How long should someone wait for art?

We've had a few threads going on forum stuff... why not this one? I've heard of people waiting a year or more. I've also heard of people losing interest (both the artist and the person "requesting").

So, what do you think is an acceptable wait?

Well, firstly the reasonable wait period goes up with the scale and quality of what's being looked for. Any "unusual features" will also tend to boost the wait.

If I wanted a line sketch of the character in my avatar, I'd expect it to be put together in less than a day by most of the people, plus any time spent waiting in a queue. A lot of people here could probably even do it in minutes, though their tools may not necessarily be on hand. The "normal" upper limit of my patience for such an order would probably be around a week. If extenuating circumstances came into play ("My computer exploded"/"I'm sick and can barely even sit up"/"I'm giving birth right now"/"I've got a major spleen surgery this afternoon"/"I'm completely burned out"/etc) then I'd probaby even be willing to wait it out for a couple of months, if necessary. Possibly more if the extenuating circumstances are particularly difficult (ie, an artist giving birth who is also a single mother who needs to take a hiatus in the hopes of getting everything in order).

If I wanted something, say, poster scale and in full colour, I'd be prepared to wait a couple of months for such a thing - especially if I'm expecting it to be a work of high quality. If the artist in question is doing a lot of these things, with a substantial attention to detail and a quality that really stands out from the rest, then a year in their queue may not even be unheard of nor unexpected.

If I wanted the artist to come to my place and put a massive CoH Mural on my wall...well, I wouldn't be surprised if I'd have to wait for a big opening in their schedule to actually travel and perform such a feat.

But hey, these are just my inexperienced opinions.

That's actually pretty close for me. I am finding that a detailed piece which use to take me 2 days of no interruptions save sleep and food, would be sufficient to keep me on schedule. But with the differences in toons, and NOT wanting to cookie cutter each piece I have been spreading myself a little thin.

Not to mention loosing enthusiasum because how often does one person want to draw the same things day in and day out. So I sporadically dot my lows with gift art, sketches for myself, and well let's not even mention projects that you hope will gain you some rent money in the long run.

I think 8-10 days is a healthy wait once the artist begins, that amount of time will allow details to be done, oddites to occur, and yes the intrusion of real life.

I'd love to bang out 2 day pieces again, but I know my back, my eyes, my personal life would suffer for it.

As for sketches, this all depends on what the client will settle for... same goes with coloring, what might make the client happy could be vastly different from the artist. On very rare occasions do I get examples thrown at me like can you simulate this piece in my own. That for myself only, helps a great deal, it takes out the guess work, which is very time consuming.

I am currently on a piece for a client in my queue, which took several sketches to get done to an agreed upon theme. In the end, my original idea was what I knew he wanted, it just took "me" several days to realize that. Now after returning to it, comes the detail work, and it's the kind of thing that well if I draw another guy with a sword, somebody shoot me! But this is what we do, this is the business I'm in... so it's also a question of reinvigorating yourself, your inspiration, AND as always making your client happy with the final.

I still strive for speed, but I'm learning to take healthy breaks, for both heart and soul.

I would say whatever the client and artist agree upon barring any real life issues for the artist or changes the client wants. Communication is always key.

Usually I don't think anything odd of a month for the stuff I get, but honestly am fine out to 2 or 3 so long as I know the artist is alive and I'm getting updates, if not of my artwork at least of their situation. Most the artist have week or less turn arounds so that's what I expect. Start getting into people with year-long queues and all, then obviously longer is fine, though I personally am something of an instant gratification sort, so I know better than to sign up for those

Oh speaking of which Kai, I read some Green Lantern graphic novel and got an instant idea for your group, I think it's gonna be perfect... so email when to meet you guys this week, I have to take my own screens for this to work. You're gonna feel like being at a photo shoot, "make love to the camera, no put your pants back on! I was talking figuratively ya crazy *****rd!"

LJ

If they have absolutely no life (school and/or a job that does REALLY pay all the bills) or don't give heart into their commissions, within a day. However is RL going on and a proper commission taking hours, this can expand. A year is redicilous though.

Mine takes two to four weeks to finish at average. Digital ones usually take longer (as in in the 3-4 weeks area), because 1: they take like 15+ hours to make for me and 2: both my school (high-grade Mechanical Engineering in case you wonder... and no, I'm female :P) and my current jobs require me to stare at a screen much and I really need to take breaks from it, lol. However, I will work on on any kind of commission whenever I do have the time and the energy. For example if it's like vacation from school and I don't have a lot of work for my job, you can expect mine to be done within a week.

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(high-grade Mechanical Engineering in case you wonder... and no, I'm female :P)

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(Minor threadjack: Engineering women are hot, and seem to be popping up all over the place. Global Warming, I say!)

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I would say whatever the client and artist agree upon barring any real life issues for the artist or changes the client wants. Communication is always key.

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Bingo.

I waited over a year for that Graver piece, BUT (a) he had a queue up and (b) he had a central place where he mentioned moving, etc, etc. so you could see what's going on, and his stuff's worth waiting for.

I'm waiting on one other piece from a talented artist, and it's been a few months - which wasn't bad, about once a month we'd get back and forth on the queue and where I was, etc. But since getting a prelim sketch at the beginning of *last* month... I haven't heard a thing, and have sent emails. The site (and DA page) haven't seemed to been updated... so yeah, I'm left here wondering what's going on.

(No, not naming the artist, there may well be RL things going on - I know my focus would be there, not on email and such - but I'm hoping to hear what's up.)

See my Guides and Tutorials

I agree that longer waits are easier when the quality of the work is high. On the other hand, spending alot of money and not seeing results for months can be frustrating, so I can completely empathize with people on that. My big problem is that, the longer I wait, the more likely I am to change my mind on certain aspects and want to tweak characters and such. But that is completely my issue, though I am sure the artist would get frustrated with me for making constant changes. Fortunately this hasn't been much of a problem.

Yikes, I hope you hear back real soon Bill.

As for myself, I've never had anything commissioned and I'm not in a position too at this time. Eventually I want to get several pieces commissioned, but that is still a ways down the road still. Personally, I can't see myself waiting a year for something, even something as great as Graver's work. To me, that is just too long. Then again, I have no idea how long it takes to create some of the truly awesome and brilliant pieces. I know I have spent years working on my novels and neither is complete yet (though in the case of one it is because I'm hoping the genre settles a little.)

Regardless, I'm not known for being patient. So, I'll have to wait and see in all honesty before I know how long I'd be able to wait.

But like others said; Commuinication is Key.

=. .=

I think there are a few factors at play here. The quality of craftsmanship you are looking for. How high the demand is for the artist you want to commission, and we must consider that things do happen in real life. The one that really pops out to me is Sayterra’s car accident and my chemical burn. Honestly for some pro's in the comic world I have heard of wait times going over 2 years. I also know other artists not in the gaming world that have VERY long queues for their work. Someone mentioned Graver, dude I would wait one year, two years, or as long as it took to own a Graver original.

As far as losing interest as an artist I can’t think of one commission project that I ever have. I love the fact that people want me to capture their characters. I also think its cool that my art is hanging on the walls of so many different people, and in so many different countries. I finally got an order from Japan W00T!

From the customers perspective I’m sure it’s hard to wait, and it varies from customer to customer, but when they see their piece coming together it seems like all of that frustration goes out of the window. I can’t say that happens in every case but I can say that some of my favorite testimonials came from people that got a bit frustrated during the wait.

I could do a Graver piece, it would just take as long as ordering a real one, so why kill myself?

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From the customers perspective I’m sure it’s hard to wait, and it varies from customer to customer, but when they see their piece coming together it seems like all of that frustration goes out of the window. I can’t say that happens in every case but I can say that some of my favorite testimonials came from people that got a bit frustrated during the wait.

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That probably true. I didn't realize the wait times could be so long. Like I said, i have yet to commission (or be able to commission) anything. There are four or five artists on these forums that I really would love to have a commission with. So many times I have looked at other peoples commissions, read there happiness and exuberance and wished I had something simular of Tundara.

Patience is something that I personally need to work on regardless of wither I get commissions or not.

I try not to keep people waiting for more than a month, but things *do* happen and sometimes pieces take longer. As has been said, communication is key. If a piece is worth doing, it's worth doing RIGHT.

In my particular case, I only accept 1 - 2 commissions at a time. I have a list 30+ people waiting to get work from me, but I refuse to start the ball rolling until I know for a fact I can deliver in a timely fashion. As a result, I probably have some impatient people waiting on me to get time and get back to them... but I don't ask for payment until I start work so there's no obligation on my part.

With my growing interest in non-COH projects, my pursuit of digital 3D comics, my portfolio for 'the big boys', and my own personal projects, I'm not going to be taking many more commissions in the near future. I just don't like having the pressure of a huge backlog... and I don't have the infrastructure to keep track of it all. Gill is fortunate enough to have a partner that helps - I'm not. So given the choice, I'd rather just take a few at a time and deal with it on a short-term basis. I simply don't have the mind power for it all, like Gill does. He's my hero.

I'll be your partner Doug, I'll whip you in shape once in the morning, then twice in the afternoon, and finally half a whipping before bedtime... oh heck a full whipping! You can pay me in artwork... oops computer mix up, seems your entire backlog got accidentally deleted, till we fix the hard drive, you can start on mine...

Days, weeks, months... I'm pretty patient.

Some of the artists I've commissioned are working on projects that literally take up months of their times, so I don't mind the wait. Others like Doug and Graver have long waiting lists, so again I don't mind.

I think the longest I've waited is over a year and counting. The first piece was well worth it though.

I have had two pending pieces out for over a year. one I paid half on allready and one I didnt. I havent pressed the issue because I know both artists are very busy and backlogged. however if i had known the wait was going to be this long for the one I paid on I might have said no. to me as the customer I try to be very understanding of artist schedules and that sometimes life happens. I do feel that once I am to the point of payment I have more of a right to be fussy about a timeline I just havent been so far because I love you guys and gals too much.

(edit) I didnt state anywhere that I was just giving my personal opinion on what is an acceptable wait if your one of my commisions dont think I am trying to call you out

It all depends on if the artist has a queue and RL. Personally I don't mind waiting as long as it isn't over 4 months. Now that might change depending on who the artist is and how detailed the work is.
Though if the artist doesn't have a queue or a very big one I'd expect to see a ruff sketch within a month.

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Honestly for some pro's in the comic world I have heard of wait times going over 2 years. I also know other artists not in the gaming world that have VERY long queues for their work. Someone mentioned Graver, dude I would wait one year, two years, or as long as it took to own a Graver original.

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Personally, I usually try not to make my clients wait more than a month or two at the most. I'm pretty much with DarkJedi on this one, I'd rather not accept payment until I know that I can deliver in a timely fashion.

On a side note Gill, I glanced at your DA, not having seen it before, and I must say, your work is positively devine!

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I think there are a few factors at play here. The quality of craftsmanship you are looking for. How high the demand is for the artist you want to commission, and we must consider that things do happen in real life. The one that really pops out to me is Sayterra’s car accident and my chemical burn. Honestly for some pro's in the comic world I have heard of wait times going over 2 years. I also know other artists not in the gaming world that have VERY long queues for their work. Someone mentioned Graver, dude I would wait one year, two years, or as long as it took to own a Graver original.




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proud to have one of the very fist graver pieces on these forums . I like to believe that I helped cause the frenzy

and I have said privately to both you and sayt that I understand the accidents and other RL stuff perfectly well and I have talked with DJ about knowing what the grind is like for art one of the many reasons I dont mind being a lot patient

I don't mind waiting for something I really want as long as I have a good time estimate and receive updates from the artist. If they tell me up front it could take a year, then I am more than happy to wait. I would be totally understanding of any medical emergencies that would arise as well as other life issues, again, as long as I receive updates.

Cool, the next Larissa piece won't be ready till 2008!

For me, it depends on the situation and type of commission involved, and what caveats have been put on it beforehand (artist has long queue, computer issues, etc.). The key is communication, I think... I'll overlook just about any reasonable delay if the artist lets me know, somehow, what's going on and why things are bunged up.

Really, good art is worth waiting for. My favorite piece took a year to produce, and it was done by an artist who... well, she's more than an acquaintance, though maybe not quite the type of friend who I see regularly, go to dinner with, etc. Suffice it to say, we see her at conventions, she recognizes and knows myself and my husband. Long story time, as I am an old fart and like to tell stories, so either scroll past or get the footie jammies and hot cocoa.

We always told her that, once we got our own place, we'd commission something from her. Well, we finally did get our own place, and at the next Origins convention, we did commission something.

We left it rather purposefully vague as to what we wanted, because we really, really liked her style, and wanted it to be something she liked, too. So, we just gave her a few elements that we liked. My husband chose dragons, of which she heartily approved. My contribution was that I liked waterfalls, and autumn leaves. She worked on a few prelim, bare-bones sketches over the weekend, and showed them to us on Sunday before we left the con. We picked one, and then let her go at it.

Now, this was a sizeable piece, 24x26 I think, in acrylics, so a year was given as the estimated delivery time, which was more than fine by us, as she was also giving us a friendly discount. I won't go into exact figures here as that's a no-no, but suffice it to say that the twelve-month payment schedule was more than warranted.

So, I'd send the payment in every month, and she'd give me updates about what was going on, not only with the commission, but with other things in her life, as she's also got her own RPG and stuff. I'd tell her about what was going on with us. Sometimes, there'd be no real progress to report, which was okay. Sometimes you have to let stuff sit and stew. Other times, she'd tell me about having to get up in the middle of the night, shaking so badly that she had to go back to working on the painting.

After a year, we exchanged e-mails about picking up the commission, and it was decided we'd pick it up during the return of the convention we had first commissioned it at. We opted for an included mat (but not frame) and a silver ink sketch and signature in one corner of the mat.

First evening the dealer room was open, we went in to see our painting. We made our way back to her booth, and caught our first glimpse of the painting. I was absolutely poleaxed, and just stood there for several seconds staring. It was gorgeous. It was ours: mine, my husband's, hers. She just watched, smiling a bit.

Then I started to cry, and she joined in. We cried, and hugged, and hugged and cried, right there on the dealer room floor. Bawled our friggin' eyes out. Hubby was a bit more reserved, but his eyes were still pretty moist, and he got his fair share of hugging. I still get a bit weepy thinking about it. It was all good.

Someday, I'll commission from her again. I have no doubt it'll be great.

darn I wish I could see the faces of my clients when they see the work for the first time... that would be nice. Congrats, can we see the painting?