I have offering custom art commissions to thank for a huge slice of my success as an artist, especially when it comes to income.
And throughout my years of offering them, it has been one of the burning questions I get from other artists – “how can I start taking custom art commissions too?”
Let’s start with the basics.
What Even Is A Custom Art Commission?
In a nutshell, it is you as the artist getting paid to create a unique, one-of-a-kind piece of artwork for a client or customer.
The details past that point are totally up to you. The possibilities are truly endless here.
Here are some of the neatest custom art offers I’ve seen in the past years:
- Custom paintings created during weddings (the coolest keepsake!)
- Portraits of beloved pets that have crossed the Rainbow Bridge
- Custom painted denim jackets
- Dreamy illustrations of your childhood or first home
Due to the custom nature of this type of artwork, it typically fetches a higher price, which can be a very attractive quality to artists.
And one of my other favorite things about custom artwork is that it has the tendency to produce the most powerful positive word-of-mouth marketing.
Happy clients that are absolutely ecstatic about their unique piece of artwork are almost guaranteed to shout your praise from the rooftops, bringing in new excited clients.
Big win!
How Offering Custom Art Made Me $1000+ Per Month
I have custom art commissions to thank for a huge portion of my success as an artist.
I’ve been taking custom commissions for about 15 years, and when I first decided to start taking them more seriously, I found myself quickly making an extra $1000+ in art sales per month.
And around holidays like Christmas, that number would often double or triple.
There was another quirky little thing I noticed once I really started to get into the flow of creating custom artwork – the more custom art I created, the more people I had asking me to create them.
Happy customers and clients would excitedly share their brand new one-of-a-kind piece of artwork with their friends and family, and quickly I would have a handful of new faces asking for artwork of their own.
And throughout this entire experience of working with clients to produce their perfect unique piece of art, I developed a system that worked for me.
This allowed me to confidently move into each new project, without the fear of not knowing what to do, how to deal with clients or being scared that they wouldn’t like the artwork.
I developed a system that was based on past experience of working with those clients, and as a result I found myself earning more and more from this custom work, while making the process more easy and consistent.
These days I am much more selective about the custom commissions I will take, and I charge a much higher rate than I used to.
It’s been a powerful journey, and one that can bring success for a lot of artists.
Which leads me to the last topic of the day…
Is Offering Custom Artwork Right For You?
Like everything in life, offering custom artwork is not a right fit for every artist.
But if you’re starting to think that this might be a good option for you, then I have 3 simple questions that you can answer to see if custom art is the right move for you.
#1: Do you enjoy working with people?
While you don’t have to be your client’s best friend, being able to communicate clearly and openly with clients and customers is an essential.
Thankfully it is also a learned skill, and you will develop methods of communication that are a great fit for both you and your future clients.
Not to mention you can develop frameworks and templates that make it as easy as a copy-paste with some small adjustments to have clear and concise communication with your clients.
#2: Are you passionate about the subjects you create art of?
Once you start offering custom artwork, be prepared to start creating a LOT more artwork of the subjects you offer, so it’s incredibly important to make sure that it is something you enjoy.
Maybe you’ve created family portraits in the past and you’ve enjoyed it, but you truly LOVED painting the cute little faces of the dogs and cats that belong to the family.
So rather than offering custom artwork that includes human family members, focus on the thing you love creating artwork of – pets!
#3: Are you able to maintain an art schedule or stick to timeframes?
One aspect of creating custom artwork for clients is that you will have to give them an estimation for how long it will take to have the artwork completed.
Once you communicate that timeline to your client, you need to do your best to actually stick to that timeline.
If you only get a few short hours to create art each week, then don’t tell your client that the artwork will be done within a few days.
You get to set your own timelines. Give yourself a bit of wiggle room so that you have space to create the artwork without struggle (life is crazy and unpredictable!), and so you don’t have to disappoint a client by finishing the artwork past the agreed upon deadline.
—
So are you now considering offering custom artwork commissions?
While they aren’t a perfect fit for all artists, they can be absolutely magical for others.
Want to take an even bigger flying leap towards your (inevitable) success as an artist?
Watch my FREE masterclass training, Scale Your Art Sales.
It’s the online class for beginner artists that are filled with a fiery creative passion, and want to grow an audience online that actually want to BUY their artwork.
