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So I've reached the point that most people in this hobby reach at one point or another. I am considering getting in to commission painting.

Very early stages yet, obviously, would be looking to start small doing a few things here and there on top of my current job and get my name out there. Maybe one day in the future if it all works out I will start doing this more full-time, and long term goal would be to start building a network of painters to be able to take on more projects, more challenging projects and hopefully make some money in the process!

Right now though, I just want to gauge the standard I am currently able to paint. Below are a few pieces that I have completed more recently. (over the last year or so). My question is, would people pay for this standard of work? Is there even a market for this kind of work?

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

The quality is nice, but how.long does it take you to.get that quality?

 Flinty wrote:
The quality is nice, but how.long does it take you to.get that quality?

It does take a while, I'm not going to lie. But that's mostly because I only paint maybe once every two weeks for a couple of hours at a time. I think overall it would take maybe 10hrs each?

Based on Canadian minimum wage, how much would just your time cost? Then maybe check ebay to see what painted models are going for and see if you could compete.

There's a market for commission work of just about any standard. Some people will be happy to pay to have their models painted to a three-colour minimum tabletop standard just to make their army tournament legal. Some people want their army painted to a beautiful quality, and outsource it to a commission painter because they can't achieve the level they're after. Some people are in between. The major factors are going to be price and speed. How much will you charge to paint squad X to basic tabletop, how much to display quality, etc. It's easy to pluck a figure out of the air for this, but remember if you're considering moving towards doing this as a job you need to make a decent living from it. So you need to figure out what rate per hour you want to make, increase it a little to account for consumables (paints, brushes, primer etc.) and then estimate how long it takes you to do the job, multiply it up, and there's your price. Now ask yourself - would you pay that much to have somebody paint a model/squad to that standard? Are there people out there that would? How does it compare to other commission painters in your area? If the answers to those questions are positive, then it can work.Generally it'll work out favourably if you can paint whatever standard fast.

Also, it's worth considering the turning-a-hobby-into-a-job aspect of it. People might want to go into commission painting because they enjoy painting models, but if you're no longer painting your own models and you've got to meet deadlines and the expectations of picky customers - will it stop being enjoyable?

I wouldn't say the costs of painted models on ebay are a particularly good comparison. They're usually people selling their old models that they don't want any more, and the people buying them aren't paying specifically for the paintjob. In many cases they're going to want to throw the model in paint stripper the moment they get it. Even people who aren't really into painting and are happy to buy painted models will usually want them painted consistently, which you don't get by buying random lots of painted models on ebay.

How good you can paint a model isn't irrelevant, but what's far more relevant is how FAST you can do it.

I suggest you practice not on show models with fancy schemes (Eldar HQ and Harlequins) but on standard troopers - Space Marines, Eldar Guardians, Hormagaunts - and see how good you can do in a short period of time. Can you build and paint an entire squad of 10 Marines in 10 hours? If you can, then at minimum wage (11.50-15 CAD in Canada depending on province) that's still 115-150 CAD of work you're charging for ONE squad of Space Marines. And you can turn out 4 such squads in a 40 hour work week, or a couple squads a week in your spare time.

Someone ordering a commission will probably expect you to be able to turn out 2 squads (or vehicles) a week if you make it clear it's a spare time job. They understand it's not instantaneous, but they don't want to wait forever either. At that rate it's probably 2-3 months for a tournament grade army and you're only doing 4-6 commissions per year. If you can't manage this kind of speed, I wouldn't consider doing commission painting.

If you want to test the waters, you could also try the eBay route...or...paint stuff you believe is topical (prevalent, interesting, common, popular) and sell painted models on eBay directly without commissioning. If you paint well enough (and step up your photo game, as that's a large part of advertising yourself), you can determine yourself what sells...for how much...and if you think it's worth your time.

If you play the game, and keep your eye on the pulse of the game, you can easily pick out a character, or a super popular squad or model...paint it in the appropriate (most common) chapter/army/etc. and pop it up on eBay. Either via bids or fixed price. If no one touches it for a few months you're probably not in the right ballpark price-wise.

You can also sell them on facebook or Dakka to avoid the fees, but you'd have to build your reputation.

Depends? Do you want an enjoyable hobby to become a soul sucking drain on your time? Jk, some people clearly enjoy it, but personally I find having to conform to other people's ideas and guidelines in artistic ventures is just irritating.

I think your work on its own looks solid and if that's delivered as a finished product id be happy with it personally. But as mentioned you have to consider the: time+efficiency = $$$

I second the suggestions to ebay off some pieces to test the waters first. Maybe buy a couple SM/40k characters/AOS models that would be fairly quick to paint but looks impressive. Measure your efficiency and standard you can deliver set some deadlines etc.

If I was going down this route I would look at investing in some big pieces containing lots of textures, not a lot of small detail, and table top viability. Or character models that don't contain too much detail. They look impressive and hard to paint to a high standard but actually are not.

Some of the bits I've seen on ebay being sold as "pro painted" makes me feel like im Michael Angelo with my table top quality third rate paint jobs.... But I think the market is there. I know plenty of people that would rather pay someone to paint their stuff then do it themselves because they lack the time/skills/time & will to aquire the skills.

as someone that's gone down the path you're thinking about, I can offer you some of my own experiences..

I start off doing some local commissions, then apply and signed up with FLG as a painter, did work for them about a year, then part ways and do things on my own according to my schedule. my best patrons are local, one who became a good friend, he has a good job with money to spend, likes my style, and willing to pay for my asking price. He's no dummy, he has compared my product/price with some of the other painters he previously hired, and thinks its fair.

My advice for you is to start off doing local, then with a portfolio apply to a company so there will be a stream line of work for you OR do it on your own; keep in mind of the fee eBay(10%) and PayPal(3-4%) takes; the time you have available to paint(efficiency) to a relative set deadline. Keep improving your skills(modeling/magnetizing/conversion), don't be afraid to charge for extra work like painting white/yellow mainly colors or conversions. Be straight with the client, keep good communication throughout. When your skill level increase raise the prices; always do the best you can, don't settle for a fair job or your clients will notice.

Lastly I try to paint something of mine between commissions so that keep my motivations high, because its always easier to find a regular job and get the money, then paint your own minis, than painting minis as a job.

Sorry if this is OT, but your photos on the white background really don't do justice to your painting skills, as they're under-exposed. Your camera/phone is compensating for the white background by reducing the exposure, leaving the mini dark. With a white background you need higher exposure to adequately capture the model.

I've taken the liberty of running your first photo through some image manipulation to show something of what I mean. You'll get better results than this if you can manually adjust the exposure in-camera before the shot is taken, which could better help to market your work if you should decide to do commission painting.

I have done a form of "opportunity" commissions where the odd person I know will ask me to "help" and know my work.

Your painting is quite good and the extra details you add beyond what is molded on the model gives perceived value.

I also submit to my customer a copy of my written "plan" of what I used for paints for what areas.
Some of my clients like to paint character models but do not like the mass troop painting so I give them a "plan" to keep the look coherent.

Look at all the other services out there and look at their going rates.
At all boils down to tabletop standard, character standard and show-piece.

I have been commissioned for just the assembly and my usual magnetizing of the piece and removal of all mold lines and gaps filled (prep is #1 for the painting to look good), this is my preferred comfort zone.

The questions before are 100% spot-on: what do you want to be paid an hour and what is the going rate out there?
If you far exceed the go-ing rate, you have your answer.

If you wish to display your work, as suggested you need to be more mindful of the background, using or making a "light box" will help a great deal with this.
I think even GW has a how-to guide on taking pictures, ah, yes: found it:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/03/06/the-model-photo-how-to-photograph-models-for-display/

Anyway, I hope it all goes well.

Thank you all for your thoughts and advice. I may be about to be unemployed very shortly so I will hopefully be able to give it a go for a few months at least to decide if it's something I'd like to peruse.

Great advice from everyone, specifically regarding taking better photos and to potentially start ebaying more popular units.

I had a thought on that last point that there could be a gap in the market to build and paint full kill teams. For some teams (eg. space marines) you cannot necessarily build a competitive team using only one box. I could pick up a box of intercessors, reivers and tacticals to build, paint and sell kill teams with some variety (but without a buyer having to pick up all three boxes. I figure (in this example) those three boxes could yield 4 teams.

Thanks again everyone!

shelman wrote:
Thank you all for your thoughts and advice. I may be about to be unemployed very shortly so I will hopefully be able to give it a go for a few months at least to decide if it's something I'd like to peruse.

Great advice from everyone, specifically regarding taking better photos and to potentially start ebaying more popular units.

I had a thought on that last point that there could be a gap in the market to build and paint full kill teams. For some teams (eg. space marines) you cannot necessarily build a competitive team using only one box. I could pick up a box of intercessors, reivers and tacticals to build, paint and sell kill teams with some variety (but without a buyer having to pick up all three boxes. I figure (in this example) those three boxes could yield 4 teams.

Thanks again everyone!

I think there might be a market for that. Especially if you are good at magnetizing.

Then I think that is how I might start out. Aside from anything it's at least going to be fun for me to try painting different minis in different styles and practicing my magnetising, and I should at least be able to recoup the cost of materials if nothing else.

shelman wrote:
Then I think that is how I might start out. Aside from anything it's at least going to be fun for me to try painting different minis in different styles and practicing my magnetising, and I should at least be able to recoup the cost of materials if nothing else.

If worse comes to worse you might end up with a bunch of kill teams I guess

Lol that too... Risk free investment!