~nicoya

It's not an exceptionally common occurrence, but from time to time someone will approach me and show some interest in seeing me purchase some art. As one would expect, this comes in the form of both artists hoping to ply their wares, as well as fellow commissioners aiming to partake in a shared purchase.

And that's pretty cool. I like buying art.

Now of course there are a variety of ways to approach this subject, and while I wouldn't be so bold as to say there's a hard division of right and wrong, but there are certainly at least some approaches that are more prone to success than others.

So let's discuss that.

The main goal here is for me to be able to look at a proposal and, in relatively short order, give a solid answer of yes or no as to whether I'd like to go ahead with it.

As you might expect, the important part there is to actually have a proposal to work with. That can come in two forms, really, although most successful case will generally be a mix of the two.

The first and most obvious is simply for you to become familiar with the style, content and themes of the art that I frequently purchase and then come up with and present a complete proposal for a piece that lays out enough of the details that I can get an idea of exactly what you're looking for just by reading it. That should include a reasonably complete description of the subject matter, an indication of the characters involved and their roles in the piece, as well as suggestions for the artist you'd like to work with (if you're the artist, then obviously that last part is pretty easy).

The second is where I have become familiar enough with your tastes in art that I can predict with some reasonable amount of certainty what kind of content you might be interested in creating, which of my characters might be involved, etc.

The easiest way to build this familiarity, in both directions, is to simply follow me here, hit the +fav button on pieces you enjoy, and in particular leave comments on pieces you especially love pointing out particular aspects, themes, etc that you like (just, y'know, not all at once. I don't need to wake up to 1500 comments in my inbox all from one person some random morning).


So after all that familiarity building and proposal prepping, will I buy some art? No! Or possibly Yes! The simple fact of the matter is some days I do feel like buying art and some days I don't. Some ideas I like, some just slightly miss the mark. Some artists have styles that I think work well with my tastes, others not so much. Sometimes the desired artist(s) aren't even open for comms, or their art is in too much demand from other people to the point where I don't feel like it's a good value proposition for me. There's a million things that can go wrong, and often the stars just don't align right. There's no need to feel bad about it, it happens all the time.


I think it's worth cooking up a few examples of what's more and less likely to be successful, so here goes.

Example 1, from an artist: Hi Nico, I noticed you left a lovely comment on my piece [X]. I was considering of drawing another piece in a similar theme, and you might have noticed from comments I've left that I'm a big fan of your character [Y], and I think they'd be a great fit for this. Specifically, the idea I have is [description here]. Here's a [link] to my usual price sheet, let me know if you're interested.

Example 2, from a fellow commissioner: Hi Nico, I really like your character [X] and recently I've been working out a commission with [Artist] where the picture would be [description here] and I was wondering if you'd like to join in and have your character [X] in [some role in the picture]. Splitting the cost fairly, your share would be [furry dollars].

Example 3, from an artist: Hi Nico, I was just putting together a sketch [link] for a YCH and I actually had your character [X] in mind when I was doodling it out. Usually my auctions go fo around [X furry dollars] but I figured I'd give you a chance to buy it out beforehand for [Y < X dollary-doos] because I really want to work with you, and your character would just be perfect!

Example 4, from a fellow commissioner: Hi Nico, I just saw this YCH here [link] and I think it'd be really fun to have your character [X] in slot A and my character [Y] [link] in slot B. I'm sure you could guess from the comments I've left over the years that I really like [X]. Anyway the AB price is pretty reasonable, we could split it 50/50.

And some counter-examples.

Bad example 5, from an artist: Hello internet furry user, I am an artist and like to draw for money. Please send me some of your suspiciously plentiful furry dollars in exchange for art. I have never interacted with you or your art in the past, and likely never will in the future either.

Bad example 6, from a fellow commissioner: Hi I like ur art u buy can we get a commission together?

Bad example 7, from ???: (no subject) hi.