Guys, I did a commission this summer after the longest break from them. Years! Really, the last time I was commissioned was just after uni, which was 2020. Wow! I'm not going to reveal the commission itself in this post as it's for an upcoming project. This post is more for talking about the fact that even though I've been a digital artist on the web for years I don't really do much commissions and how I feel after having done this one. A postmortem investigation if you will, as I feel dead.
I've always had a hard time networking and promoting myself on social media. I had a short stint on Insta back in uni and I hated every second of it. I tried other sites, stuff like fiverr or whatever and honestly all of it just sucked. It wasn't an effective tool for communicating with clients, it wasn't a good spot to show of your work and so on. There were people who were genuine but there were also so many people looking to get good pieces for cheap, totally undervaluing artists' labour. Tumblr and commission sheets are probably the only thing I had a good experience with but even then I was never active enough on Tumblr to gain any kind of following.
Wow, you must be thinking, that's a lot of complaining and not a lot of trying. I get it, if you want work, you need to reach out. But the problem for me is that algorithms drown you out on purpose if you interact with the platform wrong. Need to post daily, need to share, re-blog, comment, etc. It's like having two jobs: artist and influencer. I'm just not built like that.
So, I mostly gave up on doing anything freelance. I do art for me and that's about it. But! I was contacted to do this latest commission through a much more close-knit network and it was the best commission experience I've ever had. Clear, concise, creative, and no one tried to underpay me. It really left me buzzing and happy especially when the person commissioning me was happy with the final piece!
I know not every interaction can be this good when it comes to freelance art, but it would help if most of them were. As an artist you respect the client's vision and time and they respect that you're doing work that's valuable.
Will I open commissions at some point? Honestly, I don't think my art is in demand. I know there's many folks on neocities or elsewhere that are flooded with commissions, I think it's because people really love their art style. I don't think anyone really likes my style that much so I'll probably just stick to comics for now. Still, I'm much more open to being commissioned then I was before.
Do you do commissions? Do you commission other artists? Let me know in the comments!
☆ Finny ★
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