The Quest for Requests on Deviant Art

Things over on Deviant Art have been going pretty well.  It came as quite a surprise when I started receiving a few requests, despite being a relative newcomer to the site.  The first request was for a game I had never played before and the second was for literature, something I’d rather not do (the only requests I accept are for artwork).  Finally, my third request was for Rayman and an original character, which I took to with gusto.  It was my first real request, after all, which was quite exciting indeed.

My first request for DA user NewbornRay.

After this, I decided it was time to write a journal entry detailing what kinds of requests I would and would not accept to avoid any confusion in the future, along with the announcement that three openings were available.  Within probably fifteen minutes, I received four requests, the accepted three being for Jak and Daxter, Rayman, and Kirby, respectively.  So far, the first two of these are complete and can be seen below:

The ottsels were fun to draw, but why did I pick a water scene? Water is hard!

Ly seems to be pretty popular in my gallery. Okay, Ubisoft, bring her back in the next Rayman game, okay?!

Additionally, another cool thing about requests is that they motivate me to draw things I wouldn’t normally do.  If it turns out that my requests are well-received and continue to be in demand, and once my artwork improves to a level I am more satisfied with, perhaps commissions are in my future.  That is why I’m now recording the times the various stages of my drawings take and accumulating examples of my artwork at various steps of the process, as I have noticed that other artists who take commissions typically offer line art, characters with simple to no backgrounds, and characters with complex backgrounds as their main categories.

Of course, I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to prepare.  If anything, I’m getting valuable practice so that my artwork can finally reach the level I have always dreamed of.  And if anyone here is interested in making requests, my request journal is here, which will be updated from time to time when progress is made on my current requests and when new slots open up.  I’m guessing I’ll be ready for new requests sometime in November….

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