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Questions for the Audience.
a week ago
General
Greetings everyone,
As per the title of this journal I have a few questions for my audience about some future plans of mine, usually it's quite difficult for me to gauge what general opinions are based on just the comments and statistics I get so directly asking about these topics seems to be the much more effective approach.
To begin, if I was to open commissions in the near future, I would like to know what the majority of you would be asking for - for example, details like the composition, to what kinds of characters, shading styles and if it would be adult oriented or something more general. I want to know what to offer as well as how to write my Terms of Service so there's no confusion, doubt, or unnecessary presumptions regarding what I will or will not do. Additionally information about how typically you communicate as a client with the artist you're commissioning would also be helpful as well as the means of payment so I can consider options.
On communication, I would like to know if there's any interest in something like a Discord server, or alternatively, Fluxer and/or Stoat. I want to have a more generalized public server focused on art (mine first and foremost of course) that I can more easily interact with my audience, share sketches, as well as take the aforementioned commissions from, and hopefully build a nice community based on the interests some of you may share with me. I myself lean towards Fluxer, as I feel like Discord is a ticking time bomb (figuratively speaking), but if the majority still prefer Discord I'll still make one anyway and look into bridging when those options mature.
Finally, any general comments on what you follow me for and get excited to see from me would also be appreciated, as I feel like the interest in my work has primarily shifted to anthropomorphic vehicles rather than my organic characters and the retro themes, and I'd like confirmation of that or any other information I could benefit to know.
As per the title of this journal I have a few questions for my audience about some future plans of mine, usually it's quite difficult for me to gauge what general opinions are based on just the comments and statistics I get so directly asking about these topics seems to be the much more effective approach.
To begin, if I was to open commissions in the near future, I would like to know what the majority of you would be asking for - for example, details like the composition, to what kinds of characters, shading styles and if it would be adult oriented or something more general. I want to know what to offer as well as how to write my Terms of Service so there's no confusion, doubt, or unnecessary presumptions regarding what I will or will not do. Additionally information about how typically you communicate as a client with the artist you're commissioning would also be helpful as well as the means of payment so I can consider options.
On communication, I would like to know if there's any interest in something like a Discord server, or alternatively, Fluxer and/or Stoat. I want to have a more generalized public server focused on art (mine first and foremost of course) that I can more easily interact with my audience, share sketches, as well as take the aforementioned commissions from, and hopefully build a nice community based on the interests some of you may share with me. I myself lean towards Fluxer, as I feel like Discord is a ticking time bomb (figuratively speaking), but if the majority still prefer Discord I'll still make one anyway and look into bridging when those options mature.
Finally, any general comments on what you follow me for and get excited to see from me would also be appreciated, as I feel like the interest in my work has primarily shifted to anthropomorphic vehicles rather than my organic characters and the retro themes, and I'd like confirmation of that or any other information I could benefit to know.
1. Personally, I'm happy with just about any style, shading, or composition you can provide, even something in the old Amiga OS!
2. Adult and general would be great for me, and think of it like casting a wider net, there will be more people interested in your work doing both!
3. I'm not an artist so I can't really tell you how to structure a Terms of Service, but you'll want to clearly communicate time scales (whether a commission may take a few days/weeks/months on average), what you are absolutely unwilling to draw (think fetishes, kinks, etc), and clearly list prices (but early on, you will probably have to figure this out with customers on the fly, until you find a happy middle ground, it's an inevitable struggle for artists opening commissions early.) Something you may also want to consider are limited art slots, if you don't want to be overwhelmed. PayPal and Ko-Fi are pretty good for international payments in most of the world, but for places more region locked (think Iran or Russia,) other options will need to be investigated, and I don't really know what those are unfortunately '^^.
4. It's a bit difficult to say how one communicates how one wants a commission done, but typically you'll want to ask for references on the character if any, and on poses. You should also expect that some people won't have any, and for that, may want to consider doing a few VERY basic rough sketches to get an idea of what they're looking for.
5. Personally, any platform of communication is good for me, Discord, Stoat, Fluxer, even X DMs or FA notes.
Unfortunately I have to get ready for work so I'll try to expand on this later, I hope this information helps!
1. I appreciate hearing that, and I hope the variety of choice when I'm confident in offering all the different options would be appealing. I would likely also extend the Amiga-based pixel art I do in the future to pixel art in general on modern platforms (meaning the restrictions are lessened or non-existent) as I have no trouble doing that also.
2. Very good, if there's no sheer preference from my audience for one or the other I'll consider that balanced and suitable.
3. Time duration is a very good point that I'll take note of, as I can definitely see the appeal of being presented an actual time-line to expect rather than "trust me bro", which would be slightly off-putting for me if I was a client. Pricing I have some vague ideas on, and I'll likely need to take some early commissions as experiments to really figure that out like you said. A slot system will also likely be what I do considering it's success with other artists I know.
4. The more details the better, and I would like to ask for a bare minimal set of requirements clients need to submit to me to do something unless I specifically offer options to do the design work to begin with.
5. I hope the majority will also be rather flexible on communication like so, but if there's specific needs I'm hoping those individuals would speak up to me about them so I can offer them.
Typically for communications, I write up details, artist asks questions, clarifies details/wants, provides me with a quote (maybe guided by comm sheet), and then artist submits lineart/sketch, colors, and shading stages for approval. Payment usually happens at or before first sketch.
I've had discussions in various formats: FA notes, discord, email, vgen messages. I think you should also ask an artist friend. Stuff like ToS, communications, are getting into the nitty gritty of how you want to run your business. Probably going to be a lot of learning as you go and revising things over time, but what isn't
Good luck on your future endeavours!
I also appreciate you mentioning what you would want primarily from me and I presume on organic characters it would likely be a scalie character(s), as I have the most examples of that over anything else, but feel free to correct me there as I would be curious if this would not be the case.
On communication I would certainly be asking for references alongside details as on the desired composition and shading style. My workflow is also pretty structured and I know I can give a solid work-in-progress for each step for changes before moving forward. As some examples, there could be the initial draft, coloured sketch, line-work with flat colours, and any step of the shading process, it depends how many a client would want and the level of completion the client is asking me for (as I could technically offer any of these steps as cheaper, quicker options to a final, crisp image).
Overall, I'll definitely take what you've said for consideration, thank you for taking your time to reply.
Also for the very last paragraph. I’ve always followed you for everything I just really enjoy you’re style it super nice to look at and I’m an absolute sucker for the retro themes as well, they work so well together with your art. Do quite like the anthro vehicles but honestly I’m pretty much here for everything since it’s all rad. Think you should still continue to make the retro and organic characters, Freiika and Aurelia are pretty cool
As for pixel art, if potential clients wanted the Amiga-specific work with all the restrictions it's plausible, but that'll have to come with an acceptance of disclaimers because it has limitations and if it gets too complex I'd have such a piece in modern software instead, which I could also offer by itself anyway once I make some examples, since I can do that also.
On shading I have decided I will likely initially just offer the hard edge/cell shading; I know people like my soft/gradient shaded work, but I tend to have trouble keeping that consistent enough to guarantee the final result will be what is expected. I will of course offer it when I can keep it consistent, and when it doesn't consume too much time.
Standalone vehicles I can see being something I could do provided someone didn't mind how I tend to stylise things, I'll keep it in mind for the near future since I would like to have a modern example of that made so someone like yourself could know what you'd get.
I would likely just use email should the high-res versions of my work exceed the limitations of what I mentioned as options, as I don't work at extremely high resolutions that tend to result in overly large exports.
Payment wise I'll likely go with PayPal first since most suggest that to me, and I'll look into the other options and keep them in mind for when the need arises.
I appreciate you like everything I do and my style in general, It is really nice to hear and i am quite fortunate that most of my regulars aren't here for one specific thing, which is a trap I see other artists fall into that I have wanted to avoid since I got out of my version of that trap.
I imagine with the Amigs art people will probably know what they might get themselves into for it but probably wouldn’t hurt to still have a little disclaimer on the commission sheet just as a heads up. Never hurts to idiot proof I guess. XD But yeah offer both would be nest but shaving it as the actual Amiga would be hella cool! ^^
That’s totally fair there and makes perfect sense, don’t need to worry about the clients work more than you have to. Your celshade stuff is still great though.
Nice, and yeah always good to have modern refs for future car pieces
Sounds good though for email and PayPal
For sure! ^^ And definitely understand yeah, don’t want to become like a one trick pony and slowly loose joy in what your create and feel like you’re held hostage yoir audience for lack of s better word. Good you got out of your own aforementioned one though.