The Last Poster Wins [v31]

[Noblejanobii]

First rule of thumb when pricing your commissions: Give yourself a minimum wage. Originally, I priced myself as if I'm getting paid $10 an hour (usually), then time myself as to how long a piece would take from start to finish and THAT dictates the price. So if something is listed as $10 that means it normally takes me about an hour to do. Additionally, the more valuable your time is, like if you work a 9-5 like me, the higher you should price your stuff. It's not as if you have all day to work on these things. You've got a job, plus chores, and other engagements. Time is money, so price it accordingly. This is actually why I'm going to be raising my prices again here shortly, because my job and also overall lack of stamina due to my illness has made my drawing time very limited, and I'd much rather do personal stuff than commission work. Which leads me to...

Second rule of thumb: if you don't want to do something, either don't offer it OR charge a lot for it. If you're good at drawing robots but HATE drawing them, base price should be whatever you dictate is enough to warrant you drawing said robot, whether it be $100 or $1000. If it's a pain in the butt to draw, you make it worth your time.

Third rule of thumb: Limit alterations to as early in the process as possible, ideally to the sketching phase. This is for two reasons. 1) Because it's WAY easier to fix major mistakes in the sketch phase than it is in the later phases. Minor detail adjustments in the latest states such as adjusting colors or adding small markings are fine. But redoing an entire limb or god forbid the ENTIRE POSE can cause you to have to redo an entire portion of the drawing. So be strict about this. And if the client is INSISTENT on having a major alteration done late in the game, make it clear up front that they will be charged for it. I'm talking like at least half the price of the drawing. So if they paid $30 originally and want a major alteration late in the game? Slap them with a $15 fee. TIME IS MONEY.

Fourth rule of thumb: Take the money up front or very early in the process. I generally take mine AFTER I get a sketch approved just so that way I can price stuff accordingly, but I also always slap a huge ass WIP watermark on the sketches unless someone is a close friend or trusted client, and even then it's not always a guarantee since I've have enough art stolen from me to not trust anyone. Some people do half and half, but personally I find this system is a bit of a hassle especially if you use invoices (which btw you should ALWAYS use invoices if you use paypal it makes it way easier to keep track off stuff and you can implement payment deadlines for riskier clients). But you should definitely get it as early into the process as you can since the later into the process you take payment, the more susceptible to scam you are.

Those are my commission tips <3