Project Mongoose: Commission Strategy
Welcome back for a [hopefully] short blog post on the commission strategy tied to Project Mongoose.
In an earlier blog post, I provided an outline of my 6 week strategy for bringing myself current with piles of projects and tasks that have been getting pushed back for the better portion of 5 months. I don’t like missing deliverables and I really don’t like disappointing people but, as I addressed in another blog post, I’ve been dealing with a lot of personal and professional changes that kept setting me back and making it challenging to understand how long it would take me to complete various parts of each project because so much has changed in the past 2 -3 years.
But.
That’s behind us and we’re moving forward at a steady and deliberate pace to ensure things are completed timely.
Today, I’ll be talking a little about the commission strategy for Project Mongoose.
There are 3 components of the commission strategy that will enable me to complete all commissions before mid-December.
Funneling commission progress through Twitch streams
Breaking commissions up into smaller parts
Aligning commissions to complete more per phase
Funneling Commissions Through Twitch
I made this decision based on a few factors:
Surveys from Twitch viewers
Polling those who commission me
Demonstrates what I can do as an artist
Time scarcity
Surveys from Twitch viewers
Big thank you to everyone who has been taking these surveys! I couldn’t know these things without your help and willingness to participate.
For the past year, I’ve been polling Twitch viewers in Discord and in Google forms to find out what they like to see. Most indicated that they enjoy commissions and none indicated that watching commissions were their least favorite content on my streams. The majority of the people who regularly attend my Twitch streams consistently replied to these surveys as well as people who have not been to the streams in a while (usually due to life changing events or because I changed the times that I was streaming).
So, in paying attention to this feedback, I feel confident that, at least for the next 3 - 5 months, people who come to my streams would like to see this type of content.
Thank you, again, to everyone who has been showing up to the streams and who have been providing me much-needed feedback!
Polling Commissioners
I always ask people if I can stream their art. Sometimes, they say no. And that’s ok! However, most people want me to stream their art because they like to pop in and see it being made. This is a truly unique experience that creators who do commissions can provide to the people who commission them and I love when commissioners turn up in my chat to see what’s being made. As I’ve talked about many times before, I love doing commissions because I love bringing peoples’ concepts to life - especially original characters. So, having people there to talk about those characters and those ideas is a blast! I love it!
But doing this can be scary, too. Sometimes, it can feel like someone’s looking over your shoulder. Most of the time, I know that’s just my anxiety getting to me. It’s hard to draw live! Everyone can see all of my mistakes!!! And, while it’s fun to laugh them off, learn, and grow together, it can be frustrating when I can’t bring the concept out of my head and onto the paper within a stream. This is why I do most of the sketching off stream. It enables me to focus on the technical work of bringing the concept to life and I don’t feel like I’m wasting other peoples’ time with a lot of trial and error.
I’m very appreciative to everyone who commissions me and I love sharing the experience with them. Thank you all so much for your support.
Demonstrates What I Can Do As An Artist
I love all of the crazy stuff that we do on Twitch. Sometimes, our streams can get really out of hand and I love it! I love drawing ridiculous requests because it means we can all laugh. And, here’s a big secret… that’s why I make art. I love making people happy and I want to make the world laugh. So, I’m happy to do ridiculous things for a meme. I’m happy to be silly and draw some of the worst things you’ve ever seen in your life. (Botero streams will haunt us forever…)
But… sometimes I wonder if people who come to my stream know that I’m legit. I know. That sounds crazy. But I’m serious. Sometimes, ya just gotta flex, right? Commissions give me the opportunity to do that. And, because commissions are typically so drastically different from each other, it’s fascinating to see all the different pieces of inspiration, passion, and detail that go into each one.
For example, this past week, we’ve been bringing a commission to life that’s in a 2-point fisheye perspective, complete with crazy architecture, storms, armor, and scissor swords. (Big thank you to Liz for this one!) It’s been an endeavor to get it from concept to sketch and then to where we’re at today: the background. But it’s looking fantastic and, if I hadn’t streamed it, I’m not sure most people would know that I’m actually capable of doing that kind of work. So, this sort of thing really lets me show that I can do some crazy stuff and bring just about any concept to life. As an artist, that’s a good thing to demonstrate.
Time scarcity
I know that it might look like I don’t do anything except browse Twitter or make silly things… but I’m constantly working. I’ll talk about my schedule some other time, but let’s just say that the chunk of time I stream on Twitch (which is, on average, about 4 hours for 4 days per week) gives me a significant amount of time to devote to commissions.
And, to stay on target with commission production, I need to be putting in at least 20 hours per week on commissions for the next 6 weeks. At 4 days per week of streaming at… let’s just say 3 hours per stream to make room for requests… Twitch provides about 12 hours per week of that 20 hours, so 3/5 of the time required. Sometimes, it can provide more. That means that I only need to make up another 8 hours during the week… and that’s easier to manage when I think about in terms of chunking the work (which we’ll get to in a second) based on what can be reliably done on Twitch and what can be best done solo.
And, when I’m on target, we can do more fun requests and silliness!
So, all-in-all, streaming commissions provides the maximum value and benefits for everyone. And, just to make sure that viewers and commissioners are still happy with this arrangement, I’m going to continue doing polls and surveys to make sure I’m meeting your content needs. So, if you see a survey on Twitter or Discord and you want to make sure that I’m producing what you want, let me know!
Breaking Commissions Into Smaller Parts
This is something that I’ve been doing for a few years, but, in the panic to try to get as much done as possible, I had forgotten how effective it was. So, we’re getting back to this best practice!
Breaking the commissions into smaller parts is called chunking. On days that I’m feeling exhausted and like I can’t sketch, I work on conducting research for commissions and then, on days where I’m sketching well, I can sketch up to five at a time.
I’ve also been grouping similar commissions together. So, when I work on emotes, I might do all the emote commissions in one day because they require the same mindset. Switching back and forth between digital paints and emotes is a bit challenging, so I try to keep those separated by day.
In order to funnel the commissions through Twitch, I make sure that I finish the sketches before adding them to my Twitch schedule. Then, I focus on inking. And that might be all I do on that commission that day: ink. Odds are, I will probably do inks on another commission that day as well because, again, it requires a similar mindset and, once I’m in that mindset, it’s easier to get similar work done.
Same thing goes for background art. I separate that from the character art now. Even the sketch is done separately (when I can… sometimes the composition really needs both to be done at the same time and those take much longer to bring to finish).
By breaking commissions up like this, I’m able to work on them little by little. This helps my mental health. Rather than thinking “Ok. Today, I’m going to sit down and spend 15 hours on this commission and I’m going to do that until it’s done”, I sit down and ask myself “How much of this sketch can you get done in 5 minutes?” Because, asking myself to do something for 5 minutes is much less daunting. And, when I do that, I find that I will put in those 5 minutes… and usually 45 more. I’ve found this to be extremely effective in all areas of my work and it’s something I had to force myself to do, but now I kinda look forward to knowing that, if I’m not “in it”, I can stop at 5 minutes. It feels safer somehow.
Stopping the work at the end of each chunk is also important. It helps me feel like I got a win. I’ve found that having little sprints rather than marathons really does a lot for my mental health.
Since I started this practice, I was able to complete 6 commissions timely. So, this is working and because it worked, I’m going to continue doing this to help me continue understanding how long something takes me to make and how I can tackle these larger projects without getting behind in the future.
Aligning Commissions to Complete More Per Phase
Because I have a variety of complex and simple commissions, I’m pairing them together in each phase to help me prevent burnout. This is a single-use plan I’m using to ensure that I’m meeting my goals and feel like I’m getting some wins during each phase of Project Mongoose. Working on one big commission after another can be tiring. Taking on smaller commissions like emotes and profile pictures or simple portraits helps me divide and conquer better. This strategy isn’t one that will continue because I feel like it makes me prioritize some commissions over others and I would rather be working on commissions in the order that they were received.
However, I’m learning that isn’t possible anymore. Or, at least it’s not possible if I have a large number of commissions sitting in my queue. In Phase 4 of Project Mongoose, I’ll be using the data that I’ve collected over the first 3 phases and comparing it to how things “used to be” (and, if you read the prior post, things will never go back to that - and that’s a good thing). I’ll be analyzing the data I’ve collected from all areas of my little art studio to determine what kind of commission-taking and pricing models to use next. This analysis will also inform me as to how to best communicate with commissioners and set reasonable expectations on delivery, substance, revisions, etc.
So, lots of good things are on the way: namely completed commissions. The quality of the commissions I’ve been working are is higher than my work in the past because I’m devoting more time and effort to them - not because I didn’t devote time and effort in the past, but the way I produce the art has changed substantially and I want to ensure that I’m always providing the best quality work that I can. With higher quality because of better skills, I spend a bit more time now than I used to spend. Commissions now take closer to 20 - 30 hours instead of 6 - 12 hours. The same can be said for my new prints.
The last thing I want to do is have a certain kind of print or sample commission on my site or at my booth, take a commission based on these samples, and then provide lesser quality just to “meet a deadline” or take on more commissions. It’s unethical and I won’t do it. I refuse to put less work into commissions simply because I have more of them or could be taking more of them. I always ask myself “how would I feel if someone did that to me?” And that’s enough to keep me in check.
On the opposite side of that, I want to be meeting the deadlines. They’re important. And I want to make sure I’m maintaining open lines of communication. I haven’t been good about these things this year and that has already changed. At the end of Project Mongoose, it will change some more and continue evolving as needed.
I’m so grateful to everyone for their continued patience and understanding. The kindness most people have shown me through this challenging time where I’ve had to learn, adapt, learn, adapt and constantly change things has really been comforting and has helped me return to doing the work that I love the most: bringing ideas to life so I can make people smile.
