The Basics of Getting Into Commissions

This guides goes over the basics of commissions and how to get started, how to price your commissions, how to create your sheet, and how to negotiate with a customer. Whether you are new to commissions, or have been doing them for a while, you are bound to take something away from this guide.

Introduction

Say you’re an artist just starting your career, or have been in the field for quite a while and want to start making money off of your art via commissions, but don’t know how to start. The lack of information on the subject leads to either pricing your art too low, or in some cases too high. If you are new and set the price too high, no one will take a commission because they will be paying for low quality, overpriced art. On the other hand, if you are experienced, produce good art, but you price too low, this leads to people taking advantage of your low prices, taking quality art for lower than what it should be worth. Even then once you figured that out, there are more things to consider, like sheets and negotiating with the customer. The subject is especially stressful since there is money involved, as well as it being confusing with the many moving parts that fall into the process. Don’t worry, because this guide is here to help you out.

Part One: Pricing

Art has value. Quality, experience, and time put into it all affect this. It is these three key things that are the driving force of your prices. It is crucial that you weigh these variables when pricing your commissions, as these are not only being examined by you, but by your potential buyers as well. They, too, weigh these variables, closer than you would. They will take advantage of any opportunity they get if they see an artist who produces quality pieces of work charge less than what they expect for it. To prevent you from falling victim to these tactics, let us examine these three variables and look into the specifics of them so you can understand what they mean and how they may affect your pricing.

Quality
Examine the art of a beginner, your little siblings, or just people who have just started in their field. Now examine the art of one who has the experience, industry professionals, and the like. You will see quite a difference between the two, and you will most likely prefer the art of the experienced artist. This difference is often described as quality, the standard of an item, in this case, art, as measured against other things of a similar kind, the degree of excellence of the art itself. As the buyer, you will often gravitate to the artist who produces the better quality art, and as the artist, you have to notice when this trend occurs so you can start increasing the price of your art. This is because of the concept known as supply and demand, where the price of a good is determined by the supply of the goods and the demand for it as well. You as an artist and as a human have a fixed supply, you take time to create the art, as well as taking time to refuel before going back to making the art. If you start to see the demand for your art go up, you must take advantage of that by increasing your prices. The quality of one’s art is often shown to improve with the amount of time and experience the person has in their field, leading to the next variable.

Experience
As stated before, the more time you put into your art, the better your art will turn out. This goes for any skill since it takes time to learn the material, as well as to process it. If you are a beginner, just starting, little knowledge of the programs that you use or of the fundamentals of the field you are in, you tend to produce lower quality art than say a person who has experience in their craft, knows their way around the programs and has taken time to process their skill and learn new things about it. As a buyer, you would want to go for the artist that has experience in their field rather than the artist that doesn’t. No one would be willing to pay for the art from a person who just started, which is why you must take some time to build up to commissions, rather than jumping in headfirst. If you are planning to do commissions even though you aren’t that experienced, it is advised that you do them for free. See what you are capable of before asking for payment.

Time
Time is of the essence. There are multiple ways of spending your time on Earth, whether you spend it with friends, family, or gaming. If you acquire a commission that takes a lot of time and effort, time which you could be spending on other activities, then you should let the buyer know. Say you get a request to do a scene build, with lots of props and detail, meticulous tasks that take effort and time. You must show the buyer the worth of the time it took to make this by increasing your price. This can be worked on your commission sheet, which is the next topic of discussion. Most accomplish this by having a separate option for these high effort scenes builds, adding on top of their original price, and varying the amount of the price based on the difficulty of the task.

Remember to also make your prices concise, don't have prices vary between how many unusual effects or how many particles there are, stick to something that is easy to calculate, say the amount of characters in a scene. These 3 variables are not the only ones to consider when pricing, there are plenty more. However, these are the main 3 you want to focus on, as these will be the biggest deciding factors for your buyer, the customer.

Part Two: Types of Commissions

To secure as many commissions as possible, you will want to expand the types of styles you do. In the field of digital art like drawing, you will often see users have different prices for certain styles, such as simple pieces linework being cheaper than fully colored or shaded complex character builds. The same goes for SFM. Occasionally, you will see people have different prices for PFPs, multicharacter posters, or high-quality scene builds, but you won't the difference between them. For simplicity’s sake, we will be talking about SFM types and what they entail.

Profile Pictures (PFPs)
Profile pictures are the most common type of SFM commission one could receive. As the name implies, it is usually just a render of the upper body or full face of a model, in a pose specified by the customer. Most of the time, it does not require as much effort as a full poster, but you would still want to be paid as you would regularly. Have it lower than what you would normally charge for a full poster, and talk with your customer on the specifics. Poster by Mono

Posters
Posters are another type of commission you will often get, it’s intent usually being for desktop background channel banner, or some other use. These types of commissions and what the buyer will ask for will often vary from customer to customer, so there is no general idea of how these will work out. They can be quite complex in their nature, requiring great attention to detail, or they could be something simple or generic that could be done in less than a day, it really all depends. Poster by Beard

Scenebuilds
Imagine you were given a blank canvas, with no marks at all. Say you were then paid and tasked to create a scene, give it a mood, and a backstory, all by detailing it. This is what scene building is: The act of telling a story and setting up a world via visual queues and depiction. These will often be your hardest works, so you would want to accommodate that by charging them higher than what you usually do. It will take time to when you can perfect your scene building skills, so do not start doing these types of commissions until you have built up enough experience. Poster by Mars

There are more of these types of commissions, but for the sake of the guide, I kept it simple. If you wish to know more, it is always great to study language and terminology in your field, so that you can easily understand what your peers are communicating to you, as well as conveying it to your buyer as well.

Part Three: Creation of Commission Sheet

To advertise that you are doing commissions, you first need a medium in which to advertise them. This is what commission sheets are for. They are mini billboards where you can showcase your best art and show off the prices for your commissions. Most go in making their sheet with little knowledge of the actual importance that a sheet represents. This may be the customer’s first interaction with you and your art, so it is important to nail it on the first try. This section will help you understand the basics of making a commission sheet and what you may want to put into it. Sheet by Nevermore.

Since this is your potential customer’s first interaction with you as an artist, you will want to put your best works. Oftentimes, you will find your best works by asking others on which they like. Most of the time, the consensus of those you asked will often be other’s favorites as well. Make them different, each showing off a different skill that you have (Shading, faces, lighting) Make sure you also detail your methods of contact, how you want to communicate with the customer, whether that be via email, Discord, or Steam. You will also want to have terms of service. As an artist, there are certain topics you would not wish to create, whether they go against your religion, moral or personal beliefs. Maybe you don’t want to have the buyer constantly make changes to the commission, or you charge more for NSFW. These notes can be stated here, and are the ground rules you set with the buyer and you as the artist. If the customer violates your terms of service, you have the right to cancel the commission. Sheet by me!

Do’s and Don’ts
Imagine you are a potential customer, looking at your own commission sheet. As you read it, you become increasingly confused reading the wall of text that you crammed into the sheet. You also are not impressed by the low quality and the lack of effort shown in the sheet itself, as it looks like it was made in Microsoft Paint and took less than 10 minutes. As stated previously, your sheet is the first impression between you and your potential customer, you do not want to be sloppy when making it. You must be able to create an image that represents you as an artist as well as you as a person. Don’t just slap on the images and text and call it a day, do more! Do more for your poster that not only shows the capabilities of you as an artist but as a person and your creativity with it as well. Decorate it and make it yours, make it stand out from the sea of fellow artists who are also doing commissions. Also make sure to not make the sheet too complicated, make it easily readable, don’t have walls of text on backgrounds that make it hard to make out the words. Sheet by Sprite.

It is important that you maintain and update your sheet regularly, usually around the times you wish to change your prices or show off your latest and best works built up over time. Remember, this is a vital part of attracting potential customers to you, so it is best to refresh and dust off your sheet often. By doing so, your chances of attracting new customers increase.

Part Four: Negotiation with Customer

Oftentimes, you will come across a customer whom you may not tend to like, whether they are being rude or making impossible requests. No matter how you feel about the customer, you desperately wish to acquire the commission but do not know how to negotiate with the customer. Here are a few ways you can de-escalate the situation and talk with the customer calmly, so you can secure the commission and, potentially, many more.

Price Negotiation
Say your customer does not want to pay the price you requested, or want the prices to be lowered for their request. It is up to you as the artist to decide whether or not you want to act on the customer's wishes, whether or not you want to convince the customer that your prices are fair, or to let the customer walk, costing you the commission. You must weigh the odds as the artist and decide whether or not it is worth it to continue to pursue the commission.

Changes in The Commission
Imagine you are in the middle of the commission when the customer messages you, saying that they want something changed. Though you may be frustrated, do not be. This may happen often in your time spent doing commissions, your customer may have a sudden change of thought or dislikes the way you posed a certain character. You must be able to accept these last-minute changes, as if you do not, you will often find yourself losing commissions because of your inability to adapt.

De-Escalation
Sometimes, you or the customer will not be happy, no matter how hard you try. It is bound to happen at some point. If this may occur, it is a best practice that you be prepared, either to calm yourself or your customer down. If it is your customer who is getting angry, talk, and communicate with them, assure them that you will deliver the finished product that they desire. If you get angry, calm yourself down. Assess yourself and figure out why you are angry. Communicate with your customer about your disdain, and coordinate a way in which you both can benefit, sparing you both from undergoing stress while, at the same time, still acquiring the commission.

Patience is key when negotiating with a buyer on the terms of the commission, some may find it easy to negotiate, others not so much. It is crucial that you master this skill because not only will it help you secure commissions easier, it may guarantee you, future commissioners, may it be the same ones who came back to commission you again based on excellent service, or people who have come via word of mouth. No matter what, it is always best to keep a cool head, as it will help you in the long run.

Part Five: Closing Notes

I gathered most of my information via the r/SFM Discord[discordapp.com], full of professionals who knew what they were talking about, who knew their way around the subject. They agreed with me and supported me in my decision to create this guide, and I thank them. I would have never had the courage to create this if it weren’t for them, so I owe most of the server credit for the information gathered, I am just the guy that typed all of it out. I, personally, wanted to make this out of the personal experience, seeing so many amazing artists being treated like trash, forced to do amazing work for mere pennies. It saddened me. There was little information on the subject at the time of writing, only information out there was via word of mouth. If there is one thing that I would like you to take away from this guide, it would be to stand up for yourself, do not be afraid to defend you and your art from people who seek to ridicule you and tell you to lower your prices. I hear time and time again how people are afraid to defend themselves against people who ridicule them, thus selling their genuinely good art for scrap. Be proud of your art, make it with pride. Have the respect and decency to take valid criticisms, and take them to heart. That is how you become a good artist.

[idiot 3 alt (6)]

https://youtu.be/DdmNYNkcwKE

[Scared]

i have 998 hours in sfm, i can do scenebuilds/posters/pfps with photoshop, and im fast/low priced, is that good enough for people or should i do smth because no one really bats an eye on me

[StaticSnow50681]

heyo! I wanted to reach out and ask if you were open to commissions

[The Shoebill]

UPDATE:i became a furry and started making furry porn in blender

[Soerix]

Bruh, i was Looking for a guide for commisons on Making mods not this, But still GREAT work making this guide, i Really need to know how to Advertise and where to Look to get people

[The Shoebill]

wow, i was JUST thinking abt how people do commissions and this pops up! I'm definitely thinking about it

[Prof. Purble]

Just had a look at it and damn, that was some hard to read text with some jumbled up symbols in between. Yeah, that totally makes sense. I was just asking because I know there is a fine line between advertising and selling on Steam being prohibited as stated in the Content Rules here: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4045-USHJ-3810

So this is sort of what is keeping me from wanting to upload my own Commissions Sheet so I can start making some $$$. Despite wanting to do so, I fear I might be violating this rule.

[Tom Yamaza]

Prof Purble according to the third party legal documentation which can be found in the "game" folder of SFM, any works created using SFM are owned by you so long as you yourself created them. This can cover using Valve's own models and such, so long as you admit that the models were not created by you, but by Valve.

[Prof. Purble]

I'm still trying to figure out on where the boundaries sit between legality of whats ok and what is not ok before jumping into this. Valve is not exactly keen on you making a profit from their platform, let alone their software. Whats the opinion on this?

[Dald22]

it was a joke but ok