#and i have issues with underpricing my stuff and making it so that i'm not even working for minimum wage LOL

[pippuns]

would it theoretically be possible to commission you to do more Tai Sui comics? I love them so much (rushing to ask since you said you're looking for other things to read)

probably not!! I'm not currently doing commissions. I'm not done drawing for Tai Sui yet though!!

[meesefr]

do you have any advice on how to price comms in flight rising? I think i'm underpricing a lot right now

Oh boy, long post incoming. I obviously don't know your art/where you live/current prices so I'll try to apprach this based on how I price my work, and touching a bit on what to expect. Gonna make this a more generalised commission pricing post because I've seen this come up a lot.

Tl;dr version = Hourly rate (always above national minimum) + time it takes you on average + extra time calculated outside of pure drawing time + taxes

I personally price commissions on FR the same way I price coms/work anywhere else. For commissions I use flatrates which are in turn based on my hourly. Imo if you're doing FRC coms I'd ALWAYS price higher for gems/tr than for IRLC since their usage is confined to on-site. (I do cheapo FRC coms here and there for stuff like foddart too but it's with the explicit understanding that this is NOT a regular transaction. I would not recommend this for a long-term commission shop.) So for FRC coms I'd convert my standard IRLC price + FRC "tax". How much do I value gems/tr over actual IRL goods etc.

My studio hourly usually ranges from 25$ to 30$ but since most commissions are non-commercial work I stick to a 20$/h range for them. I like doing them and I still want my coms to be accessible to people, so I don't mind a small cut (drawing dragons is fun). So if say... a bust on average takes me about an hour and a half the strictest estimate would be 30$ + taxes. But you want to incorporate the possibility of complicated designs, taking longer for polish/make sure the work is up to your standards, reference gathering, small changes and client communication (transaction fees as well when applicable), so it's always good to leave breathing room. (I usually estimate at least another 40 minutes. It honestly ends up taking much longer most of the time. I've had coms take me 10+ hours longer than my priced estimate because I got too ambitious/excited with the illustration, don't be me.)

Now of course all of this stuff depends on your hourly rate too which is honestly a big debate in and on itself. I think the general commissioner audience is used to significantly lower rates than the industry side might. My main income comes from freelancing, where my rate is considered low end. Outside of Illustration, which is vastly underpayed, most designers and creative freelancers will usually have an hourly rate that ranges from 40-100$/h. 20-25$ is considered entry level. My personal recommendation would be to not go lower than 15-20/h if you're doing commissions professionally, even if you live in a place where that is considered a fairly high hourly wage. If you're still a student or your art doesn't really sell yet at those price ranges because of inexperience I think it'd be better to invest in practicing your fundamentals instead and do other work in the meantime. (Or find another platform! Might be an audience issue and not a skill one!)

Unfortunately most people doing coms (including myself) ARE underpricing. I've seen people that would be senior artists in a company if they were doing concept art instead have similar prices to mine, which is ridiculous. (The average mid level concept artist in-house makes 65k/y. People doing coms at the same skillrange often make >20k/y) But to some degree that is kind of inescapable because of how many other people you are competing with. So I don't doubt one bit that you are underpricing already. Illustrators and commission artists are vastly underpayed which means the average audience is conditioned to significantly lower prices.

Thankfully, specifically on FR from my experience the quality of commissioners you'll get is really high. I'm still not sure if you could get away with strictly fairly priced coms, unless you're very popular/your art is super in demand. But other than that, I do payment upon art delivery and have never had issues with a client except once. Communication/references/respect etc are also really good and folks tend to be very understanding and patient.

Be aware that the audience does get smaller the more fairly you price your stuff. I've kinda noticed that the folks commissioning me tend to be from a smaller pool of people that are also the ones commissioning the other artists with a similar skill level on FR that do IRLC coms. So a small pool of regular commissioners + other really skilled or better than you folks that are also fairly accessible/cheap by industry standards. You start seeing a lot of the same artist names pop up when you scroll down in the dragon's bio for references. You will probably not consistently fill all your slots but your clients will most likely end up being trustworthy/reliable and occasionally repeat customers. (Not surprisingly a lot of them are fellow artists/creatives too, y'all know the pain of the grind lol)

I wish you the best, anon. Sorry for kinda hijacking your question to go in-depth with this lol. I upped my prices a few months ago too and thankfully didn't see a decline in clients even if unfortunately I'm still underpricing. Commissions are just a tough game in general. I hope you'll be compensated fairly! If art is your main gig or you're planning on making it your full-time job, definitely look into freelancing instead long term. It's still tough but at least your rates will be much more acceptable. Take care and good luck!

(P.S. In case you're not paying taxes from commissions yet, check with an accountant if you're over the declare threshold. Different countries have different rules for this. If art is your main source of income you almost definitely have to essentially open a business in most places.)