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Apr 2023

I am a digital illustrator and I am new to commissions. So I wanted to ask from which site or app should I try to get commissions as I don't have that much audience.
If you guys have any ideas please share them and if you have any advice you wanna give me kindly tell.

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    Apr '23
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    May '23
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There is no set site. It is more of a combination of sites. Overall you should advertice your own art by showing it around and saying you do commissions.

Besides social media you can go around in forums looking for new clients, opening a tumblr account, selling your art on devianArt/showing it for free to get possible clients, and/or opening a newgrounds account.

Where should you sell your commissions? Usually, Ko-Fi is a great site to sell SFW commissions. You just have to advertise your ko-fi link to every place you visit. Be it your social media, forums, etc.

Ko-Fi will not provide you with any new clients it is just a site to have a safe way to receive payments for commissions. @RedLenai is way more informed on the matter. Ask for Red's advice.

P.S. Don't forget to tell your friends to spread the word. It helps a lot when you are starting as a freelancer.

I have (uncomfortable) advice for you.
The high paying and easy to get commissions happen offline.
When you want more information let me know, I can give you all the
advice how to get jobs

When I first started out, I got a lot of my commissions from Facebook, people I knew and small local businesses. I did a lot of things like manga portraits (do one of a non-artist friend or family member who is popular just as a nice present or surprise, then when they inevitably make it their profile pic and post about it, reply to everyone who is like "OMG I WANT ONE!" with "DM/email me, they're just £20" or whatever.)

When I'd built up more of a following, I started getting more from places like Twitter and Insta (Tumblr is awful unless you're in very specific fandoms or niches) and made myself a website. Having a website that's easy to find is really important, a lot of boomers are really bad at following links through an insta to a carrd and stuff, and will only commission you if you have a nice simple website with a page that says "CONTACT" :sweat_02:

If you want to sell a specific service, you can try fiverr or people per hour, but...ughhh... they're not ideal. I think a better thing to do is to make asset packs for games or tabletop RPGs and similar and then to sell them on places like the Unity or Unreal asset stores, or the Dungeon Master's Guild. If you're in the US, Roll20 is an option too. Having multiple income streams is really helpful.

Building a portfolio would be a great start.
I started getting commissions requests on social media (Instagram, Twitter) mostly after I made quite a few black and white fanart portraits for Inktober, this basically built a portfolio for people to see. They would come for portraits and also saw my other art on the same social media/asked me what else I can do. I can't say I am big on fanart and that this method is particularly good and foolproof or anything, but it can help attracting people, because it's easier to find on internet.
In any case, you should have something to show people that will make them want to commission you and since you want eyes on your art, there's work to be done by posting art on quite a few platforms, probably including Insta, Twitter, Tumblr, Deviantart. You can also make a portfolio on more professional sites like Artstation, just to use it as a gallery.

Fiverr or Freelancer is places you can find people to commission you.

With Fiverr people gonna have to look for you and if you want to be found easily you have to bring traffic to your page and then Fiverr might show you on their front page which I think is rare unless you're some sort of popular artist.

For Freelancer you're gonna have to find the clients yourself, it's like a forum where people are looking for artists. It's a really broad site so it might take you more time browsing than actually working.

You can try reddit too, there's some subreddits that are really active. Try r/ArtCommissions or r/HungryArtists if you're interested.

This is gonna be though, please mind this is not with any intention to offend you but more of as if I was you, and I had to self-criticize myself with what I know and what I've seen online for the decade I engaged with it. As far as I can tell there is no better nor ideal place where to get commissions, that changes depending on your public, sometimes it could be A social media or it could be B or C. It fluctuates but is mostly because of you.

If you didn't get a single commission nor job offer based on your services, then something is definetly wrong with (It could be A reason, not all of them, or well..... it can be sometimes) how you do things.

  • Price
  • Presentation
  • Activity
  • Self promotion
  • Service
  • Accessibility

Price:

I'll keep it simple. You need to have a a stable, solid price. Some people may see first how you engage with previous stuff and if they notice you go for any price based on what the other person offers, then they won't be sure if you're charging them extra and most will feel angry if you offer someone else a "cheaper" price. Not to mention, if your abilities are not that great then people will get offended even more at the point of considering it "a scam".

So, keep in mind the fundamentals: Look at your style, look at what you're offering, then compare yourself to both local and international market, check for something either in between to see what can you do for your prices and maybe guarantee better chances to get commissioned. Keep in mind your time but don't necessarily get yourself attached, in case you're not from North America or Europe, to those specific prices, charge based on what you need according to your local currency. A lot of people consider their month and needs saved by making $300 a month, but of course, if you're starting, try get satisfied by being able to pay public transport or a service like Internet or Electricity.

Presentation:

I've seen your portfolio19 several times and... is not consistent, any person who sees it would not feel sure about hiring you because there is not even 2 works that look alike in technique and style. Some works... even if they aren't, look traced13. There is a lot of inconsistency in anatomy and at times it doesn't even look aesthetic to ignore.

Presentation wise: The instagram you used to share doesn't work, so it seems it had been deleted. We already know that having more than a single social media or place where we share our works would benefits us more.
But the thing I've noticed several times especially here in the Forum, especially when there are Paid Collaboration threads is that you apply for things that either you don't know about (Judging by the fact there is no sample of the content you apply for, in your portfolio) or that are bit beyond your current abilities and that more than looking inexperienced or out of place, looks more like... disrespectful, as if you didn't read the person's requirements.

It's amazing to recognize your strenghts, but admmiting one's flaws is also very important.

Your attitude:
There are things regarding a commission price list that may make it look unnappealing, be it vibrant colors, unorganized assets, lots of text, lots of samples and prices, confusing add-ons and so on.
You need to keep it simple, or delicate. It has to be appealing to the eye, a lot fo people make the mistake that by using vibrant colors is going to attract more people but in truth it will only be seen a second because reading may turn into an impossible task.
Having a decent font is important, it has to be easy to understand, it has to match a bit your works and especially: Numbers need to look decent and easy to read as well, there are lovely fonts with curls and swirls but when it's time to read the numbers is nightmarish. Another thing to keep in mind is keeping a few samples and prices, avoid putting a bunch of text or several stuff in the image (Yes, try it to be a single one because if you go for more than 3-4, then people will scroll by, no one wants to open galleries or click images to see them in bigger size, so try to make it easy for any person interested)

Activity

Now... the part that everyone hates, this is totally different from Self-Promotion but it's gotta be mentioned anyway, leave aside having to share into several places, think about your main account.

In your main account, you need to look the part, you need to look active, that you're an artist that is taking jobs, that is quick to respond, that can have a quick turnaround time to deliver pieces and so on.
I always think: An artist that posts at least 2 times a week has better chances that one that posts 2 times a month, sadly, being fast and pumping drawings is important, especially if these are different from one another.
Or you can post something everyday, be it a rough sketch, finished work, another wip, a little practice, a reel or video and switching constantly.

Try to work faster not harder, but make it "look" you're so hardworking and fast and neat and bla bla bla. Doesn't need to be perfect, only needs to be posted.

Another thing I've noticed is that your portfolio has been the same for probably more than a year? There is no new artworks, there is no new stuff being made and added. And if you have been posting new art on a weekly basis or something, since we don't know where else you post your artwork then it's the same as being an non-active account.

Self promotion

Well, this is the obvious one.
Having the main three: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Sharing in like... 100 fb groups, participating in tweet artshares, using reels, stories, hashtags, yadda yadda... every time you make a new piece.
Nowadays in Facebook groups, especially commission ones, you need to put that the art is yours in the post, price and a link to either your commission pricelist or gallery. So, with more reason is important to have solid prices.

Having the extras: Tumblr, Reddit, Discord
The first one... is only good for fanart, so try to grab people interested with that (For example... got around 7K notes with a Buddy Daddies fanart3), reddit and discord are the same about: participating, being active and then being in several places and sharing your work besides prices or a link. Again, most of the time in places that are communities, you'll need to engage with people, no one is going to be interested if you only dump your works in the channel, want feedback, engage, want people to know you're there, engage.

There are other places where to get commissions:
* Here in the forum
* DeviantArt's forum (Services/Offers sub-threads)
* Reddit
* Furraffinity

Personally, I don't recommend Fiverr, it's way too demanding with turnaround times, your score depends on it and at the same time you'll have to charge cheaper than what is considered acceptable in most platforms and communities, and in the long run is not even worth it. Is good only for when you're a bit desperate but that's it. And I say "a bit" desperate because even if you get commissioned, you don't have the money quite quickly, you'll need to wait for it to get unlocked, and there are several fees as well.

I always recommend:

  • Share in as many places as you can. the work you just finished, and then maybe twice a month, your commission price list.
  • Don't be affraid of replying with your art and prices to a post/thread despite having around 300 people already doing it, you never know who may be interested as well.
  • Sadly, self-promotion is deeply attached to Presentation and Activity, so it's important to keep a proper balance of the three.

But again, keep in mind that you're reading what they post and that you can actually be up to the task and not just throwing your price list for throwing it, avoid sending your pricelist especially to posts where people are seeking for advice regarding what to do with an artist that is not delivering work to them, I've seen this happening several times, and always considered the same: The people that only do that instead of providing assistance to the other artist's client with their unpleasant experience are being disrespectful and out of place.

Service

Now, while doing commissions, what service do you provide? Again, checking your portfolio I see you can do illustrations, but all of these don't look like works I would commission, neither I would know what I would receive if I were to hire you. All your illustrations looks like practices... and mostly something that usually teenagers around 13-14 would post, some traced works, some copies, studies and such.

I've seen you offering yourself for other people's webcomics, but I don't see anything webcomic like, there is one named "webcomic panel" but it looks like a normal illustration, I don't see how you arrange a strip or long canvas, doesn't even need to be 10 panels but around 5 should provide a bit more of an idea how you work.

Accessibility

Do you have a portfolio, a place where people can see your work, be it separated in galleries depending on the type of commission you offer, or the style, or the service, etc?
Ko-Fi is great to keep things organized in a gallery (sample 13) or having a better structure of your commissions (sample 24) since you can better manage and strike part of the part above.

And this adds to the methods of payment you have available, through which services, which currency and so on.

But do you have an index or place where these things can be seen? Like a linktree or cardd where all the important information: Art samples, prices, ToS, TaT, Other services, other works, socials, etc can be seen?

Remember than when you're the one offering to reach others, you need to basically have things kind of served in a golden plate, for others, opening something as mundane as a link is a mayor task that needs motivation, interest, curiosity, basically "doing you a favor" so yeah, you have to be extra appealing so they properly check you out. Many won't search through your profile, socials or open up each link, so having an Index may make things more accessible, especially when they don't have to open many tabs.

When it comes to getting commissions, it's important to have a strong portfolio that showcases your skills and style. You should also be clear about your rates of qesco bill6 and turnaround time for projects. Don't be afraid to reach out to potential clients and promote your work through social media and other channels. Good luck with your commissions!