How do you do commissions?

I've been wanting to do commissions for years now, but only just rlly got the confidence to actually try
soooo if any other artists that do commissions could give some advice, I'd rlly appreciate it :3

How/what do you use for payment?

How did you set the prices for your commissions?

What websites do you recommend using? (Whether it be for posting artwork, advertising urself, etc.)

And literally anything else u can think about that you'd be willing to share! 

i don’t post art online very often but i have friends who would + do commissions so ik a bit

most artists would use paypal or ko-fi but cashapp and venmo are options for people living in the states i believe. if you’re not comfortable using your real name online i believe you can set up a ‘paypal for business’ account but i’m not sure about the terms and conditions of that

for your commissions you can base them on whatever feels right but imo you should at least be charging minimum wage. if a piece is gonna take you several hours you should make several hours worth of money at least imho! it’s a good idea to set prices and adjust accordingly over time with things like demand and such (i.e consider raising if too much demand, having deals or such if demand is lower etc)

the website you use is very much ymmv. if you draw anthro stuff furaffnity and reddit are probably best? for fandom stuff twitter and maybe tumblr. tbh every online platform has pros and cons, i’d say just cross post on as many platforms as you’d like

i haven’t got much other advice other than watch out for scammers (i think most people recommend half now half after the piece is done kind of things for this reason) and try not to take on too much at once so you don’t get burnt out on it 

I don't have high commission traffic, but I've been commissioned a fair few times over the course of several years.

First, I'd start with figuring out your terms of service (ToS)/prices, if you need ideas mine are on my blog. As the other person that has responded to you so far has said, adjust prices according to demand (that comes with time though. Just pick what you think would be a fair cost for now!). Once you've got your ToS and prices sorted, personally I've had the most commissioners come to me via discord. Advertise in discord servers (in whichever channel they have dedicated to advertising comms) and anywhere else you're active, people will eventually come to you ^^

Also a mistake I used to make quite often was choosing to be friendly over being professional. Don't be stone hearted towards your clients of course, but also don't let your will be bent and do stuff like sending the fully finished piece with no watermarks or anything before you've received a full payment. Unless your client is a close friend, always prioritise the safety of yourself and your artwork first.

As a last tidbit, if you want to go the extra mile (but keep in mind you don't have to! Plenty of artists don't!), have a little "portfolio" of sorts for clients to take a peak at before choosing to commission you. For example, I use my Toyhouse. It has some info abt me, links to all of my art service ToS and price sheets, and all of my characters are on there for others to peruse and get a feel for my artstyle. Again this is purely optional though, I just have this for convenience. Trello is another thing I've seen other artists use- it's a website where you have little categories that you label and you move stuff along those categories so clients can see what stage their commission is at without having to bug you (shit explanation but it'll make sense if you look it up. The categories in question can be stuff like "waiting list", "started", "in progress", "near complete", "awaiting final/full payment", etc). I don't use it personally but it is pretty neat from what I've seen. Play around and see what works for you!

I hope this has been of some help :3 all the best!!