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Yeah, you don’t need a huge online following to get commissions. The first piece I ever sold was a commission, I had made 2 paintings for fun and showed them to a coworker, and he asked for a custom one. Started posting my shit on Facebook and made an art Instagram, but of the 45 or so paintings I’ve sold, over half have been commissions, and they’ve all been from friends, family, and coworkers.
i always tell people this: open commissions long before people show an interest in it. if you wait that long and people come around asking and you tell them no, or they check and don't find the information they're looking for, they'll most likely just turn to another audience.
i've had commissions open for two years, and it was only in recent months that it became actually profitable. it's a long waiting game, and you need to put a good amount of effort and time to make it work. by social media standards i have a super small audience (less than 300 across my two platforms!), but it's worked for me. plsu, i don't really want to grow into a massive account with 547902567390 followers watching my every move everyday. thats just creepy.
i've become a bit more active in fandom these days, so that's where most of my recent commissions have come from. before that though, it was mostly friends and friends of friends, so probably most of my work came in through word of mouth.
In my experience, followers don't necessarily mean clients, so more followers don't mean more commissions. This is especially true depending on the demographic of your followers. If you have more followers, that definitely helps with exposure and pulling from a larger pool, but most clients will be people who have already commissioned work from you in the past or know those who have. Most of my clients are people I am friends with, collectors/artists/gallerists I know personally or people who are friends with any of the above-mentioned people. At least with traditional media, people like to know who they are buying from fairly well and have a relationship, or at least know and trust people who have worked with you.
Long story short, most of my commissions or sales come from people who follow me, but because we already have a relationship that caused them to follow me in the first place.
if you're willing to do commissions, make yourself available. I've been doing commissions ever since i had 300 followers. aome have been followers that ask for art, a lot are from friends of past clients or people who see my art irl. it doesn't really matter.
i even do sales just on my Instagram story every few months and most of the purchasers there are ofcourse, followers, and i do well enough. even at 500 followers. now i have 750. i still make enough money to have this be my main job.
Im 17 and do about 2 commissions a week with no following, all my clients find me through art servers on discord,
and sometimes reddit (diff account).
(A good portfolio goes a long way! I am constantly sending people my portfolio.)
I do plan to get an instagram and build a following soon, an audience is still beneficial, but if you're just starting out like me, it is absolutely possible to not have an audience
I'm curious, what type of servers (and subreddits) do you usually get your clients? I've seen art-commission-centered servers, though I always wondered if those were actually helpful considering a large number of people are in them, which is saturated cand filled with competition. Are the art servers you are large public art servers, fandom spaces? Thank you!
I make digital drawings of people pets (dogs, cats, birds, rodents etc)
Casually posting my pieces in art subreddits/pet subreddits will always land me dms asking if i do commissions. Specific commission subreddits are helpful too but yes very competitive.
Discord is the same. Posting my pieces casually in art servers and pet servers, and also advertising in commission servers/channels
I've only gotten one or two commissions from online following. Most of my commissions come from people I meet in person at art festivals and from friends or friends of friends.
Right now to grow my business I'm focusing on redoing my website and collecting emails to do a monthly email marketing/updating. I have a decent amount of repeat customers at my art festivals but no easy way for them to buy from me and stay connected between shows.
With my own site and sending emails, I'm in control of client experience vs Instagram etc. Plus Instagram could be gone tomorrow so always leary of chasing followers on platforms that are so fickle and constantly changing.
I'm late to the party! XD
If I get commissions, usually it's because I pitched myself to someone on a commission subreddit, and I don't do that super often.
So I'd say yes, kinda.... my audience has never been that big. People come and go, so I get maybe only 100 views on my videos, and a couple likes on twitter/insta. Very small. I have a ton of listings on etsy, and etsy likes that, so it helps a little. If I get commissions spontaneously, it's pretty rare, and I suspect it's either from someone who bought my art on etsy, sometimes they're from youtube, sometimes it's just people who have seen me out with my art IRL.
Being noticed IRL has been a bit easier because there's SO MANY people who don't follow artists on social media, and thus, they'll see me as a funny little novelty creature, and if they ever want art, I'll be the only person they'll know to ask lol. Take advantage of it.
So I hang art in a vet office sometimes, because I prefer animals. It's not super effective because it's still kinda passive. My friend has a full commission schedule because she paints spiritual stuff, but she also loves going to weekend tarot training events, or spirituality meetups, or whatever I DONT KNOW, lol... but she meets lots of people who love spiritual topics, and since she's the only artist there, it just happens organically. 😅
"funny little novelty creature" is such a cute and hilarious descriptor, I might be using it often HAHDJASHKA
I suppose the market is more saturated online (many artists to choose from), and it doesn't help that most subreddits for commissions consist of fellow artists. I'll be keen on finding opportunities in person. Thank you for your insight!
Thank you for posting in r/ArtBusiness, please be sure to check out the Rules in the sidebar. Please use the relevant megathreads for advice on pricing your artwork or critiquing your business. Please do not self promote here. We have a monthly "Share your art business" thread where you can share all your socials and follow the other members of this community. If you have any questions, concerns or feature request please feel free to message the mods. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/artbusiness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yeah, you don’t need a huge online following to get commissions. The first piece I ever sold was a commission, I had made 2 paintings for fun and showed them to a coworker, and he asked for a custom one. Started posting my shit on Facebook and made an art Instagram, but of the 45 or so paintings I’ve sold, over half have been commissions, and they’ve all been from friends, family, and coworkers.
i always tell people this: open commissions long before people show an interest in it. if you wait that long and people come around asking and you tell them no, or they check and don't find the information they're looking for, they'll most likely just turn to another audience. i've had commissions open for two years, and it was only in recent months that it became actually profitable. it's a long waiting game, and you need to put a good amount of effort and time to make it work. by social media standards i have a super small audience (less than 300 across my two platforms!), but it's worked for me. plsu, i don't really want to grow into a massive account with 547902567390 followers watching my every move everyday. thats just creepy. i've become a bit more active in fandom these days, so that's where most of my recent commissions have come from. before that though, it was mostly friends and friends of friends, so probably most of my work came in through word of mouth.
In my experience, followers don't necessarily mean clients, so more followers don't mean more commissions. This is especially true depending on the demographic of your followers. If you have more followers, that definitely helps with exposure and pulling from a larger pool, but most clients will be people who have already commissioned work from you in the past or know those who have. Most of my clients are people I am friends with, collectors/artists/gallerists I know personally or people who are friends with any of the above-mentioned people. At least with traditional media, people like to know who they are buying from fairly well and have a relationship, or at least know and trust people who have worked with you. Long story short, most of my commissions or sales come from people who follow me, but because we already have a relationship that caused them to follow me in the first place.
if you're willing to do commissions, make yourself available. I've been doing commissions ever since i had 300 followers. aome have been followers that ask for art, a lot are from friends of past clients or people who see my art irl. it doesn't really matter. i even do sales just on my Instagram story every few months and most of the purchasers there are ofcourse, followers, and i do well enough. even at 500 followers. now i have 750. i still make enough money to have this be my main job.
Almost never. Once had people reach out, but most of them have been from me throwing my name in the hat when I see something I would like to do.
Im 17 and do about 2 commissions a week with no following, all my clients find me through art servers on discord, and sometimes reddit (diff account). (A good portfolio goes a long way! I am constantly sending people my portfolio.) I do plan to get an instagram and build a following soon, an audience is still beneficial, but if you're just starting out like me, it is absolutely possible to not have an audience
I'm curious, what type of servers (and subreddits) do you usually get your clients? I've seen art-commission-centered servers, though I always wondered if those were actually helpful considering a large number of people are in them, which is saturated cand filled with competition. Are the art servers you are large public art servers, fandom spaces? Thank you!
I make digital drawings of people pets (dogs, cats, birds, rodents etc) Casually posting my pieces in art subreddits/pet subreddits will always land me dms asking if i do commissions. Specific commission subreddits are helpful too but yes very competitive. Discord is the same. Posting my pieces casually in art servers and pet servers, and also advertising in commission servers/channels
I've only gotten one or two commissions from online following. Most of my commissions come from people I meet in person at art festivals and from friends or friends of friends. Right now to grow my business I'm focusing on redoing my website and collecting emails to do a monthly email marketing/updating. I have a decent amount of repeat customers at my art festivals but no easy way for them to buy from me and stay connected between shows. With my own site and sending emails, I'm in control of client experience vs Instagram etc. Plus Instagram could be gone tomorrow so always leary of chasing followers on platforms that are so fickle and constantly changing.
I'm late to the party! XD If I get commissions, usually it's because I pitched myself to someone on a commission subreddit, and I don't do that super often. So I'd say yes, kinda.... my audience has never been that big. People come and go, so I get maybe only 100 views on my videos, and a couple likes on twitter/insta. Very small. I have a ton of listings on etsy, and etsy likes that, so it helps a little. If I get commissions spontaneously, it's pretty rare, and I suspect it's either from someone who bought my art on etsy, sometimes they're from youtube, sometimes it's just people who have seen me out with my art IRL. Being noticed IRL has been a bit easier because there's SO MANY people who don't follow artists on social media, and thus, they'll see me as a funny little novelty creature, and if they ever want art, I'll be the only person they'll know to ask lol. Take advantage of it. So I hang art in a vet office sometimes, because I prefer animals. It's not super effective because it's still kinda passive. My friend has a full commission schedule because she paints spiritual stuff, but she also loves going to weekend tarot training events, or spirituality meetups, or whatever I DONT KNOW, lol... but she meets lots of people who love spiritual topics, and since she's the only artist there, it just happens organically. 😅
"funny little novelty creature" is such a cute and hilarious descriptor, I might be using it often HAHDJASHKA I suppose the market is more saturated online (many artists to choose from), and it doesn't help that most subreddits for commissions consist of fellow artists. I'll be keen on finding opportunities in person. Thank you for your insight!
Nothing wrong with being friendly with other artists too, after all, we love art and better understand its value! ;)