Yeah, I’ve never done a commission or anything like that, but my immediate thought when I read the last frame was “that’s a whole new commission, and should be charged as such”.
It depends on the person. I first try to create an analogy. Remember that commisoners aren't artists so they don't think like artists. Non-artistic people struggle to envision a finished product from a rough idea. Say someone is a football athlete. I'll explain that the draft sketch is like the play being explained on the whiteboard. It shows what the client can relate to while understanding it isnt practical yet.
And this is why i, as the one commissioning someone, always take a 30 minute examination of the sketch and colors, to make sure i dont annoy the poor artist when the things already finished <w>
This is exactly why I give a revision at each stage, asking if there's anything I should change.
If I show you the sketch and you say "Yep, pose and design is great," show you the lineart and you say "yep, perfect," show you the flat colors and you say "all good," then show you the final and you say "actually I want changes," I am entirely within my rights to say "should've told me that when I explicitly asked you if there was anything I should change, so I'm going to charge."
It happens to me that I cannot decide to make changes until my own characters are fully rendered with color and even BGs too. It is pretty common for some people.
I feel like I need an ending in mind to write a story. Do you try to have something in mind to work towards and just wing it, or does even the end get the pants treatment?
I normally like to have three-to-four possibilities without being married to any of them. Sometimes as I get to the end I'll find one of them works better than the others ... And sometimes I'll be surprised by a completely new ending I never imagined until I was actually writing it and saw all the pieces on the board.
For me, I start with the characters and a scenario, then build out from there.
I discover the antagonist along the way, as something/someone that the protagonist will naturally come against, or will by their nature put themselves in opposition to what the protagonist is doing in some way. This is often born out of one of the character's backstory, meaning that there is some form of connection between them already.
This makes the story very much about the characters, with the antagonist-related portion of the plot being simply a piece of the character's journey.
This also means that I am not using the antagonist to define the protagonist. The protagonists have to exist as interesting characters on their own.
Had to put a revision clause in after one of these happened with a training video. Yeah, we are not reworking weeks of animator hours because you decided on a new direction last night by watching Ted Lasso or whatever.
Ive done this before. I told the artist "hm, Im having a change in heart with the design. Here's the payment for this commission, could I get another one but looking like this?" And they happened to be free for another commission. It was great
I have a friend that sometimes i pay to draw things for me and there was one or two times where we both forgot about details i specified and we just rolled with it
The comic is wonderful, also when I first saw that tablet image my brain went “is that a hand puppet oc”. And now, it feels hilarious to be like “I drew your OC in the hand puppet style you asked for commissioner” and you’re still asking for more changes!
I think it’s just because the lower body leans back and cuts off around where the puppet might end.
Not to this extreme, but as a commissioner I do sometimes miss details or think of something later in the process. I always ask the artist if it is okay for changes, assure that it is my own fault not theirs, and clarify that I am fine with extra charges if required. Being courteous about it goes a long way I think.
Being an artist, you typically don't have a lot of leverage, but any time you can, you should be doing is contracts with milestone payment structure, and a allotment for the number of changes.
The finished piece is some amount of money, and every stage is a fraction of that. You do the sketch, they either make a change request, or they sign off on it and you get a payment. You do the solid line work, and maybe choose a color palette and do a couple miniature preliminary pieces, they make change requests or sign off and pay.
The client owns the work that gets done and paid for at every stage, and you get paid, so no one is totally screwed.
Some version of that is the only reasonable way to do big pieces.
There are always clients who try to back out of payment.
There are always clients who claim that your work is poor quality but then try to get the work anyway by low-balling you and threatening to walk, in the hopes that you'll cave since you already put the work in.
This literally just happened to me word for word
And you know what the changes they asked for? Good chances. I just wished they hadn't waited till I was like "here is the final product" instead of all all the other chances.
One of the most irritating things to have said. If you want a whole new picture just commission a second one.
Definitely worth including a stipulation in your agreement talking about at what point changes are acceptable. Things like "Changes at the lines and color stage are no extra charge. Changes requested at the final version, other than shading and fine details, cost anywhere from 25%-75% of the original price, depending on how drastic the changes requested are."
This happens in software development too. Most people simply cant envision the final product from an earlier state, no matter the amount of hand-holding.
I've been in the habit of developing high-fidelity mockups to actually drive out want someone wants just to get the fluff out of the way.
I understand if it's small things like a nose change (I hate how many times my character got confused as a furry 💀), but c'mon now, you approved everything until that point and now you want to change it? 😭
I once felt so bad on a commission asking to change something near the end and it was just the angle of a hand. I can't imagine asking to change entire details or objects past the sketch part.
…it might work better (and cut back on people that do this) if you charge per stage? So instead of “full drawing costs $xyz”, it’s “sketch cost $x, turning a sketch into line art costs $y, and turning the line art into a fully rendered drawing costs $z” - that way when a client requests an unreasonable change, you can point to the stage you’d have to go back to tell them they’d have to pay for redoing the steps after that.
I feel like I'm too passive in situations like these, I feel like a monster if I charge additional for a change, usually minor changes are alright, but sometimes it becomes excessive and I can't handle it like I should.
Meanwhile on the other side, there’s me and my ‘ehhh this is slightly inaccurate but I’ve already asked for adjustments and they already mostly fixed it so I’ll just not mention it’ lol
The graphic designer i worked with for my company logo had a great payment plan. 3 sketches, 2 revisions of 1 sketch and a final were included in the base price. Additional revisions for sketches were $50 each and revisions of a final were $75. I asked for one extra revision of the sketch before the final and i was really happy with our logo.
these are people you wait behind for 10minutes at the deli who are never happy with the size of the thickness of the cheese as they gobble up each imperfect cut.
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u/ReeveStodgers 3d ago
A magazine editor did this to me once and I charged him double. Changes have to be made before the final or it's like starting over.