HOW TO BE A GOOD COMMISSIONER
Now this might be your first time commissioning art, or this might be alot of times and you just can't get an artist to work with you. Now I'm not claiming that every artist that I commission likes me, or that every artist will agree to this idea.
But if you do follow this idea set, I'm certain that you will get on their positive side.
The idea follow's of a three rule set. Your more than welcome to change these rules as you see fit, but the idea's need to stay the same. They go of this:
1. Know what you want.
Every artist is different, and will interperate your meanings differently. You will need to give as much information as possible, detailed descriptions, understandings of the what you want out of the drawing, a draft of the drawing, etc. If you have a comic you want, write a script, write a panel storyboard, make a comic draft. This may seem like alot of work for you, but this will prevent alot of headaches down the road for the artist.
Keep in mind that not all artist will want this much detail, and if your idea is really simple, then that's all you need to tell.
2. Know the artist.
Not just know the artists art, but know more about how the artists does it. Talk to other people who commissioned the artist before, you can usually search them on the commissions page of the aritsts account. Ask them how long it took the artist to get their commission done and how long it took them to communicate with the artist, such as PM's or journal entries, ask them how clear the artist is with his/her responses. And understand their IRL, like work or health problems.
And it's also important to keep communication on your part. Such as not being able to pay within a given amount of time, you need to tell the artist that.
3. Be nice.
If an artist hasn't gotten back to you in a month and he/she is posting other commissions, be nice. If you have a commission with a artist and the artist only works on commissions on streams and streams only once a month; which he get's to your project and he/she's all like "Nah, I'll do this some other time.", be nice.
This is the most stressful part about being a commissioner, especially if the artist has a habbit of not responding back in like weeks. But you need to give the artist space, pressure makes only crap, it will be worth it in the long run. But a quick "how's the commission coming" ever few weeks or so if nothing comes from the artist wouldn't hurt.
Their are a few other points to make, but those are the big three you need to know. Follow these idea's and you'll have a better understanding with the commission process, and perhaps better art too.
Edit: One other thing that is important for you to know is this. Artists need to find inspiration to work at what they would like their work to be at, and most of their inspiration can fall within the idea's of their personal work, IE cartoony or realistic. Artists might claim they can do both, but very few can find inspiration with both.
You put an artist with the opposite of which he/she is inspired by, they will have a hard time trying to get started on the commission and it would take them a very long time to get it done. So take a quick look at their galleries to see what inspires them.
