How to Make an ArtMug Account (for international/overseas commissions)
im posting this for my friends since a friend helped me make one and i got a REALLY GORGEOUS commission from the artists on there and now other friends wanna do the same (and i don't want to repeat my directions every time someone asks lol)
disclaimer: a little messy cause i'm just copy + pasting from discord
TL;DR: artmug is like the korean equivalent of skeb where you can reach out to artists and ask for commissions; they support international clients by acting as the middle man to get your payment to the artists via paypal. i also like it more than skeb because there are more chances to go back and forth with your artist (aka COMMUNICATE) instead of just sending your request and hoping for the best. anyways ok let's go!!
HOW TO SIGN UP
you need an artmug account to commission artmug artists. please note that you login via username and password, not email!
using google translate here, you'll find it under "join the membership" and you'll want to sign up as a regular member and hit the "overseas member" tick box
Look specifically for the overseas member box because it's TINY (that little orange box on the side)
It's important to have it because it actually lets you pay for comms via PayPal overseas; otherwise blargh
ok good now you're done. let's move on
NAVIGATION
in the top bar, the most important tabs are "category" "customer service center" "my page."
category - commission categories. character illustration is for character commissions, and the rest are things like comics, live2d, all sorts of stuff! for most comms, just look in the character illustration listings.
customer service center - used to pay as an overseas customer.
my page - your dms, your order page, and other account things
HOW TO REQUEST AN ORDER
First, go Category > Character Illustration
2. You'll get a page full of commissions, and you can see that the top allows you to narrow down results by tags and whatever
3a. Clicking on an option takes you to the art's commission page:
3b. See the little heart on the right hand corner of the artist name? If you click that, it'll bookmark the artist for you. So use it to save artists you like! (Ignore the part that says "Writer" that's just GoogleTranslate being silly)
4. The right-hand sidebar will give you a short listing of the artist's working schedule, response rate (100% means they respond to everyone), dimensions of art piece provided etc etc:
Scroll to the bottom of the right-hand sidebar and you'll see 2 buttons:
CONTACT THE AUTHOR (aka ARTIST) - to send a commission request
ORDER/PAY - to pay the artist once you've finalized details
DO NOT ORDER/PAY first ALWAYS CONTACT THE ARTIST FIRST They have the right to refuse your commission if they feel they can't fulfill it or are too busy. I got rejected twice before I found my dream artist, so know that it's very normal for them!
Anyways, moving on...
5. If you scroll to the VERY bottom of the commision page you'll see the artist's description of their work process Almost all of them will be slightly different based on artist, but they all have a "basic guide" and commission application process
6. Follow the steps in the process closely. The artist will be reading these to see if they want to accept your commission. Some require references/poses, others need you to descrbe mood/setting/etc.
If you want them to do pose omokase (basically, artist picks what pose/theme to draw), plenty of artists will be welcome to that too!
7. So yeah, pretend you've picked and artist and want to commission them. What do you do? Click the CONTACT THE AUTHOR (black) button and it'll bring up this text editor (along with a standard rules message that you can just click thru)
And basically you write your commission request according to the artist's commission application (see example pic under #6) in the textbox.
HOW TO COMMUNICATE WITH ARTISTS
This is your personal pref but I always start out saying hi nice to meet you, I really like your work and I'd ilke to commission you. I also state outright that I'm from overseas and apologize in advance if there's any misunderstandings in language so they know what to expect.
2. Now, most importantly, most artists are gonna know Korean best. Some might know English, but even with those I talk to them in English and Korean. https://papago.naver.com/ Papago is gonna be your best friend for English > Korean translation. Korean is a very polite language with different levels of formality, so Papago helps you out by using the "honorific" setting on the right by default (You won't see this setting until you actually type in some English btw). Keep the honorific setting on, you don't want to accidentally come off sounding rude
3. I also like to reverse the translated Korean back into English just to make sure the syntax makes sense because I'm paranoid like that. Sometimes I need to fix English word order a bit, but most of the time it's ok
4. Anyways, once you've finished setting up your commission application you paste both English and Korean in the chat box like this and click "SEND". (Obviously your textbox will be fuller than this because you need to fill in the artist's application form with details they want blahblahblah.) Then you wait for the artist to reply you.
5. Any replies you get can be found in the "QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS" tab under your "MY PAGE" category
HOW TO PAY ARTISTS ON ARTMUG (Int'l users)
Payment on ArtMug is a little unique for international buyers because you don't pay the artist directly Instead, ArtMug acts as a middle man to process your payment to the artist.
P.S. You can also preview artists' prices before you ever make an order! Just check out the options they list in the drop-down menu on the right-hand sidebar of their commissions page:
3. Anyways, once you and your artist finished talking and settle on a price, it's time to click the orange ORDER/PAY button! I think in most cases ArtMug doesn't even let you pay/order without communicating with the artist first hahah
4. Most likely you'll have to manually input the amount. Remember it's Korean won, so put down whatever Korean price the artist has on their page
5. You can then go to MY PAGE > ORDER MANAGEMENT to see your order
6. Here's what my last one with my artist looked like. Look at the left hand side. There should be a column called Request Number with numbers underneath. In this case, the numbers are 2504-036986
7a. ON THE PAYMENT PAGE ITSELF, it will ask for your name. Please put the name associated with your PayPal account, not your online handle or nickname. For contact I just put a link to one of my social medias haha
7b. NOTE: For EMAIL you can just put your personal email. It does not have to be your PayPal email here.
8. NOW for the next step. Remember your request number from the screenshot under #6? Copy that and go to CUSTOMER SERVICE CENTER > Customer Inquiry
9. Customer Inquiry is gonna take you to what looks like a forum post page. Click WRITING in the bottom right hand corner to make a new post.
10. The contents of the post can be SUPER simple, like so:
title: paypal request order number: ####### (put your numbers here) email: (NOW you have to put your paypal email)
11. Then you click post and wait for ArtMug to email you an invoice. Here's what it'll look like in your email. You'll see your request number in the invoice too to double confirm:
COMPLETING THE PAYMENT (finally)
Now the funny thing is, even after you pay, ArtMug will hold onto the money until the artist is done with your work (I think??) There's 1 last step to complete the payment process
Go back to MY PAGE > Order Management when everything's done, the artist's sent you your piece blah blah blah
3. If you click on the dropdown arrow on the right it should have something like a button to let you finalize the payment. I don't have a screenshot of that but you get the idea.
4. Your order should also show "Transaction Complete" once it's...you know, complete.
5. Don't forget to WRITE A REVIEW! They really help your artists, and it's just a nice touch after a long and hefty exchange. You can do it in English or Korean (I include both just in case)
RECOMMENDED ARTISTS
This is just a list of artists me and my friends all like and recommend for consistent work, professional quality, and ease of communication!
Dumchit (I got my super cool comm from them, they are so sweet and their rendering is GODLY)
Sayu (like half the comms on this page are my friends' various OCs, they are basically up to draw anything and did this lovely comm of me and my friend's OCs!)
Japtu (my friend calls them a wizard, they also do solid work whee)
Hurami (if you crave that nostalgic MapleStory art aesthetic, this one's your artist)
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if there's anything to update about this post i'll like add it as a reblog but WHEW this was long hope it helps peeps looking for comms outside of skeb/vgen/twit/the usuals!
