets from a higher-profile artist posting a picture from your story with a link to it? After FlamingBeaver posted his (incredible) companion piece to his story, views on my story doubled, I got a flood of favorites, and a whole new batch of comments. His picture wasn't even the porny part of the story. =P

In short:

Yes yes yes yes yes good idea. Whether you're working with an artist or commissioning for yourself, working on art of your story is some of the most fun you can have and can serve as advertisements, so to speak, for your art.


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## Xipoid (Apr 7, 2008)

Oh, my mistake. I actually have done that before.


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## Kindar (Apr 8, 2008)

I've one artist to do a drawing of Garrand, and another artist did a cover page drawing for Tiger's tails 2 as a gift.

I don't norammly ask for commisions because I don't often have a concrete idea of what my characters look like


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## comidacomida (Apr 29, 2008)

I think working alongside a writer is benificial to both parties since it's more creativity put forth in one direction.  I don't make it a point to ask for people to draw any characters I've written into stories but I'm always glad to see fan art if it appears.

Likewise, I've gone into projects before alongside an artist who illustrated while I wrote.  Most recent example would be Iomar doing CG art while I provide the narration.


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## Grimfang (Apr 29, 2008)

Haven't done that. Grimfang was never a part of a story, and I've only had commishes of the G'fang.


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