Collecting Character Art (CCA) Guide Posted
By
Bayani,
Posted on: 2007-07-18 08:51 in Multi-Media Fan Creations
Awesome, added to my signature...
Once again, wish I could've caught this before I submitted my finalized articles :/
Its very comic specific, but still great advice 
I don't know if you've done enough to write up a bit about commissioning through dA, but you might consider adding it
I thought about doing so, but commissioning over the internet through dA or otherwise is a bit risky because most of the time, you're pre-paying. I tend to trust the people the artists I work with vouch for personally. While this may be a little comic specific, there's nothing stopping people from hitting the anime conventions as well and using the same approach. They have Artist Alleys in conventions like Otakon and principles of networking still apply.
Sci-fi, gaming, and anime conventions almost always have an artist's alley, even if it happens to be a tiny corner of the Bazaar area.
As for commissioning thru DA, I like to go with a halfsies up front, halvsies on delivery arrangement. Some artists will ask for a small deposit, then divide the rest between the approval of the initial pencil sketch and the finished piece. Of course, if you've established a rapport with a specific artist, you can elect to pay all up front or make other arrangements. Most (but not all) will use PayPal or Zoom for payment. A few might insist on a mailed check or money order, or Western Union wire transfer.
What I've found with my DA commissions is, a lot of the artists are either pros making some money on the side, or are art students supplementing their income by doing art for cash. Some also will do art trades, or 'art for services', such as paying for a DA subscription for them. I've even got one by donating to a charity the artist was particularly passionate about.
The main thing to remember about DA (or any Internet art site) is that honest artists want VERY much to establish a good reputation, and the more their name gets out, the more they stand to make, so cheating customers is a bad idea. Of course, some are gun-shy about accepting commissions, as they're either not too sure about their availability or their talent, or they've gotten burned by someone saying they would purchase a work and then failed to come thru with the money, or issued a stop payment or reversal and left the artist holding the bag.
The best thing you can do is, check the galleries and READ THE JOURNALS. Comment (and fave) things you like. If an artist offers commissions, read the terms and be sure you're comfortable with them. Send a couple of notes or email back and forth, to make sure all the arrangements are understood. Have your references ready, along with anything else that might be needed: power descriptions, additional screenshots, rough sketches if you're at all art-inclined, shoot, even Poser models can be used. I've even used snippets of stories to try and tell the artist what 'scene' I'm imagining.
One last thing: make sure you know if you're going to be receiving a digital copy, or traditional media. If you're worried about having real goods that you can use to prove a transaction, but the artist doesn't send prints or originals, ask that the work be burned to CD or to a cheap flashdrive. Ask if you'll be receiving a print-ready copy (TIFF or PDF) as well as web-ready (JPG). Some artists will send these on request, or for a small additional fee (agreed on beforehand.)
And don't forget to PIMP THE ARTIST once you've received the finished work!! The best advertising for an up-and-coming artist is a bunch of satisfied customers showing off their work. Just take steps to keep others from stealing it (watermarks, protected galleries, steganography keys or other digital signatures buried within the file, etc.) That way you won't unwittingly contribute to any plagiarism. Make sure you ask the artist if it's OK to use the artwork in things like journal CSS or trading cards, give credit where credit is due (such as the footer of Wiki pages or journals) and give the artist links to where their art is posted.
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
I took some time to gather and re-edit the CCA articles that were published in the City Scoop and pull them into a guide for future reference. Here's the linkie...
Collecting Character Art
If anyone wants some help with putting together reference shots or have any questions not covered by the guide, feel free to contact me. Thanks!