Artistic Integrity

Please don't violate your artistic integrity on my account. Don't draw something that feels wrong to you, or even just "not your style". You can just draw two goldfish swimming, and I'll still pay you happily, so long as you enjoyed drawing it. The best art comes from artists drawing what they like, rather than something they dislike or are bored by.

My commission ideas are only suggestions. If you feel uncomfortable, please do not draw them! Draw something else. Feel free to ignore all those words in my too-long references and descriptions, or just to skim-read.

Copyright

Please let me know BEFORE you start work, if you need other rules.

Ideally I want both of us (you the artist, and me, the commissioner) to be able to do whatever we like with this art, without having to worry about future-us or our heirs getting grabby and legalistic.

We both agree that:

1) We'll let each other know if there are images we'd rather not be publicly associated with. If so, we'll come up with a way to "anonymize" the image so that the other person can still do whatever they like with the anonymized image (eg removing signatures, changing faces, etc). Most images should be fine without modification, but this rule is just to ensure we're not dragging eachother's name through the mud, or shouting to the world about our private fantasies.

2) So we can both use the art however we like, we need a loose license for the work, which the artist chooses, eg:

  • Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. This is the default I will assume if you don't specify: I use it for my own work.
  • Some other creative commons license, agreed beforehand.
  • "Work for hire", so I get the copyright instead. In which case, I release it under CC0 anyway, so you can still do whatever you like with it, too.
  • Some other agreement we come up with, which I'll note on your art's page so I don't forget (eg see ).

    • 3) Unless otherwise agreed, either of us may use the commission in any way we want. This includes copying it, profiting from it, amending it, putting it in your portfolio, charging for it on your patreon, putting it on T-shirts, tattooing it on our butts... whatever you like. Note: in 20+ years of commissioning I have not so far made any use for profit of commissions: I just don't like being shackled by copyright.

    4) We agree to respect the copyrights of all other artists I've commissioned, and any of their custom terms.

    I agree that:

    1) If you have granted me the ability to modify the image, I will not deliberately remove your signatures, unless you ask me to. If I do something to it that might remove the signature as a side-effect (eg cropping the image), I'll try to fix that (eg by copy/pasting the signature within the cropped area), and check with you that it's OK. [See Sergio's page for an example where an artist graciously permitted this].

    2) I will credit you for your work, unless you ask me not to. If I put an image on a web page, print it out, or make it publically available, I'll take reasonable steps to give you full credit for it. Please let me know what links and contact info you'd like used in this case.