Fantasy Art Commissions: Have You Ever Commissioned Some Artwork?

[CleverNickName]

My niece is an aspiring graphic artist, and she's slowly learning the industry (she's in high school). I'll occasionally commission her to create character sketches for my D&D characters, both to help her develop her skills/business acumen, and also because her character sketches are really cute. Normally I would do my own artwork (I was a freelance artist once upon a time), but I want to support her as best I can.

But I'm not sure how helpful I can be nowadays. The industry really has changed since the mid-1990s when I was slinging paint and trying to earn a living.

Anyway. Have you, dear ENWorld member, ever commissioned an artist to create a piece of visual art for you? Are you an artist, and do you take commissions? Choose the answer(s) that best fit.

For the sake of this poll, "commissioned" means that you agreed to pay actual money to an artist in exchange for their services. Also for the sake of this poll, "artwork" means human-generated images, such as paintings or photography...not AI-generated images. If you would like to discuss/debate whether or not generative AI should be considered "art," or if you want to tailor the definition of "AI" to fit a particular argument, there are several other threads (like this one, or this one, or this one, or this one, or...) that you can use.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Yes, tens of thousands of dollars worth

*edit Over the years, there are some artists that are extremely reliable with fast turn around times, if anyone is looking for art in the future:

Eric Lofgren
Billy Blue
Brian "Glad" Thomas
Rich Hershey
JE Shields
Bryan Syme
Heidi Maddalena
Dinky Ramos
Camilo Palma Barria
Seve Gabriel Marcelo
John Latta
Liz Courts
Chet Minton

And many more

 

[John Dallman]

I've commissioned lots of art for the GURPS fanzine I co-edit, The Path of Cunning. Dan Smith and Kurt Wilcken are the artists I've used the most. We also use a lot of Dover Books' electronic clip-art.

 

[Morrus]

Thousands of times over 25 years!

 

[Bill Zebub]

Here's a character portrait I commissioned from Forrester Smith:

"Aobh"
Dunlending character in The One Ring

 

[Ulfgeir]

Have commissioned the artist Håkan Ackegård to draw a couple of my characters. I also have 3 different ones by an artist that I think is Henrik Tamm (not sure as they were commissioned in the early 90's, and alI have is the signature which reads "Tamm 91". I like the one he made fro my KUlt-character. the other two not so much.).

 

[schneeland]

I commissioned a few pieces for personal use or as gift for other people. I don't have an exact count, but I it was certainly lower than what the professional creators here have mentioned (probably somewhere between 5 and 10) - it has always been more of a special occasion thing.

 

[Golden Bee]

Dreamgirl/ Callback by Kath Ginther. So good. Makes me happy whenever I see them.

 

[Distracted DM]

I've commissioned art several times; twice for business (see my avatar), twice for personal game commemoration, a couple for maps... but by far my largest $$$ has gone into Patreon-backing. Mostly maps, but some folk that make cool portraits etc. that I'll end up using in games are mixed in there.

 

[Kannik]

I have indeed! For games and personal use (see my avatar) and also for teaching a quick Shaolin hand form at a convention.