Right up until you aren’t friends anymore.

Case in point:

The other day my husband and I stopped into our local Borders. There on the shelf in the computer department was a brand new shiny copy of Photoshop CS5: The Missing Manual, by Lesa Snider (King). If you remember back far enough, you might remember that I did some work on Photoshop CS4: the Missing Manual, also by Lesa Snider-King (it was hyphenated at the time). In addition to the contracted work I did for the publisher (O’Reilly*) as a tech editor for the book, I also consulted with Lesa on the digital painting chapter, providing her with several graphics and artwork, as well as a full, step-by-step tutorial for her to use in the book.

At the time that I did the work, Lesa and I were (I thought) friends. She agreed to pay me for the work I did, but we never sat down and actually worked out a real contract. Our agreements for the work were done mainly through IM/email and verbally. But we were friends, and so I didn’t worry about it too much.

Until she and her husband separated. My husband and hers had been friends for a long time, and when Shawn came to us for advice and a sympathetic ear… that’s what he got. I offered the same to Lesa, but was–rather rudely–shut down. Over time, when she couldn’t convince us that Shawn was (as she seemed to believe) the Spawn of Satan, we became The Enemy.

Months went by, and I didn’t get paid for my work. Finally, because I was in need of the money and I’d given her a year, I invoiced her. She did, finally pay me.

What we failed to do, however, was specify precisely what she was paying me for.

At the time I’d provided the work, remember, Lesa and I were “friends.” She was swearing up and down she’d never write another book again. It never occurred to me that she would want the full rights to the work, and so I charged based on the first publication rights. I also vastly undercharged her–ah, the naivete of “friendship.” My mistake.

Fast forward to the other day. I’d heard that she’d reused my work, but hadn’t actually been able to confirm it for myself. When we flipped through the book, there it was, basically word for word and image for image the same work I’d given her for the previous book. She never contacted me about reusing the work, never even notified me that she would be. She didn’t pay me for it, or even offer me a copy of the book in thanks. I was credited (at least)… but that really doesn’t take the sting out of finding out that my work is being reused, especially not by someone that I no longer consider a friend.

Since the work I provided was done fairly specifically for a prior version of Photoshop, her using it in the current version is just her shooting her own foot–since it’s now out of date and only going to become more so if she continues to write Photoshop books without bothering to update that chapter. Based on advice I’ve gotten from various people (including the editor, other professionals and copyright law consultants), I might actually have a legal case against her–but it would be long, difficult (due to the lack of explicit contract), and probably end up costing me more than it was worth. Not to mention… she’s just not worth that much of my time.

I’m likely never going to see a penny for my reused work–but I can make sure that other people don’t make this same dumb mistake by sharing my own story.

What I learned from this experience:

• When doing work for a friend (or family!), if it involves ANY sort of commercial use, set a contract. Sign it. Keep to it. It will keep your friendship healthy.
• Make sure you *always* specify exactly how the work can be used, and what rights they are getting. Basically, treat them as you would any other client
• Be sure of exactly what benefits you’re willing to give them for the sake of your relationship. Remember that it might come back to bite you in the ass.
• Try to keep personal conflicts out of your professional relationship. This isn’t always possible, but you should still try.

*I have no quarrel with O’Reilly Publishing. This mess was not their fault, and I enjoyed working for them. My contract with them was very clear and concise, and I was paid well for the work that I did for them. As far as I’m concerned, they were as deceived by the author as I was.

First, I want to point out that one of my cards for Fantasy Flight Games’ “Call of Cthulu: the Yuggoth Contract” was featured in an article a few weeks ago, and I totally suck for not mentioning it until now. You can check it out here: (it’s the “Crazed Arsonist” card).

I also recently finished a more personal work, this one a revised version of a character I’d painted years ago. Prints, puzzles, coasters and more with this piece on it can be purchased in my deviantART store (click image below). You can also watch the progress of it over on UStream.

Attending the Crow King

I’ve got another piece in the works, and a handful of stuff under NDA, which is why I’ve been fairly quiet lately. I promise, I’ll post more as soon as I can.

This makes my fourth year attending Macworld, and I have to say that despite many of the predictions that this was going to be a dead year for the convention I was pleasantly vindicated to see that it was not. It was just as crowded and interesting as years past, with the notable (and for me, anyway, not so lamentable) loss of Apple as a showfloor vendor. Honestly, I never spent much time in the Apple booth. I was far too busy hunting through the smaller vendors and looking for something that would be useful to me that I couldn’t see just by going online or to the store.

I also got a chance this year to attend a session presented by Ninja Mountain podcast regular Patrick McEvoy. He demoed for the session attendees a walkthrough of his painting process, using Photoshop and Painter. It was great and I learned a lot more than I had expected to (and I’d expected to learn quite a bit). Everyone in the audience seemed interested and those who asked questions were following well. I’m hoping that Patrick decides to come back again next year and teach another session or two.

Which brings me to the point of this post. I love Macworld and I definitely want to see it continue. I think its a great opportunity for people like me to be able to check out vendors and software and hardware that we wouldn’t ordinarily get a chance to. It’s also an amazing learning opportunity, with tons of sessions for everyone from basic users up to the hardcore IT guys like my husband. The problem I’ve found, however, is that there is a lot of stuff there geared toward photographers and people interested in photo editing… but that’s ignoring a huge chunk of Mac users who use their computers creatively but aren’t interested in photography. There also seem to be other gaps that it would be nice to see filled, at least from my perspective.

After a chat with my husband last night I decided I needed to sit down and make out a wishlist of things I’d like to see at Macworld 2011. Things that would interest me and other Mac users that I know, that would help us get more out of our computers.

Show Floor Exhibitors I’d LOVE To See:

Wacom

I have been looking for a Wacom booth since the first year I went. I’d heard they’d had a booth the year before I started attending, but they’ve been a no-show for the last four years. Well, unless you count their products occasionally appearing as part of a demo booth for another product. The reason I want Wacom there? Simple. There’s NO OTHER WAY to try out their products. I’ve been a Wacom user for years. I started with a Graphire (which was a gift). Eventually had to replace it because, let’s face it, I’m HARD on my toys, with a second Graphire. Then I got an Intuos at work, and another one for home (another gift), and finally my Cintiq (which was an amazingly generous gift, too). Now… back when I was using a Graphire, I was really interested in seeing what an Intuos or a Cintiq could do. But you can’t hike down to your local Best Buy and try one of those babies out. In fact Best Buy doesn’t even carry them in store, as far as I can tell. The best they’ve got on hand is a Bamboo (the new Graphire equivalent). The Apple Stores carry them… but not out where you can play with them. They hide them in back rooms and you have to ask for them. And what do you do if, like me, you live in a town with no Apple Store? Well, then you go online and check out the specs and talk to people and try to decide if the upgrade is worth the expense. If I’d had the opportunity a few years back to play with an Intuos, you can bet your ass I’d have saved up my pennies and bought one. Instead I waited till I got one at work. And if I’d had the chance to try a Cintiq? I might still be saving my pennies for it, but it would have been way up there on my list of Things I Want to Purchase. Right now, I’d love to try out one of Wacom’s 6D Art Pens, but I don’t know anyone local that has one I can borrow, and the various artists I do know who have them are split on the topic of their usefulness. If I had the chance to try one out at Macworld, I’d be able to make a better decision about whether or not it was right for me to purchase.

Corel/ArtRage

Adobe has always been one of the big guns at Macworld, though they were absent this year. I’ve been a Painter user for five years now, and I’ve fiddled with ArtRage a few times. What I’d like to see on the show floor are demos done by professional artists (or even hobby artists) using these products and showing people what exactly they can do. So many beginning artists turn immediately to Photoshop–which, admittedly can be a powerful painting tool in its own right–but many of those just making the switch to digital would probably find it easier if they started with programs geared toward traditional artists. Giving them an opportunity to play with these programs on the floor, hands on, would let people decide for themselves if the software was something they’d be interested in purchasing. And seeing pros use these tools is always inspiring and shows users new ways of using tools that they might not have thought of themselves, demonstrating the flexibility of the product in a way that simply viewing a final finished image can’t.

Adobe–with a twist

Usually Adobe’s booth focuses on digital photography and photo editing and so on. No problem. Would it kill them to demo what Adobe can offer artists, too? You’d be surprised at how many people out there are budding artists who might be interested in learning digital, and seeing how flexible their program is might be the thing that pushes them to purchase. Even if YOU aren’t artistically inclined, maybe your kids are or your sister or brother. You never know. Yeah, I know I’m pushing the “lets see more than just photography related stuff” but honestly, while I’m a decent photographer (and many of the other artists I know are too), we’re often far more interested in how Photoshop lets us DRAW than we are in getting rid of red eye. Most of the people I know (even the non artists) who do digital photography, don’t really do much with their photos after taking them. Maybe they upload them to their roating digital picture frame or their phone, but I don’t know many who even do the basics like red eye reduction or zapping zits with the healing brush. On the other hand, I know lots of people who will open up their copy of MSPaint and doodle while on the phone or who have downloaded Brushes for their iPhone for the same reason. People like to draw, even when they can’t. It’s soothing.

Just something to think about. Especially with the iPad about to hit the market. Think of how many people are downloading drawing programs for their iPhone. Now think about how many are going to want to doodle or draw on their iPad…

MySmithMicro

I’ll be one of the first to admit that I’m not a big fan of Poser artwork on its own. I’ve only very, very rarely seen it done well. However, it can be useful for artists who have a hard time finding or taking pose references. They used to make a product that was essentially just FOR artist figure reference, but I can’t find it in their product line anymore so it may have been discontinued. A shame, because that was the one Poser product I would really consider purchasing. Other than Poser they also sell (make? Not sure?) AnimeStudio and MangaStudio… neither of which interest me, but I know a ton of other artists who would love to see these products demoed. I remember last year they had a small booth that demoed a couple of their products, but it wasn’t really a friendly kind of atmosphere, or the kind that encouraged you to step up and check it out. (Seriously guys, sticking one bored artist in front of a cintiq to demo ArtRage without some kind of mirrored monitor to show what she’s doing was lame. If there’s a crowd, no one can see, and if there’s not a crowd but just one really irritating little kid that keeps asking “but what does that button do?” I’m probably not going to approach. And playing with Poser on my own is… tedious. I’d rather see a demo by someone who knows what they’re doing with it.)

ZBrush

Pretty much read all of the above. I’m not a 3D artist by any means, and playing with the demo version had me lost after awhile. Be nice to see someone using it who knows what they’re doing.

What I’d like to see Sessions on:

Dedicated sessions

on learning pretty much any of the software I listed above. Right now most of the “creative” sessions are limited to those people who want to do photoediting, but do we really NEED three seperate sessions to show us how to mask something in Photoshop or reduce red eye? It’d be wicked great if Macworld could partner with a site like ConceptArt/MassiveBlack (which I believe is partially headquartered in San Francisco) to get some pro artists in to do sessions at different levels on any of these programs. Not to mention the massive draw ConceptArt/Massive Black seminars generally have for the artistic public would likely boost conference sales if users knew there were sessions they would want to attend. I know I was jazzed last year when Android Jones and Jason Manley were doing a session for Corel that wasn’t much more than simply TALKING about the product. I’d kill for a chance to see Android doing his live art thing on the show floor at Macworld, because I might not have a chance to see it otherwise. I’m not talking something as intense as the huge Art School conferences that Massive Black does every year… maybe just a handful of more basic classes and one or two more advanced tracks for pro artists. It would definitely be something I’d spend money on and I know other people who would, too.

Getting the Most Out of Your LiveStream

Live streaming sessions are becoming more and more popular with artists nowadays. I was an early adopter of the format with my Ustream sessions, and since then hundreds of other artists have jumped on the bandwagon. Most of us are self taught in using Ustream or Livestream and aren’t professional broadcasters in any sense. I’d love a session to talk about milking the best quality screencasting (or video for those traditional artists who do this) out of these programs, how to optimize my stream for less jumpiness, the best kinds of headsets or microphones to use, best ways of outputting, how to integrate video or audio, etc.

Specific techniques

Watching Patrick’s session last Thursday got me thinking about all the different kinds of art out there and how many different ways artists use various programs. While a session dedicated to learning the tools in Painter is useful, it’s also useful to see an artist who works in mulitple programs to achieve a specific kind of style or image. For instance, a session on how to do webcomics or manga using MangaStudio and Photoshop. Or how to scan images in Photoshop and turn them into Painter custom brushes or textures. That sort of thing.

Social Media Marketing for Creatives

We all know that social media is a key way of connecting with our fans and possible clients, but many creative people are at a loss as to how to apply it to themselves. There are tons of blogs out there for those who dwell permanently in the Blogosphere and who use social media constantly to market their blogs and writing. Companies usually have people working for them who handle their social media exposure. Creative professionals, however, are usually on their own trying to work and navigate the murky waters of the internet. I’m not sure what benefit I’d get from a Facebook fan page, though I know other artists who have them and use them well. On the other hand I’ve amassed something of a following on Twitter that hasn’t hurt me at all in terms of upping my sales. There are tons of social media galleries and art sites out there (dA, ConceptArt, CGSociety, Etsy, to name a few), as well as all the other sites that can be adapted by creative users to help get their work out there and noticed. A session that explores these from the perspective of either a creative professional or even just the individual with a homebased or freelance business, would be great.

To sum up:

Regardless of whether Santa brings me everything or anything on my Wishlist next year for Macworld, I’m still planning to go. I can usually find a few sessions to interest me, and while this year there wasn’t much on the show floor for me, that changes drastically from year to year anyway. I’d encourage anyone who is a Mac user who would like the opportunity to learn more about their computer and more of what it can do for them (and who can afford it) to consider going. And if by some miracle somewhere up there in the Macworld chain of command someone hears my wishes and manages to grant even a few of them… you can bet it’ll make the experience for me even more worthwhile.

Oh, and one other thing, IDG? Can we pretty, pretty please have some more electrical outlets on the second floor of the west hall by the tables for people to plug in their laptops? Being relegated to the painful, cold, and awkward metal benches that were quarantined way off in the corner because they were the only spot on the floor that had easy and safe electrical outlet access was not a fun experience. Thanks!

Looking through books like Exotique always revs my creative juices… which are sorely in need of revving at the moment. I’ve had a bad couple of months and December is looking to be tight, financially. But I’m still kicking, even if it’s not quite at full strength.

A quick note:

I won’t be doing UStream sessions until after the holidays are over. I’ve got to get some other things straightened around and I haven’t had much time or inspiration for personal work lately. Hopefully I can get that straightened out by January, so look for my sessions to resume then. My apologies there.

Oh, and swing by my deviantART shop (it’s over there in the link box on the right). dA is running sales on prints and stuff this month, so if you’ve been wanting to pick up anything by me, now’s a good time to do it.

We got in late on Friday, just in time for the shortest line ever at Pre-reg pass pick up (as in none), and to be mobbed by Zombies on their way to the prom. There’s nothing quite like zombies toting kegs and shuffling toward you at top speed to convince you that you might want to be somewhere else. Since we (my husband and stepson and I) were tired after our five hour drive, that ended up being back at the hotel where we waited for some dubious Chinese food to arrive.

Saturday I made straight for the ArtShow, where I finally got to meet Meredith Dillman, Jessica McDouglas, and Ellen Million–all of whom I’ve talked to online for years but never met face to face. It’s always interesting meeting people that way, especially since most people have no clue what I look like. (Hint: there’s a photo of me under “About the Artist” above, although I’m not nearly that attractive in real life). I attended a few panels on fairy tales (a hobby of mine), got to listen to Peter S. Beagle speak, and caught the first part of a disappointing Workshop on Art Trading Cards before my rapidly dwindling blood sugar level forced me out to find food.

On Sunday I met up with Jeff Jones and his uber talented wife Veronica–Jeff is the one who gave me the awesome review a few months back at Blue Moon Rising–, Pete and Anna Mohrbacher (from W.I.P. Podcast), Angela Sasser, and the crew behind Time of the Faeries. I stopped by SpookyChan‘s table as well to check out her upcoming comic “The God Machine,” and spent some time in some amazing panels on Art and Illustration, including one where Larry Elmore and Janny Wurts made me cry. (Don’t judge me. I was a little hormonal.) I also participated in the Monster in an Hour Panel, and our “masterpieces” of crayola monsters were auctioned off for charity. Mine looked something like a gigantic pink heart, with seven eyes, lots of tentacles, big sharp teeth and wearing a brown and orange leisure suit. No, it was not my idea.

Monday was last minute shopping day (never did find my Jareth figurines I was looking for), and goodbyes before we headed home. Mr. Elmore was awesome and looked over my portfolio and gave me some advice–some of which I’m still mulling over. All in all it was an amazing trip and I’m looking forward to next year.

Some things I learned from this trip:

• Even if it’s awkward and heavy it’s better to have your portfolio with you than not.
• Overweight men and spandex DO NOT MIX
• All of my friends are midgets (except Ellen).
• Pete Mohrbacher and his wife are not midgets, but are both exceptionally cute and genuinely nice people.
• Jeff Jones is one of my new favorite people.
• I need to work more on my traditional artwork more often.
• More people hate Twilight than the other way around.
• Most women who wear revealing clothing have no idea what their butts (and breasts) REALLY look like in those costumes.
• Be careful of falling plants when walking around the Marriot.
• Don’t worry if you’re not in one of the Con Hotels so much since you won’t be in your room that often.
• Do worry about the enthusiasm of your hotel toilet.
• Good places to eat: surprisingly the cafe in the Sheraton (and supposedly the cafe in the Hilton) were mostly deserted.
• Do not try to eat at the Peachtree Center.
• People really don’t appreciate a really well done Spartan costume enough. (mmmmm…. lickable abs)

All in all it was an awesome experience that, overall, left me feeling excited about my chosen career path, even if for the moment it’s only trudging along.

That said, I give you some new(ish) artwork.

Above: “Raistlin”– because looking through Mr. Elmore’s artwork reminded me once again how much I loved the Dragonlance series when I was growing up, and it occurred to me that it has been probably fifteen years or so since the last time I drew the character. This was a quick, two day “speedpaint” illustration. Overall I’m pleased with it. I wish I’d gotten the colors a little better, but mostly I’m happy with it. Particularly with his hands and face.

This one is “Neptune” and came about during my live Ustream drawing sessions on Wednesdays. This one I completed over several days, during live broadcasts. I let the chatroom audience make suggestions as to what I would paint and it developed from there. You can watch the progression of it here (though I warn you the videos are pretty long):

Part 1: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1971717
Part 2: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1972423
Part 3: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1976939
Part 4: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1977574
Part 5: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1982498
Part 6: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1983001
Part 7: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2010464
Part 8: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2011154

I may be taking a break from my Ustream sessions for a bit. I need to look at whether or not it’s financially a good idea for me to continue to do them. I enjoy doing them, but right now the economy has us really tightening our wallets, and I need to be looking to spend my time as profitably as I can.

NOT fun when you work with your hands for a living. So I’ve been delaying on my oil painting for a little longer (since the paints and the cleaners tend to dry my skin out worse), and trying to use moisturizer and take breaks away from the Cintiq so the heat doesn’t aggravate it.

That’s probably TMI, but since we’re on the subject of health… it’s one of those things that really suffer when you’re a work from home artist. You’re mainly sedentary since you’re at the computer or the easel or the drafting table for so long, and your posture suffers. Eating … there’s another bad habit. Not eating, actually, I should say. I skip meals when I’m deeply entrenched in a painting, and it’s not till late in the evening when I’m ravenous when the thought of food finally occurs to me. By then I want to eat the computer, I’m so hungry.

Since we’ve had Maggie, our labrador and probably german shepherd puppy, I’ve been getting out of the house more. Today we walked two miles to one of the local parks, met a really sweet boxer boy named Andy who quickly put Maggie in her place. I’m hoping, as the weather turns cooler toward fall and Maggie’s more up to date on her shots and better on the leash, to spend more time going to the local parks (we have a LOT of them around here), and doing some sketching out doors. Maybe even have  chance to sketch some of the softball players practicing, or the kids running around on the playgrounds. Not to mention the gorgeous old gnarled oaks that are all over town.

In the meantime, however, you’re just going to have to suffer with two new art pieces. Fiery Ida (above), was my attempt at a more painterly style portrait inspired by the pirate paintings of Howard Pyle. My model is the fantastic MizzDraconia (Ida Walker) over on dA. You can check out her gallery of costumed stock images here and I also worked on this during one of my live Ustream sessions here:

The one below, Lightblind, was my entry for the Drow vs. Illthid challenge on ArtOrder. After seeing some of the other entries I feel a bit meh… but I’m really glad I participated anyway. I love the work I did on the background on this one, and while the lighting could have been better, I’m still pretty happy with it. There are over 400 mushrooms in this painting… in case you’re curious.

Art Order: B&W Vampires

I decided (close to last minute) to dive into the current Art Order Challenge. It was a great excuse to bust out the Painter Digital Inks and play again (my last fully inked piece was “Exquisite” a year and a half ago now).  Gwenth and Garreth are vampires in the D&D world, previously human. I had a lot of fun coming up with their armor and fiddling with the digital inks. Hopefully I’ll get time to play with them again in the near future.

If you’ve never worked with Painter’s Digital Inks before, you can watch my latest Ustream Session to see how they work. I babbled for a bit about Art Order, Romance novels, and vampires (the cool and the lame sparkley kind), too. There’s a bit there when I start ranting about Stephanie Meyer where the audio goes a bit wonky, but sit tight and it sorts itself out after a couple of minutes. Trust me, you don’t miss much.

Art Order has a wicked new challenge that just went up a few days ago, and you get a bonus week to complete it. So scurry over there and check it out, especially if you are a dragon fiend: Catastrophic Dragon Challenge

Master of Crows

Just before this, I was finishing up an “alternate” cover for Grace Draven’s new novel (due out in early July) Master of Crows. This image will be used for promotion, bookmarks and to bind sample chapters of the book to be sent out for review. It was a really fun commission, and I very much enjoyed working with Grace on it. The book pretty much rocks, too. You can purchase it through Amber Quill Press (with the photomanipped cover). You can read an excerpt here: http://grace-draven.livejournal.com/11332.html

What would you do to win your freedom?

That is the question which sets bondwoman, Martise of Asher, on a dangerous path. In exchange for her freedom, she has bargained with her masters, the mage-priests of Conclave, to spy on the renegade sorcerer, Silhara of Neith. The priests want Martise to expose the sorcerer’s treachery and turn him over to Conclave justice. A risky endeavor, but one she accepts without hesitation—until she falls in love with her intended target.

Silhara of Neith, Master of Crows, is a desperate man. The god called Corruption invades his mind, seducing him with promises of limitless power if he will help it gain dominion over the world. Silhara struggles against Corruption’s influence and searches for ways to destroy the god. When Conclave sends Martise as an apprentice to help him, he knows she’s a spy. Now he fights a war on two fronts—against the god who would possess him and the apprentice who would betray him.

Puppy!

And finally, as promised, a picture of my newest family member, Maggie. We adopted her from our local shelter. She’s about 7 weeks old, and some kind of Lab mix. Utterly adorable–except when she’s crying at 4 in the morning, of course.

Between her, the anthology layout I’m finishing up, and bludgeoning CSS into order to redesign my website, my weekend is going to be stuffed. Wish me luck!

Narrow the Field

There are tons of places to find artists online. Some good places to start are http://deviantart.com or http://carbonmade.com if you’re looking for a wide variety of artists who work in different styles. Search keywords that have to do with the kind of art you’re planning to commission: portrait, animals, fantasy, etc. It’s probably a waste of your time, and the artist’s time, if they specialize in fantasy art and you want a picture of your dog. If you know the kind of medium you want the image in, look for artists who specialize in that medium (pencil, ink, oil, digital, watercolor, etc.). Again, if you have no interest in digital art, it makes no sense to hire a digital artist and expect them to do a watercolor painting for you.  Narrow the field down to several choices and rank them according to who you’d prefer to hire based on the work they’ve displayed.

Research

Once you’ve narrowed your search for the right artist down, now it’s time to start researching a few things. First, always check to see if the artist has an FAQ or a webpage that lists whether or not they do commissions, and what their standard pricing is. Artists can be expensive or inexpensive depending on a wide variety of reasons. Some are just starting out and may be looking for portfolio opportunities as well as money. Some have been in the business for a long time and have figured out what kind of base rate they can charge and make ends meet. Some use more expensive materials than others so they have to charge more to cover base costs, or maybe they work fast and can afford to charge less since they work more often. You don’t have to know the exact reasons why people charge what they do, but it will help you to budget before contacting the artist.

Make Contact

Make sure when you’re contacting an artist you’re doing it the right way. Leaving a comment on their webpage is nice, but it’s probably not going to get their immediate attention. Most artists online work through email. When you initially contact an artist you’re probably looking for a few different things:

• Are they currently accepting commissions? Occasionally, even if their webpage states they are, they may be booked up for several months or otherwise not have time to accept commissions at that point.
• Are they interested in doing the work you’re trying to hire for? Make sure you state clearly (although you don’t have to go into detail at this point, usually) what kind of art you’re looking for. For example, if you only say “I’d like you to paint an original character of mine” we don’t know if you want the painting for a gaming portrait, just to have, or if you’re planning on making it the cover of your self-published novel. The end product often decides the pricing, and the difference in pricing for a personal painting vs. one that will be used commercially can be HUGE. Some artists may even be restricted from doing work for publication due to moonlighting clauses in their current contracts, but don’t have any problem doing personal use work.
• What would they charge for the kind of work you want them to do? It’s a very good idea to go in with a budget in mind. If you know you can only afford to spend $100 on a painting, don’t contact the artist who states on their website that they charge $150 as their base price. However there is often some room for negotiation, depending on the artist. It never hurts to feel out the situation.

Contracts are Important

Once you’ve established that the artist wants to take on your work, you need a contract.  In today’s world wide web based economy, emails function as a contract. Treat them as full legal contracts, or ask for a hardcopy contract from your artist if it makes you more comfortable. Things you should outline in a contract, be it email or otherwise:

• Your name and the artist’s name
• Date of the agreement
• What specifically you are hiring them to do (a portrait, a full color illustration, sizes, format, etc.)
• What specifically you are purchasing the rights to (we’ll talk about rights later in this article)
• Milestone dates (when you would like to see sketches, etc.)
• Final deadline and how the final image should be delivered
• Cost, broken down if need be (any fees, or shipping charges should be noted here)
• How and when final payment should be rendered

Treat the contract with your artist professionally. Art is just like any other service-based business in this regard. Neither you, nor your artist, want to be taken advantage of.

Artists Aren’t Mind Readers

When you describe what you want try to be as concise and clear as possible. If you want them to draw a real person or creature, you’re going to have to provide reference materials. Usually a few photos of grandma or Fido will suffice. Keep in mind that if you want an artist to “copy” a photograph, it will have to be a photo that YOU have taken. Photos taken by professional photographers are copyrighted to the photographer. They would be okay for a reference, but an artist shouldn’t exactly copy them. Reference photos should be large and clear enough for your artist to make out features and details—small photos where little Johnny is a mere blur in the background and partially hidden behind the Christmas tree won’t work.

If you’re hiring an artist to paint something that doesn’t exist (your novel or RPG character, or a mermaid petting a dolphin, for example) then you need to be as specific as you can be about what you want. Keep in mind that artists can only paint visual things, moods, or scenes. They cannot paint smells, sounds, thoughts, or internal monologues. I’ve had authors send me four page descriptions of a character’s life story without ever mentioning their eye color! Try to keep descriptions as clear as possible. If you envision a particular scene, describe it as thoroughly as you can. Mention which elements are important to you visually and which you’re willing to let go of if needed. You may need to provide reference images for your artist, but be aware that providing movie stills or images, or other paintings should only be to help you illustrate what you want. A professional artist cannot legally replicate a movie scene, character, or someone else’s illustration for you.

Revisions

Depending on the artist, they should let you take peeks at the sketch stages or during the work in progress. Setting up specific milestones where you want to see the progress is a good idea for both you and the artist. It provides you with some assurance that the work is being done, and it gives the artist a chance to get some feedback from you. During these milestones make sure you mention as early as possible if something isn’t working for you—there’s nothing an artist hates quite so much as finishing a painting and finding out you want half of it changed.

Keep in mind that different mediums also have different revision requirements. A digital painting can be changed right up to the deadline, but a watercolor or inked drawing cannot be as easily changed once the inking or painting has begun. You’ll want to make any suggestions for revisions during the sketch stage. Otherwise there’s a good chance that the artist will have to start over again if you change your mind after the painting has begun. That could cause additional charges. Talk to your artist when you’re setting up your milestones about revisions and when that “unchangeable” portion of the project begins.

Revisions are a normal part of the process. It’s our job to provide a service for you, after all, and trying to meet your expectations is important.  However there comes a point when revisions go from normal to absolute hell. This is usually the point when we’ve finished the painting and the client has decided that they want it to be a night scene rather than daylight, or that the tall barbarian woman should now be a dwarf male, or when they’ve sent the final copy back for tiny changes for the fifteenth time. Excessive revisions will sour your artist toward working with you, and may cost you if the artist expects the changes to take extra time. When deciding on what you want, the sketch stage is the time for exploring options and making major changes. The painting in progress will provide chances for some revisions, but by the time the painting is almost finished there should be only a few tiny changes left to iron out.

Communication

This is perhaps the one place where artists and clients fail the most. It’s important to keep in touch during the duration of the project. On your part, you need to be checking progress, answering questions and approving or correcting details. On their part, they should be updating you regularly on that progress and letting you know if anything happens that might delay the project. Artists, sadly, are used to clients who will flake out when the time comes to pay. Just like you would like them to respond to your calls or emails about the progress of the project, they will want to be sure you’re not going to run off at the last minute. Try to respond to any emails within 24 hours. If you’re going to be out of town or unreachable for a day or two, let them know that, and touch base as soon as you’re back. Staying in touch should keep things running smoothly for everyone involved.

Do keep in mind, however, that there is a line between touching base and refusing to leave it. As I mentioned earlier, many artists work part time alongside a full time job. For those who do art full time, they often take on several projects at once in order to make ends meet. Some multitask and jump between different paintings to keep themselves fresh and interested, others work exclusively on one painting while lining up or preparing for future jobs on the side. In any case, don’t expect your artist to give you daily updates unless they prefer to work that way. Spamming them with emails demanding updates or changing your mind will only distract them and make it harder for them to work. Set a schedule ahead of time for updates and stick to it.

What To Expect When You’re Expecting

When you’re hiring your artist, it’s important to state up front what kind of end product you expect. Are you paying them for the original artwork on a canvas? A digital copy of a traditionally painted piece? A print?  Will the final image be printed on a book cover? How big will it need to be? Will you be printing it yourself? Will you need to take it to a professional printer? Do you expect the artist to print it and mail it to you? All of these are things that should be covered at the beginning of the project. In order to do the job, your artist will need to know most of this information as early as possible.

If the final image will need to go to a printer, you may need to find out from the printer what kind of file format they need and what size the image needs to be. Depending on the printer, you may also need some kind of release from the artist saying that you have permission to print it. You’ll find more information about that below. If you’re paying for an original image, you’ll need to discuss shipping methods and costs. It will more than likely fall to you to cover these costs in the final commission price, separately from the cost of the actual painting.

Copyrights

If you don’t know much about copyright, this is a good time to educate yourself. There are several very good resources on the web that will break copyright down for you clearly, but I’ll do my best to sum up here what you’ll need to know. Basically, from the moment something is fixed in a medium (be it a canvas, on a piece of paper, in a photograph, or in a digital file), it is copyrighted to the person who created it. That would be your artist. Even if you’ve given them the idea for the painting, the execution of the final product is copyrighted to them.  Copyright gives the artist the right to decide who can use their work and how, whether or not it can be duplicated or reproduced, and where and how it can be displayed.

When you set out your contract it’s a good idea to discuss up front with your artist exactly what rights you’re purchasing along with the commission. Are you only purchasing the original, with the intent to hang it on your wall? In that case the copyright remains with the artist and they can make prints from a digital copy of it, or use it in their portfolio, or license the image out. Are you purchasing any commercial rights to the image? Do you want to use it on a book cover, or to promote something, or as part of an ad? Do you intend to sell copies of the image? All of these things may have some impact on the final cost of the painting. If it’s a picture of your grandmother, for example, an artist probably won’t care very much if they retain all the rights to the image. If it’s an illustration that they could possibly sell prints of and make additional money, however, they may want to retain those rights for that purpose. It’s important that you discuss this with your artist in the beginning stages. Once you’ve agreed on who gets which rights, remember you are legally bound by that decision, and if you’d like to obtain further rights to the image, you’ll need to discuss it with the artist.

The Subject of Payment

I thought I’d give this topic it’s own heading, even though I mentioned it above in a few different places. Artists—like plumbers, doctors, and stylists—are skilled professionals who can provide you with a service you cannot do yourself. Some artists work at it full time, others do art part time in addition to another job. In any case, understand that artists expect to be paid for their work the same way that you would expect to be paid for yours. The myth of the starving artist makes many people think that all artists care about is the painting. That’s not true. Artists have bills to pay and families to feed, just like you. What an artist charges for their time is ultimately up to them, but if a painting is going to take several days, it’s simply not fair for you to expect them to work for less than minimum wage. Art isn’t easy, and no painting springs fully to life in moments from an artist’s hand. If your budget is small, you may want to wait and save up so you can hire the artist you want. Try to respect your artist and their need to balance their time and how much they can work for.

Occasionally in the art world you might hear the word “exposure.” No artist should ever be expected to do free work for “exposure.” Exposure, for an artist, is easy. We can find it in free online galleries, in professional publications, and by submitting our work to various agencies. Doing an illustration for a private client, even if that client is a celebrity, seldom gives an artist the kind of exposure they would need to balance out the amount of money they could have made from the project. Suggesting to an artist that they should do free work for nothing more than exposure is as insulting as suggesting that you should do free plumbing work in exchange for your name on their toilet. Exposure should be a fringe benefit, and only mentioned along with a reasonable offer of payment.

A Quick Note Just For Authors

It happens often enough that it’s worth discussing the subject here. As an artist, new authors who are trying to get their books published often approach me. They are usually full of promises of fame and fortune once their masterpiece is in print. Most of the time they want me to illustrate a cover for their book to really sell it to a publisher. Some of them want lots of illustrations to go in the book, or maybe it’s a kid’s book and they want illustrations to accompany the text.

If you are an author, listen up: IT IS NOT YOUR JOB TO HIRE AN ARTIST.

That is the publisher’s job. Most publishers want to see your writing, not a bunch of artwork. If there is artwork to be done for a book, once they’ve optioned your manuscript, the publishing company will have their art director find an artist to do the cover and the interior illustrations (if any), or have the art done in-house. Hiring an artist to do artwork for your book before it’s published is a waste of your money, and of the artist’s time. It may, in fact, hurt your chances for publication, depending on what the publisher’s submission requirements are. Don’t do it.

Some authors do hire artists to create promotional pieces to use once a publishing house has optioned a manuscript. This might be because they don’t like the art provided by the publishing house, or because they picture their characters differently. In any case, this work wouldn’t go through the publisher and shouldn’t be represented to the artist that way. There are very, very few publishers out there who will accept work commissioned privately by an author for use as cover art, interior illustrations or promotional artwork.

The exception to this is for those who plan to self-publish their books. In that case you can commission whatever artist you want for as much artwork as you can afford. Just make sure you state up front that this is what you intend to use it for.

Do’s & Don’ts

To finish up, here’s a quick list of do’s and don’ts when hiring an artist for a commission:

DO research and find an artist who works in the style and medium you prefer.
DON’T expect an artist to work in a new medium or style that they aren’t familiar with.

DO research current artists and their standard rates for the kind of work you expect
DON’T contact an artist out of your budget range and expect them to lower their prices.

DO communicate your request clearly and provide good references
DON’T expect the artist to read your mind.

DO touch base frequently and give feedback as early as possible.
DON’T wait till the artwork is finished and then expect the artist to repaint it completely because you’ve changed your mind.

DO expect your artist to keep in touch with you throughout the process.
DON’T forget that they expect you to do the same.

DO set out expectations, and discuss copyrights and shipping as early in the process as you can.
DON’T assume you have rights to the artwork that haven’t been discussed, or that the artist will cover the shipping.

DO treat your artist professionally and with respect.
DON’T treat them like you’re doing them a favor by giving them a job.

Some quick sketches done this morning to loosen up. Some sketches in there based on Twitter pics, too. It’s funny how such teeeeny little pictures can make people look totally different to how they really look. Sketches on the right (to the right of my signature), were done without reference. I know, I’m a bad person.

I hadn’t updated in a couple of weeks, so I thought I’d give you all some eye candy to look at.

I also want to point all of you over at Artemisia:

Artemisia is a blog project that I started back in March with friend and artist Louisa Gallie. She was visiting me (all the way from Scotland) for a couple of weeks, and one day we started grousing over the dearth of hot sexy guys in fantasy art and how all the juried books and contests etc seemed to be presided over mainly by men. Also, even though the two of us are personally accquainted with a ton of female artists, they never seemed to get much exposure–at least not compared to the men.

So we started Artemisia in an effort to correct some of those imbalances. It’s a blog about fantasy art, and being a female artist working in the industy. It’s about promoting other female artists. And it’s also about equal rights: if women must be objectified… why can’t men be too?

Some of it is a little risque, and sometimes we’re probably a little too opinionated for our own good. But we try to be honest, and base our opinions on our own experiences and observations. We also do a lot of interviews with other female artists out there (and a few men!). So if you’re looking for a new blog to read, well… I thought I’d mention it. (And I do actually update over there more than I do here.)

It’s also starting to get some major attention from different places in the industry, which we’re pretty excited about, actually.

It’s a great word. And it really summed up for me a lot of what I want to say with my art. So I set out to paint something that to me represented true audaciousness. In character with most of my work, though, it had to be a challenging painting, challenging subject, and had to push the boundaries of what I thought I was capable of.

I’m a big believer in that.

It needed Action! and Armor! and Atmosphere! And to fit with another of my goals, it needed to be set in a pre-exisiting world that wasn’t specifically of my own making.

The character in this painting is Raethe, my Halfling Rogue D&D character. The scene isn’t from any particular adventure, but it’s a story I keep for her in my head. She’s tiny, yes, but gutsy, more assassin than thief–but she keeps her options open, and she loves shiny stuff.

I did a lot of looking at D&D white dragons for this painting… they look about as flight worthy as a semi-truck, but I think I got it. It was a weird angle to try to pull off, too, but hopefully it works.

I really want to thank Meredith Dillman for posing for me so I could get Raethe’s body position correct, Constanza Ehrenhaus for doing research for me on dragon toes, and Louisa Gallie, Cris Griffin and Patrick McEvoy for critiques and support.

Also, Raethe has her own Twitter account… if you want to hear her bitch about fighting undead, pwning sorcerers, and the trials and tribulations of traveling with a human monk, you can follow her here: http://twitter.com/roguehalfling