Bottom line is, often, there's a lot of data that needs to be communicated and, while I try my best, I find it very challenging to condense it. That's why I try to make it easier for the artist by providing (1) a description of the theme/pose/intent of the drawing, (2) a description of the character or characters, (3) a package of reference pictures with annotated text which serve as examples for clarification purposes, and (4) by not just dropping off all this info until I have a chance to talk to them and walk them though it quickly so they can pick up on the most important details, ask my questions, and so they don't get lost--plus, it cuts down on the time it would take the artist to familiarize themselves with the information on their own.
When I'm finished explaining, I always ask if the artist has any questions and is ok with the commission.
And even when all is said and done that doesn't include any changes that may be asked for or made in the intermediary stage of the drawing; the stage where the artists draws a concept sketch and asks you what you think and might want changed.
Generally that's how I approach the commission process. While it's not a bad system, I know it's not perfect either and it needs more work, and I am trying to improve it.
If (and it happens sometimes), an artist feels overwhelmed and can't understand what all this info means and what I want or hasn't the time to go though it; then all they need do is tell me and I'll abbreviate it to one a one page description and a couple pictures or otherwise decide it's not going to work and not commission them. While I am constantly trying to shorten everything as much as possible, I don't always automatically provide that level of brevity to artists at the onset of a transaction because that would mean that by necessity I would be prematurely (and perhaps unnecessarily) be forced to generalize and doing so would be at the expense of details. Certain subtleties that I could have otherwise brought to artists' attention would have to be sacrificed and lost. The advantage of being brief is that it saves time but at the expense accuracy. A briefer description relies much more heavily on an artists interpretation of your description and the danger is that that interpretation may not result in as accurate a rendering as desired. For example, my idea of "large" is rarely the same as someone else's idea of "large".
Relative language and brevity only takes you so far. ^^ This ties into the concept of "style" you mention. You asked why I don't just commission artists who drew the exmaple pictures I'm using instead of getting commissions from other artists and over details. Well, to answer your question, yes, actualy I do indeed do that. In fact, I would never commission someone who's style I didn't like. Regardless of whether the particular artist I'm dealing with at the time is the creator of an example picture I use, hopefully now you can understand that I'm not unhappy with their style and I'm not trying to change their style. Rather, all I attempt to do is bring their attention to aspects of the drawing that are extraneous to their style. Occasionally, I suppose it can be argued that there is some overlap, but really it's just the same concept as showing an artist a drawing of your character that another artist drew and asking that artist to draw your character in their style. In other words, I have certain preferences in mind and I try to explain those as best I can. Since I don't have a reference sheet that I can use for that purpose, I must by necessity fall back on the approach I'm using.
Anyway, I could go on but hopefully that helps clarify things for you. :3
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-08-04 03:56 am (UTC)Bottom line is, often, there's a lot of data that needs to be communicated and, while I try my best, I find it very challenging to condense it. That's why I try to make it easier for the artist by providing (1) a description of the theme/pose/intent of the drawing, (2) a description of the character or characters, (3) a package of reference pictures with annotated text which serve as examples for clarification purposes, and (4) by not just dropping off all this info until I have a chance to talk to them and walk them though it quickly so they can pick up on the most important details, ask my questions, and so they don't get lost--plus, it cuts down on the time it would take the artist to familiarize themselves with the information on their own.
When I'm finished explaining, I always ask if the artist has any questions and is ok with the commission.
And even when all is said and done that doesn't include any changes that may be asked for or made in the intermediary stage of the drawing; the stage where the artists draws a concept sketch and asks you what you think and might want changed.
Generally that's how I approach the commission process. While it's not a bad system, I know it's not perfect either and it needs more work, and I am trying to improve it.
If (and it happens sometimes), an artist feels overwhelmed and can't understand what all this info means and what I want or hasn't the time to go though it; then all they need do is tell me and I'll abbreviate it to one a one page description and a couple pictures or otherwise decide it's not going to work and not commission them. While I am constantly trying to shorten everything as much as possible, I don't always automatically provide that level of brevity to artists at the onset of a transaction because that would mean that by necessity I would be prematurely (and perhaps unnecessarily) be forced to generalize and doing so would be at the expense of details. Certain subtleties that I could have otherwise brought to artists' attention would have to be sacrificed and lost. The advantage of being brief is that it saves time but at the expense accuracy. A briefer description relies much more heavily on an artists interpretation of your description and the danger is that that interpretation may not result in as accurate a rendering as desired. For example, my idea of "large" is rarely the same as someone else's idea of "large".
Relative language and brevity only takes you so far. ^^ This ties into the concept of "style" you mention. You asked why I don't just commission artists who drew the exmaple pictures I'm using instead of getting commissions from other artists and over details. Well, to answer your question, yes, actualy I do indeed do that. In fact, I would never commission someone who's style I didn't like. Regardless of whether the particular artist I'm dealing with at the time is the creator of an example picture I use, hopefully now you can understand that I'm not unhappy with their style and I'm not trying to change their style. Rather, all I attempt to do is bring their attention to aspects of the drawing that are extraneous to their style. Occasionally, I suppose it can be argued that there is some overlap, but really it's just the same concept as showing an artist a drawing of your character that another artist drew and asking that artist to draw your character in their style. In other words, I have certain preferences in mind and I try to explain those as best I can. Since I don't have a reference sheet that I can use for that purpose, I must by necessity fall back on the approach I'm using.
Anyway, I could go on but hopefully that helps clarify things for you. :3