ICON SURVEY + FREE!! DRAWN ICONS HERE 9/10 SLOTS

[mrr]

heyyyy so we're trying something new! maybe! drawn commissions. but we've got no idea how to price these!

so here's the deal: you tell us what rates we should charge for, and you get 2 free drawn icons! b&w, flat, or fully colored—it's up to you. after we get a suitable number of answers we're going to close this page and (hopefully) make a commissions post for drawn icons.

examples (click the b&w to see the full image!):




let us know what you think!

--

1. elaine (nornir) -- FINISHED
2. kyogi (futureless) -- FINISHED
3. morgen (define_corrupted) -- FINISHED
4. saskia (someplacetobeflying) -- FINISHED
5. fenris (soldieronwards) -- IN PROGRESS
6. kaoru (squeakofthedevil) -- FINISHED
7. nyssa (clocksandroses) -- IN PROGRESS
8. unconned
9. ladynadiad
10.

Comments

[futureless]

3 for lineart, 4 for flats, 5 for full shading!

[ofkindness]

thank you! who would you like drawn & what expressions?

[futureless]

OKAY LET'S DO THIS. This character here! but slightly more feminine and with like two inches more hair (though her hair should still be feathery). As for additions she has a pipe flower in her hair on the right (from the viewer's perspective), which is actually attached to her flesh and there are slight gross vines under her skin around her eye (they wiggle). As for colour scheme she's literally just white (white hair, white clothes, mostly white flower, pale), with violet hues. Her eyes are bright violet (with redish pupils if that doesn't end up looking too strange). The edges of her shirt collar are golden though. She doesn't have any set hex codes but whatever purples are all cool. Skin vines are red!

Expression wise! A cute, caring smile and can I get a shaft head tilt like that, with the hand if possible though it might not fit well into the icon (she wears red gloves btw)?

Also give me your paypallll. Feel free to charge me extra, I just want cute Kyogi icons I'm sorry.

[nornir]

$5 USD sounds reasonable to me! I wouldn't mind paying more for drawn and colored icons, but I think (/agree with Miles) that $5 is a happy medium. If you feel like you're overcharging, try doing $3 for inked, $4 for flats, $5 for fullcolor!

And if you still feel bad you could try $2 for sketches but really, I think $5's a reasonable price.

[ofkindness]

thank you!! cries about money forever who would you like drawn & what expressions? 'v'

[nornir]

Elaine, natch. The center panel is embroidered but I don't hate you so don't worry about it, obviously I didn't - expression-wise, could I get a gentle smile and an angry expression?

[define_corrupted]

i agree with the above on pricing scale!

[mrr]

thank you! who would you like drawn & what expressions?

[define_corrupted]

Morgen, whose current PB is Waver Velvet, is 26, tanned, with a slightly broader face, and a personality that is lazy, hedonistic, and just generally inappropriate. His left eye is pale grey rather than dark and has no visible pupil.

If i could get full-color icons, one looking teasing or mocking and one looking tousled and surprised, that would be glorious.

[someplacetobeflying]

The above pricing sounds fine, and sounds about right compared to what I've had to pay in the past for drawn icons! If you want to encourage sets, you could always give a slightly discounted amount for 5 or 15 or so, maybe knocking off a couple of dollars or something.

[ofkindness]

thank you!! i love discounts. who would you like drawn & what expressions?

[someplacetobeflying]

This girl right here! Here are some other images of her for reference. Expression-wise, I'd love to get one of her all wide-eyed and excited, and the other more an intrigued head-tilt.

[soldieronwards]

Largely agreeing with the above, especially the note that offering a discounted rate for larger batches is a good idea, since many people like to order drawn icons in batches!

More notes: I also think it depends on how long it takes you to draw these icons, since artists doing commissions generally recommend setting your prices by the hour. If the line art icons are really easy and fast for you, then $2-$3 for them might be fine; if they take more time, then $4 even for the line art ones would be reasonable.

Drawn icon pricing can be hard, I think, because you're essentially offering bust portraits of characters with the option of having them be fully colored, and some artists can legitimately charge $10-$15 for each one of those--but with icons, because people want to get so many, you're expected to charge a lot less. Ultimately, I think it comes down to finding a style that's relatively quick and easy for you to draw in and making that your style for drawn icons.

[ofkindness]

my first couple of icons (the samples) took about an hour each - but after i got the ball rolling i finished the linearts pretty quickly! but i also know that my drawing speed tends to fluctuate. pricing is hard.....

thank you very much! who would you like drawn & what expressions?

[heartrending]

This guy! You can find more pictures of him here. One awkward/dorky/trying to look cool expression, one angry/full of rage!!! expression.

[squeakofthedevil]

IDK IF YOU'RE STILL DOING THIS but even if you're not I want to reserve a spot for when you open I guess I agree with the others saying about $5 is good! I feel like that's probably underpricing actually but if we're talking about being competitive then it's not a terrible rate. I guess I'd saaay about 3 for the lineart, 5 for flats and 7 for full shading? 100% definitely recommend having a bulk rate though, that would almost certainly be your best bet for good business. Also good luck with this whatever you decide!

[mrr]

YEAH we're actually discussing maybe like. 4 for a base lineart and then having toppings like "extra details = $1" and "coloring = $1" (jessi doesn't care about color prices so.) but i'm also weak and bulk rate would have to be a small bulk. like five. ;u;

thank you!! who would you like drawn & what expressions?

[clocksandroses]

I'd definitely say 3 (lineart), 5 (flats), 7 (full shading), with slight discounts for bulk orders. FOR EXAMPLE if somebody orders a full set of 15 icons you could do it for $40 (lineart) or sssomething along those lines.

[ofkindness]

40$ sounds like so much. . . . . hopes and dreams

thank you! who would you like drawn & what expressions?

[unconned]

Once again, I'm going to agree with someone and that'll be clocksandroses in terms of pricing and doing bulk orders for a fixed price helps. You can also add a +1$ sort of deal if they want to add more characters in the mix because I know people would like that.

A thing you could also do is holiday discount prices or special offers on certain days. You could also advertise your works on other places like Tumblr because a lot of people who do commissions for their characters can be found there. Personally, I've always been fond of artists who offer to also give the full drawing + the icons too so the person can put up the big thing in their journal or profile, crediting you and giving you more exposure all the while. (Does that make sense? I hope it does.) You can offer that in your bulk orders to sweeten the deal and make people more likely to get a full set instead of just 7 or 8.

[ofkindness]

thank you very much! :o I am thinking about doing the whole +1$ sort of deal and holiday discounts, depending on how they go!

who would you like drawn & what expressions?

[ladynadiad]

I'd agree with the others on pricing, but also have some other options to suggest.

One is you can discount a bit to have all the expressions have the same basic pose. That tends to be easier to do for a larger set for your bulk pricing since you'd not have to draw each icon individually, just draw one and then change its expressions. Like what you did for futureless above, would be two different poses and since you had to draw the character twice, that is more valuable. I'd say a minimum of $5 discount if most of the poses will be the same. That could give you a means to have a lower price option for those who do need a set and don't have a ton of extra cash. There's nothing wrong with doing this because it does give a good solid set of icons still.

Another thing would be to have a price for including two characters in an icon. At times people want to have an icon of their cross canon ship or a weird OTP that is rarely drawn. If doing stuff like hugging, kissing, and possibly sexual poses is your thing, add some pricing for that, probably something like add $1 for b/w, $2 for flats and $3 for shaded for an additional character since it is more to draw and will be a more complex pose.

[ofkindness]

to be quite honest, I would vastly prefer different poses because a.) it's easier for me to visualize the expression when I include body language, and b.) it's more practice for me, which is something I certainly don't want to cheat myself out of. But I will keep it in mind, because it's true that it would be easier and more helpful for people who would like to commission but don't have enough cash for 15 uniquely different poses!

I'm not comfortable with having two characters in an icon at the moment; I don't feel confident in my ability to draw intimate contact for monetary compensation. I will keep this in mind when I do feel confident, though!

thank you! who would you like drawn & what expressions?

[norfair]

Is this post still open for commissions? And if there is, do you have a preferred method of contact? I'd got a commission I'd like to privately discuss with you!

[mrr]

Hello! Firstly, I do apologize for getting to this late; work has been eating me a little bit.

I am planning on opening commissions soon—now is actually a great time for me to start! You can email me at pichizu @ gmail dot com, that would be excellent!