COMMISSIONING CARTOONS AND ILLUSTRATION - Updated!
Commissioning me to draw you something funny is simple. I don’t bite, much. The secret is to know what you want, and what your budget is. Please take a look at the guide below to understand the best way to get your idea realised into full, wonderful, funny, and fabaloonie illustrations.
Feel like a fish flapping and floundering out of water? This guide is intended to help you and save you money, ( by not asking and paying for things you don’t need or understand) and if there is anything within it that you do not understand please pick up the phone or send me a message as I am always happy to help!
If you are already ready, then what are you waiting for? I am sitting here, ready with my pencil, waiting for your call. Honest. Not at the pub at all…
- What is the illustration is for? What is its purpose? For instance: Is it to be printed on a product, used in a poster campaign, in a book, or to be used in a social media campaign?
- If it’s for a magazine, is it a half page, full page or spot coverage?
- What size does it need to be?
- Which formats do you need it to be in? PDF for a printer or various digital versions?
- Which territory do you want to show it, meaning which countries? For instance: Only Europe or Worldwide online. This will affect the licencing that you will be granted for usage.
- How long to you want to use the image for? On a website it might be good for a year. In a book, forever, called In perpetuity.
- Do you like my style? I guess that’s why you are here LOL
- Take a look at my portfolio and see which images are closest to what you want.
- Then consider if you want a full colour image or black and white
- How many characters you want in the image
- How many rounds of revisions you would like!
- OR collect some images, photos, words, think about the things that inspire you, and we can go from there.
- WARNING: If you only want me to copy someone else’s work, we will NOT be a good creative match.
- We talk! Once I have some information about what it is you want, only then can I give you a written quote.
- Once we are both happy with that we sign an Illustration Commissioners Contract which I will send to you, to protect us both, and then we can move into production.
This can vary project to project, but there are always these general stages.
Stage 01:
- sketch work and ideas
- revisions
- layout
Stage 02:
- production of final artwork
- revisions
- final artwork
Stage 03:
- preparation and export for required formats
The million dollar question! Well, it doesn’t cost a million but you need a budget. I may well ask you what budget you have in mind, then if we’re happy to proceed with no further negotiation, then great.
It’s a tricky question to answer directly as so many things, like the things I listed above affect pricing. So depending on the job, and the usage of the illustration, the price will alter.
That’s why a chat is so important.
I always break down my quotes so you can see why things cost what they do. I try to be as honest and open as possible. I have no reason to use smoke and mirrors.
Here is a general guide below based on some of my previous illustrations:
GUIDE
Starting with a sketch, usually pencil on paper, and finishing digitally in black and white or full colour.
An original cartoon commissioned to be finished like these would start at £125 for the simplest black and white line illustration used for editorial and finish with a double-page book spread at around £400. However many things can influence the price, most of all the amount of characters and details present.
NOTE ABOUT BOOKS: Individual images will cost more than bulk orders so if you have a series to create for a blog or a multi-paged illustrated book, we can talk about the cost on a ‘per job’ basis rather than individual images.
Explanation of terms
Hand-drawn digital - Ink and Watercolour
Move the slider to see the image transform from a double-page spread black and white ink stage to full colour. This is called a ‘full colour double-page spread’ from the Nita adventure series.
This is called a ‘colour spot illustration’, or a ‘panel’ illustration. for a client’s blog.
CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE CARTOONS OR MY BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS