Questions on Commissions.
By
Bronze Knight,
Posted on: 2011-03-25 21:48 in Multi-Media Fan Creations
The best thing to do to start with is to come up with a detailed description of your character. Then you need to come up with as many references as possible. Basic descriptions of the character, including a simple personality description, hair, skin and eye color, as well as details about the costume. The more you can describe things, the better. Reference pictures are best.
However, even given all of that, unless you have a photograph of your character, or are willing to pose for a reference picture, for example, you should expect that what the artist sees in their creative minds eye will probably not be exactly like what you see. You can often tell from an artists other works just how accurate they might be even with perfect references, but assuming you do not have these perfect references you should not expect things to turn out exactly like what you want.
Now, in my opinion, you can either become an amazing artist yourself, or you can learn to enjoy these creative "differences", or you can be perpetually disappointed in pretty much any artists creation.
I recommend that you make sure your reference materials have all of the most important details that you think are necessary to the character, and that you prepare yourself to enjoy what each individual artist can bring as their interpretation of that character...otherwise, you will never be happy with any commissioned artwork that you get. Ever.
Quote:
Yes. And no.|
Originally Posted by Bronze Knight
It may be that I am special, but commissioning art seams like a daunting task. To me the point of paying some one to drawl your characters is to make them look like they would if there were "real". To make them look like they have access to more than the same cookie cutter costume parts that you see in game every day.
First off am I right in that assumption? |
It's all up to the commissioner. Some people like to see exactly the costume they made in the CC and want to see it recreated in scene or poses they can't get in game. Some want their costumes tweaked with stuff like jewelry and such. Others want something the costume creator just can't create.
Frankly you'll find as many differences in this as you find commissioners.
Quote:
| If so the issue then is, (for me) how do you go about describing your character to the artist with out boring them or stifling their creative ability? |
The one thing I would suggest is that it helps to have picture of things similiar to what you want. If you want specific boots that the game doesn't describe, find a real life pic similiar to what you want. A lot of artists want visual references but they don't have to all be from the same source...
Some artists don't mind descriptions, specially for just changes as opposed to whole character design. In these cases be as specific as possible... And again, let the artist know on the intiial note what things you have references for and which you don't.
Quote:
| I have thought about getting a commission done in the past but this was allways the sticking point. By useing a medium outside of the game engine one is free to do things that can't be done in game. However if you do that you now have to describe how you want it to look to the artists, and there will allways be some level of disparity between the picture in your head and what ends up on paper. What is the best way to keep that to a minimum? |
But keep in mind that sometimes the artist will exceed expectations as well, or do things to your character that you never thought of but which instantly become a key component to them.
But all in all the best way to minimize it is to:
1) Know exactly what you want. Find as good of references as possible and write up what you can't find references for as clearly and precisely as possible.
2) Do your homework. Check out many galleries before settling on an artist. Find one who works in a style you like. Find one who has done many commissions before. Ask some previous clients about their dealings with the artist.
Quote:
| I also had a question about master minds for those of you here that commission a lot of art. Do you get a solo of the MM or do you get the MM and all of their minnions in? Most people charge more the more characters there are, so what do you do? |
Single character arts can be awesome. Some of my favorites are solo pieces. But additional characters, backgrounds, ect really bring the scene to life.
Figure out just exactly you really want and then figure out how much you can afford to spend. Then look for an artist in your price range. If you look long and hard enough you can find some really great artists for pretty cheap... I just recently found two who I think do amazing work for insanely low prices.
Check out the last couple arts in my commission thread for links...Quote:
| I was thinking about commissioning Geekboy5000. Reasonable price and great style. I just have to decide which character I want done. |
Also, Bayani wrote up a really good guide to commissioning artists, you may want to do a search of the forums for that thread and give it a read before buying art...
Here is the thread Caemgen is referring too.
Ah thank you. Figures its under player guides and not the stickys here.
Captain Den'Rath 53* Merk/Traps MM, Rivona 50Energy Blast/Time Cor,Victoria Von Heilwig 53* Dual Pistols/Traps Cor, Crab Spider Webguard 53* SOA, Accela 53* Bot/FF MM,Valkyrie's Executor 53* Broadsword/Shield Def Scrap. On FREEDOM! @Knight Of Bronze
"Hypocrisy, the human inherent." "Let not this work be wasted, apply yourself always."
Quote:
Great guide and I agree with what the others have said.|
Originally Posted by ChristopherRobin
Here is the thread Caemgen is referring too.
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Descriptions, reference images and physical details can make it easier for the artist to recreate your character.
Don't overlook simple facts like gender and age. I've had one of my female characters drawn as a butch male elf, and Comrade Hero has been drawn as a younger Nightwing type character. I didn't mind that so much, but turning my slender female Ice blaster into a hulking mass of man muscle really annoyed me.
comrade reinforces the point of being specific. All of my art has been gift art for competitions practice drawings etc. etc. It really does matter to not only have an idea of what you want but something for the artist to sample. Myself I'm pretty horrible at words so trying to convey my ideas that way doesn't work very well, but a couple of pictures are worth a couple thousand words.
Roxy On DA...Finally!
Eye color oh please be sure to mention eye color
I know personally I hate that eye color is attached to face style in the game. Practically none of my characters have the eye color the game gives them.
People have mentioned it before but be sure when selecting artists you know you are buying their style, you wouldn't go to someone who deals only is cartoony cutesy things and commission a realistic portrait.
I've had people commission me and then take major issue with my style. Well all I can say is they knew what kind of work I did when they paid me, so I tried my best to work with them but I won't be accepting from them again. Clear reference shots are best. I've had people send me shots that are zoomed so far out I can't make out anything. But when it's a pay commission I try my best to meet them in game to grab my own shots so I know I have what I need.
Artists are human, nothing will ever be perfect or 100%, at the end of the day you are paying for someone's interpretation of your character. Look around and find an artist that fits you, if you want a massive amount of input and control find an artist that communicates well and doesn't have a lot of rules on how many changes you can make (I know a few that will only change the drawing X amounts of times in different stages, this may sound harsh but some people, if allowed, will change details every step of the way. It aggravates, and makes the art take longer!).
When checking dA for artists try contacting some of their past clients with simple "How pleased were you with x,y,z?"
Sometimes the end product is not worth the hassle the client went through to get it.
And again please keep in mind that you are dealing with another human being. I actually at one point had a client who would never respond to my communications, dodge me quite frequently, and then accuse me of not giving them attention other clients got. They spoke to me in a very degrading way that made me feel like I was just some art machine. I had a very negative attitude towards commissions for a while after that and almost stopped altogether.
I hope that was helpful, good luck finding something 
It may be that I am special, but commissioning art seams like a daunting task. To me the point of paying some one to drawl your characters is to make them look like they would if there were "real". To make them look like they have access to more than the same cookie cutter costume parts that you see in game every day.
First off am I right in that assumption?
If so the issue then is, (for me) how do you go about describing your character to the artist with out boring them or stifling their creative ability?
I have thought about getting a commission done in the past but this was allways the sticking point. By useing a medium outside of the game engine one is free to do things that can't be done in game. However if you do that you now have to describe how you want it to look to the artists, and there will allways be some level of disparity between the picture in your head and what ends up on paper. What is the best way to keep that to a minimum?
I also had a question about master minds for those of you here that commission a lot of art. Do you get a solo of the MM or do you get the MM and all of their minnions in? Most people charge more the more characters there are, so what do you do?
I was thinking about commissioning Geekboy5000. Reasonable price and great style. I just have to decide which character I want done.