Alright, this is gonna be long, so I’m putting a “Read More” to not cover your dashes. Basically, the long and short of this is me being a business talking “jerk” and bitching about how people who treat commissions as a job have no idea how to run a business. While I’m not an authority on the subject, I am looking into business studies though, and I have tons of first and second hand experience in the field via entrepreneurs in my family. I’m going off of my knowledge and experience, so you are free to take things I say with a grain of salt if you want.
One thing I both understand and don’t understand is how artists price some of their commissions. Like, I get that it’s a job, and you can set your own prices... but it seems counter intuitive to price things beyond what most people are willing to pay for something in flats.
I understand that making a living off of art is really hard (which is why Patreon has become super popular amongst artists over commission work), and that typically you are underpaid for your work a lot of the time. The problems with today’s economy is that only those with steady jobs can even think of getting commissions from artists they like because the price to live is higher than what most minimum wages pay out.
Art is a luxury item, and when it’s digital, it’s not even a tangible item. Sure, it can be prints are made all the time, and then there’s shipping fees if you are ordering the print. Which, again, is understandable.
My issue really comes down to when artists charge, like, 70 USD for Line Art or Flat colors. I’m no expert when it comes to art (as much as I wish I was), but if you are taking roughly 10 hours (assuming you are charging the average American minimum wage) to do Lines and Flats for a single character (like most commissions on Tumblr, DeviantART, and Furaffinity are), you should be working on your speed/efficiency whilst maintaining quality so you can get more work.
If you are treating your artistic offerings like a job, yet sit there for 10 hours on lines, because you want to work at a comfortable pace, then you are cutting into your productivity, and losing potential clients. If the workforce has taught me anything, it’s that speed and efficiency are just as important as quality of work. If you’re an artist, and spend the better part of an average work day (roughly 8-12 hours) on a single character’s lines, you are wasting time, and losing money, and if you want to make a living off of your art, then you need to buck up, work on increasing your speed and efficiency whilst maintaining your general standard of quality, and bust your balls making that shit work.
I may be an amatuer artist in comparison to a lot of people, but having been in a family that has done the self-employed thing for a decade, and having started studying business practices, I think I can talk business with a fair degree of confidence in what I’m saying. If you want to call your art a job, and you aren’t doing anything but your art to stay afloat, then you need to start busting your balls, and increasing your overall productivity to have a steady cash flow. Especially if you are selling your time to people on websites like Tumblr, deviantART, or Furaffinity.
This rant does not apply to those who are doing art as a hobby (although if you are being paid for it, then it’s work, and you should make an effort to increase productivity, as it can help develop productivity skills outside of your art if you decide to not pursue it as a career), or if you are doing it whilst in school (education comes before your art) to make a few bucks in spending money.
At the end of the day, the key to maintaining any kind of job is speed, efficiency, and productivity. If you want to be paid for your work in a respectable manner, you should be fast, able to produce high quality work, and produce a healthy quantity on a regular basis. If you charge minimum wage, and spend over 12 hours on a single character commission's line art, you are not capable to run a business with your craft yet.
Am I a jerk for saying this? Depends on which side of the fence you are on. I think an artist should be paid fairly depending on the quality of their work and the time taken to complete the work. But if you are charging minimum wage, and are taking 8 hours to do clean line art, then quite frankly, you are wasting your clients time and money, and you should adjust your prices accordingly.
lmao so long story short I commissioned this one artist on DA not knowing that I’d likely be waiting months for a finished commission. Months for a sketch I might add. Sketches which she uploaded three of in one night. Sooooo nothing that needs to take months. (And don’t give me this bullshit of “I need to want to draw it or else it wont look good.” If you hate drawing that much you need to re-examine this hobby of yours. Like damn I have zero problems drawing something for someone who just gave me their hard earned money. Have a little respect for your clients and their money. And if you can’t do that then stop taking so many bloody commissions. I really want to know how old this artist is because I can’t imagine an adult acting in this way. Making a business transaction and being like nah fuck that i don’t feel like doing it).
Anyway, when she released a list of other people waiting for commissions it looked like i was 8th on the list. So I was basically like, yo i’m not cool with this if that list is really in chronological order i think i’d like a refund (but in a nicer way of course). Funniest part is she thought she could make the situation better by coming back with, “No no it’s not in chronological order, I just do them in whatever order I feel like doing.”...... That is literally the worst reply you can give someone. That made the situation 10x worse because now there’s zero guarantee that i’ll ever get that commission. It sounds like I’m mad but i’m really not. It’s just funny to me. But it’s all in the past now. She was woman enough to refund me and I do appreciate that. Just never going to do buisness with her again.
Seriously, I LOVE getting business, it's awesome! But I wish people would think a little before sending me crazy or vague messages.
Ex: "How much do things cost?"
Me: "... I don't know. What things are you looking for. Candy bars are 2 for $1 at the Dollar store..."
Or if people would look at Joann's, Hancocks, or other fabric stores and realize: FABRIC IS EXPENSIVE.
If I'm quoting you something for $100 or up, that is not $15 of fabric and $85 for me. It's probably closer to $70 fabric and $30 me. Because I hate having to charge a lot.
So when I offered a recent cloak quote of $70 with $10 for shipping and the guy says... "Wow, that's expensive ... is there any way to make it cheaper?" I'm sitting there thinking... "Well, the fabric cost me $50 at 30% off, and I didn't even charge you for the thread I'll have to buy to match, and I kind of shaved off a little for the buttons and interfacing, because I already bought them for a project that didn't go through, and I'm only making $15 dollars off this cloak that will probably take me 4-5 hours to make, which is like $3-4 dollars an hour, which is not even half of minimum wage, and I have two term papers I'm supposed to be working on and will probably get 6 hours of sleep this weekend and not do half my homework so I can ship this out to you on time... and NO I CANNOT FREAKING MAKE IT ANY CHEAPER."
But instead I politely respond "No, I'm sorry, I cannot make it any cheaper unless you'd like me to make the cloak unlined or with a discount cotton."
And the other pet peeve would be people freaking out when I don't get back to them in a day or two. For one thing, FB doesn't always notify me when my page gets a message. For another, sometimes I'M NOT ANYWHERE NEAR A COMPUTER and I am less likely to respond positively when I get two (or more) follow up messages from you demanding to know: "WHY ARE YOU NOT RESPONDING? I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS? HOW MUCH DO YOU COST???????!"
This has been a Sarah Sunday Rant.
And for the record, most customers are AWESOME, INCREDIBLY SWEET, and a GENUINE JOY TO MAKE THINGS FOR. Which I why I am happy to offer lower prices. I appreciate the chance to try new projects and improve my skills. I also LOVE having money to buy groceries and gas. Because I live in the state with the highest gas taxes which makes it hard for me to visit friends (they all live 1-6 hours away) or my family (they live 6 hours away) Seriously, I've had to miss 2 events in the past week to hang out with my best friends in this state because I cannot afford to travel.
So much love to the kind customers, you guys are the best!
