Could I/Should I start commission work?

[mysticmaps]

Hello everyone

This is a map that I made for a contest some weeks ago. After looking at it my friend tod me to give commission work a shot, which I thought was really intresting. Is my style appealing? Where could I improve?

I could easily find myself commisioning a map for about 35 bucks - I would consider that a lot of money for a map! What´s the price range for a map like this one?

[Josiah VE]

That looks great!
I'm not so fond of the orange-y ocean. Also a nice border wouldn't hurt. You did this on paper then scanned it in correct?

I'm no expert and this is the only map of yours I've seen, but this is quite a nice map. You should assemble yourself a portfolio and keep an eye out for commissions, the Map Making Requests on this forum is a good place to start. I think this style is an excellent style for fantasy novels. Low prices like 35 are good to start out. As you get more comfortable you could start charging a bit more. Price really depends a lot on size, colour/bw, and other factors.
Hope that helped. I'd like to see some more of your maps, I really like this style.

[mysticmaps]

Thanks man!
Too bad I don´t know how to create a nice border :/
Thanks fo the commission advice too.

[Silverleaf]

I agree about the orange ocean and since this was scanned in, I can see some of the wrinkles in the paper. If you went with a different color for the ocean, you could use those wrinkles to add some depth. Lastly the largest issue I see is very minor. Some of your names that have closed letters like P,O,R and A don't have a matching background. Otherwise, I could see this in the front of a novel as well. This is a solid design.

[sword peddler]

you should put a little bit more study into your imaging software before really getting into commissioned work. get to know your scanner, get to know your software. doing up a map that looks good on a computer screen isn't the same as preparing artwork for print or publication.

for instance: your lettering and lines and stuff do not appear to be in the paper. they float on top of it. to me, it looks like you drew the map on white paper, and then used the threshold tool to bring the black out and remove the white. that's fine, but i recommend using the contrast and brightness tools instead. if you want your map to carry the hand drawn style across in a great way then you don't want your black lines being solid black. an aged, hand drawn map isn't going to have solid black lines. the lines will have pocks and holes, dark grays and even hints of blue in them.

as far as price goes: you will be charging less at first to build up a professional portfolio (personal work in a portfolio is great, but clients want to see what you're like under the gun, and taking direction) but do not do it for long. people pay good money for good maps. i manage to make a living off of it. respect yourself, respect your time, respect what you do. just based on size and the fact that your map is in color, 35 would be too low. find artists who are doing maps similar to you and ask them (privately) what they charge. that is how i priced my first commission; i emailed dyson logos and asked for advice. decide on a base price for a full page, full color map that is worth your time, and charge people based on that. For example, if someone needs some at 1/4th of a page and in color, you can just divide your base price by 4 and have a starting point for payment.

hope that helps!

[mysticmaps]

Thanks a lot for the info, it really helps! You are right about the lettering and lines, it wasn´t threshold but something similar. The reason I increased the "blackness" was to improve clarity, but maybe it became a bit too much.

Good advice on pricing, got some help about that on reddit too.