I have been doing art since I was 18 months old. My mom put some art supplies in front of me, and it just kept growing from there. I love doing art so much, I decided I would make a “career” out of it. I say “career” because it’s not actually what I’m going to be doing in life. I’m going to school to become a bio psychologist and make good money. But, I still love doing art. So I made the gracious decision to start doing commissions.
A commission, in artist terms, is a piece of art they have to do, in their style and medium and things like that, given to them by someone else. This can be family, friends or even strangers. For me, I have a variety of mediums I use such as acrylic paint, watercolor paint, gouache paint and even oil paint (although oil is the one medium I hate using). I do illustrations and cartoon drawings, so acrylic is the one I use the most since they always look the best in acrylic. But, that doesn’t mean I can’t use the other ones, I just really hate oil. If you know me, you know how much I truly hate it, yet I still offer it anyway.
I mainly work on canvas material since it works best with acrylic and oil, but I can use different papers if need be. I have this price thing where I start off with $40 minimum, which pays for time and effort. From there, the price will go up depending on the amount of detail and how big it is. My maximum size is 16 inches by 20 inches, and the smallest I will go depends on what the client wants. The most I’ve gotten paid for is $160, and this person wanted a painting of all the Eeveelutions along with Eevee. Not only does doing this help pay for… well, me living, but it also helps me improve my skills since I am always growing as an artist. I get commissioned every once in a while, but it doesn’t happen as often as some people think. That’s kind of a good thing because if I were to have so many at once, I wouldn’t be able to get them all done at a reasonable time.
As of right now, I have two commissions I’m working on, and one on hold since I also have this rule where I don’t start the final until I get paid. I will send the client a sketch of it and have them either ask me to change something, or they approve of it. From there, when the final gets done depending on when I get paid and if they have a deadline. I either have my conversations with clients on my Facebook, since Facebook pay is a thing and where I prefer to get paid, or my art Instagram @verenaarts since those are what I’m most active on when it comes to commissions.
I love doing art, and since doing it as a career isn’t an option, this is the closest thing to an art career I will have. And if you have any interest in having a piece done by me, please let me know!