Character portraits and commissions (New Subject)

Kip the Bold hit upon an great idea for us artists. It's far more entertaining most times (and always feels fulfilling) to actually do commissions for players than it is to get published. And there are so many members on this board that I hope I can jump in on this thing as well, w/out infringing on those that came first.

Preferably I'd like to do the same as Kip and ask for like $10 a shot, if that's cool.(Mostly due to time constraints/working with companies) A little extra fundage never hurt an artist y'all=) They'd be mostly torso shots in toned pencil (example below), that way they can be done quickly. (usually like max. an hour). I'l do head shots for $5 and can post some if anyone's interested.

This would be a more fun way for me (and I'm sure Kip and Stone Angel perhaps) to eek out some spending cash. Most players would like some art from what I've seen, and it's way fun to work on someone else's creation. I've done commissions before and really I like doing them as much as anything. So if anyone's interested, feel free to email me at covenant4@hotmail.com with the Subject of EN Commission.

Thanks.

Your art is very good, but there is one difference between you and the other guys. They do the stuff for free. If you do in fact change your mind about the money issue I have three characters you can try.

Taka
Fighter1/Wizard 7 Half-Elf
Golden Hair
Barely Noticeable reptilian skin
longer leaner limbs
claws
orientally dressed in kimono
katana
greatsword
many spellbooks
a ring on his right hand
a staff of fire
a belt with many pouches
a cloak covering his torso, but not his arms
I say he is half-elf because he still dosen't know what his father is.

Bruumar
Male Centaur Druid
scimitar of frost
scimitar of fire
leather armor
wolf companion
long loose black hair
longbow on back

Roscoe
Male Halfling Rouge
studded leather
composite shortbow
shortsword at side
one daggar in boot
eight daggars across chest
cloak with the hood down
long braided blond hair
green eyes
extra short

The "free" part of Kip's thread is indeed the best part. Nice pic by the way. If you want to do C.S.'s for $$$ you'll have to do something like kip has done...

ie) do basic ones for free in black & white, Color will cost $$$, Special requests will cost $$$, ect ect.
...or... Check out Dr. Midnight. He has approximately 50,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.7987914143 examples of his works up for us to view (THANKS DOC!) If I had any spare cash I know that I'd try to get him to do something for me, simply because I've seen so much of his Work, I know it consistent in quality, & the Doc's work is cool.

O.K. I'm done yappin' now

Hi Tainted Kabuki. Welcome to EN World's messageboard! That picture is awsome! Are you a professional artist? You work is very clean and sharp, IMO.

As for getting commisions done, most of the guys on the messageboard can't really afford it. At least, I know I can't. And Kip doing simple black and white sketches for free will really hurt your chances.

What I would suggest is for you simply to keep posting some of your b&w work here to increase traffic to the thread. That way, more members will take a look and really consider shelling out the coinage for a character portrait.

After all, $10 a portrait is a great deal. (I'm totally broke - ah bugger what a deal.)

BTW, how much for a color commision? Does your price go up substantually for color work?

Cheers!

{EDIT}

You might want to consider renaming the thread to something that draws the eye. I almost went right by it not realizing what you were offering.

And do you have a website somewhere?

Thanks for the suggestions and compliments. I'll definitely be taking them to mind.

Knightfall- Yes, I do work as a 'professional' (insomuch as I get paid to draw). I've done work on some AEG books and do commissions/projects on the side here at home. And I'd do as many free ones as possible to drum up some business but unfortunately I can't do all that many. (And Kip does great fee ones=) But I love doing character portraits and figured I'd see if I could make a little extra cash doing some. And for color work, it'd cost more of course, but it would all depend on whether it had a background, was painted by hand or digitally, and whether the person wanted the original.

Rename the thread...willdo. LoL.

I have an old Elfwood Gallery but haven't updated it in a year. You're not supposed to once you do some professional work.
http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/loth/t/g/tggraham/tggraham.html
I'm working on a personal currently.

Thorne- If I get a chance I'll do Taka. I whipped up a thumbnail but I'm doing a couple commissions right now. (One in trade for add-free webspace ) So I'll see what I can do for him. I don't quite get how the cloak is supposed to look and if you could et me know what type of attitude he has I could put it in the picture.

And since it was the biggest piece of advice, here's a few more pieces of art. Two are inked (which takes longer coz it's like drawing the same piece twice) and one is toned pencil.

Here's the 2nd. It was in the Way of the Ninja from AEG.

And the 3rd. It's a Dwarven Monk. I need to at least add some lines the background because it looks pretty stark to me. Suggestions of mountains or clouds.

Tainted Kabuki said:

Here's the 2nd. It was in the Way of the Ninja from AEG.

Click to expand...

Nice work, I like this one the best.

I noticed a lack of feet in all of the pics that I saw. Do you have trouble drawing feet? For me it was always the face.

Uh okay

I didn't think you would really do the pic for free. Taka's cloak dosen't exactly have to be around him like I said, I goofed and it should really be behind him on the side that he is unsheathing his katana. Also Taka has slight horns at his temples. His attude should be kind of preparing for battle but extremely calm almost like he is too confident. I hope this helps.

Wow!

Those are some great images, T.K. I'm definitely going to have to keep an eye on this thread for updates. (I really like the stuff at Elfwood too.)

You have a real flare for oriental style depictions. Is the Far East part of your family heritage?

BTW, have you ever heard of any of these races from Mystara: rakasta and tortle?

In my home campaign, my oriental continent uses these races in addition to the traditional TSR/WotC races. (I've always wondered how they'd turn out designed to fit into such a campaign.)