Hey, I was wondering if there was a rule against asking for requests from artists (If they are willing, of course.), I checked the rules and there doesn't seem to be any rule on it.

i dont think that there are rules against it, but asking for requests can easily seen as impolite and annoying.

Remember that most artists have spent thousands of hours learning and practicing to learn their trade. and a great many of them are trying to make a living at this.

ASking for requests is often akin to going into a store and asking for free food, or free product. You'll just making the employee you're talking to uncomfortable.

your BEST bet is to keep an eye out for people who advertise doing requests -- but most artists will typically do these in certain circumstances ("I want to draw dogs, so request dogs please.") at special times ("request stream!") or similar. Other artists may have cheap "pay what you like" request streams. --twitter's probably the best place to keep an eye out for those)

It's very important to remember that there is another person on the other side of the keyboard and that art takes a lot of time to make. they probably say somewhere on their profile if they do or don't do requests. OBEY THAT.

So. If you're going to make a request... be VERY polite. make it quick too:

"I think your art is really amazing! I really like the one you did the other day with the rabbit and the frog! :D I don't know if you do requests, but I'd love to see the character in my profile picture drawn in your style! (There's a char sheet in my pinned tweet, if you want) But I totally understand if you'd rather not. I'm sure you're very busy! I hope you have a great day!"

Do not be demanding. Do not just say "hi" and nothing else. That makes them waste time replying to you. be upfront with what you want. That means TELL THEM that you'd like a request. Do not spend a few days telling them how COOL their art is, and talking about their characters and stories only to them say "SO.... can I get a request, now that we're friends?" Be friendly and accept their refusal. And above all else, appreciate them. tell them what you like about their art. Artists like being told that their art makes people feel things. Don't make it weird though. ("This picture makes me remember visiting my girlfriend last year" or "It reminds me of a dream I had last year".... not a complicated and long story about your dream or your girlfriend or whatever. a sentence, maybe two... (the exception MIGHT be if you had really strong emotions about a picture, but KEEP IT POSITIVE, an artist doesn't want to hear the long tragic story about how your dog died. :C ) (and if you had strong emotions, don't 'ruin' your story with a art request.)

(think of it all this way: you're walking down the street. someone comes up and tells you you're looking nice today, that's a godo attitude, yes it is, I really like those shoes... then asks you for money. Everything you just said is spoiled because they weren't saying it to be nice. they want money and know that you're more likely to give them money if they flatter you first. Telling a deeply emotional story and can-i-have-five-buck-plz is just flat out manipulative.

So

dont' ask for requests. but if you do, be short, be polite, don't send a form letter "hi plz draw my dog plz" ... accept no for an answer, even before you hit send.

and save up money to buy art instead.

Appreciate artists with money. :)

OH, and don't fucking ask for stuff that the artists doesn't usually draw. If they don't draw vore, don't ask for vore. c_c

SnowWolf said:
Remember that most artists have spent thousands of hours learning and practicing to learn their trade. and a great many of them are trying to make a living at this.

ASking for requests is often akin to going into a store and asking for free food, or free product. You'll just making the employee you're talking to uncomfortable.

your BEST bet is to keep an eye out for people who advertise doing requests -- but most artists will typically do these in certain circumstances ("I want to draw dogs, so request dogs please.") at special times ("request stream!") or similar. Other artists may have cheap "pay what you like" request streams. --twitter's probably the best place to keep an eye out for those)

It's very important to remember that there is another person on the other side of the keyboard and that art takes a lot of time to make. they probably say somewhere on their profile if they do or don't do requests. OBEY THAT.

So. If you're going to make a request... be VERY polite. make it quick too:

"I think your art is really amazing! I really like the one you did the other day with the rabbit and the frog! :D I don't know if you do requests, but I'd love to see the character in my profile picture drawn in your style! (There's a char sheet in my pinned tweet, if you want) But I totally understand if you'd rather not. I'm sure you're very busy! I hope you have a great day!"

Do not be demanding. Do not just say "hi" and nothing else. That makes them waste time replying to you. be upfront with what you want. That means TELL THEM that you'd like a request. Do not spend a few days telling them how COOL their art is, and talking about their characters and stories only to them say "SO.... can I get a request, now that we're friends?" Be friendly and accept their refusal. And above all else, appreciate them. tell them what you like about their art. Artists like being told that their art makes people feel things. Don't make it weird though. ("This picture makes me remember visiting my girlfriend last year" or "It reminds me of a dream I had last year".... not a complicated and long story about your dream or your girlfriend or whatever. a sentence, maybe two... (the exception MIGHT be if you had really strong emotions about a picture, but KEEP IT POSITIVE, an artist doesn't want to hear the long tragic story about how your dog died. :C ) (and if you had strong emotions, don't 'ruin' your story with a art request.)

(think of it all this way: you're walking down the street. someone comes up and tells you you're looking nice today, that's a godo attitude, yes it is, I really like those shoes... then asks you for money. Everything you just said is spoiled because they weren't saying it to be nice. they want money and know that you're more likely to give them money if they flatter you first. Telling a deeply emotional story and can-i-have-five-buck-plz is just flat out manipulative.

So

dont' ask for requests. but if you do, be short, be polite, don't send a form letter "hi plz draw my dog plz" ... accept no for an answer, even before you hit send.

and save up money to buy art instead.

Appreciate artists with money. :)

OH, and don't fucking ask for stuff that the artists doesn't usually draw. If they don't draw vore, don't ask for vore. c_c

Ok, thank you for your help uwu
Unfortunately I don't have the money for comms, otherwise I wouldn't exactly be here, lol.

UnknownCleric2420 said:
Ok, thank you for your help uwu
Unfortunately I don't have the money for comms, otherwise I wouldn't exactly be here, lol.

Some artists do requests, those ones have it stated in their bios.
Also, if you ask for free art in the forum it will get locked.
Other than that, exactly what snowwolf said.

On a semi-related note, didn't we used to have a megathread or the like where people would make requests and any artists interested would then do said requests? Or am I thinking somewhere else?

I feel like I remember such a thread in e6-blue theme, yet I could be misremembering.

REGARDLESS. There are some places that do have such forums, I know I've run into a few times over the years, I don't really check into such things often, so they may all be dead by this point, but if you really want requests I'd also look into artists that have their own discords or forums or art-sties that have "request" sections.

Any forums or topics that are about making requests and are made either by a specific artist or have artists that have, in fact, participated in them. Make sure to follow any thread-specific rules, for example some may have a rule about only making 1 request or following a specific format to make it easy to go through all the requests.

These are generally much more socially acceptable than asking any single artist or group of artists directly, though I'm not sure you have any more chance of success.

The thing is, artists are generally pretty creative people anyway and when it comes to free work they'd usually rather just do their own ideas, but I do personally know a couple of artists that go over such forums from time to time and have found something that interested them enough to actually draw.

When it comes to requesting things from them directly, however, it's often difficult, if not outright impossible with some artists, to not sound like you don't think they deserve to be paid for their work. Requests are always extremely touchy subjects with artists, especially when someone approaches them directly. To many artists a request is little more than someone saying "I want you to work but not get paid."

Other than that, the advice given by the others here is also accurate, though I'll add just a bit more to add onto what Snow said. Do not ever beat around the bush, they said it, but I'm going to hit on it again because it's important. Be direct about what you want in all cases, don't try to befriend anyone, artist or otherwise, for what they can give you other than companionship, and, finally, as Snow said, do not waste their time. No one likes having their time wasted.

You may have a bad day, get frustrated at everyone saying "no" or simply be in a bad mood or feel like things are unfair, keep that to yourself and, above all, never, ever, ever, EVER infer that they don't deserve to get paid or say so directly. Never infer or say that what they're charging is too much. Artists are, in fact, friends with other artists and, even if not, they do talk among each other, especially about rude people, non-payers, etc. Saying either of those things is a perfect way to get all artists to over-charge or outright ignore you, it doesn't matter if you genuinely think either of those things, keep those thoughts, and any similar thoughts, entirely to yourself, whether commissioning or requesting.

There's an entire sea of artists out there, if one won't do what you want for the price you want, even if that price is zero, there's bound to be someone that will, and if not now then later. Maybe the artist that's willing doesn't have the same style, if that's the case you have to decide whether what you want and the price you want it at is worth the change in style, asking an artist to do another's style is pretty much a surefire way to drastically increase the price, decline, or even yell at you. Don't try to haggle or negotiate them down, artists generally will charge you less than quoted anyway if they feel they didn't do well enough, if they simply want to, if it took significantly less time than thought, if there was a significant delay on their side, or any other number of reasons as long as you're a polite and respectable customer.

Finally, if you have a specific character or characters you know you're going to be requesting, have references, if they're "original"/custom then the first bit of art for them should be a reference, if you only ever buy one piece of art and request all the rest the one piece you buy should be a reference. If your character is from a video game or the like, try to have screenshots, at least, and still try to invest in at least one reference sheet per character you're going to do requests for unless they're highly similar to one you already have, trust me, artists are much more willing to draw anything when they don't have to try to decipher your imagination through words. You can always tell them about any specific changes that you want made as small changes are much easier to imagine than a whole character, they don't need to know WHY you want a change, just what you want changed (don't tell them a story). References for poses and references for characters will make everything much easier and quicker for any artist and, in such, less work, which means less time spent on a request which means people are more likely to be willing to do your request.

Sorry if I repeated myself and for being kinda long-winded, also don't mean to come off as aggressive or accusative if I have, just informative. I know text can "sound" different to people than what I meant it to be so I'm just stating that I'm just trying to be informative and helpful, nothing else.

SnowWolf said:
Remember that most artists have spent thousands of hours learning and practicing to learn their trade. and a great many of them are trying to make a living at this.

ASking for requests is often akin to going into a store and asking for free food, or free product. You'll just making the employee you're talking to uncomfortable.

your BEST bet is to keep an eye out for people who advertise doing requests -- but most artists will typically do these in certain circumstances ("I want to draw dogs, so request dogs please.") at special times ("request stream!") or similar. Other artists may have cheap "pay what you like" request streams. --twitter's probably the best place to keep an eye out for those)

It's very important to remember that there is another person on the other side of the keyboard and that art takes a lot of time to make. they probably say somewhere on their profile if they do or don't do requests. OBEY THAT.

So. If you're going to make a request... be VERY polite. make it quick too:

"I think your art is really amazing! I really like the one you did the other day with the rabbit and the frog! :D I don't know if you do requests, but I'd love to see the character in my profile picture drawn in your style! (There's a char sheet in my pinned tweet, if you want) But I totally understand if you'd rather not. I'm sure you're very busy! I hope you have a great day!"

Do not be demanding. Do not just say "hi" and nothing else. That makes them waste time replying to you. be upfront with what you want. That means TELL THEM that you'd like a request. Do not spend a few days telling them how COOL their art is, and talking about their characters and stories only to them say "SO.... can I get a request, now that we're friends?" Be friendly and accept their refusal. And above all else, appreciate them. tell them what you like about their art. Artists like being told that their art makes people feel things. Don't make it weird though. ("This picture makes me remember visiting my girlfriend last year" or "It reminds me of a dream I had last year".... not a complicated and long story about your dream or your girlfriend or whatever. a sentence, maybe two... (the exception MIGHT be if you had really strong emotions about a picture, but KEEP IT POSITIVE, an artist doesn't want to hear the long tragic story about how your dog died. :C ) (and if you had strong emotions, don't 'ruin' your story with a art request.)

(think of it all this way: you're walking down the street. someone comes up and tells you you're looking nice today, that's a godo attitude, yes it is, I really like those shoes... then asks you for money. Everything you just said is spoiled because they weren't saying it to be nice. they want money and know that you're more likely to give them money if they flatter you first. Telling a deeply emotional story and can-i-have-five-buck-plz is just flat out manipulative.

So

dont' ask for requests. but if you do, be short, be polite, don't send a form letter "hi plz draw my dog plz" ... accept no for an answer, even before you hit send.

and save up money to buy art instead.

Appreciate artists with money. :)

OH, and don't fucking ask for stuff that the artists doesn't usually draw. If they don't draw vore, don't ask for vore. c_c

It really isn't. It's more akin to going to a store and saying "hey, you guys should sell [product here]"

While not explicitly against the rules, people do see it as obnoxious and it can count as spamming(as most people tend to spam "HEY DO THIS" on multiple images, either on the same day or over time).
My advise is not to ask in the forums, comments, and/or blips, and to stick to DMailing a artist about it ONLY ONCE and leaving them alone if they do not reply.