# A Question for artists… relating to YCHs



## Eleven-lyc (Nov 2, 2017)

Typically it is the artist selling the “commission” that comes up with the idea for a YCH involving multiple characters. However, I've sometimes come up with ideas myself involving one or more other characters alongside one of my own, ideas that I'd be keen for an artist to “put up for YCH”, with myself already down for the relevant spot. Admittedly many of the ideas are erotic, but there are some SFW ones too. I even had an idea that didn't involve any of my characters that I'd rather like to see.
Has anyone heard of anything like this, YCHs driven by the commissioner rather than the commissionee? Would this be something that, as an artist, you would do for people? Is it something that's been tried before?
I'm in the rather annoying position that, I sometimes think of a rather nice YCH idea that I'd like to see, but am not an artist XP.


----------



## UBA (Nov 2, 2017)

It sounds like a novel idea. Have you tried reaching out to some artists with a YCH pitch? If you both enjoy the idea then I could see this happening.

The catch, however, is that if the artist isn't as well known it might be hard to fill the remaining slots of the YCH.

-UBA


----------



## W00lies (Nov 3, 2017)

If you commission from them a rough sketch of a YCH with multiple characters I am assuming that said artist would want to be payed the price of their sketch commissions. You're both going to have to agree on rules like is the YCH any species, gender and so on. Obviously, as the YCH is posted to a gallery you would have priority on a slot of your choice.

As the commissioner, a scenario where no one buys the slots you end up loosing because you payed for a sketch and didn't get to see it complete. If everyone buys a slot, Artist will ask for more to complete your character as well. Say the slot price starts at 40$ and you payed $25 for the sketch then they could ask you to pay the additional $15 or more. Or you could agree on a discount before commissioning.

As the artist, if you end up backing off of the project, they might loose out because now they have a sketch that you payed for so you can't just use someone's commission as you please. It's unethical. Then they end up having to refund whoever already payed not to tarnish their reputation in case you decided to say anything about them using your commission to make money. You would have to find agreements about that issue as well.

There's issues with your idea but it does have great potential if both party hold their end of the deal and if you write down a list of terms and conditions that you can both agree on where no one looses.


----------



## UBA (Nov 3, 2017)

It would depend largely a on an artist's terms and conditions. They will be the ones putting in the majority of the work after all.

There would definitely need to be a down payment made by the commissioner to get the initial YCH sketch done up. The risk factor affects the commissioner more than the artist because if the YCH doesn't take off you'd be left with a rough wireframe of your idea and nothing more. The artist would have no obligation to refund that initial down payment if the YCH flops. Though if it came to that I'm sure you could negotiate with the artist to scale back the initial idea to a more affordable one and just turn it into a  standard commission.

-UBA


----------



## Quills And Spades (Nov 4, 2017)

Hmm, this is a really tricky scenario, on the flip side instead of going to an artist and hoping an auction takes off perhaps you could ask around and see if people around you are interested in going in on a group commission, people I know ask around for strangers to buy out a YCH with them and that seems pretty successful. It really depends on the experience you want to have, it seems to me you don't want a regular commission with characters of your choosing, you want lots of other people's characters, does it make a difference for you whether you find these people yourself or if they stumble across an auction? I think going in on a group commission is definitely the easier way but if that's not your vision you should really take to the figurative streets and ask some artists if they'd be willing to partner with you


----------



## Eleven-lyc (Nov 4, 2017)

Interesting… I'm seeing a few fissures in the idea I couldn't see before! Needs some more thought, I think; feels like it would need pushing a bit to get things to work.





Quills And Spades said:


> … does it make a difference for you whether you find these people yourself or if they stumble across an auction? I think going in on a group commission is definitely the easier way but if that's not your vision you should really take to the figurative streets and ask some artists if they'd be willing to partner with you


Well, I don't have a vision for it per-se. It's more of a problem-statement, something along the lines of “I have YCH ideas, but am no artist”. One method of completing that jigsaw would be to find a complementary individual, who was an artist, but struggled with YCH ideas. I don't know if that's particularly common, though. For ideas I have that don't involve any of my own characters, the relationship then becomes mutually beneficial; the artist gets some YCH ideas, some of which they may decide to put forward, and which (hopefully) sell well, attract an improved amount of interest, e.t.c.. And I get to yammer to someone about an occasional idea I have, that hopefully they'll like as well :3. For those ideas that do involve one of my characters, I additionally become one of the customers of that YCH. Though as others have said, there is uncertainty about whether the YCH will sell. Not really having followed YCHs, I don't know how common it is for them to sell and for them to fall through.
Also, actually no, I suppose it doesn't matter to me if I found co-YCH commissioners myself, rather than them stumbling upon a posted idea… So that's certainly a way forward. I imagine getting the message out there might be a little more difficult though, without a well-followed artist to sell the idea.


----------



## fralea (Nov 6, 2017)

I've been the artist for a project like this before. I've seen them referred to as "sponsored" YCH (where you would be the sponsor). How we set it up was that the sponsor agreed to AB one slot from me when I posted the YCH and I let them have input on the setup sketch. If you are worried about selling the slots by the end of the YCH auction the remaining ones could be raffled off so that the picture could be completed, or filled with the artist's own characters if they like that sort of thing. But in my case the slots ended up selling well. Obviously it would depend on what the artist was comfortable with though, some people may prefer to cancel the ych if it doesn't sell and have you pay for the sketch. If you don't want to cold call (cold note?) artists you like to see if they are interested, making a post in the Art Sales and Auctions forum would probably work great. I think that's how I got in touch with the sponsor of the YCH I did, iirc.


----------



## rjbartrop (Nov 9, 2017)

What you're talking about is a regular commission.


----------



## fralea (Nov 9, 2017)

rjbartrop said:


> What you're talking about is a regular commission.



Not exactly, they are intending the artist to auction off other spots in the image. So there would be more than one person paying the artist.


----------

