How to Commission an Illustration: A Complete Guide for First-Time Clients

Commissioning an illustration for the first time can feel like walking into a restaurant with no menu. You know roughly what you want, but you are not sure what to ask for, what it should cost, or how long it should take. The good news is that the process is far more predictable than it looks from the outside. Most professional illustrators work through the same stages, ask the same questions and run into the same avoidable problems.

This guide walks through the whole process from the client’s side: deciding what the image is for, writing a brief an artist can actually work from, budgeting sensibly, understanding usage rights, paying safely, and receiving files you can use. It is written from the perspective of a studio that answers these questions every week, so it is deliberately practical.

Start with the use: personal or commercial?

The first question any experienced illustrator will ask is not “what do you want drawn?” but “what is it for?” The answer changes almost everything downstream.

Personal use means the image is for you or a small private circle: a portrait of your tabletop character, a gift for a partner, an avatar on your personal social accounts, a print on your own wall. Nobody is making money from it, and it is not representing a business.

Commercial use means the image is used to promote or sell something, or is itself sold. Book covers, album art, product packaging, merchandise, game assets, a company mascot, a crowdfunding campaign page, an illustrated logo, and advertising all count — even for a one-person business or a small indie project.

Commercial work usually costs more for a simple reason: the image creates value for your business, and the license you receive reflects that. It also tends to need more precise specifications (bleed, safe areas, color profiles), more careful contracts and, sometimes, more revision rounds because more stakeholders are involved.

Writing a brief an illustrator can work from

The brief is the single most important thing you control. A clear brief reduces revisions, shortens the timeline and gets you a more accurate quote. It does not need to be long; it needs to be specific. Here is a template you can copy into an email or a commission request form:

1. Project summary — one or two sentences. “A half-body portrait of my original character for my streaming channel’s ‘starting soon’ screen.”
2. Use — personal or commercial, and exactly where the image will appear (print, web, merchandise, book cover, social media).
3. Subject — who or what is in the image. For characters: age, build, height relative to other figures, hair, eye color, skin tone, outfit, accessories, distinguishing marks.
4. Composition — framing (headshot, half-body, full-body, scene), pose or action, expression, and whether you want a background.
5. Mood and style — two or three adjectives (“warm, quiet, nostalgic”), plus links to the artist’s own pieces you like most.
6. Technical specs — final size and orientation, print or screen, any text or title area to leave clear.
7. Deadline — the date you actually need the file, and whether it is fixed (a print run, a launch) or flexible.
8. Budget — a range. Artists can often suggest what is possible within it.
9. Must-haves and must-avoids — the details that cannot change, and anything you definitely do not want.

What you should not do is design the image in such detail that there is no room left for the artist. You are hiring their judgment about composition, lighting and color as much as their hands. The most successful briefs are firm on facts (the character has a scar over the left eye) and open on interpretation (the scene should feel lonely).

Gathering references that actually help

References are the fastest way to remove ambiguity. Words like “fantasy armor” or “cozy” mean different things to different people; a picture settles it in seconds. Organize references into three groups:

• Subject references — photos of the person, pet or object; character sheets; outfit details from several angles. For a portrait of a real person, send at least three well-lit photos with the face clearly visible, ideally from the angle you want.
• Mood references — images that capture the lighting, palette or atmosphere you are after. These can be photographs, film stills or paintings.
• Style references — specific pieces from the illustrator’s own portfolio. Pointing at another artist’s work and asking for a copy of their style is poor etiquette and puts the illustrator in an awkward position.

Label each reference with a short note: “use this hairstyle”, “color palette only, not the pose”. Unlabeled mood boards are surprisingly hard to interpret. Five annotated references beat forty unannotated ones every time.

Budget ranges and what drives the price

Illustration pricing varies enormously by region, experience and market, so treat any figures as orientation rather than a quote. As a rough guide to the independent, non-agency market for personal-use digital work, many clients encounter ranges like these:

Within any range, these are the factors that move the number:

• Complexity of the subject. Ornate armor, intricate patterns, mechanical detail, lace and jewelry all take longer than a plain outfit.
• Number of figures. Each additional character is usually charged at 50–100% of the base price, because every figure needs its own anatomy, expression and lighting — and they need to interact convincingly.
• Background. A flat color is nearly free; a simple suggested setting adds modestly; a fully rendered environment can double the price on its own.
• Rendering level. Line art, flat color, cel shading and fully painted rendering are progressively more time-intensive.
• Usage rights. Commercial licenses are commonly priced as a multiplier or flat fee on top of the base artwork — often anywhere from 1.5× to 3× for standard commercial use, and more for exclusive or unlimited rights.
• Rush timelines. Moving your project ahead of an existing queue usually carries a surcharge in the region of 25–50%.

If your budget is fixed, say so and ask what fits. A skilled illustrator can often simplify the background or move from full-body to half-body to keep the piece within reach without lowering quality.

Usage rights and licensing basics

This is the part first-time clients most often misunderstand. Paying for an illustration does not automatically transfer the copyright to you. In most countries, the artist owns the copyright from the moment the work is created, and what you buy is a license to use it in agreed ways. (This is general information, not legal advice; if the rights matter to your business, have a lawyer review the contract.)

A clear license answers five questions:

1. Media — where can the image be used? Web, print, merchandise, packaging, broadcast?
2. Territory — one country, a region, or worldwide?
3. Duration — a fixed number of years, or in perpetuity?
4. Exclusivity — can the artist license the same image to anyone else?
5. Quantity or revenue — some licenses cap print runs or units sold.

For personal commissions, a typical license lets you display, print for yourself and share the image online with credit, while the artist keeps the right to show it in their portfolio. For commercial work, you will usually want a written license covering your specific uses. Full copyright transfer (a “buyout”) is possible but costs significantly more, because the artist gives up all future use of the work.

We cover the copyright side in more depth — including what happens when the subject is someone else’s character — in our guide to fan art versus original art.

Deposits and payment milestones

Almost every professional illustrator asks for payment before or during the work, not after. This protects both sides: the artist is not working unpaid for weeks, and you are not paying the full fee before seeing progress. Common structures are:

• Full payment up front — common for small personal pieces under about $150, where splitting payments creates more admin than it saves.
• 50 / 50 — half to book the slot and start sketching, half on approval of the final before high-resolution files are released.
• Staged milestones — for larger or commercial projects: for example 30% on signing, 40% on approved sketch or line art, 30% on delivery.

Use a payment method with an invoice and a record: a proper invoice paid by bank transfer, card, or a platform with buyer protection. Read the artist’s refund terms before you pay. A fair policy usually refunds the deposit if the artist cancels, and refunds a portion of it if you cancel before significant work has been done. Our own approach is set out in our refund policy.

Typical timeline stages and revision rounds

Most digital illustrations move through four visible stages. Knowing them helps you give feedback at the right moment — when changes are cheap.

Most commissions include one or two rounds of revisions at the sketch and color stages. Changing the pose after the color stage is a fundamentally different request from adjusting a color, because it means redoing much of the work; expect that to be charged as extra time. Batch your feedback: one consolidated list per stage is far more efficient than a stream of separate messages.

For timing, a single-character piece commonly takes one to three weeks from start to delivery, depending on the artist’s queue. Scenes and book covers take three to six weeks or more. If your deadline is fixed, mention it in your very first message and build in at least a week of buffer for your own review and any printing.

File formats, resolution and print sizes

Agree on deliverables at the start. Discovering at the end that you need a 60 × 90 cm poster from a file drawn for a phone screen is a problem nobody can fully fix.

For print, the working standard is 300 pixels per inch (ppi, often called dpi) at the final printed size. For screens, what matters is the pixel dimensions alone. Here are the pixel sizes required at 300 dpi for common print formats, without bleed:

Printed pieces that run to the edge of the page also need bleed — usually 3 mm (or 0.125 in) extra on every side — and a safe area for text and important details. A 6 × 9 in paperback front cover, for example, is 1800 × 2700 px at 300 dpi, or 1875 × 2775 px with bleed; a full wraparound cover needs the spine width from your printer. Our book cover illustration service starts every project from the printer’s template for exactly this reason.

Typical deliverables include:

• PNG — lossless, good for web use and anything with transparency.
• JPG — smaller files for sharing; fine for photos and finished art, but avoid repeated re-saving.
• TIFF or PDF — often requested by printers.
• Layered PSD or source files — not included by default. Many artists charge extra for these, because they make editing and reuse easy.

Ask whether the file will be delivered in RGB (screens) or CMYK (some print workflows). Most print-on-demand services accept RGB and convert themselves, but offset printers may want CMYK with a specific profile.

Red flags to watch for

The vast majority of illustrators are honest professionals. Still, a few warning signs are worth knowing, especially when commissioning through social media:

• No portfolio history, or a portfolio in wildly inconsistent styles. This can indicate stolen or AI-generated work presented as the artist’s own. Look for process shots, sketches and work posted over a long period.
• Pressure to pay immediately through untraceable methods, or “friends and family” payments that remove buyer protection.
• No written terms about revisions, delivery, usage or refunds — or an unwillingness to put the agreed price in writing.
• Prices dramatically below the market for detailed work. Unrealiztic pricing often leads to missed deadlines, abandoned projects or traced work.
• No progress updates and vague answers about where the project stands.

On the other side, the green flags are easy to spot: a clear terms page, a commissions FAQ, an invoice, realiztic timelines and a sketch shared before color begins. Our own commissions FAQ covers the questions we hear most often.

Etiquette that makes everything smoother

Good client etiquette is not about being deferential; it is about making the collaboration efficient.

• Read the artist’s terms and FAQ before you ask. Many questions are already answered there, and it signals that you are a serious client.
• Respond promptly at approval stages. A week of silence at the sketch stage pushes the whole timeline back, and may cost you your slot in the queue.
• Give specific feedback. “Make the jacket darker and shorten the sleeves” is actionable. “It doesn’t feel right” is not — try to say why.
• Do not edit the artwork yourself or ask another artist to “finish” it without permission. Crop and resize as agreed, nothing more.
• Credit the artist when you post the piece, unless you have agreed otherwise.
• Be honest about scope changes. If the project grows, expect the price to grow with it.

Your next steps

Before you send your first message, write down the use, gather five annotated references, set a budget range and pick your deadline. That one page of preparation will get you a faster, more accurate quote from any illustrator.

If you would like to work with us, our custom character portraits are a good starting point for personal pieces, and you can send your brief through the commission request form. We will reply with questions, a quote and a realiztic schedule — no commitment until you have seen all three.

Frequently asked questions