Frequently Asked Questions:
I will write a little explanation about how you get the best out of a comission.
And i will answer some questions that may arise.
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What you should consider before the first negotiation:
1. How much are you willing to pay?
Sounds obvious i know. But if you can't pay me the usual rate we may have to find an alternative.
I am pretty open to it. I will occasionally do free artworks but usually only under certain conditions.
What helps is good exposure, but because advertising isn't paying any bills it is not a all-free guarantee.
2. What exactly do you want me to paint?
Again seems obvious, but i have to mention it. But it is essential to know what you are going for.
The mood, the details, all elements that should represented, and all the technical stuff, like fileformat, measurments etc. Surely, it can be cool to have total freedom with a piece of art.
But that has a high risk that it doesn't meet your expectations. And like you will see in the walkthrough that follows this section, it can lower your costs. Because if you don't know in the first place what is important for your happiness, i may have to change things later on wich causes more hours of work, wich i have to charge you seperately. As a sidenote, i may draw everything you want.
But probably there is something so horrible that i can't overcome. But mature content like Sex,
Violence or such things should be possible.
3. Do you have a deadline?
It is important for me, so i can tell you in advance if i can meet your expectations or not.
I want to be sure that i can deliver on time and if i can't guarantee it i have to reject the comission.
4. is there any kind of NDA involved?
This is a point i overlook on a constant basis. I need to know if you want your artwork to be
kept secret till you release it for public. I prefer work that i can show in my portfolio, or on my networking sites. Because if i am constantly working and i can't show anything i will sooner or later
loose the attention of my fans. So if you wan't that i hold a artwork back, please tell me in advance.
I am even willing to give you some discount if i can show the artwork to my fans.
(in steps as "work in progress" or the finished result)
5. Copyright
I need to know what the purpose of the artwork is. You can use it for commercial profit but not sell
prints of itself. I am retaining any copyrights and i reserve the right to use the artwork for
promotional purposes (portfolios, networking). I won't resell the artwork to anyone else.
I won't upload the artwork in original resolution. If you want to get further copyrights you may
purchase them seperately.
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Walkthrough Example for a usual comission:
1. You are sure you have considered all the points mentioned above?
2. If you are sure you can reach me via:
- Skype (Antharyus84)
- ICQ (550-467-730),
- Deviantart(CalabriaArt@Deviantart)
- E-Mail(Calabria.art@gmail.com)
- Facebook (Anthony John Calabria).
3. This is the initial negotiation.
If we agree on all terms and conditions and i accept the comission i will start working as soon as the payment has arrived. Yes you have to pay me in advance.
(If i can't finish the artwork, of course you get your money back)
Payment Options are "bank transfer" and "Paypal".
4. First i will do a quick rough version of your idea. Be it as a sketch, a speedpainting or a rough concept.
this should ideally feature all of your wishes to some extent. (some things are always added later in the process)
5. I will contact you as soon as the preview is finished, this is the time when you usually can bring in last changes. (If you were satisfied with the concept we continue with step 6, if not we repeat step 4.)
6. If you were satisfied with the basic composition i will start working on the actual artwork.
This may take some time, depending on the initially negotiation and a possible deadline.
If it is a free artwork i may take as much time as i need, except if i agreed on a deadline.
I may send you another midstage of the piece if we didn't get to clear about some details, wich i have to try out first. But usually this won't happen as mentioned in Step 5.
7. I will start finishing the piece. At this stage, changes are usually pretty hard to do. Especially critical things like changing the pose or the lighting of the whole piece etc.
I will charge you at a hourly rate (20€ / $25) if you want me to changing things you agreed on in the first place. (i may forgoe on charging at my discretion)
8. At the time i finished the painting i will send you all the fileformats you demanded (usually tiff, png or jpeg @ 300dpi/ppi).
This walkthrough is also (like everything else) negotiable to a certain degree.
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Some other Questions that may arise:
- What Hardware do you use?
Right now an Intel Xeon @ 3ghz, 32 GB DDR3 1600mhz RAM and a AMD Radeon HD 7970 Gigahertz Edition GPU. And i am constantly staring at a DELL U2710.
Other than that i use a Wacom Intuos 4 M.
- Wich Software do you use?
Exclusively Photoshop. (but i plan to expand my knowledge as soon as i have the time)
- When did you start doing art?
May 28. 2011 - after purchasing my first tablet, a Bamboo Fun S.
- What brush settings do you use?
I usually use the default soft round brush @ 40% or 60% opacity with pressure sensitivity on and opacity jitter on. Other than that, especially for concepts and rough sketchings, i use the default Chalkbrush (17).On the chalkbrush i try around, with opacity jitter and stuff,but usually turn the opacity jitter on.I am so used to pressing softer or harder that pushing numberkeys to define opacity is a big loss of comfort hehe
- Do you use textures, and how do you think about using textures?
I personally see no problem with using them. Actually it takes a ton of time to get a decent pixeldensity in texturing self. So as long as you modify and alter textures enough it does make sense to use them. But i often try to avoid them just for practicing reasons. I really want to be able to reproduce texture effects by drawing them myself.
- How often do you paint and practice?
I don't spend enough time on it. Mainly because i have a lot of other things around me wich distract me.
- How do you set up your working shedule?
Right now i have a rough shedule wich splits the day into 3 major parts. Basically 8 hrs sleep, 10 hrs work, 6 hrs other stuff. Right now the working part is filled not only with PS but with things like getting my business running, setting everything up properly, like networking and stuff. It surely is work too and business related. But it is demanding. I even didn't met the 8 hrs of sleep in the last few weeks, because i simply have not enough time to manage everything.
because i always feel this pressure, that i should do something work related. And i even have a bad conscience if i take a day off to meet my family or friends. Wich i usually do at least once a week.
For me there is nothing like a "weekend". I work if i can. Because there are always enough days where i can't anyways. So why add some fixed days on top lol
- how much time do you need for a artwork?
This question is pretty hard to answer. It really depends on a lot of things. If it i done something similiar before and i do exactly know what i need to achieve then i may end up somewhere between 5 and 10 hrs. If i need a lot of research, i need to do a complex sketch first and i never did this kind of style/painting before then i may end up with 20 hrs or more. I am still in a stage where i need to try around different strategies i am constantly learning and sometimes things don't work out as planned. The longest times i worked on a piece (with everything else like planning, communicating, searching for refferences etc.) were probably somewhere between 60 and 80 hrs. Sure, this does seriously slam my hourly rate into the ground because i often end up with a fraction of it, considering everything. But it is worth it. I learn a ton and i want to offer the best i can. If that means some days with near to no sleep, then be it. But because of that commitment i am a bit sensitive to getting no payment at all. This is a really big demotivatonal factor for me.
Even if i love art and learning new things. To work 40 hrs on a piece, getting only a bit sleep and getting health problems isn't that cool if you get nothing in return. And i don't ask for much at all.
I hope i answered most FAQ's - if you want to know something i will add this question here and answer it gladly. I am pretty sure that i did a ton of misspelling and stuff, so i will revisit this site too eliminate any shortcomings. This is a first set up to cover up the basic needs.
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