Serenia -- A Place of Tranquility

[Peter Toth]

Hello Guild,


This image represents my 3-hour doodle of the day, and as always, I was so engrossed in my cartography that my brain only registered about 5 minutes. As always, I am constantly testing new methods to make my topography ever more realistic, using the poor man's software alternatives to Photoshop, Gimp and Wilbur.

For those atlas-style cartographers (Pixie, Arsheesh?), could you let me know how I'm progressing?

I appreciate any feedback, and if you want to commission a piece, I'd be ever so grateful to create a map for you.

Thanks,

Peter

Serenia.png

[JoshStolarz]

Well Peter, as somebody who has no experience in this atlas style I have to say your map looks great. I really love all the detail you’ve brought out and the height you have given the terrain. Amazing how powerful free programs are these days honestly. Goes to show that you can create something awesome with tools available to everyone.

Nicely done again!
- Josh

[Peter Toth]

Thank so much, Josh, for responding and giving a critique; as an artist struggling to find sources of commission, I value every piece of feedback I get. If this style is appealing to you, I'm currently working on another piece that (I hope) will be somewhat more realistic and appealing to the eye than the last.

Again, thank you.

Peter

[Tiana]

Thank so much, Josh, for responding and giving a critique; as an artist struggling to find sources of commission, I value every piece of feedback I get.

Feedback by other artists who are also trying to get work never got me a commission. (not that it's bad, it does improve your skills) A public portfolio on a site where someone would make orders of custom artwork did. I started by making a Fiverr; I don't recommend this but that is how I ended up with my initial portfolio. If your goal is to see commissions rolling in, make a portfolio that shows your best pieces of art that represent what you'd like to be hired for, and make it clear via social channels that you are open to be hired for more of these.

For example, this forum is one such social channel. Not only should you be saying you take commissions in your posts (which is a great move for sales) but you need to have something other than your posts of map arts for people to refer to, generally a link in the signature which points to your portfolio is what most people do here. Over the years, my portfolio is the number 1 source of commissions for me, so don't discredit the idea of just making a small simple blog with your art pieces in it. My blog isn't fancy, it's not a 'sales funnel' but it converts me enough commissions that I can almost live on fantasy maps alone (I also edit photos for real estate).

So that's what I would recommend, on top of saying that you are available for commissions, making a simple one page site or a blog that shows off some of your art that can be found via Google and used if you ever run paid advertisements. How do you get people to visit your site? If you ever go that way, Josh's example of the 25 textures that you can only get if you sign up for his newsletter is a good example of a basic sales funnel, you offer a valuable token which people exchange for being on your contact list in the future. I haven't done this (a free asset pack for newsletter signups) but I did something similar, what I did was make a list of all the free map tools available so now when people search for them, they find my list, and if they lose their minds trying to make a map with these, they come back to me. I imagine Josh's free parchment paper and KMAlexander's fantasy brush sets create a similar effect where people try with those tools and then some of them fail and come back asking about commissions and others are successful and then we're just happy we inspired a new artist.

Of course it's possible someone might see your thread here and want to commission you. If you want that to happen, you should put contact info in your signature, since new members can't PM until they make 5 posts. Along with that, you should add a call to action, indicating you want people to contact you if they want your art.

That's my advice for how to get commissions in brief. Good luck. It can be a bit slow getting started but eventually the ball gets rolling. I always have enough commissions to keep me busy now, just getting those first few is the challenge. Don't give up, be persistent, and consider making passive forms of income via asset packs, stock art, etc if you need a bit of extra room.