Reddit reviews ART/WORK: Everything You Need to Know (and Do) As You Pursue Your Art Career

I suggest you give friends an automatic discount on your pieces, why not? They are your friends and family after all, and . . the more art you have out there, the better it is for you.

Commissions can a bit more tricky, especially with friends/family; you must decide on the process, what I have seen working is:

• down payment, non refundable, anywhere between 10% to 50%. If your commissions vary from piece to piece or the price is high, lean toward the 10%, otherwise 50% upfront. Non-refundable.
  
  
• after taking the deposit, discuss the piece, and then deliver the concept, usually is a brief description of the piece and a set number of sketches. I suggest that you and especially your client, understand that this is your making art, not a work for hire where the client has full control; you are the artist.
  
  
• get the OK from the client, at this point if you got less then 50% upfront, the client has to make an additional payment to bring the non-refundable deposit to 50%; and then agree upon a delivery time, place of delivery, and time of delivery
  
  
• once the deadline arrives, deliver the piece as agreed upon and get the remainder 50%. If the client doesn't like the piece for whatever reason; decide whether you want to modify to fit the client's wishes (I highly discourage this, unless is something very minor) or.. take the piece back, don't cahs in the remainder 50%; and the piece remains your property to do whatever you want, you can sell it to someone else, destroy it, modify it or ... whatever you want.
  
  
• It helps to have this in writing, it can be as easy as you sending an email outlining the process and the client responding with an "OK"
  
  This is a good read: https://www.amazon.com/ART-WORK-Everything-Pursue-Career-ebook/dp/B001ULOPT0

That book rules (and all the small books put out by paper monument. The miraculous and draw it with your eyes closed are both wonderful). There’s also a lot of helpful information in Art/Work about approaching galleries:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001ULOPT0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_MfwMAbEQ39FZM

> What’s a good policy to put in place when handling payments for commissions going forward?

• 10% down (refundable) in order to chat about what needs to be done etc...
  
• once you have pinpointed what needs to be done, by when, revisions etc, and additional 40%, and not the 50% down is no longer refundable
  
• remainder 50% upon delivery. What I do is if they don't like it, the last 50% is not due; I keep the 50% paid to me and I also keep the piece
  
  It's best to have a contract in place.
  
  If you want to find out more, read this book https://www.amazon.com/ART-WORK-Everything-Pursue-Career-ebook/dp/B001ULOPT0 everything is there, and a lot more too.