Commission painting - How to

NOTE: MWG cannot be held responsible for what I am typing or about to type. I am not part of MWG or in any other way associated with their company in any way. I'm just a simple Mod

Introduction
First of all, this guide isn't sugarcoated. It's the truth and what you might face when you're a commission painter. I'm typing this guide out of my experience. I've been a commission painter for 2 years or so and I had my ups and downs. I really enjoyed it sometimes, but mostly hated it for never being able to figure out painting schemes myself. It was also annoying that I couldn't pick the miniatures and I had a deadline. I did manage to get to know some people which I still talk to up to date. I have also learned an incredible lot, not just about people, but also about painting. So this could really brighten up your painting skills and teaches you the bittersweet truth about the life of a commission painter.

For starters
So you want to do commission work aye? There are 2 critical points that you have to consider:
1. Are you good enough?
2. Do you have enough time?
The rest will follow shortly after that (yes you will still need some planning).
Ohter points you have to worry about:
1a. Agreement
1b. pricing
2. paying
3. shipping
4. deadlines
5. conversions/other painting techniques
6. harsh critism/other companies
7. getting your name out
8. Deal with it!
etc.

1a. Agreement
Before moving on: MAKE THE AGREEMENT! It's better to e-mail 1 more e-mail than to paint up something differently the way it is supposed to be. Always get things straight so you won't end up with any witty remarks made by the person who's paying you. As said before by powerful persons: Control = Power. If something's not clear (price/deadline/color scheme/shipping location/etc, etc) it will get back to you. So make sure you have everything planned out:
- How much shipping fee (to send miniatures to you and back)
- How will you ship the miniatures
- How much the end fee is
- When it has to be done
- What you have to paint up
- How you have to paint that up
- If you have to assemble/prime/just paint/base
- If you have to convert miniatures
- If you need to use difficult techniques (Freehand, OSL, NMM)

And you'll find out many other questions that have to be filled in before starting. Yes, that all has to be clear. You DON'T want to receive anything before everything is settled. It could backfire and the commissioner crawls back and cancels the deal. Then you have a bulk of his miniatures you probably have to send back (might be on your expenses).

So a good preparations is half the work.. Don't they have a proverb in english for that? (I'm dutch so I dunno).

1b. Pricing
So first of all: Are you good enough? Do you think people will buy your miniatures over the new value of a miniature? Do you think people are willing to pay 20$ for a 10$ miniature (for example). Or are they willing to pay 150$ for a 10$ miniature? The business is really harsh as soon as you step over that line from 'miniature lover painter' to 'miniature commission painter'. Once you're on the other side people will leave harsh critism on your work and they will definately tell you that 'you suck' if you might not have done something the way they wanted it to be. But let's not stray;

Just a small example:

(just randomly took one of my miniatures)
How much would you spend on that without knowing what it was? If you saw that on ebay without a starter price, how far would you go? That's what you have to think about when you step into the business.
If you're painting up armies, which mean less quality (overal) and less time spend per miniature, you can actually charge x$ per hour if you like, but if you're painting a single miniature on best quality, do not go for the (x$ * T) (T=time). Why? Because if you're insanely fast on a miniature and finish it within 5 hours = reasonable price, for example, marines mostly paint up quickly. If you have a harder miniature to paint up miniature (e.g. some Chaos lord WH) and it takes you 10 hours = very expensive for a single miniature. Also, you need to know that there are A LOT of other companies out there which will happily paint up a miniature for less than you ask for in a higher quality.

Lord-immortal also added that it is very important that you are self confident enough to promote yourself and your miniatures:

If you're showing the customer your are confident of doing a miniature for him or her, will give the customer a lot more confidence in you.

I think it's best to think about how long it might take you and how much you'd like to get paid per hour, then see if it's a good decission. If you need to paint up 3000 points of Blood Angels which means maybe 2/3 hours per model, 3000 points Blood Angels is easily 50 models(?). Not counting vehicles/characters which most of the time ask more time. Which means you get 150 hours at most for 3000 points. Let's say you ask the same amount as I did (5 Euro's ($ in this case, I don't have euro sign). That means that the commissioner has to pay 150x5=750$!!! No way that people do that (unless they're asking for BlueTablePainting's overpriced crap service).
Think about it, do you know anyone who would pay 750$ for miniatures over something like, let's say, a small holiday or a computer? There are not many people out there with that kind of funding. And to think that the 750$ is WITHOUT any vehicles/characters. So you might get close to 1000$ either way.

Bergunder stated the importance of sticking to your own prices and I couldn't agree more:

Don't rip yourself off. Very important.

Firstly, I'd start off with ebay and see how much you can ask for your miniatures. If you're not an insanely awesome painter I highly suggest not setting start price (so the auction starts at 0.00$). You need to put a price and if needed a 'buy it now' button which makes it easier for people to buy your mini. So start off with how much you want for a miniature and how much it cost you to paint (time+materials).

Once you've got some 'followers' and you're more secure how much you can ask for your best/army quality, then you can move on.

2. Paying
How do you like to get paid? Some people want to send models, some money, some other things. And how? How are you going to give your 'buyer' the certainty that his money won't dissappear into an endless void? Paypal, bank transactions? I suggest paypal for this. It's easy and the buyer can get his money back (in a hard way somehow) if he's not statisfied with the job (or if his commissioner is a scammer or if the minis get lost in the mail).

I always made people pay up 50% of the total agreement in front and 50% when it was done (before shipping it out). That way, I still had to work my arse off for the rest of the money and he would only lose 50% of his money IF I would have been a scammer (he has no certainty). I would also not include shipping into the fee. I would add shipping costs to the end fee the commissioner has to paint. If lucky, the person won't even notice you're adding shipping and you can add the magic and shiny 'no shipping fee' to your e-mails/website which makes people a lot more happy. Just be careful; it's 15 euros to send a package from The Netherlands to the USA, you might want to change the 'no shipping fee' to 'no shipping fee within Europe' or something, you'll figure something out.
Also, if the commissioner has something really important you can make the shipping 'signed package'. To make sure they are able to see you've send the miniature(s) and to make sure you know they will get them. This is usually pricier so I wouldn't suggest making that free. Duh, money money money!

3. Shipping
So I already wrote about shipping, but this is more detailled. What method of shipping will you use to send back miniatures or to receive them? Get that clear, as stated, before you receive any miniature. For example; you receive a bunch of miniatures in a shoebox, no protection, they're all falling apart and there is a lot of damamge. What do you do?
- "package came in, everything's destroyed"
* "Better pay for my stuff then"
How do you reason with people like that? Make a video how you open up the box, just to be sure (Yes, I'm being pretty paranoid here, but nobody has to know until you get the problem).
How do you ship the miniatures back? It'll cost money not just to send miniatures out, but also in what kind of thing you ship them. Bubblefoam/miniature trays aren't free. Wrappers/boxes/tape, all things to keep in mind too.

If you're not careful enough. This is what might happen:


Wrecked package by dutch and/or Italian mail


Wrecked battlesuits which I almost had to refund for

So... pack the miniatures THE RIGHT WAY!
Obviously I didn't in the package you see above here. After I got it back I put them in a better package:
- I gave the miniatures more support to lean on.
- I added more bubblewrap for better support
- I stopped using toiletpaper for stuffing/protection: This is because it scrapes off paint.
- I put the miniatures in a box, inside a box (boxception). The first box would catch the blow and transfer the energy into the paperwrappers/bubblewrap I had in there. The second box inside didn't catch any of the energy because it was all absorbed by the other stuff.

4. Deadlines
When is it due? At what time do you need to have finished what miniatures?
REally important to set a date that is good for you, but shouldn't take too long. There are painters out there who do 1500 point armies in a week on insane quality. Be prepared!

If it takes you 6 months to complete 1500 points due to being lazy/school/family/other problems, it's really not something the commissioner wants to hear about. I'm sorry, but this is really true. All he cares for at the moment is his army. If you sincerely tell him about your problems and why you haven't been able to paint, there is about 99% of the time an 'okay' with that, but if this keeps happening all the time during the commission, it's really not acceptable. The miniatures have to be done.

5. Conversions/other painting techniques
Next up: are you good enough (part two). Do you feel strong enough to convert models and/or sculpt parts where needed? If someone asks you to do a conversion or assemble a miniature/tank in a different way; will you do that? Also, if someone asks for NMM (Non-Metallic-Metallics) or Zenithal highlighting, are you up for that? Do you feel like you can achieve a great result that wil statisfy the customer? All in all, there are some insane NMM painters out there, let alone stand all the other techniques. If customers have that kind of thing in mind of what they will get, you're pretty much screwed. That way, you will not live up to their standards = unhappy customers.

6. Harsh critics/other companies
How do you deal with people who absolutely don't like what you've painted? You've put devotion and hard work into a miniature only to see it kicked into the ground. I've been familiar with that kind of behavior from people and most of the time, there isn't really much you can do than ignoring it, giving money back or fixing the problem.
Get ready for quotes like these (which I took from my e-mail history)
"The miniatures are even worse in person than on picture"
"they are going straight to the trash and I am going to buy some new ones"
"I would rather start anew than strip them"
"I would really have preferred you left them alone and you send them back"
Yes, I was heartbroken when I got such e-mails. It's about handling those well. You can't simply write back the 'F'-word because if you have a name out there, it'll be damamged for good. Apolagize, tell them you're really sorry, show how emberassed you are, put your glory aside and take the punch. Then, the next day or a couple of days later you can e-mail again to reconsider it. People have emotions which are usually right beneath the surface and it only takes a blink to get them out and rage over an unfortunate target. Give the customer some time, most of the time he/she didn't even meant what they wrote the next day.
The reply on my e-mail two days later:
"I am sorry if my e-mail sounded like an insult or a personal attack - they were meant to be neither"

See? I took the beating and showed shame, not denying what happened, but also not exactly confirming. Just stating some facts (I got from the customer's e-mail) and expressing my feelings. After that, the e-mails were less confronting and not insulting and we worked it out with a happy ending.

Other companies
Yes, you are replacable. If a customer doesn't like the way you paint/communicate/any-other-slight-thing-off you're losing a customer. This happens. Be ready to see people crawl back from made deals. One thing is sure; if they quit an already made deal, they're paying for the shipping cost back and if you're in a nice mood, you'll give them their 50% paid up front back. In my opinion you SHOULD pay the 50% fee back when they cancel the deal. Why? Because they are still able to create or break your company when they're not a part of it in the slightest way possible. You might see a message like this on a forum in the next few days:
"Got canceled with my commission deal, he stole the 50% I paid up front"
There you go, you won't get any work again. The customer also has your adress (if he's sending miniatures) so your home-adress isn't safe anymore on the internet and who knows what happens with text placed on the internet.

So, always be polite & show that you value your customer higher than yourself. You may not even want to do that, but how many companies are 'acting' like they value their customers? Always remember that people who contact you can destroy you. Karma, be a good person, get good back. Always treat people the way you want them to treat you.

7. Getting your name out there
So, like I was, you want to be a commission painter but nobody has the slightest clue about who you are or what you are able to do. How can you fix that?
Thanks to the mighty and awesome communication platforms we have nowadays we are able to get our messages just about anywhere in the world: youtube, forums, skype, blogs, galleries, etc. Even 'real life' can help you out. Sneak into a Games Workshop for example and place a sticker of your company + link somewhere people go (gamers for example) and where staff doesn't really go that much.
I've done the above. Easily to get some GW fanboys in who bulk with money and who would love to have some miniatures painted to an awesome quality. Many many many people commission BlueTablePainting (sorry, not trying to rant on them here) because they don't know any other commission service out there. There are companies out there who paint up miniatures like this:


Painted by artist Dicker Koenig on Coolminiornot.com

For the same price as this:


Highest level of BlueTablePainting according to their website

Whereas #1 is much better than #2. The companies are out there, customers just have to find them. And how do they find them? like I said, youtube, blogs, etc.
... or stickers at the GW which they can't remove. I think mines are removed by now.

8. Deal with it!
People don't always follow deals they make. You could have an agreement all settled and you're waiting for the miniatures to arrive.. but no. They haven't arrived yet and they never will. You never hear from people again. Deal with it!
This happens occasionally. You shouldn't worry that much about it, not your problem until the customer claims that it's your fault.

Also, if someone insults you and your company, deal with it. It's better (and professional) to accept it or talk around it rather than insulting the troller.

Conclusion
What can be said about commission work? It can be really frustrating, ungrateful and can cause a lot of problems. But it can also generate money, friends and populairity. Aslong as things go well and you are able to deal with annoying people, there is a lot of statisfaction to be found in being a commission painter. You just have to act like you're a real company and the manager of it. What do managers do? They are nice people (I guess) who want the best for their company (which is basically keeping the customer statisfied).

That should really help you out if you want to step into the dark, yet awesome world of commission painting.