Author's Note: I am inactive on dA, but felt that this needed to be said about art communities with young/non-professional artists. (By professional, I mean this is what you do for a living)
I will not be answering comments on this journal. This is an opinion piece, and I am not forcing my opinions on you. You can share them or not share them, I won't argue with anyone about this.
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Ever know someone who keeps taking commissions without ever producing any commission work? Or get frustrated when someone posts personal work again and again but hasn't dealt with a commission that was ordered months ago? It's one thing to a while to fulfill a commission, another to keep taking commissions while continuously doing personal work or just not producing commissions.
I really wanted to write this article because I have seen more than one incarnation of this on dA. This article is more about good business practices rather than how old do you have to be to be la professional. I am not arguing how old someone has to be to be professional. One of my most hated excuses coming from some of these artists is the artist is only x years old, so they obviously aren't professionals and their commissioners shouldn't have those expectations for them. I find personal life rather irrelevant when it comes to a business transaction. It's an exchange of goods for services: money/points for art. The artist entered this transaction knowing it is an exchange. Unless otherwise discussed, there was never an agreement that said because the artist is x age or because of x situation, extra considerations have to be made.
I think that these deviants is that they fall into either or both of these two pitfalls:
- Taking on more than they can handle
- Undercharging for their time
The second leads to the vicious cycle of the first and so that's why I'm more concerned when people take more than they can handle. (The second is due to lower prices = larger volume of commissions = case #1)
When an artist takes more than they can handle, it can be overwhelming with all these deadlines and responsibilities and can cause an artist to take an extremely long time to deliver (over a year) or the artist can feel so pressured that they bolt and leave their commissions without money or art.
With those who stick it out, it is the honorable thing to do, but they are not helping themselves reach their goal if they continuing to add to their workload. I've seen many of these artists spend their payment before they have delivered the goods which only digs them into a deeper grave. Eventually some of these artists start taking more commissions to pay back the commissioners who no longer want to wait.
Then these new commissions are introduced to this cycle, and the cycle ends up taking more control of the artist.
It ends terribly for both parties, the artist being pressured, and the commissioner feeling dissatisfied of having to wait so long.
In essence, the only fitting metaphor that came to mind was a Ponzi scheme. For those who do not know what a ponzi scheme is, it is defined as "operation that pays returns to its investors from existing capital or new capital paid by new investors, rather than from profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation."
There are many (but difficult) solutions for this, but the best thing to do is just avoid it as a business practice. It's bad for your reputation, bad for your sense of professionalism, and just leaves a bad taste overall.
I personally avoid the cycle as a commissioner by:
- Never commissioning someone who seems to have an undesirable track record (the definition of this is up to you)
- Asking for an estimated time of delivery and giving a deadline of 45 days (you can still file a claim with paypal)
- Never commissioning anyone with more than 5 commissions
- Kindly ask for updates twice a month to keep on the same page with the artist
My advice for artists who are currently in this pitfall is to:
- Stop taking more commissions, sit down, and just get your work done
- If you really can't produce the art at the moment, get a part time job and just refund your commissioners. You probably get a better hourly rate at a part time job anyway
- If you still have excuses or feel it's too overwhelming, borrow some money from family (bc they won't charge you interest), return the funds to your commissioners and just don't take commissions again until you feel that you can handle this level of work
TL;DR: My final message? For commissioners: Don't give your money to people who seem to owe a lot of people money or art. For artists: Don't take more than you can handle.
Thanks for reading,
Laine
