For many artists, myself included, being able to draw and get paid for it is awesome. For this reason, commissions are great but there's almost never enough commissions or the commission pays are too low.

I have just finished a 21 pages comic commission for $65 US per page and is now looking for more commissions.

So I was wondering what websites/avenues, do you use to find commissions?

And for writers or other people looking to commission artists, what websites do you use?

The two main ones I've been using are Craigslist and Deviantart. Sometimes I use forums such as Penciljack.com.

conceptart.org and digitalwebbing.com both have "classified" sections for comic artists, and the jobs are usually split into paying and non paying.

65 a page??? wow...consider yourself lucky in times like these. I do commissions on Ebay, for 20 bucks a pop......and that's all I can get for them. When I try going much higher, they do not sell at all.

ttyler
65 a page??? wow...consider yourself lucky in times like these. I do commissions on Ebay, for 20 bucks a pop......and that's all I can get for them. When I try going much higher, they do not sell at all.

People are ridiculous these days! Personally, your work is worth MUCH more.

Thanks. Paying bills and keeping food on the table isn't easy when you are an artist....at least, for me it has never been easy.

Wow. Ttyler, I love your work and can't believe you get so little. Maybe Ebay is just cheap. Maybe you should try other sites.

That's probably a good idea. I am kind of behind the times as far as the internet and computers for that matter, go.

Crikey tim, you should be getting far more than that. Perhaps try doing some rpg illustrating too?

I would love getting into that, but it seems so much is digital these days. Not like in the old 80's, when TSR art was all hand done. I guess I need to check out some of these places.....it's just so difficult to find time to do extra stuff, while keeping the bills paid.

You could ask Reva for some help, she still does trad b&w non-digital hand-drawn rpg illustrations for various companies.

Since I'm not a professional and I'm probably on the lower end of the skill spectrum (I consider myself more of a writer than an artist), the most I charge is $60--the average in my area is anywhere from $100-$300.

You get what you pay for. :)

Like ttyler I am not familiar with many websites which would be dedicate to said commissions. Like Deviantart.com sp? I have been on there but appears to be just artist collective for all medium and not certain how commissions work on there or whatnot.

I wonder if there is a place for comic artists co-op where people could come to see samples of works of artists in that co-op and commission a said piece from an artist.


and I agree ttyler, you deserved to be paid much more than $20.00 bucks for any of your work. even if its just sketch on a handkerchief.

This is a good question. Looking from a buyer's POV now isn't a great time to commission, but I'd like to know where to seek them nonetheless, since most places I know of already need a great push to attract attention to.

Ebay is total crap for trying to make a living unless you're selling by volume or the latest electronics really. But that's to be expected from the internet's equivalent to a flea market really. Deviantart is pretty lame too. Most of the decent artists I know use it as a dumping ground for work they just want to keep a backup of.

I've looked into redbubble and etsy . Those are pretty much the big sites for selling artwork online it seems, but they're not really commission sites, so much as online storefronts and portfolios designed to help artists sell work. In the free online portfolio section, there's also Behance for those currently enrolled in college or teaching at a college to sell work.

I prefer to look to things other than pure commissions for income. There's several t-shirt sites like Threadless and Design By Humans that are actively searching for designs, and while the competition can be tough, the payoff is really high if you win. Additionally, there's a few things like Art-o-Mat with a low rate of pay off, but not a huge amount of effort required.

Those are all the one's I've looked into as of yet, and I can't even claim to have sites or work on any of them yet since I'm still in the stages of building a portfolio myself, but I know a lot of people have had great response from them. Just looking through google and being willing to diversify beyond one little niche of illustration or design yields a massive number of results to work with. In my personal experience, I have yet to make much money at being an illustrator, but I've made much more in other fields so far. Diversity is definitely key.

Thank you Midge. Iba, thanks for the info...I'll check out some of those places. Yeah, FEE-BAY...ERRRR........E-BAY isn't what it used to be for sure. Sales are poor on Ebay for me.