In plain words
How commissions work
The brief
You describe one piece: what it is, the look, your budget, the deadline, how many sketch rounds and how you'll use it. Posting is free and your name and email are never shown on the board.
Proposals
Vetted illustrators reply with their price, how many days they need, how many sketch rounds they include, and samples of their work. You can shortlist and compare them side by side. Nothing is charged until you choose one.
Payment held until you approve
When you choose a proposal you pay the illustrator's quoted price — there's no buyer fee. We hold it while the work happens. The illustrator is paid when you approve the final art, less our 12% fee, which comes out of their side.
Sketch rounds
A round is one sketch you can approve or send back with changes. Click anywhere on a sketch to pin a comment exactly where you want something different. Once you approve a sketch the illustrator paints the final. You can ask for one more change on the final art; anything beyond the agreed rounds can be agreed with the illustrator in the project thread.
Usage rights
Personal use. For your own non-commercial use: frame it, gift it, share it online. Not for sale or advertising.
Commercial use. Use it on the product, book or game it was made for, including selling and advertising it. The illustrator keeps copyright and may show it in their portfolio.
Exclusive commercial. Commercial use, and the illustrator will not resell or relicense this image to anyone else. They may still show it in their portfolio unless you agree otherwise in the thread.
If things go wrong
If the illustrator goes quiet, or misses the deadline by more than a week without agreeing a new date with you, write to us from your project page and we refund you in full. If you decide to stop after the sketch rounds, we split the payment fairly for the work done and refund the rest. Before you pay, you can withdraw a brief at any time.