What's that, Furcadia?

I’ve Debuted a new website; it’s called the Furcadia Art Board. It’s an Oekaki board meant for artists to share their artwork. I hope you, the Furcadians, enjoy it. #SB

Feel free to use’em however ya want. The first two are in Furcadia’s pallet; the third one is not.

Here are a few tips and ideas to help artists get fair compensation. These are steps to be taken with careful consideration, of course. If webspace is required to implement some of these, then it will be provided free of charge. These won’t work for everyone, and they require some hard work on the part of the artist, but if you’ve got an artist friend who is down about how much they’re getting for commissions or their art, point them here.

It might help.

• The top tip is to have manners. Saying “Please” and “Thank you”, and in general just being courteous will get you a lot of repeat business. Remember, you’re offering a service. “The customer is always right” is one of the best mottoes you could have, so long as you’re not being walked on.
• Get a paypal account. This is the best/fastest/safest way for you to get money. Accepting snail mail is fine, but if you can, get them to use paypal. There’s less of a chance for a mixup. (Or a scam.)
• Do some freebie work. Not commission-grade material, mind you, but definitely put up, say, a free item or two, or maybe a canine or feline male/female/unspecified port set for use in different dreams. Why? Because people will view your content more if there’s free stuff for them to have. (It happens.) and the more they visit your site, the more likely they are to buy something from you, (if they’re the type that buys things,) or drive other people to your site. Just remember to state explicitly whether or not you allow changes, and that you require credit. A good way to get credit easier is to include this with every freebie:

(0:9) When a furre arrives in the dream, (5:200) emit message {Say !credits to see a list of the artists who allowed their artwork to be included.} to the triggering furre. (0:31) When a furre says {!credits}, (5:200) emit message {<Your name here + whatever patches/ports you did.>} to the triggering furre.

Obviously you’ll be replacing <Your name Here + whatever patches/ports you did> with your name and the patches/ports that are being downloaded, with copyright date and such.

• Don’t be afraid to cancel a commission if someone is being a jerk to you. If they fronted you part of the money, refund it to them and be done with them. You don’t need, or deserve, to be harassed just because someone is paying you. Have some pride.
• Don’t be afraid to auction off your art. Set a starting price, and an auto-buy price, and let people go at it. Be prepared for the port not to sell if you set the price too high. The idea here is to start low, (Way less than standard commission prices,) and go up. (Buyout price being above normal commission price.).
• When pricing your artwork, put your pride on the back shelf. It’s good to be proud of your work, but sometimes it blinds people to reality. (Especially artists; no offense.) Get a wide sampling of how people think of your work, and what it’s worth. Remember, other artists might be telling you to ‘price it high’ because they want commissions too, so look at the people who get commissions a lot for an estimation of how much it’s worth to them. You’re in a competitive field, so you probably won’t get minimum wage for the hours you put into work. As always, be respectful.
• Have a portfolio showing a wide array of what you can do. People who can show that they have experience, (and a lot of it at that,) are more likely to get a commission. They show that the artist can handle a big job and will be a professional about it.
• Watermark anything you show to other people on the Internet. If you don’t, it will get stolen. A watermark should be subtle, but visible. (Think translucent so that it’s harder to pull out.) and across a good part of the image, (like the shoulder or body, or across a good portion of the item) and not over the background so that it is harder for them to steal it.
  • Put up items that are pay-to-download. Using paypal, this is simple. Here are some directions:
  • Log into Paypal.
  • Click “Products And Services”.
  • Click “Website Payments Standard” on the right-hand column.
  • Click the “Accept Contributions” link under the “Donate” button.
  • Read through what it says, and then click “Get Donation Buttons”.
  • Fill out the form with information about what you’re getting a donation for. (IE which artwork.)
  • Put a minimum amount you want for the item. (I suggest $.50 cents to $1.00 for an item pack, and $3.00 to $5.00 for a 3 character portrait set.)
  • Pick a button. (Or make your own.)
  • Choose whether or not you want it to be encrypted.
  • Press the “Add more options”
  • Fill in the website with a link to a page that tells people how to download the patch files. (Or how they’ll get them, if you want to e-mail.) Remember to follow PayPal’s rules about this.
  • Press the “Create Button Now” button.

You’ll get some code that you’ll need to put into a website; I suggest doing so beneath the item you’re trying to sell. It gives them the option to ‘buy now’, as it were.

You can use this website template for your website/portfolio. (Pre-setup for use with ports/items/freebies and commission slots, including mouse-over links to larger preview images.)

Remember, these are just guidelines. They’re not concrete, they won’t work for everyone. If you have any feedback, or other tips that you might find of interest to artists.

I would rather this not turn into a discussion about “How artists are unappreciated” or something. This is specifically to make life for artists easier.

This has been mentioned before, but sometimes you need a little extra music for certain dreams. If you’re looking for some neat sound effects, you can head on over to another sub-site of mine at this address to score some free, small midi files that you can use in any Furcadia dream.

Commissions Corner is a new feature on What’s That, Furcadia?.

We’re looking at helping artists, dreamweavers, story writers and continuity creators looking to get an edge in on commissions. There are various different types of people out there, both well known and unknown that deserve commissions. What’s That, Furcadia? is striving to expand the market by giving everyone a free chance at getting decent commissions from people.

The first spotlight is from Luvable.

She’s a dreamweaver looking for commissions from Furcadia players.

She’s best at weaving small villages/thorps/hamlets, but enjoys branching out into the area of Large homes/Castles/Manors and the like. She can do modern ships and towns, as well, but prefers to stick with oriental and medieval style dreams; in her words, "It’s what I’m best at!".

She’ll add in custom patches, (drawn by her!) for a small additional charge, depending on the complexity.

The price for a dream ranges between 6 and 9 dollars/dragonscales. She willingly accepts accepts portrait spaces too. For more complex dreams, you’ll need to contact her directly for a specific quote.

For an example of one dream she has done, you can go here.

If you’d like to contact her about getting a commission done, you may contact her in-game on the name Luvable, via e-mail at grace_bladeangel@hotmail.com, or you can drop her a note on her deviantART page.

If you know of an artist, dreamweaver, story writer, continuity editor, or anyone else looking for commissions on Furcadia that you’d like to see featured here on Commissions Corner, drop me an e-mail with their contact information!