Well as most of you know I work on commissions most of my free time, some people appreciate the low prices and give out bonus payment which is extremely gratifying after you've spent a lot of time trying to get that commission to look just right. Others want to get commissioned work but they don't have the money to spend on that "luxury" Granted it can be seen as just that, a luxury but it also can be an investment. I watch a lot of artists on
Deviantart and I've noticed that some have been hired by the same person, which usually has an original character. Now here's the important part, since it's your character you're the owner of that intellectual property therefore you are free to do as you please but keep in mind that you should always ask the artist for his/her blessing before you go off selling the art.
Let's use my character
Sam Irons as an example. Let's say I don't have a lot of money on me (so true) but know that $10 is something I can afford on art, even if it is black and white only. I would then browse
deviantart for artists that charge that much (which believe it or not there are plenty good ones) I would go with my favorite first and keep the others on watch for when I get another $10. OK so I have selected my artist, the character belongs to me and I have a plan on how to make a profit off my commission. Basically I have different products in mind and there are sites like
Zazzle,
Lulu and
Cafepress that sell them for you. So you get the dimensions of the largest product you need and request the artist to do it that way or at least something close. Now you got your first commission of that character done, It looks great on a shirt but you know a Black and white drawing doesn't always make a good all around product, however your aim is to get enough art so you can make an artbook of your character. So you take the picture and save it somewhere on your computer where you'll keep adding commissions, name it so that you can easily identify it and make sure you have all the artist's info so you can give credit where credit is due.
OK let's skip ahead and say I have around 40 illustrations of my character by different artists. I need a cover for the book and a back cover image too and they have to be colored. I've already spent $40 on the illustrations alone now I need to spend more. Let's say you've already sold some of the products you've made and have gotten some of the money back, nice feeling huh. OK so you're willing to spend $60 more for both images, that means you could either go for a simple design for the back cover and use all $60 on high quality stuff for the cover or divide it in $40 for the front and $20 for the back. The front cover is what might sell your book. Since this is my hypothesis I would go with 2 artists for the cover and do something simple myself for the back. So I'm spending the whole $60 on the cover what should I do? well I have an artist in mind that has great drawing skills and charges $30 but no inks. That could be troublesome so I just add him to the list and keep looking. I find another one that does everything, pencils inks and colors for $60 but it's not as great as the first one so again I add him/her to the list and keep looking. I ran into some guy that does great colors for $30 so I sent him/her a note about the inks, if it matters or not. It happens that he/she paints over the lineart as if it was a painting so technically the lineart is lost. It's a gamble but looking at the artists galley I know it will turn out great so I hire my first choice for the art and then get the painter spending the $60 I had. The end result is great but I feel like I should showcase the lineart anyway so I used it for the back cover. I start then making sure all the pages are done correctly and that every artist has been credited. Now it's time to sell my book.
Lulu and
Comixpress are the best choices so use the one that suits you best and remember you can also add the digital download option. Selling your products at conventions (if you're lucky enough to live somewhere where they have them) is also a great thing.
Hope this gives you an idea of what you can do in the future with your commissioned work. One more thing, when you contact ther artists that did the illustrations let them know about the book, chances are they'll be the first ones to buy them as it counts as published material and it's great for the resume.
