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

[magicalondine.livejournal.com]

This topic seemed pretty interesting, so I thought I would chime in! I haven't seen a whole lot of people on artists-beware dealing with the sort of niches I focus on, so perhaps my perspective might be useful.

I'm mostly in the "anime" niche. I do a lot of fanart commissions, but a fair bit of OCs as well. From a combination of heavy personal preference and high demand, almost all the work I do centers around women or girls, especially lesbian shipping and erotic artwork. I do fantasy lesbian work (elves, demons, human/animal hybrids) and fantasy OCs as subset of my main focus, and finally I do a little bit of cute furry art on top of it - mostly Pokemon and female anthro characters.

What sells: Color, absolutely, and pretty much exclusively - I've never had anyone approach me for a sketch, lineart or type of commission other than my full CGs, even though I offer other types of work and have suggested prices listed in my commission info. I tend to get compliments on my coloring, so that might be part of it, but overall I think the "anime" market really loves vibrant colors.

My price range has been slowly becoming more defined as I go along, since I haven't been doing this for very long, and it's still not an ideal representation of time/effort/demand. Since most of my work is two character pieces in full color, I usually make $22 to $35 per piece depending on what kind of background the commissioner wants (or if they want one at all). Single character pieces tend to be $15 to $22. I'll probably be gradually raising those prices, though, as I've found that I have a lot of people lining up to buy art and I'm spending a bit too much time working for the amount I make!

Sites to use/advertise on: DeviantArt, I've found, has been pretty slow for me, and I've only gotten about five people from there asking for commissions in the past year or so. Only one of those was taken so far; I can't remember how some of them worked out, but one commissioner seemed to have absolutely no idea what he wanted, and in the end I just had to let the offer die because he couldn't decide on an idea. @_@

Obviously, since I do a lot of lesbian porn, I couldn't post the works that I was putting so much effort into on DA, as I was doing commissions for friends and through word-of-mouth. Just a few months ago I decided to sign up and begin posting on Hentai Foundry (http://www.hentai-foundry.com/) (NSFW - warning applies to pretty much the whole site, as you can imagine). I've found that the reception there has been very good for me, and I've become quite busy with commissions coming through there. :) Not only that, but I've found that my works get more attention on HF than DA, despite HF not having any groups in which to post your works.

They accept a lot of different subjects on that site, as well as furry art. If you're someone who does porn and can cater to anime/video game/comic/etc fandoms, I would definitely recommend advertising on HF.

That about covers what I had to say - though there's one last thing that's worth mentioning. I've found that in the "anime" niche, especially when it comes to porn, I get a lot of people who seem to have never commissioned an artist before, or are simply unclear on what they want. The best solution to this that I know of is to be very upfront with people and work out as many details as possible before any money changes hands. Good advice in general I suppose, but especially if you do not want to do lots of edits. @_@

[jamesalesto.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, they accept furries on HF? I might just have to start posting there as the uneasyness with FA has had me looking for a second place to set up shop.

[magicalondine.livejournal.com]

As far as I know, they do! I've only submitted one piece there but I still got some comments on it. There's a content warning tag you can select for anthro/furry and a subsection in the "Original" category to submit anthro art. Furry fanart should be fine too. I have no idea how large the furry audience is there, though.