Commissions: MY SECRET SHAME!!!
I tell people who come to me for private commissions that they may have quite a wait because I will throw them under a bus to meet a publisher deadline. I was almost completely caught up a few months ago, and once again I slipped behind. I chastise me publicly.
Here’s a sketch I did in a copy of a limited edition A Distant Soil hardcover for Alex Borders, who ordered a set of sketches of D’mer in different emotional states. Sad D’mer:
There was such a long lag between sketches that the wild range of drawing styles I used got on my nerves, so I went back and made the set a little more holistic.
I’m going to take the weekend to work on finishing and shipping commissions and ebays, so next week there will be a lot to post – Shade, Element Lad of Two Worlds, more D’mer, etc. I doubt I will be able to finish the major Sandman commission for the very patient Rob, but I may post an in-progress sketch.
There’s a piece for the Live Long N Marry auction winner that is taking forever. It’s based on Ellen Kushner’s Riverside novels. It is going to be hard to let go of this one when it is finished.
A few more ebays will be posted this weekend. Check out my auctions. My last auctions will be posted the last day of September.
I am lagging on shipping, in part, because it’s a long drive to post when you live on a mountain in the middle of nowhere.
September 17th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Thankfully I beat the rush and got my sketches 20 years ago. Whew!
September 17th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
LOL!
A few of these commissions are so old that I know charge three times the price for the same work.
And I hope they are worth the wait.
I really enjoy doing them, it’s just hard to gauge how much free time I will have around my publishing assignments.
I will not do any more of the remarqued books like this in the future. I drew about 500 of these, and I grossly underpriced them. I may do a small handful for very loyal customers.
September 17th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
The wait may sometimes be long, but they are worth it. I am very happy with my wookie!
September 17th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
And is it really a “secret” shame by now? ;-p
September 17th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Not anymore! LOL!
September 18th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
‘I will not do any more of the remarqued books like this in the future’.
I chuckled when I read this, I thought you would have stopped after the two you did for me.
(if you recall the first two got lost in the mail and you had to do two more)
But of course I want one more – I am waiting for you to finish the series and put out a massive deluxe edition, collecting the entire series.
I am also hoping I can afford your commission rate at that time.
September 18th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
LOL! Really, I think I am just so stubborn. The books are WAY under-priced and such hard work to produce. Bad business decision on my part. I didn’t think people would pay a higher price for them, and then they ordered them in droves. And then I felt like I should keep the set together. So, I kept producing at a loss. I’m a dope.
I haven’t taken on more than a few new orders in the last several years, because I had a handful of old orders to fulfill, but I am done with them and just have to scan, package and mail them.
I will go ahead and put the other remaining remarques up for sale, soon. There are a few left I held on to in case some book was lost or damaged, but now I can move them. I even have a couple of volume I left.