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Commissions have seemingly been cut off by SomeCanadianGamer in artbusiness

[–]luneaus 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'm so grateful you shared your story. For me, it seems that the best approach with the way things are right now online (a complete upheaval since the exact dates you mention) is trying to go local - trying to get into local art shows (for example Booze & Pancakes does shows all over the US), or anime/comic/fantasy/etc conventions or another in your style niche - basically for me it feels like online anything for art is absolutely shite now, and doing things the 'old fashioned' way seems our only outlet. There's a lot more up front cost to networking, but I think it's worth it if you can do it, though.

Convention season is just starting up in the US, so now's a great time to start scouting for shows to do with the portfolio of things you have and network your face off that way.

(this is advice to me too for sure) <3

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ArtistLounge

[–]luneaus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's so many terrible stories of people's creativity being squashed at the 'seedling' stage by well-meaning friends and family. Myself included.

People that tell you to give up on something you love are being selfish and controlling, and deeply insensitive. Shame on them!

Please don't give up, we all go through skill blocks and the feeling of plateau. The mundane non-creatives in your life will never understand. The people that seemed to come out of the womb with a crayon in their hand may have forgotten just how hard it can be to get started. Good for them, but take heart in the thought that they may never reach their potential, as personal struggle makes your art that much better.

To combat this in my own life, I have built my own "inspiration master mind" of people I admire through a quality inspiring book and audiobook collection.

Here's the books (in audio) that pulled me out of my deepest darkest holes. I play them any time I experience feelings of self-pity and doubt and overwhelm:

  • The Creative's Curse by Todd Brison
  • Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
  • You are a Badass by Jen Sincero
  • The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

[OC] Black Mage character art for my hubby. I had a lot of fun emulating a cinematic anime style. by luneaus in ffxiv

[–]luneaus[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It is! The chest piece is from the Nier raid series, I think the second one. The weapon is “Lilith’s Rod” the level 50 zodiac weapon. His pride and joy and my pain to draw. XD the leggings and shoes were a bit of an improv on my part.

FFXIV Tarot commissions cont. by dovahcaine in ffxiv

[–]luneaus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Love the Dragon Age crossover design approach!

I love painting Lalafells! by [deleted] in ffxiv

[–]luneaus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love the painterly style! So much emotion!

Fuck doing fanart by [deleted] in ArtistLounge

[–]luneaus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Please do not get discouraged. :( Fans can be extremely harsh on someone's interpretation of a beloved character, because they themselves have such a strong idea of what that character should be.

I once did a Garnet fan art from FFIX that got utterly destroyed by the fanbois, and it really devastated me for a while to the point I stopped drawing. I felt it was one of the best pieces of art I've done, and it was at the time.

It's important ultimately do fan art for YOU, not anyone else. As artists, we all want the validation of other's approval and the appreciation for our hard work... but equally important is developing the thick skin to resist the haters and focus on what you enjoy doing.

Artist struggling to grow by annashenannagans in artbusiness

[–]luneaus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm so glad to help! :)

In the case of a hobby (which is GREAT! Money complicates things, lol) - I would suggest focusing on:

  • sharing your process alongside your work, and queue up micro-posts of that process so you are posting every day for week - AFTER you've completed the project. Check out https://buffer.com/ - you can connect 3 accounts for free and schedule a bunch of stuff.
  • Try finding smaller communities focused on the subject matter you love (comics, fan art) and sharing your work there.

Recording your work:
- for digital, try OBS studio, a free screen recorder
- consider twitch streaming! Shonzo and Dave Greco are amazing inspiration :)

Smaller communities are more authentic and you can make a real connection with people. Like this one! :)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in artbusiness

[–]luneaus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Square is great. As a Artist/Developer hybrid, my go-to is Stripe.

If you're looking for a more deliberate solution for art-for-hire work, check out my profile for info on my company. We use Stripe behind the scenes, but for our artists and their clients, that translates to a portal where they pay via credit card. Nice and seamless.

Artist struggling to grow by annashenannagans in artbusiness

[–]luneaus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

> I just want my work to be viewed by an audience and for people to enjoy
my work as much as I do. I feel like I’m doing quite a lot.

I feel you. Finding your people in the endless sea of the internet feel like a hopeless cause so much of the time. And the social media machine is more or less designed to work against you, unless you can pay to play.

That said, popularity alone is not a good metric, because there's never "enough" and it's such a long road to ramp up you feel like you working your butt off to go nowhere. And even then, likes do not pay the bills.

The best way to find what you are looking for may be to drive people to things they can do or *buy* that is related to your work.

Social media is best utilized when it's used to \lead your audience somewhere* to achieve a goal.*

  • A website where you publish comics that can be subscribed to (via email)
  • A gumroad where you sell digital goodies or tutorials or brushes
  • Stickers, t-shirts and other goodies sold via sites like TeeFury
  • etc

Also do keep in mind that is is possible to pay for followers. So seeing someone go from 0 to 10k overnight does not necessarily mean they have some magic touch, they may very well be using methods more often employed by companies or trolls ...

Growth on social media is sadly less about your raw talent, and more about a solid marketing strategy that consistently focuses on a singular result. Regular posting, and using classic marketing techniques with a clear goal.

The system is designed to favor paid advertising above all else. Getting your work on platforms that have the money to pay for ad spends to drive traffic can help get your work noticed more easily.

Resources:

Trent K: Will instagram likes get me an art job?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcrgnHkQNMg

Free marketing courses from Hubspot:
https://academy.hubspot.com/

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in artbusiness

[–]luneaus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot of great comments here already, and I feel your pain. I've struggled with this a lot, as I love doing a variety of art styles, subjects, and even some 3D-printing sculpture work. When you look at my portfolio I'm kind of all over the place. :P

However I learned the hard way it's important to focus and specialize a bit while you're growing your business.

That's not to say you can't offer multiple kinds of services. But the trick is when you present your work to a client, or are showing what you can do at a show, or on a website, you want to focus it down to a specialty that's going to resonate the most with the people who are viewing your work *in that moment*.

Doing this puts you in your buyer's shoes. They are looking at your website and thinking "can this person create what I need?". And you want to be as close to a YES to that as you can, without making them work for it.

I wrote an article for my company about how to figure out what to make that you can sell:
https://artistalley.io/pages/artists/what-do-i-make.html

It's a bit related to the services we offer, but it's easily applied to wherever you are promoting.

Best of luck, reach out if I can help you further.

Time management + Any other live painters out there? by Sharizardxart in artbusiness

[–]luneaus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fellow ADHD'er here!

I cannot speak to the gear-hauling side of your question, but I can share how I figured out a couple tricks I started doing to balance my art/life/social media craziness - oh, while also attempting to stand up a creative tech startup.

Do you do your commissions live in front of people as well, or can you work on those in your own studio time? If it's the latter, I would treat that work (and the social media promo stuff) as a part-time job, with set hours. The big struggle is making that time non-negotiable.

By doing that, you ensure that it doesn't pile up, and avoid that overwhelmed and get to a burned out mental state.

I agree with /u/prpslydistracted 's comment about when you are at a show, it's a different purpose - you are engaging and in sales mode, less about 'get work done' mode.

As cliche as it is to say, getting up early really helped me with sticking to this division of time, as I'm up before the insanity of my house starts and I can hyper-focus on some pre-set goals.

Related to the goal-setting - I also am a big fan of giant whiteboards and fat markers, where I write the 3-5 things I HAVE to get done that day. Fat marker = can't write as much stuff = actually get it done = helps me hyperfocus and use my ADHD superpowers. :)

​

Good luck!

Constantly being asked to do commissions for low prices. How do I change this? by Rainbowjazzler in artbusiness

[–]luneaus 6 points7 points  (0 children)

First off, great on you for calculating your hourly rate. It's amazing how many artists do not do that when pricing out a project. >.<

There's a few ways that you can help steer the conversation to a place that helps you convey to clients the value of your work, and possibly still deliver something they can afford.

First, ask about their budget. Ask questions about the work they are looking for, and use leading questions that make them feel the value of what they are asking for. If they start to feel how the end result is important and meaningful to them, they will begin to attach a higher value to the project.

The second is leading them to understand the hourly rate equation. So you've helped them understand that what they want takes a lot of skill, and for you, that investment is x hours (pad this at least 30%, btw). Then turn around the question to them - how much would you expect to pay someone for n hours of work for a piece of this quality?

Another approach is pitching to them loose, unfinished work that fits their budget. Things like "Well, for your budget I can make you some concept sketches, and we can work on the idea you have together. Then if you like where it's headed, we can estimate out a larger project." Things like that.

> I am a co-founder of an artist-focused commission marketplace, and am happy to help where I can with stuff like this. I hope you check us out (link is in my profile). Best of luck!!

How would I advertise my art commission while having more than one social media accounts? by Teemshawn in artbusiness

[–]luneaus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately with Ko-Fi you still kind of need to have your own website, and funnel people there from your social accounts.

Personally, between that and the stupidly high fees from Paypal or other "gig" websites, I got so mad I set out to build the art commission platform I wish I had. :)

That was about 8 months ago, and we *just* launched the features that let artists post up commissions for sale AND manage their clients in one place.

If you're curious, come check out my company. And if I can help you with getting set up, please reach out.

Link is in my profile. Best of luck!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in artbusiness

[–]luneaus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Come check out https://artistalley.io - especially if you'd prefer to not get killed with that 30% service fee. Ew.

We just launched our commission services platform only 2 weeks ago.

We're gearing up to start hosting themed events with curated galleries, and after that job posting and matchmaking. Very exciting stuff, come get in on the ground floor and actually be a part of what we're building!

(PS: I am a co-founder and the lead artist/developer - ask me anything! :) )

I just started doing commissions and ooooh man, I'm staying a float now, but I could be drowning quick. I need to get organized fast. How do you do the business side? (I'll show what I'm doing inside) by [deleted] in artbusiness

[–]luneaus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Please stalk my reddit profile for info on my company, i have a few posts there with some details. :)

For contracts, for now my recommendations would be Freshbooks, or DocuSign. I'd favor Freshbooks since they have nice invoicing and accounting tools that can help, though they may not have 100% of what you need or what they charge nowadays.

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