How To Get Started Selling Art Commissions (Patreon)

Hello lovelies!

I wanted to share with you my thoughts and tips about selling commissioned art to customers like doing pet or people portraits. I was just going to write a basic overview but it turned into quite a long article - oops!

I think selling commissions is a really great first step to making some income from your art if that’s something you’re working towards. It doesn’t require much time to set up if you’ve already been putting your art out on social media or within your local community, and they're really fun to do!

A commission is just when someone asks you to create a custom piece of art personalised for them, like a portrait of their pet or family, or something totally unique they’ve come up with. I love that commissions are so personal and it’s really nice to be a little part of something special. I’ve done custom portraits of best friends, couples, loved pets, weddings and I love receiving the reference photos and having the customer tell me a little bit about who I’m drawing.

^This was my first ever commission!

My first commission was in December 2020 when someone reached out to me on Instagram and asked if I would draw a picture of their dog. I hadn’t ever announced that I would do commissions at this point, and I didn’t really know how to go about it but I said yes and worked it out as I went along!

I got asked to do my second commission in January, and I posted the result to my Instagram feed and from there got more requests. In February I did 10 commissions, and in March I did another 10. Apart from posting on Instagram that I was doing commissions and changing my bio I didn’t do any advertising.

If you want to offer commissions but any of the following doubts are holding you back then realise you can overcome them all with a little information and self belief:

You think your art isn’t good enough

You’re not sure where to begin

You’re scared customers won’t be happy

You don’t think your audience is big enough

You’re waiting for the right time

You’re worried no-one will buy them

If you have your art on social media and have even a small audience then people like your art, and you’d be surprised how excited people are to have something created that’s personalised to them, even if you think it isn’t your best work. Believe in your art and put yourself out there because you’ve got nothing to lose by trying (and nobody else is going to do it for you).

So here are the basic steps to selling commissions:

Set yourself up to receive money

Decide how much you will charge

Tell people you offer commissions

Communicate with customers

Accept payment

Create the commission

Deliver the commission

Set yourself up to receive money

Since you’re going to be receiving money for your art now (exciting!) you need to make sure you can receive money and do so legally. Make sure you look into your country’s requirements on money earned through a side job and whether you need to be registered as a business or not.

As I’m in Australia and I knew from early on that I wanted to make money from my art and treat it as a business, I registered my business name and an ABN (Australian Business Number) as a sole trader. It was really easy to do and I found all the information I needed on the internet. I’m not a tax or accounting professional so definitely do your own research and take the course that’s best for your circumstances.

Once you’ve done the important business side of things, you’ll need to decide how you want customers to pay you. Some people have shops (Etsy, Ko-Fi) where they list commissions and customers can go there to make their purchase and tell you what they want. Personally, I like communicating via Instagram DMs with my customers and then directing them to a payment link when they are ready to pay. I use a Paypal.me link and it was easy to set up and accepts lots of currencies. Paypal charges a small fee, but so will most services.

Decide how much you will charge

Pricing your own work is super hard but you have to remember that people want to pay you. You will probably want to under-price yourself but don’t be tempted by your own self doubt, instead consider what you would expect another artist (choose someone you like and respect) who has a similar style might charge.

Also consider how long it will take you - is your work really detailed? Or maybe it’s simple and kawaii? A good way to figure out how long it will take you to draw the type of commissions you’re going to be offering is to do a couple of test runs and time yourself. You won’t get to choose what the subject of your commission will look like when you’re working with a real customer, so if you’re offering portrait commissions find a random photo of a person you wouldn’t normally draw and do the test run on them because it can be harder to draw something you’re not familiar with.

Once you know how long it will take, you can figure out how much you want to earn per hour and apply that to the time it takes you to draw your commissions.

I started out charging AUD$40 for a portrait commission of one person or pet from about the waist up. I wanted to earn around $25-30/hour to begin with while I got the hang of things, and then once I knew what I was doing I slowly increased the price. For a while I charged AUD$45 for a portrait with an additional AUD$15 for extra people or pets (so if they wanted a person with a pet it was $60) because I knew the second element wouldn’t take as long.

I stopped offering commissions a couple of months ago because we were moving interstate and I also had a big client job so I had less time, and when I stopped I was charging $50 for a single person or pet and an extra $20 per extra people or pets.

I’ve done dozens of commissions and have never had anyone complain about the price or say it’s too much, even though my portraits are quite simple. I’ve seen commissions offered for as little as $20 to as much as $120, so there’s no right or wrong amount to charge, just be sure that you’re covering the cost of your time and not under-pricing your work.

^ pop your commission status in your bio so it's the first thing people see (mine are closed for now)

Tell people you offer commissions

Now we need to tell people you’re offering commissions! Wherever your audience is (Instagram, Tiktok) show examples of what you’re offering as custom commissions, and tell people you’re accepting new commissions. Share these illustrations as part of your usual art feed and once you’ve done a couple see if you can get a customer to give you a review that you can share with the post.

I personally like to ask my customers first if they mind me sharing the commission to my feed and whether they’d like me to tag them, as they’re often gifts for people and I don’t want to accidentally ruin any surprises.

It’s also a good idea to update your bio so that people who visit your account can immediately see that you offer commissions, so I like to write something like ‘commissions open - DM me’ or ‘gladly accepting commissions’. You could also make a highlight for your Instagram profile and people can click through ones you’ve already done.

Use hashtags as well to get the word out to new people, do some research into commission related hashtags and find a handful that are relevant to you.

The more people who see that you do commissions, the more requests you’ll get, so don’t be afraid or embarrassed to share with the world!

Communicate with customers

You’ll need a way to communicate with customers about what they want and a way to receive their reference photos. I always like to communicate via Instagram DM so that I can be really clear with customers about their exact request, but if you have your commissions listed in a shop you’ll need to message them once they’ve paid.

I have a pre-written message in the notes of my phone for people who request a commission, and I can just copy and paste the bulk of it and adjust any specific details. I include the general pricing structure, the specific price for them based on what they’ve told me they want, the timeline for how long it will take me to send them their finished art, the general process (I request payment upfront via Paypal and will need reference images too), what file they’ll receive and where they can make payment if they’d like to proceed.

Customers want to feel confident about the process and what they’re buying, so be as upfront as possible from early on.

Accept payment

Once your customer is ready to pay, you’ll need to collect their payment! I receive mine via a Paypal.me link which you can set up on Paypal, and then you just send the customer the link and tell them how much to pay.

Create the commission

Now comes the fun part where you get to draw the commission. Collect all the reference photos and information from the customer and get to work creating the commission they requested. Try to keep an eye on how long you’re spending on it and whether it’s in line with the estimate you made earlier on.

At first I was telling customers they’d receive their commission within 7 days of me receiving payment, but as I got busier I started saying 10 days instead. I think it’s important to give the customer a timeline so they know what to expect, and you can make it as long or short as you need to comfortably complete it on time. Always make the timeline a little bit longer than you think you’ll actually need just to be safe.

And if you’re sending anything in the mail make sure you allow lots of time and tell the customer when it’s on the way!

Another thing to consider here is whether you want to offer changes to your customers. Once I’ve drawn the commission, I send it to the customer via DM and ask if they’re happy with it or whether they'd like to make any small adjustments like facial expression or colours. I find this to be a good balance for me where I’m giving the customer some control over the art and making sure they’re super happy, but also only doing changes that take 15 minutes or less so that I’m not spending too long on it. They only get one change, and only for small things.

You of course don’t have to offer any changes at all especially if you offer commissions in a traditional art medium that isn’t easily adjusted like digital art is.

^ I don't mind including small changes like adjusting colours

Deliver the commission

Depending on what sort of commissions you offer, you might just be able to send the customer a digital file or you might be posting some original art. I offer digital commissions as a .jpg file in either a square format or a printing size like A4, it’s up to the customer (make sure you’re drawing in a resolution high enough for their needs). Once I’ve finished I send it to them on Instagram and also email it to them because I think Instagram compresses the quality a little bit.

And that’s it - job done!

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And if you’re still worried about commissions you could try the following:

Offer a free commission to someone so you can test out the process and get their feedback

Practise a few times to build your confidence, plus you can then use those drawings to promote what you’re offering

Give it a go anyway, and if nobody purchases a commission then try again in a little while

Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get any commission requests straight away, you’ve got nothing to lose by giving it a go and if it doesn’t work just yet then celebrate that you believed in yourself (which is worth so much on it’s own) and try again later.

If you listen to your self doubt and assume you aren’t going to sell any commissions then you’re guaranteeing that you won’t by not taking action.

And of course if you don’t want to sell your art then that’s fine too, do what’s best for you and your goals!

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I hope you found this helpful, it turned out to be quite a long one but there was so much to cover! I’d love to know your thoughts or experiences with selling commissions, let me know below!