I was unacquainted with the commissions system until I joined LJ, really. That is - I know that before photography, rich and influential people used to commission their portraits from painters, and I am familiar with classical patronage and such, but I wasn't aware there was something popular and similar in fandom :D. I still find it odd myself. For me, buying art is about going someplace where finished pictures are on display, and when you see one that you love very much, you ask the price, barter a bit, and buy it if you think you can't live without it. But to seek out an artist and ask them to make something specific for me - it had never crossed my mind, and now that I know about it, I think I still wouldn't do it :D. Not that there's anything wrong with it, mind; it's just -
Your commission was basically that: you saw a sketch and an idea that you liked; it was there already and you paid me to finish it. It's not the same as when you would have walked up to me and said, "I have such and such an idea in my head, would you please picture it for me?", which seems to be what most people expect to do. Basically what someone who commissions wants is their mental imaged transferred onto paper by someone else in apparently as accurate a way as possible. That's where I become slightly nervous, because I'm not sure I can live up to that.
I put in the "more interested in the style than in the subject / more interested in the subject than in the style" question because I had a sneaking suspicion that people who commission fanart care more about what's in the picture than about how it looks. Me, I'd be the opposite. If I am proud about anything when drawing, it is about how I depict something more than about what I depict - like my writing, actually :D. I'm also much more inclined to like/love/buy something because it's the work of a particular artist than because it depicts a specific subject that I happen to like, though a combination of both would of course be ideal :).
I'm probably too serious again, as usual; but the poll results do show that my basic attitude towards art is very different from that of most people who consider commissioning me, and I find that very interesting.
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winterfish
no subject
Date: Saturday, 5 August 2006 12:13 pm (UTC)Your commission was basically that: you saw a sketch and an idea that you liked; it was there already and you paid me to finish it. It's not the same as when you would have walked up to me and said, "I have such and such an idea in my head, would you please picture it for me?", which seems to be what most people expect to do. Basically what someone who commissions wants is their mental imaged transferred onto paper by someone else in apparently as accurate a way as possible. That's where I become slightly nervous, because I'm not sure I can live up to that.
I put in the "more interested in the style than in the subject / more interested in the subject than in the style" question because I had a sneaking suspicion that people who commission fanart care more about what's in the picture than about how it looks. Me, I'd be the opposite. If I am proud about anything when drawing, it is about how I depict something more than about what I depict - like my writing, actually :D. I'm also much more inclined to like/love/buy something because it's the work of a particular artist than because it depicts a specific subject that I happen to like, though a combination of both would of course be ideal :).
I'm probably too serious again, as usual; but the poll results do show that my basic attitude towards art is very different from that of most people who consider commissioning me, and I find that very interesting.