Creative Corner

@Spooner
Hi!

I have been thinking about trying to take commissions for a while and have been working on setting up a sales thread on here and asking around about prices. I would really appreciate your input on pricing and how my sales thread looks so far :)

Here's my sales thread so far. I was a bit concerned that it might be a bit too wordy but I'm not exactly sure what I should cut out if so.

And here is a link to my portfolio gallery on Deviantart for more examples of my work. I do dragons and other fantasy/sci fi creatures, no humans (as of yet).

In addition I was considering doing adoptables of FR dragons like this.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you! :)

@WhiteLykos - Thanks for yer patience. And the warning, too - I have a fear of blood, so gory stuff isn't comfy for me to look at. It's not something I make a big deal over, but the warning went much appreciated. (I did find the pagedolls anyway, I like that they're not just float-bobbing and [url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LNKztp9tDTma1vPgSTknAl9I9et1EWx9/view?usp=sharing]seem fairly grounded[/url]. You're onto something there.) Overall, I feel 'grounded' is a good word to describe your art, in general. You've got strong foundations, strong lines, and your colouring seems to be mostly flat, strong colours. My feeling is your art will make for good ref sheets (perhaps with an unusual animated twist/gimmick), because of these strong foundations and the fact that ref sheets aren't so often offered on Flight Rising as fullbody oc art is, so that's where I'm going to gear these tiers towards. As a small thing re: ref sheets specifically - I would advise not to shade on your ref sheets besides cel shading, as it makes life easier on artists trying to colourpick from that reference down the line. Just a personal preference just based on my experience with commissioning references and then trying to get people to draw off those refs. (They're kind of an art unto themselves, if you know what I mean.) [quote=Pricing] - My first recommendation would be to tier with fullbodies only. It fits with having a Fullbody Shop, and it also makes the tiering very simple; you have your coloured fullbodies (with optional bg), your animated chibis (pagedolls), and your refsheets. Each of these options is very unique, and doesn't conflict with the others as far as choice goes. - Pricing-wise, it's not the easiest thing to price because I'm not sure how much work is going in - specifically, whether you're relining your traditional sketches digitally (From what I can tell, you sometimes line digitally, and sometimes I don't think you do). The style's also a bit 2015 Tumblr, something which some buyers may be feeling a bit over, so I think you may have to start a bit on the low side. - For now, I'd look at around $29/2900g on your fullbodies, $17/1700g on pagedolls, and knock a few bucks off the overall price if people are purchasing a refsheet with multiple works in it. If you see a lot of interest in something, raise it, and keep your slots limited. - I'd definitely recommend considering gijinka/dragon humanizations in the future for the chibi pagedolls, maybe when you feel more comfortable with dealing with those genes/patterns. They're the sort of thing that I think would sell; the animated pixel market on FR is quite small, and the competition not so fierce as it is with 'proper' gijinka art. - While you did show sketches, I would have to say that I'm a sketch tier in this case. Firstly, because most people going after fullbodies are already considering a more premium (coloured) tier, and secondly, I feel a major strength with your art is with digital colouring + traditional art. If that's going to be something you market going forwards, you want to lean into it, and traditional sketches - with no digital component - don't fit the category. - Opinion here, but the refsheet should, ideally, have an option for including another fullbody (a back 3/4 view, typically) so you can see the whole character. When I commission refsheets like [url=https://i.imgur.com/2iojP4g.png]this one[/url], I typically want a chibi with a different outfit as well, which is where you can again offer the animated page doll as a cute gimmick. [/quote] Hope that helps somewhat!

@Relzo - I get you're concerned about the length of your shop, and I think it's a rightful concern, but I'm going to have to ask before I get into it, just in case.

Is there a specific reason why you have your examples on the fourth post of your shop and not your first post? Like, has something happened with people not reading the rules or w/e that's made you decide to put them way under everything else?

@Spooner - Nah, no reason. I've never done commissions before. I saw another sales thread set up that way so I just did it like that too.
I did read on one of your posts about having the examples be at the top of the thread, so I might very well shuffle things around as that very much makes sense.

EDIT: P.S going to bed soon so sorry if I don't respond right away

@WhiteLykos - I'd strongly recommend getting a decent animation program, it'll save you many hours. (For your needs, something capable of onionskinning and layers would be fine.)

Have you looked into Pencil2D and Synfig? Both are free animation programs, I used to dabble with them before I got a student licence on Flash. (There's also Plastic Animation Paper, but I never quite liked that one).

@Relzo - Last question, promise.

Regarding your prices - are these the prices you used on Dragonpillar (let's hope I got the name right)? They seem very low for the quality on display, just wondering again if there's a specific reason.

No, they would not be the prices for the dragonpillar. For the pillars I was thinking of charging 10 USD for a simple recolor, plus letting people sponsor genes that haven't been done yet for an additional 3-5 USD. Sorry, should have mentioned that.

I'm going off of some of the prices others have recommended to me. Plus the fact that I have never done commissions before. I figured that after I have done them for a little while and gained something of a reputation, I could (maybe) raise them.

@Spooner

Hmm, I'm debating on making a banner/something that fits in the signature with a closeup view. Maybe a set of detailed eyes (the old saying eyes are the window to the soul :P Trying to google some psychology stuff that catches people's attention)

Ah, I see what you mean. A full body + background on every single manga panel... wouldn't look very cohesive/professional/that manga 'look'. Backgrounds take... a while. Especially full on scenes. Those take the same/more time than the characters >.<

Yeah, the costs are insane. I guess that's why no one's an independent manga artist. They all have assistants (usually 4+) that work on backgrounds, editing, color fills etc... It's just easier to add screentones digitally instead of using an exacto knife to cut it out precisely around the character drawn. I use up screen tones stupidly fast since I use A3 paper for inking traditional manga panels (it hides all the little mistakes once digitized and shrunk down ^^) I love me my inks and I'm lowkey a hoarder of any waterproof inks that work well with either fountain pens or dip pens.

Oh, I recently did another digital painting(?) with a bit more highlight focus on the lighting if that makes sense? My brain is always thinking about how light reflects off everything and there's minute color differences in everything lol. Mind giving it a critique/feedback?

Here's the link: https://64.media.tumblr.com/a18212ef0908eb01113d05d9c3cfb912/0f71655aee2c0d58-4b/s640x960/70c05bcb1131742ad6db74145c8c47c99b19c785.jpg