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New art collector question about Pablo Marcos commission
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8 posts in this topic

Has anyone recently asked Pablo Marcos to do a commission for them? If so, can you tell me how your experience was? He's incredibly talented and I love his art. I've asked him to create something for me and he sent a very rough sketch. It makes me a little nervous after seeing the sketch. I mean to say this with as much respect as possible, I know he's older but I wonder what type of work he is creating now? 

 

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Its been about 6 years since he did my commission but he was very easy to work with. He posts regularly on FB with commissions he has done. While his art has changed as he has gotten older it still looks good.

https://www.facebook.com/pablomarcos.art

 

Here is a commission he just did that he posted on his FB. He still has it!

 

28951541_1754435721275467_8171487962849083392_o.thumb.jpg.de2bcecfc1dc426e4e34234d01647fbb.jpg

 

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Thank you Brian. I appreciate the response. I’m following him on Facebook and he has done some amazing art. We’ve gone back and forth on a few sketches so far and I havent received a sketch that reflects the art you posted. I requested a hulk and abomination commission and his fee is on the high end. I thought it would be a slam dunk. We’ll see how it turns out.

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Just out of curiosity to the OP, are you art directing this thing, or are you letting the artist be the artist? I'm seeing terms like "commission" and "sketch" thrown around in here and I'm trying to make sure I'm on the same page as everyone else.

What Brian posted is what I would consider a finished commissioned drawing. It may not be totally polished to the level of say, publication ready work, but it could be published (I've seen worse in print), and it's had a lot of work put into it. Every artist has their own working methods (search here for some recent conversation about Chaykin commissions for instance ;) ) I have no firsthand knowledge of how Marcos works.

But it's not uncommon for an artist to do rough sketches for approval, before committing the time to do the final drawn commission. It really is up to the commissioner to discuss with the artist exactly what the scope of work will be and what the price is, reflective of that.

Some artists might charge you $500 for a full figure drawing of the character of your choice, and allow no more input from the customer than that. For that $500, some guys will give you full rendered work, and some won't. The level of detail and polish applied is usually reflected in that artist's prices, which are generally as much as it typically commands. Guys that ask "too much" typically don't do many commissions, and guys that ask "too little" are often swamped and way behind on getting their commissions done (this is separate from inconsiderate artists who also are way behind on commissions, but for different reasons).

Some artists like to provide the commissioner a few options of possible rough compositions to choose from before they start working on that final drawing that's going to take them hours to complete. Some don't, and you get what you get.

Some collectors are very "hands on". They want a variety of options in the rough stages, and then don't liek those and demand more roughs be done. Some like to micromanage as the work progesses and want the artist to move an arm, change the hair, add detial here or there, etc. These hands on people are what artists would call something-I-can't-post-here-without-it-being-censored-by-the-site.

Some folks trust the artists they commission to do "their" work. i.e. they love an artists' version of Batman, and that artist has always drawn Batman without the fan's input before, so they leave him to do what he does best, he does his version of Batman. Sometimes the results are good. Sometimes they are outstanding. Sometimes a guy will get a commission and maybe feel let down. It is a bit of a gamble, asking someone to create a piece of work without knowing exactly what you'll get back.

For the folks that are very "hands on", riding the artist over details and compositional choices, they may get back exactly what they want in their commission, but A) many artists will tell you these are NOT representative of thier best work, and B) word gets around about the person commissioning certain types of pieces being a huge pain in the Batman to work with. It's not uncommon for folks to turn down doing commissions for these individuals.

So that all said, is it possible Marcos is just sending you roughs because he is trying to pin you down on what you are asking for before he puts in a ton of work on the drawing?

-e.

 

 

 

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On 4/3/2018 at 5:08 AM, ESeffinga said:

Just out of curiosity to the OP, are you art directing this thing, or are you letting the artist be the artist? I'm seeing terms like "commission" and "sketch" thrown around in here and I'm trying to make sure I'm on the same page as everyone else.

What Brian posted is what I would consider a finished commissioned drawing. It may not be totally polished to the level of say, publication ready work, but it could be published (I've seen worse in print), and it's had a lot of work put into it. Every artist has their own working methods (search here for some recent conversation about Chaykin commissions for instance ;) ) I have no firsthand knowledge of how Marcos works.

But it's not uncommon for an artist to do rough sketches for approval, before committing the time to do the final drawn commission. It really is up to the commissioner to discuss with the artist exactly what the scope of work will be and what the price is, reflective of that.

Some artists might charge you $500 for a full figure drawing of the character of your choice, and allow no more input from the customer than that. For that $500, some guys will give you full rendered work, and some won't. The level of detail and polish applied is usually reflected in that artist's prices, which are generally as much as it typically commands. Guys that ask "too much" typically don't do many commissions, and guys that ask "too little" are often swamped and way behind on getting their commissions done (this is separate from inconsiderate artists who also are way behind on commissions, but for different reasons).

Some artists like to provide the commissioner a few options of possible rough compositions to choose from before they start working on that final drawing that's going to take them hours to complete. Some don't, and you get what you get.

Some collectors are very "hands on". They want a variety of options in the rough stages, and then don't liek those and demand more roughs be done. Some like to micromanage as the work progesses and want the artist to move an arm, change the hair, add detial here or there, etc. These hands on people are what artists would call something-I-can't-post-here-without-it-being-censored-by-the-site.

Some folks trust the artists they commission to do "their" work. i.e. they love an artists' version of Batman, and that artist has always drawn Batman without the fan's input before, so they leave him to do what he does best, he does his version of Batman. Sometimes the results are good. Sometimes they are outstanding. Sometimes a guy will get a commission and maybe feel let down. It is a bit of a gamble, asking someone to create a piece of work without knowing exactly what you'll get back.

For the folks that are very "hands on", riding the artist over details and compositional choices, they may get back exactly what they want in their commission, but A) many artists will tell you these are NOT representative of thier best work, and B) word gets around about the person commissioning certain types of pieces being a huge pain in the Batman to work with. It's not uncommon for folks to turn down doing commissions for these individuals.

So that all said, is it possible Marcos is just sending you roughs because he is trying to pin you down on what you are asking for before he puts in a ton of work on the drawing?

-e.

 

 

 

Thanks ESeffinga. I appreciate the detailed response. I'm pretty experienced working with creatives. I'm still working with Pablo. Once it's finished I'll post the roughs (sketches) tight pencils and then the final art. 

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