A commissioned art query

[feather-dancer.livejournal.com]

Afternoon guys :) I’ve got a query I’d like advice on as this will be the first time I’ve done anything like this.

For a bit of background, I occasionally do bits of work for the Gainsborough Heritage Association, a charity in the town near me. This has led into me getting involved (By doing the following) with a campaign for getting headstones for war graves in one of the cemeteries and as part of the research they do there in keeping a record of the stones which in turn help families to be traced.

On seeing an image I did for Remembrance Day, I’ve been asked to edit that image a tad (Just throw to in two more poppies, I’ll beefing it up by my own choice on top of this) and create an image showing the bio-diversity of the cemetery it’s self using photos my mother has taken. These’ll be used for that, the poppies for the header of their newsletter and I can’t for the life of me remember with the other, think that will depend on how it turns out.

As this is a charity I will not be paid directly but a select amount from my grandmother who works for the Heritage Association (I’m happy with it) and I know she’ll pay as she has done for whenever I’ve done work for them before albeit this is the first time it’s been art related. There is no set deadline either.


So my question is, is there anything I need to get done and sorted before I get into the meat of this little project? I’m editing the poppy image right now (Here for the curious, never tried anything like this before) and hopefully get to work on the from scratch one soon. Thanks for any help, highly appreciated! :)

Comments

[thaily.livejournal.com]

Oh I remember seeing that on Furocity.

I just finished a drawing for a charity, a rabbit shelter's newsletter cover. I'm doing it for free, and if you're registered as an artist and claim taxes and stuff you can deduct work you do for charity for tax purposes. Assuming that this is not the case with you, nor is it with me, but I thought I'd mention it for completeness' sake.
Do you know what else they might use the image for? Non-commercial, for example if they just a nice picture for on their newsletter. Or also commercial, like selling prints to raise money for their charity? How long do they want to use it for? Do they want something else next year or do they want to use it indefinitely?
If you know what they want to do with the image, you can include a small contract restricting their rights to those uses. If they realize they want to use it for something else later on you can always renegotiate.
You'll need to own all the rights to do that of course, though if it's all your and your mom's work it won't be an issue, and you'll need to mention whether they have the right to give a third party the rights to reproduce it, for example a printer making shirts.

All this might sound a bit strict, but it's more to protect you from miscommunication than possible harmful intent from the people working for the charity. Or from unscrupulous third parties, like a dishonest printer who might try and sell the image outside of the charity's commission.

[eski.livejournal.com]

This! I agree that a contract just to restrict the usage is a good idea. You can tell them it's an "Artist's Agreement", which is the same thing but sounds less scary. Good luck!

[feather-dancer.livejournal.com]

As expected, the obvious never occured to me lol :) I know for certain the poppy image is for the newsletter header though on the other I need to ask. I should have done today but alas, forgot when the power cut so will have to try tomorrow. As for going off as prints/t-shirts (I'd have a heart attack if that was even suggested to be perfectly honest) thats a defiante no but I'll be sure to make that clear juuust in case.

Thank you muchly, having a base to mess with word wise is much eaiser for me given it's not something I've had to do before. Highly appreciated :)

[sedatedintolife.livejournal.com]

No offense, but why is this post in artists beware?

[neive.livejournal.com]

Well, since people deal with the negativity that happens when people don't take precautions - I'm sure she figures there's knowledgeable people here who can help her so it doesn't turn into something that would need to be posted in a place like this. :)

(Sorry for the run on sentence, hopefully it made sense~)

[feather-dancer.livejournal.com]

It is perfectly allowed to be used as an advice community and this IS comission related, it has happened numberous times before also (Plus it's been allowed through). Sides, I'd rather ask peeps I know who will think of everything that'd never occur to me having not done comissioned work before :)