A frequent source of confusion in the furry fandom is about commission pricing for furry art.
This confusion is often driven by (usually younger) furries demanding free or severely cheap art from artists, and the aftermath of such exchanges. There’s a reason @SpicyFurryTakes posts so frequently.
In the interest of not adding to the confusion, I’d like to offer a simple algorithm for artists to use for their standard commission prices, and then some guidelines for artists and commissioners to make the art commissioning experience better for everyone.
As my goal here is to simplify, I will be taking liberties and eschewing a lot of the economic details. If you feel that I made a mistake but aren’t sure because I’m not showing my work, feel free to leave a comment.
Commission Pricing For Artists
If you’re an artist reading this, you should almost certainly raise your rates.
Furry artists in particular are notorious for undercharging for all their time and hard work. We’re talking single-digit percentages of what industry professionals charge for roughly equivalent quality.
And then when one encounters a financial emergency, they desperately scramble to take on a lot more work just to pay for whatever life event happened. If the artist hadn’t been leaving so much money on the table with their commissioners, they probably wouldn’t need to do emergency commissions in the first place–let alone endure the mental toll of delivering on them.
It’s tragic.
If you’re not sure how much you should charge at all, I recommend the following algorithm:
- Calculate your floor.
- Increase your rates.
- Are you able to consistently fill your commission slots?
- Yes -> Go to step 2 above.
- No -> Be patient.
Calculating Your Floor
First, benchmark how long it takes you to complete a typical item on your price list. For example, a sketch of one character might take N hours to complete on average (with variance granted for complex character details).
Next, decide on a fair hourly rate for your work as a professional.
Don’t undersell yourself! For example, your hourly rate should never be less than $24 per hour (in 2020 dollars), in the United States. This number is based on what the federal minimum wage should be, if it was pinned to productivity. If that seems too high for you, don’t go below $15.
Whatever number you landed on, immediately double it. Roughly half of your income will be eaten by taxes (income taxes–including state income taxes if applicable–plus payroll taxes since you’re self-employed as an artist), unless your tax accountant tells you otherwise.
Now that you have a number in mind, you’re going to want to go through the rest of your price list and make a mental note of how many hours each item will take you to complete.
For example: If a complete illustration of one character with a detailed background takes you 8 hours, and each additional character takes an additional 2 hours, you can setup your pricing as follows:
where 
If you decided 
- $400 + $100 per additional character
You should do this for every item on your commission price list.
Increase Your Rates
Once you have a price list figured out, you will want to occasionally increase your prices.
When To Increase Your Commission Prices
Generally: If you’re utilizing 100% of your allocated time for art, it’s time to increase your rates. This means you have sufficient demand to justify a price increase.
If you’ve allocated 40 hours of your time per week for commission work, and you’re consistently allocating all 40 of those hours, it’s time to increase your rates.
(This logic also applies to commission “slots”, but not all slots are equal. Use your best judgment here.)
How to Increase Your Prices
There are different schools of thought on pricing strategies. As a computer programmer, my generally recommended strategy is similar to a git bisect:
- Double your prices.
- Are you able to fill at least 50% of your commission time allocation at the new prices? (Let’s call your old price N, and your new price 2N.)
- No: Go exactly halfway between the old prices and the new prices (1.5N).
- Yes: Are you able to consistently fill 100%?
- Yes: Go back to step 1. You haven’t doubled them enough.
- No: You may have found your prices, but don’t bail out just yet.
You know that 2N yields between 50% and 100% utilization. If you dropped down to 1.5N, you’d very likely see 100% utilization, so your ideal rate is probably somewhere between 1.5N and 2N.So try 1.75N.
If you’re below 50%, you need to go down (1.625N). If you hit 100%, you know you need to go up (1.875N).
Recursively iterate this process, increasing half as much as the previous step.
Keep this up until the difference between this step and the next step is smaller than some threshold (e.g. $5) or you’re at a comfortable utilization between 50% and 99%.
Working Through An Example
Let’s say you were charging $50 for sketches, $150 for lined art, and $300 for full colored illustrations, and your commission queue is always filled.
First, double your prices (sketches: $50 -> $100, line art: $150 -> $300, full colored illustrations: $300 -> $600).
If your next batch of commissions gets filled to 100%: double them again (sketches are $200, line art is $600, full illustrations are $1200). Keep doing this until you’re not at 100% utilization.
If, after you’ve finished a cycle of doubling, your next batch of commissions is between 50% and 100% utilization, sit tight at your current rate. Demand for your art will increase as you grow your audience, and you’ll find yourself needing to start the process over with again.
However, if you’re at below 50% utilization, it’s time to step halfway between the old and the new. If going from the initial ($50, $150, $300) to the new ($100, $300, $600) dropped demand to below 50%, your new prices would be ($75, $225, $450). If you’re still below 50%, you can keep decreasing it further.
(Feel free to round these numbers, but err on rounding them up.)
If you started at 100% utilization, this process will end up at some price greater than your starting point.
Note:
Every time I’ve said “your prices” above, what I’m talking about are your standard rates, not what you’re offering on a particular day.
You should absolutely feel entitled to offer discounts, sales, and special deals whenever it suits you.
Deeper Analysis
Computer science majors will recognize this strategy as approximately a binary search algorithm.
A true binary search would zero in on your 100% utilization prices if you were capable of going above 100% utilization, but I wrote this with the assumption that 100% utilization is a market signal that you need to raise your rates. This is the guideline we’re using, because I’m assuming you cannot go above 100%. (That’s how you get burn-out!)
If you replace 100% utilization in the “true” binary search algorithm with another target percentage (say: 75%, and you bail out when you’re within 2.5% of this value), you will zero in on prices that meet your threshold.
The reason we’re increasing/decreasing by powers of 2 with each recursive iteration is that it’s the most efficient algorithm available.
A more naive approach would be to, instead of going from 2N down to 1.5N, decreasing by 0.1N until you hit your goal.
If you’re going from $100 and trying to hit a 90% utilization, and the magic number that hits that number is $147, the comparative strategies might look like this:
- $100 -> $200, 60%
- $200 -> $150, 88%
- $150 -> $125, 100%
- $125 -> $137, 100%
- $137 -> $144, 100%
- $144 -> $147, 90%
- $100 -> $200, 60%
- $200 -> $190, 65%
- $190 -> $180, 70%
- $180 -> $170, 76%
- $170 -> $160, 82%
- $160 -> $150, 88%
- $150 -> $140, 94%
backtrack, smaller increments - $140 -> $149, 88%
- $149 -> $148, 89%
- $148 -> $147, 90%
The efficiency here is important: More price changes in a short time interval can make customers nervous.
In the example above, if 88% was acceptable, you could have stopped at $150. That would have been two total operations for the binary search and six for the gradual step-down approach.
In all but the most contrived scenarios, you want to use a binary search strategy.
Consider Hourly Commission Rates
Price lists have a tendency to get complicated, especially when complex character details (your fursona is a wolf, but with wings!) enter the mix.
One alternative to this is, after applying the price algorithm above, simply express your prices in terms of how much time a piece of art typically takes and advertise your standard rate.
Then your commissioners will know they’re hiring you for e.g. $50/hour for a project that typically takes N hours.
Improving the Furry Art Commission Experience
Guidelines for Artists
Communicate with your commissioners. If you’re not using something like Trello to track your projects, you should send them updates more than you’d normally feel comfortable. The more complex the work, the more updates you should send.
Dates Rule Everything Around Me. We understand that you have multiple projects–often running in parallel–that need to be completed to keep your clients happy. We know we’re not the only iron in your fire. Give estimate completion dates as soon as you can. If you can’t give a completion date, give an estimated date for a date. (I’m serious. This will virtually eliminate commissioner anxiety.)
Be transparent. If you need more time to get a piece done, tell your commissioners as soon as you can. Shit happens. We all get sick. We all have unproductive days/weeks. Anyone who doesn’t understand this is someone you probably want to decline accepting work from in the future.
Guidelines for Commissioners
Be polite. It’s difficult to understate how important basic manners are, even moreso when nobody seems to practice them.
https://twitter.com/silvixenart/status/1316459489076211712
Don’t bitch about prices. If you can’t afford their rates, you have three choices: Save up money for this luxury expense, move onto another artist, or learn to make it yourself.
n.b. This includes telling artists they should charge more! If you’re going to do that, your words must be accompanied by a generous tip. If they aren’t, you’re an asshole.
Updates are your opportunity to request changes. If you just say, “It’s coming along great, thanks for the update!” then you’re agreeing with the current direction of their work.
If the artist forgot an important detail (e.g. a marking on your fursona), the sooner you tell them, the sooner they can correct it. You aren’t being rude by informing them (unless you word it rudely; use good judgment!).
Credit your artists. Always. Link to their account too, if reasonably practical.
A lot of an artists’ income is the consequence of their previous commissioners showcasing their work. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising most can afford.
If you credit your artists, you’ll be helping them stay afloat until you decide to commission them again in the future.
Questions and Answers
I’ve received a bit of feedback since I first published this article from various sources (Reddit, forum posts in other languages that I can only hope Google Translate got right, etc.) and I thought I’d address some of your questions and concerns here.
“It takes me forever to get art done. Should I bill for my egregiously slow time?”
There are three reasons I’m aware of that could lead an artist to have a glacial work pace.
- They have insufficient art practice
- Their techniques and strategies aren’t time-efficient
- They live with some sort of disability
For the first two reasons, the solution is simply to practice more, try different techniques, and learn from other artists so you can get your work pace fast enough to earn a living from art. It’s okay if you’re still somewhat slower than your peers, but until you’re able to consistently produce art at a reasonable rate, you’re probably not ready to do art professionally (and that’s okay, not everyone has to be).
For the last one, I don’t have any useful advice. I don’t know your disability and am unqualified to advise you on what to do to overcome the challenges you face as an artist because of it. The advice on this page is intentionally very generalized and I’m sorry it won’t help you.
“My clientele only make poverty wages. How can I raise my rates without betraying them?”
I mean this in the gentlest way possible: If you’re in this situation, you do not have clients, you have friends. Friends are an incredibly good thing to have. Humanity overall severely underestimates the importance of good friendships, especially in America.
But if you’re trying to earn your living through art, you have to distinguish between the two. Clients are people who–whether through income or saving up–can afford to pay you a livable wage for your time as an artist.
That isn’t to say that you can’t continue to give your friends a discount, or even free art. They’re your friends, it’s your time. Do what you will. I mentioned this above. But if you’re doing real work, you should be getting paid a real livable wage.
Your friends might even be able to help you find clients that are able and willing to pay for your time. Don’t write them off or treat them as second-class.
“This advice doesn’t apply to me because my customer base is small, or nonexistent. What now?”
There are a lot of things you can do to change this fact, but I’m not qualified to speak competently to them. (If I knew the secret to a larger social media following, don’t you think I’d have used it for myself?)
Ask artists in your community for help and advice. Some might even help increase your follower counts so you can acquire more business.
“How do I find furries with sufficient disposable income to pay a livable wage?”
The truer but non-helpful answer is, “You don’t, they’ll find you.”
A lot of furries that work in tech fit the bill, but not all of them. Additionally, some well-off furries are righteous assholes and you really don’t want to deal with their bullshit.
The best advice I can offer here is:
- Be active on social media.
- Be kind to people on social media.
- Don’t be afraid of self-promotion on your own feed.
Everything else boils down to patience and luck.
“I’m not an American, so what should I do differently?”
There are two schools of thought here.
- On one paw, you can localize your prices to the cost of living for your area. This will ensure your needs are met and you can comfortably continue to work as an artist in relative comfort.
- On the other paw, you could recognize that the Internet is an international marketplace and you are, at least in part, competing globally for clients. Many clients will come from wealthy countries and have the income or savings to facilitate large commissions, and therefore you can earn more money for the same work.
Use which ever you like better as your guiding light. I’m not a dictator, and even if I was, I have no mechanism to force you either way.
“What if I don’t want to make a livable wage as a furry artist, and just want to make art for other furries as a hobby?”
Why’d you click the link to this article?
“What would an increased bill rate look like for an artist that followed this advice?”
See this post for a detailed breakdown of furry fandom art spending, accompanied by an analysis based on an arbitrary rate at $50/hour and utilization at 30 hours per week. (Spoiler: It ends up at about $80,000/year.)
“This pricing advice isn’t specific to furry artists, it’s general pricing advice for freelancers in any industry!”
(Art by Khia)
It’s true, I didn’t invent these tactics or pull them out of a magic hat. If you’re trying to make it in the world as a professional, price your work like a professional.
From what I can gather: Roughly half of the people that read this blog post picked up on this nuance immediately. Y’all are pretty sharp.
https://soatok.blog/2020/10/16/commission-prices-for-furries-and-artists/
#artists #commissions #furry #furryArtists #FurryFandom #pricing
If living through the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything–and it surely hasn’t–it would be the importance of friendship and community to our physical and emotional well-being.For more on the subject of People Who Ought to Know Better Not Learning the Obvious Lessons from Misfortune, one needs look no further than social media.
Popularity
One of the reoccurring topics of the Discourse on Furry Twitter is those gosh-darned popufurs–loosely defined as “anyone with a higher follower account than you”.I’ve written an analysis post back when I posted on Medium that covered friendship and popufurs, which inspired Stormi to create a YouTube video about the topic:
I’ve never experienced popularity, but I’ve been close personal friends with a few people who do, and I’ve witnessed the fallout of parasocial relationships. Archantael did a really good video on that subject:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXGyKaOEz8I
Loneliness
One of the most dangerous falsehoods that too many furries believe about popularity is that you can’t be popular and lonely at the same time.Loneliness was already an epidemic before COVID-19, and the prolonged social isolation has led to a lot of relationship strain, to say the least.
In the past year, we’ve seen a lot of long-term, loving relationships end abruptly. We’ve seen people who were coping with mental health issues suddenly succumb to them. Tempers hasten. Patience shorten. It’s been a royal clusterfuck, and at least in America, there’s no end to it in sight.
Friendship
I think a big problem that rarely gets talked about is that our society is plagued by weird beliefs about what friendship is or ought to be.The “Friend Zone” Myth
One of the most deplorable myths about friendship is the so-called “friend zone”. The story goes something like this:
- When you meet someone, they’re a stranger. No arguments there.
- Once you and them start to gain familiarity, they become an acquaintance.
- After you’ve spent some time as an acquaintance, they become a friend.
- At this point, if your gender identities and sexual orientations are compatible, you’re expected to move onto some sort of romantic interest–be it a friendship “with benefits”, romantic partner, or something in-between.
- Once you’ve courted a number of flings, you progress towards a higher caliber of relationship. Namely: Marriage.
The reasoning goes: If you befriend a potential romantic partner, and remain friends, you’re somehow stuck on a less valuable step than what you should desire, and therefore should feel bad about it.
That’s what people say when they accuse someone of being in the “friend zone” by another person.
This mental model of viewing relationships is just dripping with the sort of hetero-normative patriarchy that feminists famously oppose, but not enough people actually listen to long enough to realize they also have your best interests in heart when they levy their critiques.
The belief in the Friend Zone leads to the cheapening of friendships in pursuit of sexual and romantic fulfillment. It’s inherently exclusionary to platonic expressions of love, asexuality, and polyamory.
Just say “no” to the entire concept of a Friend Zone.
Toxic Positivity
Life sometimes sucks.Sometimes, the only way to cope with the suckage of life is to commiserate to your friends.
A good friend will listen, empathize with your experiences, and maybe even share their own. Friendship is rooted in shared vulnerability and appreciation.
But sometimes you encounter one of the Toxic Positivity proponents. “You’re bringing me down.” “Why are you depressed all the time?” We’ve heard it all before.
But toxic positivity is often more subtle than that. I’ll give you an example:
A good friend will tell you when you’re being an asshole, and try to talk you down from making foolish mistakes that will only hurt your future happiness.
Sometimes these conversations are tense and stressful. Sometimes you have to seem cruel to be kind. People are complicated.
And while I can understand not wanting to deal with high levels of stress all the damn time, there comes a time when you have to deal with the problems in front of you. Negative peace leads to a net negative.
Social Climbing and Disposable Friends
This one’s straight out of the “Actions Speak Louder Than Words” genre, and often follows from toxic positivity.
It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see where that goes. (Art by Khia.)
Some people try to walk the social graph in order to position themselves near popular members of the community so they might benefit from others’ popularity.
Some people treat their friends as disposable and temporary, moving from group to group over the years, rather than face accountability for their own terrible behavior.
Some people do both of those things.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI0lfO9_BAc
Happiness
Friendship and community are essential for humans to be happy. This is the conclusion of The Happiness Hypothesis.Happiness does not come from within. It’s not something that you can summon into existence through sheer force of will.
Happiness does not come from without. It’s not a lost treasure that you have to go forth and dig up somewhere.
Happiness comes from in-between; from the strong and weak bonds in our lives. It’s our sense of closeness and vulnerability to others within our close friendships and broader communities that lead to happiness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q1dgn_C0AU
Asking Ourselves “Why?”
Why do people pursue romance at the expense of friendships?Why do people construct filter bubbles based on superficial positivity?
Why do people try to use others as stepping stones towards their ambitions or treat their friendships as disposable and temporary?
Why do we as a social species do all of this when we need friendships and communal bonds to be happy?
I think a lot of the time, the answer boils down to “ego”.
Ego
We as a species pay lip-service to friendship when it serves our self-interest, but discard its importance the second friendship becomes inconvenient.Our ego–especially if we practice monogamous relationships–dictate that the only way to be “successful” in sex and love is to be in a committed relationship and friendship is just a stepping stone on the way to the real goal.
Our ego gets bruised when our friends show us tough love by speaking the truth.
Our ego drives us to strive for bigger numbers and stronger dopamine hits, even if it means using and abusing people along the way.
That’s what I take it to mean when Buddhists say that desire and ignorance lie at the root of suffering.
We want things, and we don’t know why we want them, but we do. And we will destroy ourselves and everyone we profess to love in pursuit of it. We’ll even destroy the habitability of our only planet in service to these desires.
Or we could, simply, not do that. If there’s one thing our ego loves, it’s to be reminded that we have a choice. That we’re in control.
As a hacker, exploiting a mechanism to undermine its normal goals is something I find a lot of beauty in. Hijacking the self-destructive nature of your own ego in service of your better nature is a masterpiece.
Choice
You are the protagonist of your own story. You can’t control what the universe throws as you, but you do get to decide what it means for you. Why not choose a better lesson?And that’s usually enough to lead us to making better decisions, showing greater affection and appreciation for the people in our lives, and being more capable at coping with the endless hellscape that is other, often shitty, people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSM3Uml4Xpo
Soatok’s Friends
I’m fortunate to know a lot of excellent people, both within and without the furry fandom. Most of my closest friends don’t have enormous social media followings. Some of my friends do!I believe it’s important for friendships to be genuine and not transactional.
Belmont / Doomalorian
My oldest friend recently made a fursona, so he can be more involved with my participation in the furry fandom.Most of you don’t know him yet, but if you think I’m cool, you’ll almost certainly like him too. We’ve been friends for over 12 years and live together.
His furry account is @BelmontLion.
Art by INIGO.
He also has a non-fandom account, @Doomalorian, which is also his Twitch.tv channel.
https://twitter.com/Doomalorian
In the future, I’ll be picking up Twitch streaming again. I’ll probably play a bunch of games with my friends and generally just have a lot of fun with it. If that sort of thing interests you, stop by his streams and maybe give him a follow.
https://soatok.blog/2020/10/22/nearly-everyone-underestimates-the-importance-of-good-friendships/
#friends #friendship #furries #furry #FurryFandom #Society
