This is kind of an old ask, sorry, and I think you’ve already made a commissions post, but here are some tips anyway! I’ve been a pretty bad commissioner in the past and let some things drag on way longer than they should, but I’ve grown a lot and these are the things that have helped me be more responsible and professional!!!

• Ask for partial payment before you start drawing and the rest when you’re done. I usually just say 50/50, you can use whatever ratio works best for you, but having payment to work for helps motivate you, while asking for payment upfront usually weeds out the sketchy people who are gonna pay you “soon.”
• Don’t feel bad for refusing to start drawing for people who are going to pay you “soon” but haven’t yet, don’t feel bad for turning down commissions if it’s something you don’t feel comfortable drawing or are too busy, don’t feel bad contacting people multiple times if they owe you, as long as you stay polite and professional. This is no time to be shy and passive.
• Communication is key! I’ve had jobs where I’ve put off contacting commissioners for way, way too long, cause I’d be all “well, I should have SOMETHING to show when I e-mail them” and then I’d keep procrastinating on actually creating that something, and basically it made everything way worse. Just dropping a line to be like “hey I’m so sorry, I’m still alive and your commission is foremost on my to-do list when I get a little time” is way, way better than nothing.
• Limit your offerings to a small number of categories! I used to do the thing where I’d be like “if you want something else just contact me” and then I’d have to go through coming up with a new price estimate, and usually underestimating it. My commissions have gone much better when I have kept strict guidelines on what I’m offering and exactly what everything costs. Which brings me to the next point-
• Set your prices high enough so that they will be worth it to YOU. Sometimes it works out to figure out an hourly wage, but sometimes that’s still not enough! Commissions create a LOT of stress even during the time you’re not actively sitting and drawing, and if you aren’t getting paid enough, that stress will just multiply exponentially. Trust me. It’s way, WAY better to do a smaller number of higher-priced commissions, and usually, the people who are willing to pay for quality artwork are more professional and easier to work with anyway. If someone whines that your prices are too high, tell them (in a very respectful manner, of course) to go butt a stump.

I think that’s it for now! I do not naturally possess the temperament and work ethic to be good at freelancing, so every one of these lessons has been learned the hard way, by bumbling through and making mistakes and gradually learning how NOT to annoy my clients and turn a simple portrait commission into an absolutely traumatic experience. So hopefully I can save some other developing artists from going through the same trauma!

I’m from southwest Missouri!!!

spacecricket:

Hyperbole and a Half posted again, and everyone needs to read it because:

• If you are depressed, it will resonate with you like whoa.
• If you are not depressed, it will clarify some stereotypes about depression that need to be said. An explanation like this has been needed for a LONG time.
• If you know someone who is depressed, you’ll be better at interacting with them after reading this.

(via crownkind)

josiahfiles:

i woke up and checked my blog the other day to find about 300 new followers??  and none of my posts had blown up much more than usual or anything?  so i asked twitter and i guESS a chinese website wrote an article about me but i cant read it all because google translate cant handle it all so its just broken english?

SO THANKS TO NEWS.GAMME.COM.TW FOR A NICE ARTICLE ABOUT ME THAT I CANT TOTALLY READ BUT IS STILL COOL AND NICE

featured in this article: ME, or at least a drawing Josiah did of me.

“Hi, okay? (Glide)” is my new favorite quote

hkrieg:

Late-night comic for YOU 

(via aatmajapandya)

not for a while I’m afraid!!! I’m still having a guy do the sound (I actually really need to e-mail him about it, after I run all the other errands and do all the other stuff I need to do today, SCREAMS) and there are a couple other things I want to fix, if I can get to a computer with the right software, and after that I still want to be careful, because I want to try sending it to some festivals and a lot of them won’t accept submissions that have already been posted publicly online!

patience, my child!!! UoU