Nuki News #21: Most Successful Commissions?

So! I mentioned in my half-year review that I’ve created a sort of questionnaire to give to artists who have been walking the path I aim to traverse in the future.  I sent this questionnaire to as many full-time furry artists as I followed! I got a total of 12 responses, and I have made about 12 points/conclusions from their personal perspectives and the links or similarities connecting them. Each artist has different circumstances in life after all, so it’s important to take what resonates and leave the rest behind that wouldn’t apply to me.  I only asked 5 questions, but they were open-ended and each artist had a lot to say!)

I will do a series going over each point and my thoughts on them. A series called Artie Asks Artists, if you will! Starting with the First Point: What do Artists find the most success on, when it comes to commission work? Here’s my conclusion from the 12 responses I got:

Successful commissions are often the easiest to sell ideas on, and don’t require too much extensive technical work; flat colors and perhaps some simple shading with a focus on a character is what the majority of folks want to get for themselves(or as gifts for friends!), and conveying perspective or larger scenes is less of a focus. This lets you stay consistent in delivery and is easier for you to accomplish your weekly/monthly commission goals. Good is good enough! 

Part of this is what I’ve found out for myself over the last 3 months- when I offered my 3-part commission series showing two characters merging together without fancy painting or shading, I ended up making a lot more money than ever before and now I’m booked a month in advance. It had a clear premise, the art itself was easy to see what was going on, making for great examples for people interested to jump on the opportunity, and it doubles down on itself too! The more of these types of commissions I do, the more art of this I have to upload, and the more of this stuff I upload, the more people will know me for doing these series of works, so they know who to go to and ask. This works better than my previous options for commissions by a fair margin, because doing paintings is something a lot of other furry artists are offering, even in the fatfur community. But a more simple commission type(flat colors) coupled with something I am more known for(merging/fusing fursonas together) makes it something I suddenly found a significant demand for! 

If I’m to go at doing furry art full time, offering commissions like that will be easier for others to see themselves getting. I will still have others wanting a one-off picture though, of course. But this does also make me realize and solidify that I should focus more on honing in on the skills that will make more simple picture ideas better(flat colors, drawing, shapes, line work, gesture and posing, expressions). At the same time, I don’t need to be perfectionist about it or worry myself with lighting or perspective as much as I used to. Being an artist-for-hire isn’t about being the most amazing, or highest skilled, it’s about being reliable and delivering good art that captures the idea! 

To put into more financial terms, I’d need to complete anywhere between 16-20 paintings a month to hit my financial goal of $2000 a month! Or, I can do just 7 or 8 flat color series a month, which take less mental strain, are much more guaranteed to be something I’ll be 110% into drawing, and quicker to do! Obviously, the realistic prediction is that I’m going to get a mix of both, but being able to offer the simpler-to-make series over a more detailed painting can provide me a lot more time and stability and build up my niche. Though this does make me realize I should probably increase my rates for paintings; If they take more out of me to do and don’t give me as much dough, it makes sense to raise the prices. 

That’s a wrap on point 1 out of 12! I feel some of these will have some overlap, but I feel like this series of NukiNews posts will be a more direct hand in helping me find the action points for me to take before I make my leap into full time furry arting.