How to Price Commissions! - My Way

This is by no means the correct way to do it or the best way to do it, but it is the way I do it - in particular the pet and people portraits I offer on my shop - https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ScoleIllustration

Where to start…

Everyone has to start somewhere - not a lot of customers, no reputation, no demand, not many followers but the more work you produce, the more those things grow along with you and pricing your work accordingly is key.

If you are pricing to highly in the beginning people will not buy from you. I repeat. Will not buy. The reason being is that you don’t have a big enough body of work as examples and potential customers won’t be able to trust in you that you will fulfil their order to the level of skill your high price reflects.

So…start basic and build your portfolio of work with a reasonable fair price point.

First things first:

• Figure out a basic cost price that you would want to pay yourself for doing the artwork E.g £10 per hour.

• Start off by making a rough estimate of how long you think something would take you to complete and do this for every size or product you are offering. E.g A5 coloured pencil drawing will take around 5 Hours. (This is a random guess so don’t worry about accuracy. Just dont be unrealistic).

• This will be your starting price. This price reflects your time only so if you require materials in order to make your product/artwork then add this on top (I don’t add materials to my pricing because I buy my paper in bulk and I have endless pencils so I don’t need to repurchase anything per order.)

• From this moment on, record data on every piece of work you create on a spreadsheet or in a notebook (the nerd in me loves a good spreadsheet). If you are creating the artwork for yourself and not a customer - price it as if a customer has purchased it.

  Make sure to include all of the following things:

• The more data you fill out, you can begin to see averages in the time it takes you to complete certain things and you can adjust your pricing accordingly. Wait until you have at least 5 of the same thing before finding an average (You don’t want to change your pricing after everything you create - build a good amount of data first). Yes, in the beginning it is guess work but you won’t know how long things take you until you start recording it.

• Even of you are at the very beginning stage and have no custom orders - start recording the time is takes you to do your own artwork. Create a piece similar to what you would sell and time yourself

• As you can see from the above example - the artwork was priced at £45 which, by the £10 p/h rule, should have taken 4 hours 30 mins but instead it took 5 hours 30 mins. So if you find that many of the same sized commissions are taking the same amount of time you can then adjust your price to charge £55 instead.
  

This is how I set up my workspace- I have my reference image to the left, my artwork in the centre and then a timesheet to the right!
I always prefer to record my time this way because I get distracted easy and I can’t work for solid hours in a row. I need breaks so this allows me to see accurately how much time I actually spent working on the art rather than saying 2pm-4pm but actually in that time I got distracted by instagram and snack breaks. I write short bursts of time and then add it up at the end of the day.

• In the beginning you won’t seem to be making a profit as your only charging for your time and not your skill but it is essential in building a good portfolio and building trust for your customers that you can continue to deliver good work.

• Naturally, the more you do the faster you will become as you will find ways to cut down time in certains areas or faster ways of doing certain things and that is when your price mark up creeps up by itself. For example you may be charging £60 for something that now takes you 4 hours instead of 6 but you’re still getting paid for 6 hours work.

• Once you have enough experience, skill, portfolio and customer reviews/recommendations that your demand increases - you can up your price again. At this stage you have already proven that you can create the high standard of work, you have the customer reviews to back you up so people will want to to pay more money because now you are in demand for your time and you can charge for your time - maybe upping the price again to £70

• You need to make reasonable price jumps that are realistic and not too big, otherwise it will scare people off.

Bonus Tip:

When deciding time scales and despatch times - always give double the amount of time rather than the actual amount of time. For example if it takes 2 weeks to complete then give a 3-4 week despatch time. Life happens and things get put on hold, so instead of stressing to finish in 2 weeks you have already allowed extra time for mishaps or setbacks and it means no unhappy customers and no stress for you.

Also if your customer wants a faster turnaround than the 3-4 weeks you are able to offer a quicker time for more money as you already know you can complete in around 2 weeks. Just have a limit. If you know you can’t complete something before 2 weeks then do not agree to a faster time.

If customers want something for a gift then make sure you outline in the description and the shipping info that they must order in plenty of time and your commissions cannot be rushed to suit quick deadlines.

Do you have a better way of pricing and managing your time? If you do let me know in the comments!!
Any questions on the way I do it ? Im happy to answer them all :)

My First Ever INKTOBER!!

So, here we are…#Inktober2018 and I have finally decided to stop wimping out and take on the challenge!

The Plan of Action

I decided to ease myself in, in an attempt to succeed rather than fail. With going to work full time, the time I do have is very limited so instead of uploading every single day I chose to create a piece every other day. My hope was that I would have a full day to work on a piece and then finalise and upload on the following day.

The prompts I followed were by artist @keely.elle and my challenge to myself was to use the prompt words as inspirations for fashion designs/illustrations. I wanted to create a new fashion look for every (other) prompt and then present them all stood together at the end as a collection.

Supplies

I wanted to improve my layering technique with pencil, biro and ink so the supplies I used were:

• Prisma col-erase in Black (a very small one)

• Pentel BK77 Superb fine ballpoint pen

• Pigma Micron ink pens - size 0.05 mm & 0.2 mm

• On Daler Rowney bristol board paper - 250 gsm/115lb

Not to overwhelm myself, I prepped all my designs/drawings beforehand so I had less to stress me out time wise when it came to October. For some sections of the drawings I wasn’t happy with certain sections so I redrew them and put them back together in Photoshop.
Here is the result of my initial sketches:

THE FIRST HALF

As the halfway point approached I was feeling good. I had a rhythm going and my drawing/editing/uploading schedule was going to plan. This every other day upload plan is something I will definitely take into the challenge next year.

The result

As the challenge grew nearer to the end I was tired and lacking the motivation to keep drawing. I guess that is the whole point of the challenge - to see if you can push through and persevere when your brain just wants to give up or at least change the format of what you are doing. I am pleased to say I made it to the end!! These are my final illustrations:

Increasing your Imagination #1 - Pinterest Collage

Using Pinterest to generate ideas and brainstorm

In this post I am going to talk you through how I use the social media platform Pinterest to brainstorm new ideas when I become stuck or just as a fun sketching exercise!

So.... There is a big chance that I can assume you are following a wide variety of different boards and inspirations. From sweet recipes/drinks to wild animals to high fashion images. Well...that is what my boards consist of anyway, as well as many other things.

Pinterest becomes a personal library of all things that you personally love or get inspired by and that is why I love going back here when I get a bit stuck - it has everything all in one jumbled homepage

This is how I get inspired - now it's your turn

1. Open up Pinterest on your desktop and do not scroll...I repeat...DO NOT SCROLL. Now take a screenshot of that first page of photos. Now, if you wanted, you can make your desktop show more images (Ctrl - or + for windows) but this is up to you to decide how many images you want to work with....the important thing is that you do not scroll down or hit refresh!!!

Why you say ? - as soon as you start scrolling, you cant stop. You keep going and you can never settle on a group of images that you like the best. (Trust me I've wasted too much time scrolling for 'reference')

This set of images you now have will be the sole inspiration for some concept sketching. (The image above is my random set of images that I will be working with)

2. When you start looking at the images you have, start noting what parts of each image you could bring forward into a new idea. For example, take the body pose from one; the colour palette from another; a design feature or graphic element from one and an object/creature from another one etc. (see my example below)

This is how I began to tackle and break down my set of images

3. Start sketching... You will find that once you have drawn one thing you will already have the idea for the next.

These are a few of my sketches from this exercise and there is still so much more I could have explored! I didn't even use the tiger images and I can already think of ways in which I could incorporate them into more concept sketches...

4. - Its up to you to decide how long to do the exercise for but I recommend you at least fill a double page spread. Hopefully you get to a point where you have so many ideas flooding in that you wont even consider stopping until you have expressed them all on paper. If not - choose your favourite from all that you have done and develop that one idea further. Try the concept with different colour palettes, poses and angles.

I hope you have enjoyed this sketching exercise - I'd love to see your pages of sketch concepts from your Pinterest boards so tag me @scoleillustration on Instagram if you have given it a try. Leave a comment if you found it helpful - I would love to know ways in which you spark a creative flow!

See you next time!

How I Approach Sketchbooks

Sketchbooks are treated in many different ways :

- Some people treat them like books of art with every piece finalised and fully rendered.
- Some people only create rough sketches and scribbles for quick ideas with the intention of keeping it to themselves and not sharing with the world.
- Then there are the people who are so intimidated with new sketchbooks that they hardly draw in them before they give up and start a new one and end up with hundreds of unfilled sketchbooks on the shelf... (we have all been that person at some point ...am I right ?)

Here are the ways in which I approach new sketchbooks - I hope you can find some of it useful if not interesting :) Below are some sneak peaks into some of my sketchbook pages and a video of my latest sketchbook tour!

#1
Choosing a Sketchbook

My advice for choosing a sketchbook is really just to try as many as you can. The more you try the more you will figure out what you like to use the best: what the best paper is or the best paper size, spiral bound or not, thick or thin etc. I am currently making my way through an A4 Moleskine sketchbook but all previous books have all been different. If you like the satisfaction of finishing a book I would always advise buying the thinner sized books to start with. This way you get that sense of joy and accomplishment when you finish a book quickly. Personally I don't mind a thicker sketchbook now I have finally got over the 'blank book fear'.

A great idea is to ask for sketchbooks for birthday and Christmas presents so you have a stockpile of many different ones to test out before buying them!

#2
Goals & Practice Points

On the very first page somewhere I always write down the things I want to achieve or practice throughout the new book and I always refer back to this on the days where I know I want to draw something but I can't decide what. Some of the things I have been noting down have been :

- Anatomy practice - specifically hands
- More dynamic body poses
- Practice no reference sketching
- Practice ink drawing with no pencil sketching

Once I have finished the sketchbook I always like to look back through the pages and then add another goals/practice list of things to the back. Things that I have discovered need more practice or that I want more practice at in the new book. Then I transfer this list into the front on my new sketchbook.

I always find that doing this keeps me focusing on improvement and gives me something to work towards in the next book.

#3
Mindset

One of the things I struggled with in the beginning was the fear of starting a new blank book. There were too many thoughts of expectation that everything had to be good and it stopped me from actually making anything. What I have learnt now is that the sooner you stop thinking of a sketchbook as 'precious' the better.

The reality that I found was that the more you draw in them the better they will become. Yes, the first few you do will probably 'suck' to you but you will never get the confidence to keep starting (and finishing) new sketchbooks if you don't just dive in and go for it. I would advise starting with a small/ thin sketchbook to start with such as the Seawhite and Brighton A5 paperback ones.

I like to think of my sketchbooks now kind of like time capsules and if I look back through them I can see such drastic improvements from my first book to my current one, and you will too - guaranteed. You just have to do it and not worry about anyone else seeing it apart from you.

I find now that the more sketchbooks you complete the better they look each time. You get familiar with what layouts work and how to make pages look interesting and expressive. So let that fuel your energy into creating sketchbooks. The quicker you can fill one the quicker you can move onto the next!

My main advice is keep going ! keep completing books!

#4
What to Draw?

Like my fear of the blank book i also had about 5 different sketchbooks on the go at once. In one i would do pencil portraits, in another it would be fashion sketches, another would be larger portraits and another would be watercolour practice.

Looking back this was an awful idea - I didn't know what book I wanted to work in and I had only ever filled a couple of pages in each. It was such a waste!!

Now I use my sketchbooks to practice everything!! I have one watercolour book and one normal I only use the two. If I need a paper that needs to hold more water I will use the watercolour book but otherwise its my Moleskine.

Practice everything in there - if you feel like doing some anatomy, do that. If you feel like a gouache landscape then do that!

Personally I think it's what makes sketchbooks look so interesting to look at when they are filled with so many different subjects and mediums.

If you want to do a more finalised piece - that's okay too. It is still practice at the end of the day whether its the medium you use, the colour mixing, or the style in which you've drawn it. It is your sketchbook you can put whatever you want in there.

What also makes a sketchbook interesting? - filling all the pages and filling the whole space. Utilise all the space in the book and don't just put one drawing to a page.

Below are some of the things I have put in my last completed sketchbook I hope this gives you inspiration to use your books to practice/draw whatever the hell you want and keep going!

If you want to see more pages from this sketchbook - check out my sketchbook tour below!

 

 

Building a Visual Library #1 Observation

How much do you really notice when you are going about your day ??

In my visual library series, I want to share with you a few things that I do in order to increase my own visual awareness. This first post is the most simple but requires the most attention.

It's simply just - looking.

Now you may be thinking - 'looking? don't we do that all the time already?' well....yes we do but we don't often look with intention and therefore we don't retain the information we want to when it comes to visual reference. Not only does this exercise help build your visual library but it is a great way to constantly spark new ideas and inspiration.

Take the time to observe the world around you and find inspiration in the most mundane of things.

I find the best place to do this is commuting journeys or when you go on a walk somewhere - whether that's on a sunny day in the park or your walk home from work.

The following tips are ways in which my approach to 'seeing' has changed...

First things first...
- Does anything stand out to you? why does it stand out? - Is it the colour scheme? The contrast ? The form and shape of something ? or it's texture?

Start by noticing the things that stand out to you and try to identify why they grabbed your attention.

Most people take the same journey, they have the same routines and you may be thinking - I see the same stuff every day !! Well this is where you get even more creative in the way you look at your surroundings.

- Focus on one specific aspect such as colour.

- Take the time to identify what colours you can see in objects / landscapes. Not the colours you think they are, but what you can actually see, that make up the overall colour.

- Look at how the sunlight and weather affects the colour of things. Does it make them cooler or warmer toned? More saturated or desaturated ? Look at how the sunlight can change the colour of shadows and highlights - shadows can become purple toned and highlights can appear orange.

- How does the sunlight cast it's shadows? What are the shapes / patterns of the shadows?

I find that one of the best places to observe colour changes is when you are away. When your on holiday you tend to take the time to appreciate and observe your surroundings at various times of the day.

I have given some examples from my last trip to Portugal:

- Notice how the reflection of the rock in the sea casts a warm green tone to the surface of the water - and within that shadow cool blue tones are used as highlights.
- Also notice how the sky in all 3 images has a gradient to it.
- All three images were taken at different times of the day and notice how different each colour palette appears.

For most people the reality is that you wont be on holiday all year round so another tip for keeping the every day interesting, is finding the things that change every day. I'm talking about things like the weather and the people around you. Something I like to do when I am out is people watching - now its time to up your 'people watching' game!

- Start to identify what things make a certain person unique. Is it their hairstyle? Glasses? Clothing? Posture? Freckles? Ears? If you start identifying people's uniqueness you are more likely to remember them when thinking of original character designs.

- If you are able to sit and people watch, take this time to do quick sketches. Don't focus on the person as a whole, just quickly pick out what makes them unique and draw that one thing. People are often moving by to quickly to capture all of them and this will train your eye to pick out key elements that interest you.

The main point that I want to get across in this post is to open up your mind to the world around you. Try to observe things as a source of inspiration or reference for ideas that you can develop later on.

Below are some images of things that caught my eye and sparked some imagination