• Very important first thing to know: The guidelines and prices listed ion this page are for private, non-commercial commissions only! Basically what that means if that if you are looking to commission something for a business such as a logo or mascot design, something in which you will want to own all the copyrights/reproduction rights to, then this is not the page for you. These are for private commissions for an individual's own enjoyment. If you are looking for a more professional commission for your website or business please contact me at julianwilbury[at]gmail[dot]com for an estimate.
• That said, for private commissions such as these, I will retain the rights to the image, yet on the other hand, I will happily allow you to re-post the image to any website, print it out, hang it on your wall, give it as a gift to your sweetie, just anything that is a not for profit, non-commercial use. Also, if you purchase a commission that is lineart, you are free to colour it as you wish, although I must say I would prefer things if you would credit back to me for the original lineart. It's just a nice thing to do.
• It is for my own safety that for all commissions, if I do not want all the payment upfront, I would at least prefer for larger commissions a down payment. I apolgise, but this is just me reacting as an artist who has been given the shaft too many times.
• As a general rule, for commission transactions that are happening solely online, I would prefer payments via PayPal. No, it is not the perfect payment system, and if another service arises that becomes a frequently used alternative, I would use it. But other than that I cannot accept credit card payments (except through PayPal!) and to put it frankly, sending checks or money orders over the mail has just proved to be too risky in the past.
  On the other hand, if you live near me and we end up talking over things in person, handing me a check or money order in real life would be totally preferable to any of those. Not that this has happened yet, but who knows!
• People often talk about lack of contact from artists they commission. What's not said as much is lack of contact from commissioners. When things such as approval stages, two or more payments, commissioners having a VERY clear image of what the piece of artwork should be, and deadlines are involved, I would want to be able to depend on getting in contact with you. If you are going to go away for a couple days, that's fine, but you may want to give me a heads-up if I'm working on something and I'm either close to giving you a sketch to approve or a final product. Or just in general, because, well, it's a nice thing to do. I won't freak out if you don't respond an hour after my email. A week on the other hand...that is pushing it, especially if things such as approving sketches for finalizing, possible questions from me just asking if I'm getting something right, or payments are the main purpose of that email.
• Okay, here's the what I will draw and what I will not draw. The most important thing for me is that I do not want to draw anything over PG-13. Since what PG-13 may be a little nebulous to people (I know it is for me), let me clear up and say that the most "naughty" things I WILL draw are things that would involve drugs, cursing, TASTEFUL nudity, and violence, although I will admit right here I'm not very good at anything besides cartoon violence. (I'm pretty ineffective right now at dramatic violent things.) Also, in the grey areas, I will not draw any fetishes, blatant or implied. Most of you reading know what these are, and I do not want to really elaborate on my own webpage, so please, use your common sense, look at what I HAVE drawn as opposed as to what others might have drawn, and make your own judgment.
• As times and my audiences have changed, I will admit that fanart will become a matter of judgment call. Honestly? A lot of it generally would have to do with what I know copyright holders are okay and are NOT okay with, and that varies. Disney is pretty fierce about their own original characters, but say, a Lion King fancharacter/ Lion King style character (without any of the original cast along with them) would not be out of line for a commission. Although I doubt I'll get asked about this since I am not an anime artist in any way and can't pretend to be (just not my forte!), most people will know that Japanese laws on fan works are rather lax. I can draw your personal Pokemon team if you wish. And after having thought this over and looking over various websites, I will say that Doctor Who based commissions would be allowed. I have seen professionals post both official art they did on commission for the BBC themselves in the same gallery with art they did for a fan commission or a fanzine. While this is certainly a grey area, it seems to be one that the BBC knows well enough about and decided to turn a blind eye to, and while I have morals, I...well, I just really can't say "no" to drawing Doctor Who stuff for money. (I'm may be a fan, but I'm only human.)

I think that covers it for now! A lot of this will probably be edited in the future as things come up or as...well, as I remember them. Again, you have to be fine and abide by all of these guidelines for me to do a commission for you. This is mostly common sense, to be honest, but I can't expect everyone to have perfect common sense, sadly.

Okay, now for the fun part! Commission types!

Types and Styles of Commissions:
There are the main styles I use most in my art and I know very well that you may be eying a style that is somewhere "in-between." Don't worry, I won't turn you down if want you want doesn't fit anything you see here EXACTLY, all you'll have to do is talk to me about it. Just think of it as holding the pickles or holding the lettuce; special orders won't upset (me.)

What one must keep in mind is what I'm offering is all styles of character art and illustrations, so the focus will be on your character, and perhaps telling a story. So while I'll be happy to have a model sheet to go off on, everything will work so much better if I am offered information on what you want your character doing, their expression(s), or in general what their personality is like and what they would most likely do or not do so I don't end up doing something silly such as, having your anti-social, grumpy character grinning happily at the audience. I want to do art that best fits and communicates who the character is or what they're doing; it's an cartoonist/illustrator thing. Humour me if you must.

Icons
Nifty square images of characters of your choice. I generally offer a 100x100 image which is suitable for LiveJournal, FA, and most forums I know of, and will happily send the larger images that they are cropped from to you, which can start at 400x400 and go up to 800x800 pixels. For these info on what expression you want or personality traits are ESPECIALLY wanted, they're carrying the whole thing!

Basic portrait icons [Example 1] [Example 2] [Example3]
Single: $10 USD | "Couples"/linking icons: $18
They are very much what they say on the tin. Icon portraits of your character, typically inked with real media and coloured digitally with a semi-painterly style, nice and colourful (unless you say otherwise!) "Couples" icons are icons that can be posted right next to eachother to create a whole larger image, but still make seperate icons and are popular as gifts for people's sweethearts, hence the name.

"Take On Me" style icons [Examples]
Single: $8USD | "Couples/linking: $14
This icon style has basically run out of my hands and gone crazy. That's why you may see the availability of these change from time to time. Basically, again, they are what they sound like, they are animated icons based off the classic 80's music video "Take On Me." (And yes, I have seen the Literal Version and have all the lyrics memorized. And I've seen the Family Guy version. Just getting that out of the way.) In the link above you can see that I've done a LOT of these and a lot of the variations I've done; I've drawn people's characters riding motorcycles, in the middle of pipe wrench fights, rocking out, or simply dolled up in 80's clothes (all of which I adore doing, I admit), just being themselves, or even expressing how they feel with little "non-word balloons." (It is a comic world, after all!) All while being drawn and super-80's.
Since as of the time I write this these are RIDICULOUSLY POPULAR, I will be updating the availability status down here (although I may update this info more often on sites where I sell commissions such as LiveJournal, dA, and FA):
AVAILABILITY: I'd wait a bit if I were you. I have a backlog since when I get these commissions in, I really get them.

Full Body Character Illustrations
The main bulk of my work. For some people the single-character ones without backgrounds are considered "pin-ups" since it will essentially be "your character floating in colourful stuff" and not a full scene, but I do not separate "pin-ups" into its own section since for me, pin-ups easily become illustrations when backgrounds, props, other characters, or other things that may help tell a story come in.
I ALWAYS will have hi-res versions of these pictures available. The traditional media ones tend to range at 8.5"x11" and are usually scanned in at 300 DPI. Digital pieces usually start around 9"x12" and have recently reached up to 24"x18" inches at 300DPI. Unless you have a very strong preference, it will mostly be up to my discretion what size the image is. (Though they do typically tend to be 11"x14" on up to 24"x18".) I can send you the digital file ripe for printing in just about any file format you want, or, at least, whatever Photoshop will let me save it in.

Traditional Art
Art completely done in a traditional media. There will be an original to mail (although due to weather and other circumstances I may not be able to send them out right away unless you really, really need it. I do keep all the art safe and often do send out art in batches, so I'll keep in touch.

Basic brush(pen)inks [Example 1] [Example2] [Example3] (I will hopefully have more, better examples soon!)
Single character: $10USD | Two characters: $15USD | Each additional: $4USD
These are not good examples at all, but if nothing else they show you the style they're drawn in. Just simple brush inks, no real fancy comic-like shading and no background. Great if you want to do a colour-it-yourself job! These are mostly busts but I usually would do full body. Or, really, just fill most of the page, depending on how many characters you want in there.

Brushpen Illustrations/ Single Panel "comics" [Example 1] [Example 2] [Example 3]
Single character: $20USD | Two characters: $30USD | Each additional: $5USD
While you should note that I will not do something with as much shading as the picture of Pan (the kitty) and Gypsy (my lovebird), the general difference in these is yes, the shading. The more classic comic strip look in the first two is the main goal of these, and is exactly what I ended up doing in the second one. (It wasn't much of a stretch!) Same general info applies as the general brush inks, except they're not as good for colour-it-yourself jobs. (It may look interesting, though!)

Fully Rendered Graphite Illustration [Example 1] [Example2]
Portrait/Bust: $25USD | Single character: $30 USD | Two characters: $40 USD | Each additional: $5USD
These are a lot of work, but a lot of fun, and I simply do not get to do them a lot. Graphite illustrations of your character, portrait, bust, or full body, carefully shaded and detailed with darks and lights so you can see the hair, fur, feathers, or what have you on the character. These tend to (right now) have no or very minimal backgrounds due to the simple fact that it's enough work keeping the paper around it clean!

Digital Art
The majority of my digital art typically has some traditional component, even if it may get hidden and covered up, but the fact remains that the finished product is all digital. I will happily send out hi-res files out for printing; I cannot do prints myself as of now. (Printers good, but not that good.)

Inked Full Body "pin-up" Style [Example 1] [Example 2] [Example 3]
Single character: $15USD | Two characters: $25USD | Each additional: $5USD
Simple nature background: Add $10USD
More complicated: Depends, negotiable, starts at additional $20USD
Complicated props: $5
Since in most of these cases they are standalones, I'm calling this a "pin-up" style for now, although the third shows it can be done as a very simple illustration instead, depends on what you want done. The other two examples are also sort of simple "models" for colour reference for myself. They can be all these and more! Generally, think the basic brush inks...with flat colour. There are two differences that are either up to you or up to my discretion: If you notice a difference in inking style between the last two and the first, that is because the first is "inked" with tight "clean-up" pencils (think really similar to how 2D animation was coloured in CAPS before 2D animation died.) Both cleanup pencils and inks take about the same amount of time (clean pencils take that much longer or inking is that much quicker for me with my brushpens, either way) that there is no charge for the two different styles. If you don't care, I'll basically go for what I feel works with the piece. Also, the second difference is coloured outlines. It's a REALLY optional thing, and for me, usually just depends on what I feel would be good for the piece. If you have preference, please tell me!
See below for "complicated props."

Inked Full Body "pin-up" Style, shaded [Example 1] [Example2] [Example 3] [Example 4] [Example 5] [Example6] [Example7] [Example 8]
Single character: $30USD | Two characters: $40USD | Each additional: $10USD
Simple nature background: Add $10USD
More complicated: Depends, negotiable, starts at additional $20USD
Complicated props: $5
As you can see, these can run the gamut and be simple portraits to illustrations or comics. They're all done just about the same way at its most basic, it's the little changes that make things different. The same choices with pencils vs. ink lineart and coloured lineart vs. plain black lineart all apply here. Also, the first example with Bagel fighting off the waffle iron with his supersoaker provides an example of "complicated props." Bet you can't guess what's complicated there! (Actually, both the waffle iron and the supersoaker were a bit of work, but I'm referring to the supersoaker.) That one's a pretty obvious example of a complicated prop. (Guns of all kinds are pretty dang complicated.) Shoes are not considered complicated. Neither are fake pirate swords and bottles of what are really root beer. The TARDIS...gosh, I already consider her a "character," uhm, even besides that, with her size and the amount of trouble drawing boxes gives me (hahah), that's something that would fall under $10. (Daleks? ...We'll talk.)
The shading in these are all a sort of semi-painterly style that's actually easier on me than flat cel shading. (Smooth edges, noo!) If you absolutely must have cel shading there wouldn't really be an extra charge, it doesn't really more time I just have to be more careful because the nice thing about painterly styles, especially in digital art, it's incredibly forgiving since none of it has to be perfect.
Right now the best "simple nature background" is behind the gryph Goldy (I can do grass and stuff, too!) Complicated backgrounds pretty much encompass anything that involves buildings, furniture, manmade stuff.

Any illustration really painty and complicated/detailed beyond that like these three? Contact me, at that stage it's really just easier to talk about what exactly you want or don't want to figure things out.

Fancy Misc. Stuff
Basically stuff we'll have to hammer out over email, although I can offer some rough prices now. These will also most certainly entail down payments and such.

Comics [Example 1] [Example 2]
Full colour comics take a lot of time and are considered by me to be large, time-consuming projects and I don't take them often. For a four to six panel page it typically starts around $50 and only goes up. (I really wouldn't recommend much more on one page, the second example is Exposition Central so will probably replaced when I make a better second example.)

Need to figure out what I want to do about B&W Comics.

Model Sheets [Example 1] [Example 2] [Example 3]
My model sheets have a pretty established style, so I can base a price off of what the above examples are like. The general standards go like this:

• Typically at least two full body poses
• A turnaround of the head
• Different expressions used on all of the above
• "Insert" pics such as special notes on markings, anatomy, or items the character may carry
• The obligatory notes on the main points about the character
• Whatever other info you please

Okay that's typically what I like to do, and that would run for a fairly average character that doesn't have a too crazy complicated design with four wings and six legs or a dozen piercings around $50. Butbutbut what should be in a model sheet design and its contents is highly subjective. Do you want a full body turnaround, same expression and pose for each position? Various expressions drawn in like "inserts", maybe even without colouring in? Do you feel the need for colour swatches? Honestly the possibilities are crazy here.
All of the above and more are reasons why, if someone wants to commission a model sheet from me, the commissioner would have to be willing to work very closely with me on this. Keeping in contact so I can get everything right for you is vital, for it's your character that this is going to be the guide for other artists to work with, not mine, and you are the expert with your character, not me. Even if you want me to design a character off a vague idea, I will still want to check if you like my choices. If you are unresponsive to my emails and it just the planning stages go on for months it just will not work.

Them's the breaks, but again, this is all to insure that I'm drawing exactly what you want to see. This is basically why this page is a flood of info, kids.

Still Want to Commission Me?
Horray, then! If you paid attention to at least half of that you'll probably help make things go pretty smoothly so I can make the piece you want, which is the main goal after all!

I do not have any fancy ordering forms, and again, since a lot of this will change from commission to commission, I'm keeping it that way. Just email me at julianwilbury[at]gmail[dot]com with at least one word similar to "Commission" in the subject line. If at all possible, if you don't have a clear idea of what you want style/technique wise, please, the examples are all there for a reason and show a wide range of what can be done. If you are still undecided we can talk and figure out what you must have and what will work with the money you have. Just please remember folks, communication is key to all this!

Stay excellent to each other!
~SA Ferrell (aka Julian Wilbury)

Last updated: February 12, 2011