So, what do you guys think about that? o:

I love it. I think I do my best pieces when I don't have to stick too close to the ref.

Then again, some commissioners are really picky about the art they get. Like, if you miss a small tattoo, they'll make you add it.

Which sort of leads to the question: what are you looking for when you commission art?

Do you want a perfect picture of your character, or would you prefer to give the artist more freedom?

I think it's important to let the artist have more fun with the picture than make it a chore to be exact, plus, I think it usually ends up with a better picture. ;D But what do you think?

it depends on what you're requesting, i guess :B i have one avatar i am commissioning for that is based off a specific character from a drama, so i guess it's cosplay? and i want it to be pretty close to the original in terms of clothing, expression, etc.

but on the other side, i am also commissioning for an avatar for which artistic freedom is greatly welcomed <3 while there are few specifications, liberties are welcomed mainly because a) i love to see what people pull from outside the box to put their own spin on things and b) because the avatar system doesn't have the specific items :p

but overall, i love when people take liberties with art and i love to take liberties myself, for the exact reason you stated - it's way more fun ❤️

My attitude towards commissioning art is "Hey, sup, I like your style. Whatever you choose to do of my chars, I will love it and pay for it." I think this leads most people to believe I'm kind of a fluke about remembering my commissions, when I'm not. :(

I'm glad that most people who I do commissions for like my style enough so that I can take liberties, I hope it works out for the better. xD It goes the other way too, chances are if I like your style I like your innate sense of style, I don't mind if people play with any aspect of the drawing, ranging from clothing or composition.

Well, for me, unless the detail's vital to my character, I think it's fine to change/take off a few items or two. But I would expect the artist to stick close the the reference given? I generally stick close to the reference; but if there's something I'm having trouble to see in the ref, then I'll infer what it is on my own; commissioners want my art because they like to see their character in my style; not what I can do to their outfits. e_e If they want me to mess with the outfits, they'll just tell me I can draw whatever outfit's suited for them instead of giving me the actual ref. xD

Yeah, it's definitely best to stick to the reference if the person doesn't say anything about freedom.

When commissioning someone else though, I guess it just depends on the commissioner and how open they are to having someone else's take on their character.

Also, it's like, how attached you are to your version of your character... for example, people could totally build up my HAs from scratch and I'd still love it if it looked good in the end.

Personally I love it. And I want the artist to have fun whilst doing it.

Say I have an OC, if everyone did everything absolutely down to the last detail, all the art you get will just look the same, nothing special about it. However if you gave the artist artistic freedom, it will be easier for them, more surprising or exciting for the person getting the art, and you won't just have a huge collection of the same piece basically. And this especially applies when people are interested in one style, say, those deformed chibis that have stump less and arms, if you had 7 pieces of one character in that style, but By different artists, it will get boring.

literally the exact thing happened to me. she didn't ask me to redo it, but she got hella dissapointed when i forgot it, and then didn't tip on a really low price. whaev's thouuuuugggghhh

Aww, yeah, that example was based on a bit of personal experience. P;

I wish commissioners would at least make it clear whether they're picky or not. xD If they want me to stick to the ref closely, TELL me so I don't have to change things later. And likewise, if I can have freedom, pleeaaase tell me so I can have fun.

I'm kind of too short-attention spanned to actually pick a specific design for a character to be drawn in. I like giving my artist my character, maybe some sort of backstory if they require one, and that's it. n_n

I fucking love it when artists use artistic freedom with my characters. I mean, I can draw them one way; what fun is it if you draw them exactly how I see them? If that makes sense. basically, I like seeing how others view my characters. I love it when people draw them in different clothes especially.

I LOVE artistic freedom. u It makes me go wild when I draw. ❤️

I think that if you give the artist more freedom, the image will look SO much better. It because.. you know, they're free to do whatever the hell they want! They even might have ideas for poses and expressions that you didn't think of, and they'll just enjoy drawing it even more.

OH, and I don't even know if its just me, but I love being surprised when it comes to commissions. u Like.. After I commission the artist, I spaz and wait patiently, imagining what it would look like, and it always come out WAY better than I imagine. :D

Artistic freedom is great~ Most the time, if I ask someone to draw one of my characters, I let them change the outfit/whatever. Usually there is just one or two things that I would like to be included because it makes the character who they are. For example, one of my characters always wears a necklace with a lemon on it. However, I make sure to mention that I'd like that to be in the image, so that they know that that is one thing that is important. Other than that, have fun~ right?

Unless it's specified by the commissioner, I don't take artistic liberties. Some people just get too cranky over the smallest detail, and unless I'm really interested in the character I don't really want to play around with it, either. I sometimes don't get that, though - especially when they collect a lot of art, it all kind of ends up looking the same.

A lot of my characters have different outfits - because we don't wear the same thing every day in real life, do we? - and it disappoints me when people just draw them in the same outfit I used in the ref. There are like, ten other outfits they could have drawn from, or just taken artistic licence and made up their own, but they get lazy and do the outfit from the ref, and it gets incredibly boring from my point of view.

When I first started commissioning, I used to be a lot more anal about whether the picture was missing details, BUT...

I've come to realize that it's really not that important if the overall picture ends up looking great...And it usually does look nicer (compared to what I imagine the end product will look like) when the artist is happy with being able to do whatever they want to it.

Also, like said, being surprised is always fun. * m *

I love it when people do new things. u It's so much more interesting to see what comes out, surprises are so fun.

I AM GLAD YOU CHANGED, KOU. D8 Haha, I loved doing that piece for you, yaystressrelief.

From the position of buying commissions... I go both ways. Sometimes I am perfectly fine with giving some freedom, and sometimes, I'm not so much, especially if it's something I am particularly interested in seeing (although in these cases it's usually something I ilke about the person's style that I want highlighted in the picture), or if it's a real-money commission, especially expensive ones (where if I'm paying $50, I darn well do feel that I have the right to ask for something to be re-done). As far as sticking to refs though.... I really prefer if people do. Like with my character Edmund for instance- he's tall and thin and stork-ish. If I commission a piece of art of him, and the artist gives me something where he isn't tall or particularly thin, then I am most definitely going to ask them to fix or re-do it. It's a part of the character that I was conscious of in his design, and I would very much appreciate if it were followed through. Same goes for facial features on other characters, like big noses, or especially large teeth, or facial and body hair. Where I'm a little more anal about the actual design of the character, I'm less so with clothing and pose. 'this character likes these sorts of clothes, and does these sorts of things, likes this this and this, and I'd like if you played with those aspects when drawing him', but otherwise (unless it's something very specific I'm looking for) I like to give pretty free range of clothing and what's going on in the picture.

On the other hand, when I'm doing commissions... I actually prefer people to be specific with what they want, either with giving me as many refs as possible, or jsut flat-out telling me exactly what they are looking for in the artwork. If you're paying me for art, then you have the control over what you get, and it tends to make it that much easier for me to just get the artwork done with so much less fuss.

With both though, I really really really like progress sketches. For big pieces that I am paying real money for, I will request them if I am unsure if the artist does or does not do them. It saves them from having to do something completely over if something is amiss or particularly wrong or that I might just flat-out not like, so they can fix it before they go to ink and color (if they're doing ink and/or color). And I try to do the same for my customers, especially with larger peices, and always with real-money commissions. Although smaller things I tend not to- only because it is usually so easy and quick for me to get them done that if there is a problem and I do need to re-do it, it really isn't a big problem for me to have to do that.

XD Just to be clear I actually really do love artistic freedom. Because we all had the times where we're like UGHHH, this ____ is seriously ______ I wish I could change it slightly or something. But we stick it through because we weren't given artistic freedom for it. D:

I love it when people tell me to go crazy cause that means I get to experiment with the design a little and give them a nice surprise. It's just sucky I rarely get the freedom to do it though since I will only do it when I'm given permission first. xD

when i'm asking for people to do my characters i like that they use the EXACT color palette, and pay attention to the markings. like as long as it's completely obvious that it's their version of my character then that's fine.

and when i am being commissioned i like some freedom, but i enjoy having a detailed ref more so than like three guidelines. i think that stems from my insatiable need to please. XD

I give the artist complete artistic freedom ... although I think I rarely say that? xD;; OTL
It never springs to mind when I'm requesting something, I'm usually just uber excited about the commission I just spam them with possible characters xD

But yeah ... I like seeing the artists interpretation of the reference and that usually comes with the freedom. Also, I'm sure for an artist (and from what I've read above) having artistic license will give them a more enjoyable drawing experience. I cringe at the thought that they'd hate drawing my characters, I want it to be fun not a task!

I like giving artistic freedom to a certain degree. Adding little details to the clothes and stuff is totally cool with me... But when people change my character's colors, or decide not to draw important parts of their character, it really bothers me. It also bothers me a lot when people make my anthros into humans without asking if I'm okay with that. Or when they give my anthros snouts and stuff when they don't have those D;

I mean, I want them to make the character look their style, and how they see it... But I don't want them to like, totally change it up to the max.

This of course is void if I'm requesting HA art. In that case, artistic freedom away to the max plus ten. And then some. xD

Also, unless I'm designing something, I don't like when people request stuff without giving me some kind of reference .. It makes me feel like I'm not doing what they want. I once had someone ask me to draw CI of something, and I didn't know that their reference was an item on the site, so I drew something ENTIRELY different. But it wasn't my fault, they didn't give me a reference ..