Are my commission prices fair?

[XionOfHearts]

Needing some advice, do you think the prices for my anime/manga/pony art are fair?
http://xionofarts.deviantart.com/journal/Commission-Journal-289432724
Check out the journal for the price list, please tell me what your opinion is. I based prices on the time it would take to do the piece of art and the difficulty.

I am new to the art of doing commissions so advice would be really helpful ^^

[Malancaiwen]

I like your Chibi ponies very much!
I think I recognise this piece of art though: http://xionofarts.deviantart.com/art/My-oc-pony-WIP-279552473 Would be fair to give credits

As for price, I think you'll be able to raise them after you add color or get more experience

[XionOfHearts]

I like your Chibi ponies very much!
I think I recognise this piece of art though: http://xionofarts.deviantart.com/art/My-oc-pony-WIP-279552473 Would be fair to give credits

As for price, I think you'll be able to raise them after you add color or get more experience

Thank you ^^
The piece of art you have mentioned is mine from my gallery, so its an example of my own artwork. Do you mean you recognise it from somewhere else? As that may have been because I used a reference image ^^

[Malancaiwen]

Yes I mean I recognise it being from someone else but I can't remember their name (terrible memory )
Reference images are fine but it's generally better to say who you based your picture on

[Rainbowjuice]

I like your Chibi ponies very much!
I think I recognise this piece of art though: http://xionofarts.deviantart.com/art/My-oc-pony-WIP-279552473 Would be fair to give credits

As for price, I think you'll be able to raise them after you add color or get more experience

Thank you ^^
The piece of art you have mentioned is mine from my gallery, so its an example of my own artwork. Do you mean you recognise it from somewhere else? As that may have been because I used a reference image ^^

The reference is from http://www.dolldivine.com/pony-maker.php
You may want to credit the artist (her dA is linked on the maker itself)
They're quite popular around the internet, you wouldn't want to be accused of stealing =D

[XionOfHearts]

I like your Chibi ponies very much!
I think I recognise this piece of art though: http://xionofarts.deviantart.com/art/My-oc-pony-WIP-279552473 Would be fair to give credits

As for price, I think you'll be able to raise them after you add color or get more experience

Thank you ^^
The piece of art you have mentioned is mine from my gallery, so its an example of my own artwork. Do you mean you recognise it from somewhere else? As that may have been because I used a reference image ^^

The reference is from http://www.dolldivine.com/pony-maker.php
You may want to credit the artist (her dA is linked on the maker itself)
They're quite popular around the internet, you wouldn't want to be accused of stealing =D

Thank you ^^ I remember referencing from that one now :3 I'll be sure to do that when I can :3

[Lina]

i think your prices are definitely fair, but keep in mind that commissions usually go for rather low prices here on the arena. while i think you are not charging too much, you might get more takers if you make them a little cheaper. just my two cents, and in the end it is up to you!

[ZennaBug]

I think your prices look fine.  It can be hard to get commissions these days, a lot of us are hurting for money.  But you can always try and if you don't get many takers then maybe try adjusting the price?

That, and I second what everyone else has said about crediting the original artists.  And if you're going to charge money for a piece, you should make sure that it's totally your work.

[Arkillian]

I'm going to give a frank opinion so I'm going to put it in spoiler tags. I purchase alot of art off Deviantart, and I also sell a fair bit. I notice alot of trends when it comes to art- what works, and what doesn't. It's frank though, so be prepared for that if you want to hear it.

Spoiler

• Coming from someone that purchases art commissions alot from artists I like, I'm personally not interested in pencil lineart / sketch type images, unless the lineart / sketches were done by someone that has a keen eye for detail, or I watched the art happen in person or something. I suggest giving colour options. You do digital colouring- why not quote that? the customer would more likely go for it cause it's digital, and not required to be posted. Just be careful of the resolution you work with. Print quality is 300dpi. Let the customer know if that's not the resolution they'll be getting when they receive it. Even giving inks as an option.

• I also suggest pre-quoting postage if you can. I'm not sure what postage is like for you, but if you're doing a traditional commission, I'd expect to get the original. I know in NZ if I'm posting, there's one rate for National post, one for Australia, and one for international. The price difference between Australia and international shipping isn't much, so I make them both the international pricing cause I'm more likely to get commissions from America. I quote all my prices in USD cause most commissions are purchased in America for me (I also give my prices to NZers in at the same price but in NZ dollars.). I suggest this cause as soon as you throw something in the air like this, you've lost the sale. It's not hard to quote it. It's not going to change in size or weight- just the destination. If the prices vary between countries, quote for posting to the UK, and America. If there's variation, see how much it is cause there shouldn't be MUCH difference. I imagine that sending to different countries in UK may be different in price. See if that price varies much. IF it doesn't, chose the most expensive. Keep postage SIMPLE. Not quote later.
• Lastly, I suggest fixing the posted quality of the art. Assuming that the artist does't want the original of the piece you drew (goodness knows why they wouldn't want the original) receiving a digital scan only is not inspiring when the example pictures are all poorly lit. I assume you use a camera so I'm going to suggest either investing in a scanner off the UK version of Ebay, or setting the art up in a well lit room where it's sunny, but not with direct sunlight (diffused light is good). You want the light to leave no shadows on your art at all. Force the camera to not take flash, and put it on a tripod, or something sturdy to stop it moving. If the camera has a timer- use that. That will allow you to let go of the camera and let it sit still for a few seconds before it takes the shot and reduce the blurriness. I suggest that if you're doing digital shots of art to do it at 4mega pixels. The picture is still likely to need touch up even after all of this to correct for ambient lighting effects etc... IF you have a program that does photo enhancement then it's worth spending a few minutes cleaning it up. If your post art is presented to the best of it's ability, then people will take you seriously.

I hope this all helps.

[rayechu]

I think Arkillian's comments are fair and are pretty much a much more informative version of what I didn't have time to type up last night.

[Rainbowjuice]

I'm going to give a frank opinion so I'm going to put it in spoiler tags. I purchase alot of art off Deviantart, and I also sell a fair bit. I notice alot of trends when it comes to art- what works, and what doesn't. It's frank though, so be prepared for that if you want to hear it.

Spoiler

• Coming from someone that purchases art commissions alot from artists I like, I'm personally not interested in pencil lineart / sketch type images, unless the lineart / sketches were done by someone that has a keen eye for detail, or I watched the art happen in person or something. I suggest giving colour options. You do digital colouring- why not quote that? the customer would more likely go for it cause it's digital, and not required to be posted. Just be careful of the resolution you work with. Print quality is 300dpi. Let the customer know if that's not the resolution they'll be getting when they receive it. Even giving inks as an option.

• I also suggest pre-quoting postage if you can. I'm not sure what postage is like for you, but if you're doing a traditional commission, I'd expect to get the original. I know in NZ if I'm posting, there's one rate for National post, one for Australia, and one for international. The price difference between Australia and international shipping isn't much, so I make them both the international pricing cause I'm more likely to get commissions from America. I quote all my prices in USD cause most commissions are purchased in America for me (I also give my prices to NZers in at the same price but in NZ dollars.). I suggest this cause as soon as you throw something in the air like this, you've lost the sale. It's not hard to quote it. It's not going to change in size or weight- just the destination. If the prices vary between countries, quote for posting to the UK, and America. If there's variation, see how much it is cause there shouldn't be MUCH difference. I imagine that sending to different countries in UK may be different in price. See if that price varies much. IF it doesn't, chose the most expensive. Keep postage SIMPLE. Not quote later.
• Lastly, I suggest fixing the posted quality of the art. Assuming that the artist does't want the original of the piece you drew (goodness knows why they wouldn't want the original) receiving a digital scan only is not inspiring when the example pictures are all poorly lit. I assume you use a camera so I'm going to suggest either investing in a scanner off the UK version of Ebay, or setting the art up in a well lit room where it's sunny, but not with direct sunlight (diffused light is good). You want the light to leave no shadows on your art at all. Force the camera to not take flash, and put it on a tripod, or something sturdy to stop it moving. If the camera has a timer- use that. That will allow you to let go of the camera and let it sit still for a few seconds before it takes the shot and reduce the blurriness. I suggest that if you're doing digital shots of art to do it at 4mega pixels. The picture is still likely to need touch up even after all of this to correct for ambient lighting effects etc... IF you have a program that does photo enhancement then it's worth spending a few minutes cleaning it up. If your post art is presented to the best of it's ability, then people will take you seriously.

I hope this all helps.

I'm sorry, the spoiler tags amused me so much =p

[Arkillian]

Uh... OK? I use the spoiler tags to crop the post a bit for quick browsing and so you know my critique is there. I don't know if you found it useful. I'd like to assume you did


Raychu- I'm glad I didn't steal your thunder when I expanded on it I felt that this was all very important to point out cause it's the big reason most artists don't get commissions. Presentation of art, type of art that they're selling, and actually, selling it too low. I believe that there's also a mental block with selling art too low, cause it makes the purchaser think that the quality will be worse than the example linked cause alot of artists that don't do commissions alot don't do commissions to the standard their example art is at. I hear it alot. Commissioners being disappointed cause the artist used one of their best works to attract people and then did a half assed job.



There's one other thing I'd like to point out is the 'Why'. Why should someone purchase your art and not mine? Or someone else's art? What do you do that's so special? Look at your strengths and how you can target your market with that. My strengths are portraits of humans. I specially price some of my commissions to reflect that. I'm also better with copics than with digital so I have copic originals as an option, but I don't quote A4 without it being a special request cause their prices would be too high for most of the market. Those that WANT A4 copic will ask when they see I do A5 at a certain price. I do A5 in size cause it's fast and that's sometimes all people want. I can do alot with it though.


I'm not sure what you feel your strengths are. If you targeted certain markets with certain finishing types, people will also more likely commission you.

[rayechu]

Not at all. As I said your answer was much more helpful than mine would have ever been!