See...I have these characters for my books that i was going to have made into charms/commissioned. Here's the thing..I'd like to still have ownership over my characters. I'm not sure thats possible though because the one comissioner i was looking at said it automatically becomes theirs. So...would i have to find someone who would just copyright their artwork but not be able to sell the character design? (one of my friends told me that if i say copyright of (me), character name/design/post date that I would be able to still have ownership of my ideas...not sure their right-shrugs.) I know i'm being 100% paranoid because i doubt my books wouldn't become famous at all..but still. I would rather not commission someone only to find out years later they sold the ideas and now someones suing me over my ideas.

Are we refering to books or merchandise such as charms/straps etc? Find someone else, seriously. If your characters have full-fledged art design, description and such (which will only leave the artist to draw the actual pose) then it shouldn't be theirs. I've learned that the first person to own "ownership" is the creator, which would be you. If the artist is stealing it, then it's thief and stolen ideas. Rights are rights. If the person you're commissioning is saying these are theirs, it doesn't work this way and they should give you copyright and credits.

Subeta is doing the same but we have to agree to sell our cw idea to Agoge. That's different. If you didn't give your consent, it isn't valid. I'd just find someone else.

@ far thank you for your info and guidence. I'd hate to lose my characters and for some reason I wasn't sure if i had a say at all or whatxP would, not wouldn't..shoot i wrote that wrong beforecx

Edit: it was my charaters from my future books/ comission to have them made into charms id hang in an important place.

Generally the artist owns the rights to their own art, it doesn't necessarily matter what the art is of. They can transfer the rights over to you, but it has to be done with some sort of contract and some artists will require you to pay extra for the rights to their art, depending on what you plan on doing with it. But just commissioning someone does not give you the rights to their art, even if it is your character.

But on the other side, the artist will not own your character. They just own that one piece of art that they made.

thanks, i decided to draw the art myself. Probs should have changed that in my original postxP