# Free art VS Commission reputation



## Yarik (May 19, 2015)

Hay!
I'm currently stuck in a dilemma and think it might also be of interest to other new/unpopular/unknown artists:
People (especially experienced artist friends) mostly advertise for themselves with personal art and say you shouldn't offer too much* free art as it ruins your reputation for commissions later on. While I've always dodged the possibility to offer those in the past (and right now) officially I'd indeed like to open commissions at some point as I can need the financial support starting next summer. Obviously to be able to sell anything you'd need a healthy watcherbase and that's a thing you get by drawing a good amount of pictures.

Unfortunately I have a great talent for getting tired drawing my own characters (or being unmotivated to even start a picture). Additionally I'm currently mostly inspired to draw my very few human-weirdos rather than my ton of Anthro characters. Therefor I ended up spending my time at other things, waiting for the return of motivation/inspiration to draw (Anthros) for myself which apparently doesn't work for me. In these situations I used to do raffles/other freebees or art trades when I was still on dA but that was several years ago and with people constantly giving me the advice to not do that or I'll eventually spoil the chance to get commission support later on I'm really unsure what to do. Yes yes, I certainly could force myself to fart out some 0815 uninspired furry art, but it's nothing compared to what inspired pictures look like. So uhhm, I thought I'd ask people with experience (no matter if artist or observer) how they feel about free art and the commission reputation.
*I'd really love to hear your opinions/experiences/observations on this!*

*They probably mean by "too much" to offer free stuff regulary and randomly. Watcher raffles certainly are fine and I'll always do these when reaching neat numbers because I love to give these thank-yous back too much to give them up. (What is "too much" would be a good discussion, too, though.)


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## Taralack (May 19, 2015)

I agree. I've been on three ends of this spectrum - offering free art, offering cheap commissions, and offering modest commissions. I find if you offer a certain type of one of these, you tend to draw the same crowd. For example if you do free art, you get a bunch of watchers who are only there for free art, and stop coming back to you when you offer the same art for money. And so on. But on the other hand, because you have (hopefully) expanded your watch base now because of all the new art you're uploading, you'll have a new audience to draw from and expand your prices from there. If that makes any sense.


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## nastacula (May 20, 2015)

I've been on both sides....on a different account I would do these free doodle streams and take requests for doodles. A lot of people came to my streams but everyone just wanted the free stuff and I never had any sales. They were fun though. On this account I primarily do commissions and, when I feel like it, a raffle a couple times every few months. So far growth has been slow, but steady! I try to take my time seriously and treat every job fairly. I'm probably still undervaluing myself but I'm getting there. I feel like that was the biggest hump for me to get over was valuing my time...but you learn things as you go.
I don't think most art-buyers really care or understand how art actually works (we're artist, we just do the thing, right?) and how much time goes into the creative process. I mean, they don't need to...we're supposed to figure all that out. But a buyer understand what they want and that they paid for it and if they can get it cheaper, that's even better. I get that...but it also creates this very competitive and toxic environment where artists are cheapening themselves just to try and get their name out there....that part ain't so good. Apologies if I'm being too harsh but that just seems to be the nature of the beast.

Honestly, you can do whatever the heck you want to do! Don't force yourself to do anything (unless of course it's a job you took on) or you'll just burn yourself out and break your spirit. If you really WANT to do some free art, do it once in a while...but don't spoil your peeps! Give 'em too much candy and that's all they're gunna want and they might just view you more as an art whore or 'some kid who does art sometimes' and not a professional business. Also, as Taralack already pointed out, you'll also attract the wrong kind of people to your art (beggars & people who never buy art) and I think that is what you primarily want to avoid. It's perfectly fine to do raffles and stuff when you hit milestones too - that generates hype and awareness that you accomplished something.
Overall, yeah, just value yourself and don't give out free stuff too much cuz it can be harmful to your business.


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## Lhune (May 22, 2015)

Huh. I wouldn't say free art hurts your business, it's certainly a lot less harmful than selling your stuff too cheaply. People understand the difference between free and not-free, but not so much the difference between cheap and suddenly-not-so-cheap.

Another thing you can do is taking "fake" commissions, preferably from people who are familiar with the art business (or better yet, someone who can also give you critique so that you can actively improve your work at the same time). I'm currently doing that with a friend of mine, where I am pretending to be a client and giving him feedback. You don't have to tell your audience it's fake, they won't know the difference, but it's good practice. I'd be happy to give you an assignment if you're up for something like that.


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## Charrio (May 22, 2015)

I seem to under price myself, and draw most stuff for personal fun and to make 
people smile. I need to get back into paysites or something, I suck at self promotion
for commissions unless IRL.


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## Yarik (May 22, 2015)

Lots of helpful tips there! Thanks for sharing your experiences/opinions!

The "fake-commission" thing actually sounds very interesting! it might also help to get used to draw for people and do changes depending on their wishes!


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## Charrio (May 22, 2015)

Yarik said:


> Lots of helpful tips there! Thanks for sharing your experiences/opinions!
> 
> The "fake-commission" thing actually sounds very interesting! it might also help to get used to draw for people and do changes depending on their wishes!



Having to redo stuff sucks, I've had buyers change their mind after
coloring, and it is insane to match up some things when the scene 
is set. 

Good and bad i guess from commissions, I like the idea of the
Your Character Here sales. You don't have to sketch out some 
image they badly tell you about.


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## solluxledoge (May 22, 2015)

I'm an abstract artist who has taken commissions before, so I can relate to this. Like you said, to receive commissions (from furries, works a bit different on how I get mine) you need that watcher/follower base. In order to commission, you need A TON of examples or previous works. I read an article on this topic, and how the customer won't know what they are getting if you don't have examples. Thus, this repells customers. The more successful artists have their commissions extremely structured, they have set prices, examples for each type, and so on. Some examples are Kaweki and Spazzyhusky, to name a couple.
Also, self promote. You can get ads on FA, I bet it will help you a bunch and will be a good investment.

My main art instagram page is _ben.foster_ if you wanna take a look (hint self promo is the cheapest advertisements there are) 

Hope you found this useful


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## rjbartrop (May 23, 2015)

Personally, the "Fake-commissions" trick sounds like something that could backfire very badly.  Most people don't like being made a fool of.  Like the previous poster said, you have to promote yourself, and show people what you can do.  

If you aren't feeling inspired, maybe try something different?


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## Yarik (May 23, 2015)

The ads probably are a nice way to promote yourself, yes. Although I'd not consider it before having several pages filled with example sin my gallery  I also agree that quantity helps to win commissioners. Of course; Each time I've commissioned somebody in the past I commissioned them upon the basis of a picture they drew I really liked, or wish reminded me of my own character. (Although I quickly learned that artists are unlikely to reproduce a previous result easily.)


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## FireFeathers (May 25, 2015)

If you said you're not inspired to draw furry characters ATM, I'm not sure how drawing them for money's going to change that.  And yeah, draw for free, get people who watch you wanting free stuff. The amount of people from that who'll ultimately support you when you switch over to legit commissions is super low. Liiiikkeee...5% low. I'm not even joking. Those who only ask for free stuff tend to be kids or teenagers, or people who don't have the concept of paying for a specialized skill. You don't attract a....nice crowd, is what i'm trying to say. Then when you switch over, you'll get a handful of your watchers call you a sellout and scum for charging _MONEY _for ART. Art is FUN! You shouldn't have to PAAAY for it!


etc. Here's the best plan- Open for commissions at the rate you think you deserve. Take a part time job to supplement money until you get some sort of momentum. Apply yourself to jobs in the other arty part of this forum, post up an ad (They're cheap and fantastic for your money) and work through it that way. People are surprisingly nasty about something for free. I had one person chase me around DA telling me that I was the biggest piece of shit when I started charging, and that things that are beautiful should also be free.  That or do trades, and produce something you'd pay for that way to help build up a portfolio of examples.


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## Yarik (May 25, 2015)

@FireFeathers : I don't know how my inspiration works. I also put remarkably less effort into stuff I do for myself than stuff I do for others (unless I have a very motivated day). It translates to art in the same way. I can rarely find the inspiration to draw my anthro characters, but I'm fine drawing them for others. (Just tested it yesterday and almost completed a scene for a friend.)

Thanks for sharing that experience! It definitively helps to reconsider if I really want to offer free art regular, or just for special events. 
Art trades are wonderful too! I just rarely saw them at FA, which is why I was a bit shy about doing a journal about it, but I'll probably do these at a later point. I also should check ads at a later point. Apparently they are not as expensive as expected!


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## Zuriak (Jun 1, 2015)

As someone who does free art for practice, I've got to say it's tiring sometimes to see people disappointed with my work for them even though I made the circumstances clear. I also had a person straight up tell me they didn't want anything from me until I got better.

In general I find free art is a bad idea unless it's on a side account?


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## gypsywolf (Jun 1, 2015)

I started out here doing free requests, and I drew a user's character for free and they liked it so much that they actually commissioned me after I opened commissions!  
I guess it really depends, though. I would say free SKETCHES is okay, but save the best work for $$$. Just give them a taste of what you can do and they will ask for more. ^___^


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