Different Art Markets and What to Expect

[ocelotish]

Well, I'm finally planning on taking commissions now that I've done something I might be willing to pay for, but for me subject matter isn't really an issue. I really don't care what I draw as long I am paid to draw it, which puts me in kind of a unique situation.

Where do I market myself?

Because there isn't an obvious answer I thought I'd ask you guys about the different markets and compile an info post that way (which will hopefully be of use to others too). Where do you go to sell superheroes? What about Disney style? Do you need to have your own character and a huge portfolio? Do people care about backgrounds? Are cheesecake shots a vital part of your gallery? Is there a common scamming M.O.? Do customers assume they have rights to that sort of image? That's the sort of information I'm interested in.

Just to make it easy here's a form that might help you organize your thoughts/include questions you might not have considered, but feel free to comment however you like.
Type of work:
What sells:
Price ranges:
Sites to use/advertise on:
Need to know info:
What to watch out for:
How people view artists:
Any additional comments:

Edit: For clarification, I'm talking mainly about individual commissions. Corporate commissions are also interesting (just a different kettle of fish), but feel free to discuss that too.

Edit 2: There's some great advice in the replies, but just to steer things back on target, I'm also interested the more niche specific information. How is the anime market different than the furry market, different than the superhero market, etc. It's less "How do I do commission basics," more "Where is this market centered (in terms of websites), what do they look for, do they only like digital, etc." Very genre specific info.

Comments

[edenpilgrim.livejournal.com]

From my experience most people doing the super-hero art are commissioned from established comic publishers like Marvel. To get into that sort of thing requires that you submit a portfolio to those companies.

If your work is good enough they will contact you to do a cover or couple page spread. If you are REALLY good you might get hired on for inks, linework, or colors.

Some titles are more or less 'off-limits' or very exclusive. It's not too hard to land a position doing an Iron Man cover or two but for titles like 'Hellboy' the only artists that are going to touch that are Mike or people he personally selects.

Comics aren't a bad gig if you can get into it. A friend of mine and fellow student did a two page spread for Iron Man recently and made about $400 from those two pages if I recall.

[ocelotish]

Oh okay! That's great information to know.

I had heard about a bit of a fan market for superhero characters but have no idea where to start. (Same thing for anime really, other than da I have no clue on where I post for any attention/commissions.) I suppose the good thing about stuff like that is that I can just draw whatever I fancy and then sell it to people who like the same thing.

Comics seem like they'd be a really fun gig to get into, but I have problems reading them. *shameface*

What I'm personally looking at right now is just doing some personal commission to "bridge the gap." Something where I can do art and make money but I don't have a strong enough professional portfolio yet. That's not really something I thought was relevant to discussing the larger topic of different markets though.

[houndofloki.livejournal.com]

There are some "Superhero OC's" that you may get commissioned for based on City of Heroes/City of Villians fandom. These folks are usually looking to pay prices fairly similar to what furry commissions go for (so not a ton of money), but they don't seem to be as big on porn as furries. The CoH/CoV crowd almost always wants female cheesecake/pinups, so they might be a nice fandom to work with if you're trying to avoid the porn/fetish nature of furry.

[ocelotish]

That actually sounds fantastic. I don't mind doing cheesecake every now and then, especially if I can get personality in there. (Also, human cheesecake always raises fewer questions than furry cheesecake. -.- )

By pin-ups you mean pin-up girls/sexy pin-ups as opposed to pin-up illustration meaning one page, full body, minimal background, not necessarily sexy, sometimes action, right?

Do you have any site/forum recommendations or just deviantart/tumblr?

[houndofloki.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the super late response!

The pinups are usually something like this: http://daggerpoint.deviantart.com/gallery/351640#/d47kcy3
Cheesecake like this:
http://daggerpoint.deviantart.com/gallery/351640?offset=48#/dwlqke

I don't know any forums or sites to recommend (the only reason I know CoH/CoV fandom exists at all is because a friend of mine gets a hefty chunk of his commissions from them!). Mostly, they seem to be on DA. I think the best way of appealing to that fandom is probably just to have some good superhero-female samples in your gallery, and perhaps to draw someone CoH character and submit it to the DA group: http://cityofheroes.deviantart.com/ The group has 744 watchers, so it's probably a good way to get seen.

Hope that's helpful, and good luck with your art :)

[ocelotish]

Thank you very much! That's really helpful!