-NOTE: Only asking, I am not selling in this tread-

I didn't even hit send, and it sent anyway, so I'll roll with it! Basically I'm an artist, and despite trying to offer commissions multiple times, I've never been commissioned (even when I was losing my home). I think I have okay art (Personal art at the bottom), and I'm really open to prices. Are there any tips or tricks to convincing people to commission you?

My art (I know the anatomy is off, I don't need to reminded, please):

Example

Example

When I wanted to sell art, I made a freebie thread first, doing 3 to 8 or more quick drawings, showing how my style would look like, maybe also asking, how much they would pay for it. Like that I also got a rough idea how much it was worth. Also posting my ping group and tell them if they want to, they could join, for open slots, more freebies and stuff :)

Afterwards I opened I selling thread, opened a few slots and got commissioned.

Thats how it worked a few years ago at least ^^"

I think the more people have seen your art, the more are willing to pay for commissions, so doing freebie stuff at first may be a good start, but also posting on "wanting to buy art" threads could help

Examples are often the make or break for people when they commission you. I know I personally will refrain from commissioning someone if they have less than three examples of each of the things they're offering if they vary greatly from their main gallery. (so for example if you are offering realistic art and the rest of your gallery is very cartoon styled, but you only have one example of the realistic art, I wouldn't be looking to commission you)

Not only do examples help show people what your artwork looks like in general, but they also help people see "oh well this character is a little like mine, so I bet this artist could draw mine." which is why I also suggest variety within the examples. Drawing 3 cute looking feminine characters only gets you more characters with cute feminine features. But if you have a masculine character, or something beastly or evil looking, you've gotten a leg on those audiences as well.

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Also in regards to the post above, your examples do not have to be freebies should you not desire to give artwork out for free. That said, I personally like to offer freebies when I maybe don't have a character that fits the example I want to make~! You can always be very specific with what kind of character you're looking to do a freebie of and only do what interests you the most, since it is free after all.

[edit] Also, as tempting as it is, I often suggest avoiding putting your personal life into your commission board when asking for people to commission you. Things like "Emergency!" can sometimes work, but at the same time if you've ever read places like Artists_Beware over on Live Journal, you'll see a lot of people have had really bad experiences with people who do emergency commissions (not all of them of course) and that they avoid people who do things like that to avoid negative situations happening again.

I don't plan on doing commissions on Subeta, I was curious if there was a secret to artists getting commissions that I just didn't know. I've actually tried the "do art for free and people might commission you" thing, and even then no one wanted to commission me. And Mesmer I don't include personal information, the losing-my-house thing was a special circumstance.

It may help you to say where you're selling from then, as different places have different methods of gaining a following.

I mostly post art through Tumblr and DeviantART (mostly Tumblr), so that's where I would be taking commissions. When I asked on both of those places, I got the same advice of "Do art for free first". It's good advice, it really it, but after 7 years of offering free art, and opening commissions, it doesn't seem to work for me.

The free art thing doesn't really help on massive sites like those. It does here where the userbase is small, but there not so much. Honestly what I would suggest is still working on more examples, and then also working on stuff that's fan art of things you like. People look up fandom related stuff a lot more often than misc type artwork, so it could help you get a bigger following and more exposure.

I'm not in any fandoms is the problem. And all the massive fandoms that do seem to have artists making money are of shows/books/etc I don't like. When I was in fandoms it didn't help either. When I did fan art, people didn't care, when I offered free art I got backed-up in requests, but when I stopped freebies and opened commissions I wouldn't have people even looking at my art after that.

Unfortunately, with artwork you simply have to keep trying new things. If those places aren't working for you, maybe try somewhere else. I know I personally never got any interest on Deviantart when I was there years ago. It's why I rarely update my page at this point. :X

Are there any places you could recommend? I'm not super interested in trying Subeta. because I need real money, but sending physical work scares me, because I don't want people having my address.

Sorry. :X Asking on Subeta, you're probably going to get a lot of Subeta themed advice, since this place has an art market. Hopefully someone else can help you.

Well when I've asked other places I've always gotten the same advice, so I guess I just cant do commissions.

As someone who has purchased art in various mediums and for fair amounts of money at times, I can offer some advice on what a buyer is looking for.

1. You need way more than 2 examples. I saw you mention that you've done art on both Tumblr and DeviantArt - but I don't see links to either of those places that show your examples on this thread, nor did I see them on your profile when I checked. If I cannot find your examples, I'm not going to commission you. Two is far too few for me to get an idea of your style.

2. Using examples with anatomy issues is probably not in your best interests. If you can do the anatomy correctly, make some examples of characters with the right proportions. If you can't, you may need to work more on your skills or adjust your style to something that is less realistic in nature.

3. Offering examples in a variety of body types, genders, sexes, styles, etc goes a long way. If I'm looking for art for a masculine OC and all I see are feminine examples, I'm going to assume you don't do masculine characters.

4. Offer more than just full bodies. Sometimes all someone needs is a bust. Or a waist up. Having examples in those as well not only gives you another foot into the market, but it allows you to show more detailed art.

The biggest thing is going to be providing examples that show off the skills you've learned and honed. You absolutely need to have more examples to show people and you need to have links to your existing pool of completed art (you mentioned above you've done a lot of free commissions but you didn't offer any links to where someone could see them).

Whether or not you offer commissions on Subeta, this is something that should be standard for you. On your tumblr commission posts, you need to show examples of your art, but also link to either additional posts with more examples or to your DeviantArt where you store the older examples. Same thing on DeviantArt - if you only have 2 examples uploaded, you're not going to attract commissions (by the by, you can offer commissions for USD here on Subeta should you choose - you just must /also/ offer at least one slot for either sP or CSC, as per the site rules, and it has to be a real slot for one of those currencies in which you accept commissions for one of those site currencies once in awhile).

Im not in the industry, but I've heard: furries. Furries are where the work is. You wanna make $$ go check out furaffinity or such. There's a running joke that goes something like: Draw fanart to get attention, draw OCs to stay interested, draw furries to put food on the table.