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Kinda curious about this, there are the 'obvious' pro's that commissioning requires shelling out a good amount, but im curious about those commission painter/modellers that fill the gap. at what point or even how do/would you go about deciding if your painted work is good enough to vend your painting skills as a commissioner? With the exception of some major pro's, some of the commission painters I have seen I think I could fairly safely say "I could paint that" but could never see myself having the confidence and idea to go into doing commissions for people if I hadn't seen some other peoples works already.

Guess I'm curious on when you decide your good enough? What kind of requirements do you see there as being before someone should call themselves a commission painter and vend there talents as well as whats involved in doing so? Some people I see have websites while others work from forums like these, others even have buisness and ques marked up for the year to come I'm just really curious about it all xD as like I said for some of what is done I can say that "I could paint that" but still don't really know of the requirements or whats involved, any opinions?

Hoping this is in the right place also xD If its not please move it ty ^^;

When you no longer desire to get a real job and earn real money and would rather get a pittance of that commission painting instead

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
When you no longer desire to get a real job and earn real money and would rather get a pittance of that commission painting instead

Yep.

I started about three years ago for locals as a way to make extra money and started doing internet based stuff not too long after. The big thing to me was to be affordable - since my skills are not up to GMM or Nuke Arts levels, I didn't charge too much at first. I wasn't really particularly good when I started, but people were willing to pay me for the work, so I just went around advertising and building clients and boom, it became a part-time job.

Nowadays, I warn people away. Its hard to compete and over-saturation is an issue. If you want to paint for locals, that is fine, but the internet painting services are in abundance now and the quality is staggering (see my prior examples, for instance). However, I am a bit jaded I suppose and in the process of painting, it has sapped my want to paint my own projects and the commitment to deadlines is extremely stressful.

Oh yea, if you are not fast, don't bother. Speed counts for a lot, as well as quality. I noticed I am just too slow compared to most other studio painters, so I am going to take a hiatus and hone my skills before I come back to the commission biz.

Just my thoughts on the issue... not sure if they are relevant at all.

I don't see why it would require you giving up your real job xD

 Sasa0mg wrote:
I don't see why it would require you giving up your real job xD

It doesn't - I held a steady 40hr salary job for most of the time I have painted. But it is good to bolster the income or, if you are good enough, act as a primary source.

There are 2 types of commission painters:
Display painters
Tabletop painters

Display painters rarely do large orders. Most times it is single models or units. As such, the price per model is rather high, as is the time spent painting.

Tabletop painters do large orders, entire armies at a time. Since the order is larger, the price per model goes down, as well as the time spent painting per model.

It isn't difficult to become a tabletop commission painter, but it isn't all fun and games. It is tedious, and generally low paying. You will stop enjoying painting rather quick with this.

A display painter needs some major examples of their previous work to get top paying orders. These people make hundreds of dollars on single models.

In all honesty, commission painting isn't a good career choice if you aren't a display painter. It is a ton of tedious work, and many people get burned out on it.

That said, there are many variations of what people consider "tabletop" standard. Show some of your work here and the community in general will give their opinion on if they would pay for it.

 em_en_oh_pee wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
When you no longer desire to get a real job and earn real money and would rather get a pittance of that commission painting instead

Yep.

I started about three years ago for locals as a way to make extra money and started doing internet based stuff not too long after. The big thing to me was to be affordable - since my skills are not up to GMM or Nuke Arts levels, I didn't charge too much at first. I wasn't really particularly good when I started, but people were willing to pay me for the work, so I just went around advertising and building clients and boom, it became a part-time job.

Nowadays, I warn people away. Its hard to compete and over-saturation is an issue. If you want to paint for locals, that is fine, but the internet painting services are in abundance now and the quality is staggering (see my prior examples, for instance). However, I am a bit jaded I suppose and in the process of painting, it has sapped my want to paint my own projects and the commitment to deadlines is extremely stressful.

Oh yea, if you are not fast, don't bother. Speed counts for a lot, as well as quality. I noticed I am just too slow compared to most other studio painters, so I am going to take a hiatus and hone my skills before I come back to the commission biz.

Just my thoughts on the issue... not sure if they are relevant at all.

Yeah its relevant xD I can easily see why you would be less inclined to paint your own minis after also having it as a part time job, if I personally were to go into it, would literally just be part time I don't think it could ever be anything else xD
And yeah I have seen the staggering of actual painting quality, its probably why im so curious about this. I lack motivation usually for painting, my own projects require a lot of customization ordering of individual parts, unique bases and preparation stuff like that, I imagine even though you might not be wanting to paint your own stuff so much it would get you to do painting either way and without the same personal need for things to be how you would want them to be as such? A person commissioning you would provide you with what they want and you would pain it and that would be that?

Also could you expand on saturation? I don't see thaaat much from within the UK, at least the south east especially that isn't a big studio type deal that is fairly expensive by comparison to some of the cheaper US painters I see.


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I lack any decent way of providing decent pictures myself xD best I can personally take at the moment is some picture of them amidst my paints on a desktop in some awkward lighting xD

I might try that though, I would just need to get something more fitted for taking those high quality pictures?

 Sasa0mg wrote:

 em_en_oh_pee wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
When you no longer desire to get a real job and earn real money and would rather get a pittance of that commission painting instead

Yep.

I started about three years ago for locals as a way to make extra money and started doing internet based stuff not too long after. The big thing to me was to be affordable - since my skills are not up to GMM or Nuke Arts levels, I didn't charge too much at first. I wasn't really particularly good when I started, but people were willing to pay me for the work, so I just went around advertising and building clients and boom, it became a part-time job.

Nowadays, I warn people away. Its hard to compete and over-saturation is an issue. If you want to paint for locals, that is fine, but the internet painting services are in abundance now and the quality is staggering (see my prior examples, for instance). However, I am a bit jaded I suppose and in the process of painting, it has sapped my want to paint my own projects and the commitment to deadlines is extremely stressful.

Oh yea, if you are not fast, don't bother. Speed counts for a lot, as well as quality. I noticed I am just too slow compared to most other studio painters, so I am going to take a hiatus and hone my skills before I come back to the commission biz.

Just my thoughts on the issue... not sure if they are relevant at all.

Yeah its relevant xD I can easily see why you would be less inclined to paint your own minis after also having it as a part time job, if I personally were to go into it, would literally just be part time I don't think it could ever be anything else xD
And yeah I have seen the staggering of actual painting quality, its probably why im so curious about this. I lack motivation usually for painting, my own projects require a lot of customization ordering of individual parts, unique bases and preparation stuff like that, I imagine even though you might not be wanting to paint your own stuff so much it would get you to do painting either way and without the same personal need for things to be how you would want them to be as such? A person commissioning you would provide you with what they want and you would pain it and that would be that?

Also could you expand on saturation? I don't see thaaat much from within the UK, at least the south east especially that isn't a big studio type deal that is fairly expensive by comparison to some of the cheaper US painters I see.

I actually have the same need for customization and stuff for the commissions I work on and often tell clients that unless they have very specific needs, I will take some artistic license (within the constraints of the canon) and make stuff look dynamic and interesting. That is just me though and is one of the few ways I found to ensure each commission is at least somewhat rewarding, as opposed to a complete drudgery.

As for saturation, I am speaking of the US. We have a plethora of painters in the States and I think with the big names and the small timers, the bases are covered and more will just drive prices down further, which the job cannot afford. It already pays a wage far below minimum wage standards. However, in the UK, I am not sure of many (or really any) painting studios and whatnot. So, if you know your market isn't over-saturated, I say go for it, but just keep in mind all the negatives and try not to burn yourself out too fast.


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 Aerethan wrote:
There are 2 types of commission painters:
Display painters
Tabletop painters

Indeed. If I can get good enough, I want to shift from tabletop to display. You can make a lot of money and have a more rewarding painting experience that way, I feel. Doing in-demand models to a super-high quality and putting them on the Swap Shop, Bartertown, or eBay will net some good money and keep the burnout to a minimum due to variety of work.

Also, one last note - be sure you take more than just 40K commissions or you will spend years painting nothing but Space Marines.

Well I actually asked this same question off a guy who does commission sculpting and painting.

His advice

First, get a light box or make one by folding 3 sheets of white A4 into squares and taping them into two walls and a floor
Get a desklamp and preferably a daylight bulb and shine it on the back of the box
Get a good camera or learn the one you have (Macro settings and stuff)
Take the best pics you can, put them on Coolminiornot.com and waiting for votes
6-7 is ok but needs work. Might get some but only exceedingly cheap and sparse
7-8 is commission time. Without a reputation you would need to undercut everyone pricewise. By a good amount, talking maybe £7 or more
8+ is when you make the big bucks (or what in that profession is big bucks).

His advice was a simple test. Take a normal Tac squad, painting them to the best of your ability, including as many "advanced" techniques such as Wet Blending, OSL, Weathering, stuff like that, put them on Ebay. If you make your money back then you can consider it, if not then keep trying, get better, couple months down the line put a better paintjob on ebay and see what happens.

His biggest advice was not to make a living out of it unless you are a seriously awesome paint (GD level or higher?) or capable of bring something extra to the table. This guy was saying that there are a lot of Commission painters out there, and he brings something else other than phenomenol painting skills and that is that he is also a sculpter which is where most of his buisness comes from. So what he/I'm saying is that if you can sculpt, cast your own models or can do a particular thing very well (weathering or battledamage or realistic faces/eyes) then that will only benefit you.


Hope this helps.


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Also, some other things he mentioned.

1- Don't try and overexhaust yourself. Don't take on too many jobs and set a realistic timeframe. If someone says "Can I have a full 4000pts IG foot army by next week?", for goodness sake don'tadd it to the list underneath the 2k Green tide and Termagant Swarms thats due in 2 days!
2-Be honest, with yourself and others. Don't try something you aren't comfortable with. If you don't feel capable of painting White Sacrs or human faces or OSL or something, turn around and tell the bloke. He'll appreciate it, cuz you won't feth up his plastic men, and you'll appreciate it, because he'll know you're a good bloke and tell his friends your paint for money and tell you to go somewhere better if he can't do the job. Rather than saying your a lousy b***** who wrecks other guys stuff and takes their money.


And something from me!

Alway, always, ALWAYS keep well stocked. The last thing you need is to run out of glue or paint or to have a crappy brush halfway through a job. Keep at least two pots of the chosen colours for the current job, maybe three if its a particularly big job (multiple large models, lots of soldiers) and keep brushes well tended. Keep clippers and knives sharpish, glue should be kept same as paints.


You would also need a fair bit of money to start it, to buy the models for the clientel (or pay for shipping if they send ready built models) and to pay for shipping to them (unless you charge for that) and also boxes or containers.

Good idea about the cool mini thing I hadn't thought about getting my stuff voted on xD, I only have some now -older stuff to put up there but it seems like a decent enough place to start, Ill have to throw that in my sig.

And yeah I can imagine needing to have like, backups of backups in regards to equipment and paints but id like to think there be some more preparation time for that.

I don't think I could ever plan to make a living out of it, but the idea of making some extra money here and there from it is rather appealing, the idea at least.

Always make the clients pay for models. Or else you can get screwed.

When you can paint really good eyes then you are ready to be doing commission work! In fact that's the only thing your commission work should consist of... just painting really good eyes.

The CMON voting thingamajig might help you gauge your skill but I really think local demand/interest might help you figure out if you're ready. Start there and then eventually widen your radius... go to the next city/community and try to see if you can gauge interest there.

Personally, I've considered doing commission painting... it would be mostly just tabletop standard... I'm no display painter.

If I were a little better at painting... if my work space wasn't always being invaded by cats... if I had the room to work... and if there weren't already a local guy with a commission business... I'd probably give it a shot.

 djphranq wrote:
When you can paint really good Space Marine eyes then you are ready to be doing commission work!

Fixed that for you.

I wouldn't bother limiting yourself to local work; the internet is where it's at.

 Sasa0mg wrote:
Kinda curious about this, there are the 'obvious' pro's that commissioning requires shelling out a good amount, but im curious about those commission painter/modellers that fill the gap. at what point or even how do/would you go about deciding if your painted work is good enough to vend your painting skills as a commissioner?

I would say a good way to tell is if people are asking you to paint for them, or you can sell a painted unit on Ebay for MORE than the model cost. As soon as people are ready to pay for your work, even if it's a small bit, you are ready to start selling and working on improving.

With the exception of some major pro's, some of the commission painters I have seen I think I could fairly safely say "I could paint that" but could never see myself having the confidence and idea to go into doing commissions for people if I hadn't seen some other peoples works already.

There is a super huge market for tabletop standard work out there, I'd say I put out 2/3 of my work as tabletop because that is what is requested. If you decide to take up commission painting you are going to be doing a LOT of tabletop work, so it's pretty important that you get a little niche going for that standard, wether it's in price, overall quality, or offering little extras with them like painting the command model of a squad up to slightly higher standard. Your tabletop work is going to do the most selling for you untill you start improving display quality, so being confident with TT is super important

Guess I'm curious on when you decide your good enough? What kind of requirements do you see there as being before someone should call themselves a commission painter and vend there talents as well as whats involved in doing so? Some people I see have websites while others work from forums like these, others even have buisness and ques marked up for the year to come I'm just really curious about it all xD as like I said for some of what is done I can say that "I could paint that" but still don't really know of the requirements or whats involved, any opinions?

I would say make a decent portfolio of painted work, set up a competitive price list, and try and show you are serious about it by putting in the effort to make a website, facebook, tumblr etc, getting your name out is very important. Work from a lot of places, not just one. My requests come in from all the social medias I use, not just Dakka, and it can really help you reach new customers. Don't be afraid to start off small and cheap too, it's a good way to get your first few commissions and get some positive feedback to display. Feedback is incredibly important when it comes to being trusted and chosen by new customers, it really is!

Also, don't worry if it goes slow for the first while. Building up a portfolio, feedback, and popularity takes a while. Just stay positive and happy with the work you get I'm a middleman in your example, I can't command €300 for a single fig or get amazing GD requests like Winterdyne because I'm just not good enough yet. But I don't mind, because I'm working towards it as a goal and know I will get there one day. Just take it easy and don't worry if your first year is nothing but tabletop units. That's fine, it's still all great additions to your work portfolio and feedback

Wouldn't say I was better in any way than most of the stuff you do Ifalna. Just lucky to have a crazy ass client that thought my insane gibbering about a titan was fun...

One thing that's important though, is keeping the clients happy, keeping your image positive (so be friendly, be helpful, even if it's not a sale/booking) and generally keeping up your profile around the interwebs. That clients know who you are, where you are and that you're not pulling a fast one or going to burn out on them is really important.

Thanks for all the feed back on this its really interesting to see what you guys that are actually already doing it have to say about it all.

I am now working on my own personal stuff I suppose I can use that as a sort-of portfolio as well.
I can paint space marine eyes too! things are looking up XD! j/k

I dunno I see the opportunity as a positive way to make some side money while progressing my own painting skills and gaining a motivation to paint things I usually wouldn't given in regards to even my own stuff because there's no real urgency lazyness kicks in.

I think gauging community interest at this moment is difficult as when I switched community I basically went off the radar in regards to my local community even the new one but I think I understand the importance of everything your responding.

It's just the idea of doing commission work really interesting to me for a fairly wide variety of reasons personally.

if my work space wasn't always being invaded by cats... if I had the room to work... and if there weren't already a local guy with a commission business... I'd probably give it a shot.

I do suffer from this as well xD personally I have a tiny tiny desk and no real space for proper storage so if I were to go for this myself personally I would need to alter a lot in regards to current conditions xD

Looking at CMON, a couple of things.

1) This is tabletop level work. A single model like this will pull a 5, 5..5. A group of 20 all to the same standard, with the basing tweaked a bit (some static grass, a movement tray to match) should pull a 6.5.

2) Push the contrast a little bit. Sharpen up the highlights on things like the skulls on the ground; they're a bit muddy and indistinct right now. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes, and makes the whole thing look better.

3) Don't bother putting a title in the image. You may want your own logo or something in a botttom corner.

I supose your good enough as soon as some one ask if you do it?

winterdyne wrote:
Looking at CMON, a couple of things.

1) This is tabletop level work. A single model like this will pull a 5, 5..5. A group of 20 all to the same standard, with the basing tweaked a bit (some static grass, a movement tray to match) should pull a 6.5.

2) Push the contrast a little bit. Sharpen up the highlights on things like the skulls on the ground; they're a bit muddy and indistinct right now. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes, and makes the whole thing look better.

3) Don't bother putting a title in the image. You may want your own logo or something in a botttom corner.

Yeah, I'm still working on building up bolder highlights, my newer work features more of that though as well as more advanced techniques, one of the biggest issues I have is lighting xD, title was there before hand again its an old image these werent meant for portfolio or anything merely put them up there as response to feed back here to have some of my older stuff I have pictures of evaluated.

Tabletop level sounds decent enough a place to start though! ty for your feed back xD It's nice to have someone who does work such as you to give constructive feedback in relation to this :3 like everything here I'm keeping it all in mind when considering the future!


As far as people ask me to do it, I have 'a' friend who wants me to paint stuff, though im still doing my own and the fact he has a toooon of stuff, I will help him paint it mind as hes my friend but generally I don't know many people and live in sort-of backwater town where the nearest GW is a 45minute train journey lol.

The real truth is it's not up to you to make that determination. It's up to the market.

Your miniatures might look like you attacked them with a Q-tip, but if someone likes the look, you'll get a commission.

The best way to go is to put some miniatures up for display here on Dakka and elsewhere, and show off your skills.

One thing to consider, and this is expensive, is to go and buy models, bigger ones. (I hope you spent on the reaper kickstarter) and then paint those up, and sell them off locally to whoever's looking for pretty things to look at on their shelf. There was a lot of diorama material in that KS, but it might be something to consider, instead of doing commision work, just build up an inventory of one-off pieces, or collections, for locals to put on their shelf.

or do high quality terrain? Prepare tables for your FLGSs, and provide price tags, let the LGS claim a portion for handling the sale and having it at their store. I find that decent terrain is pretty hard to come by on many many many tables, being that I've only seen decent effort for terrain at an LGS.

When do you decide your painting is good enough to do commission based work?

When someone see's your work and is so impressed that they ask if your accepting commision work.