Welcome to Part III of this little informative series on commissions. My apologies for the delay. That is the holidays for you though. I enjoyed myself though, and I hope you all did as well.

Last time I wrote about how you, as the artist, should defend yourself from unscrupulous clients. This time, we shall cover together what the client should expect of you during the commissioning process, and what you should expect of them. Keep in mind this is a general overview, and I’m sure everyone has other methods, which is to be expected. Also keep in mind…this will probably be a short and to the point article.

When you’re offering your services as an artist, you have, in essence, gone into business for yourself. You didn’t fill out a business plan or taken any classes, but you are now in a business of sorts. Naturally there’s things you shouldn’t do, which really goes for anything in life. Don’t cheat your client, don’t badmouth them, etc; etc. But here’s some specifics to keep in mind.

A client should expect from you …
- that you will be friendly and attentive
- that you will tell them if a problem has cropped up and that there may be a delay.
- that you will be courteous
- that you will communicate with them
- that you will respond to queries in a timely manner
- that you will finish the artwork within a reasonable time frame
- that you will not take their money and run for the hills

Notice I did not mention anything about what they should expect for your prices? The most important factor that they should expect from you is that you will communicate with them. You will tell them what the price will be, and they can take it or leave it. Or you had a journal set up for it. So they already have an idea about your prices at least. It’s all in communication. When they send you a note asking you how things are coming along, or to line up a commission, understand that they don’t know how busy you are, so at the least read the note and contact them back, telling them that you will respond more fully shortly, but you will get to them asap. Or something along those lines. In short, keeping your potential clients in your good graces. Silence from you will eventually drive them away, and that’s bad for business.

Now that we’ve covered what a client should expect from you, this is what you should expect from a client.

For those of you who are going to commission an artist, this part is equally good for you, as this is how you should best behave with an artist.

You should expect from a client…
- that they are courteous
- that they provide all the details needed for their commission, to include poses, description, references, as needed
- that they are patient
- that they are understanding if you have a long list of works to complete
- that they do not bail on you
- that they do not try to scam you
- that they do not contact you every other day after setting up the commission with you asking for updates.

That last one is important. Clients, if you just commissioned the artist for the image, don’t bug them for an update every other day! They will get it done.

That said, if you haven’t heard anything for two weeks or longer, then you SHOULD be contacting the artist and asking simply if things are busy or just how it’s coming. Don’t pester the artist. Remind them that you’re waiting, but otherwise give them some time and be patient. I will go a week or two at the most before I start asking if there’s a delay. I will wait longer though if I see clearly that I’m further down a list of current commissions.

That’s pretty much it on this. A lot of it seems like, to me, as being common sense. Treat people how you would like to be treated. It works for a reason.

Told ya this would be short.

Part IV will continue directing information towards clients, covering what they should do to protect themselves against unscrupulous or pushy artists. Part V will cover any miscellaneous items, and I think go over advertising in a little bit more depth. Maybe. Or maybe just cover questions, comments and concerns from previous articles. We’ll find out.

Until next time then!

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