Curse

Sectus · Apr 13, 2007, 05:40 PM // 17:40

I'm no artist, but I've commissioned a good deal of artwork and I'm just curious how much details artists prefer to receive with a commission request. If any artists could answer these questions I'd appreciate it.

What do you feel about minimalistic requests? These are requests which only shows a reference picture of the character with absolutely no other notes.

What about requests which also gives a vague idea for the pose and mood for the commission? For instance: "A romantic picture of the 2 characters holding hands."

Or what about a request which doesn't give any idea for what pose or mood the picture should have, but instead gives an explanation of the character's personality so you can think of your scene based on that info.

What about heavily detailed requests? Where the client doesn't necessarily explain the personality of the character, but gives extreme details about every part of the scene so you know exactly how each part of the picture should be (pose, background, etc...).

Overall, of what's listed above (or any other type of request you can think of), what do you prefer?

Thanks in advance to anyone who gives their opinion about this.

Mistical miss · Apr 13, 2007, 05:48 PM // 17:48

Something along the lines of:

"My assassin is a very shy, lonely, nearly emo character. She's adept at her art though, I'd like you to draw her with this armor and this weaponry. She's very young still. Shes single and has no intention of finding herself a boyfriend."

Thats a description that gives me an idea of how you see the character, yet still leaves me freedom to think up a pose/background.

greyf0x_f0x · Apr 13, 2007, 06:08 PM // 18:08

Speaking as an artist, the commissions I enjoy the most, are the ones in which people offer me characters full of life, a mood, a personality. Basically, a character with... well "character". I don't mind it when people give me rough ideas relating to the pose, and equipment, and background etc, but when people get overly perscriptive, that's when the fun starts to drain, in my opinion.

Of course everyone is different, and some artists may like working to a tighter brief, because they can be more certain that it's what the commissioner wants. Whilst others may prefer complete artistic license. ^_^

Nian · Apr 13, 2007, 06:41 PM // 18:41

Hey! I can dot his and I'm gonna be pretty honest about it now let's see...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sectus

What do you feel about minimalistic requests? These are requests which only shows a reference picture of the character with absolutely no other notes.

I'm fine with this. Leaves room for improvisation. Although sometimes even if the commissioner says everything is completelly up to me I still don't feel confident enough to do whatever I want because I might accidentally hurt the others feelings. For examples if I get a feeling that I want to draw a sexually charged theme with the characters commissioned I probably just wouldn't do it in fear that I would hurt someones feelings if they didn't like it etc. I would go for something safe instead of risque with a request like this.

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What about requests which also gives a vague idea for the pose and mood for the commission? For instance: "A romantic picture of the 2 characters holding hands."

Cool enough in my opinion, helpful.

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Or what about a request which doesn't give any idea for what pose or mood the picture should have, but instead gives an explanation of the character's personality so you can think of your scene based on that info.

Personally I find character descriptions interesting because I like original character concepts and character creation in general. This I think has less effect on the overall product though than the above in my case.

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What about heavily detailed requests? Where the client doesn't necessarily explain the personality of the character, but gives extreme details about every part of the scene so you know exactly how each part of the picture should be (pose, background, etc...).

Just shoot me in the head instead.

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Overall, of what's listed above (or any other type of request you can think of), what do you prefer?

Overall I'd just prefer to get GOOD clear reference of everything the commissioner wants drawn. For examples if I get a bust screenshot of a GW character I don't want anyone to expect that I dig the rest up myself. So the bust would be all the detail they would be getting even if they might've wanted a fullbody. You people often forget to include the shoes of characters! I do end up digging them from GuildWiki in the end. Bottom line here: if I don't see it it's kinda hard to draw.

Though what I want most is to please the person who commissioned me and make them happy with the pic so anything they want is my command, well sort of.

P.S. I'm sure a lot of people feel very differently about these things.

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Originally Posted by greyf0x_f0x

artistic license. ^_^

I always find this saying very hilarious. W000t I got my artist license today~!!! Now I gonna drive me some Photoshop mhahaha watch out Imma drive me sum Painter too ya'll! If ya don't change lanes right now imma drive on yuu too wif my big artist ego haha foo'!

Sorry, had to. Don't take it seriously. xB

Ehecatzin FlyingCrab · Apr 13, 2007, 11:51 PM // 23:51

When taking comitions, I usually take the photos ingame, along with a nice enterview, questions like "whats your character personality like" and from there I start to get the idea of the character, after taing some references, and emote screens I aks them if there's anything special they want for their ilustration/avatar whatever, like a secific background, or a pet, etc, everyone wants something diferent, and if they just tell me "do whatever you feel like" I still have the personality of the character and I can work with that.

Babaroga · Apr 15, 2007, 07:40 PM // 19:40

Heheh...I'm such a sucker for details :0 I just loooooove drawing lots and lots of details, and you know, I feel very pleased when I show an image to a client and he goes like, oh oh thats nice, yeah...Oh look that pattern on his gloves...Ah thats nicee, very nice

... So, basicly I enjoy doing detailed images... Yeah you can overdo it sometimes, and that can basicly ruin whole image, but eventualy you'll find just where to put your limmits.

Anyhow, I'd prefer if a clent would explain to me as much as he/she can about style, level of details, level of rendering, posses, mood, color pallete etc etc, because that way I know I have greater chances to do an image that my clients desires.
On the other hand I also enjoy when they say, do what you feel will be best. That way I can put some of my ideas and express my creative side.
However there are those guys who just won't let go of some idea no matter how bad or stupid it is, and how much it wont fit in overall feel of an image.
So the bottom line is, I like when client comes to me and says something like this :
"Ok, what I want is you to draw me 5 versions of this character. Keep in mind that we want sexy and seductive actress so, dont draw some ugly fat chick. Also make the mood a little dark and dramatic, dont use too much dynamic in concept, stay with 3-5 collor paletes, and try to pull out different types of suits-armors in each design. If you find something that will work good with (here comes the THEME for wich im doing concept), feel free to implement it but dont get to carried away. So here are some rough ideas and get to it, you have 3 days to impress me"

Sectus · Apr 15, 2007, 10:20 PM // 22:20

Thanks for all the replies. Nice to hear what artists think about this.

Perynne · Apr 16, 2007, 09:02 AM // 09:02

Aaaand here's me with a late response.

Oh well, I'm going to answer anyway.
These things always tend to be artist-specific... some people like to know more about what they're drawing, some people less.

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What do you feel about minimalistic requests? These are requests which only shows a reference picture of the character with absolutely no other notes.

I don't mind requests like this, although they're not my favourite kind. Having minimalistic requests sometimes gives a bit too much freedom, and I start worrying that I'll do something the person requesting the drawing won't like. If I'm given too much freedom, I tend to go into my "creative" mode and sometimes produce artwork that might not look like my usual style.
Still, depending on the mood, sometimes I really enjoy having free rein over what I'm drawing.

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What about requests which also gives a vague idea for the pose and mood for the commission? For instance: "A romantic picture of the 2 characters holding hands."

I like this better. It gives a bit more feeling to the character, and sometimes saves a few hours of artistic agony trying to come up with a pose while giving quite a lot of freedom as to the setting and how to place the characters.

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Or what about a request which doesn't give any idea for what pose or mood the picture should have, but instead gives an explanation of the character's personality so you can think of your scene based on that info.

This is my favourite kind of request.

I love hearing about different kinds of characters, and having the character's personality fleshed out really helps me come up with a good idea for a drawing. This kind of request combined with some vague outlines for what the character could be doing helps me out the most and lets me get a better feel for the drawing.

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What about heavily detailed requests? Where the client doesn't necessarily explain the personality of the character, but gives extreme details about every part of the scene so you know exactly how each part of the picture should be (pose, background, etc...).

I don't like this kind of commission, although I will do it if someone has a good reason for it. This limits my own creativity too much, and puts unnecessary pressure on me to get everything just right. It's hard to draw an image from someone else's head onto the paper, since you can't see the exact image they're thinking about.

Overall, I agree with Nian about getting good reference material, especially of the face and armor. It's annoying to dig up images from Guildwiki since they're not always from the angles I need to see, or trying to squint to see the details in an image the size of a pinhead. I love drawing details, but details aren't possible if my original reference picture lacks them (or has them too blurry/small).