The long and the short of it is that I'm unemployed again following the end of a contract position of several months and for the sake of staying busy, have been trying to paint figures and drum up business for commission work. The down side is that nobody's been inquiring and there's been a lot of stuff going on life-wise that's making me lose focus of things I ought to be taking care of - I thrive best with a routine, and right now I don't have one. Driving home in the car this morning, I figgered I could kill several birds with one stone: I'll try to hold a little random drawing giveaway thingy for Followers of my site with a prize of a figure painted by me, get some feedback from readers and casual passers-by, draw attention to the fact that I do actually offer my painting services for hire, and keep me busy during the long days while my wife is at work and the kids are at school and daycare.
The Rules:
- The time period for entering starts when you read this update and ends at midnight, US Eastern Standard Time, on Friday, March 5th, 2010.
- You must be a Follower of my blog, either existing or new - hey, the more the merrier!
- You must leave some sort of useful comment. By "useful," I mean either a suggestion as to improving my painting as viewable through older posts here or by way of figures that have made their way into my painting site's Gallery; some advice or tip I could use to improve my painting blog/website overall; some idea to try and help me speed up the seemingly laborious process of trying to assemble and convert figures for my Chaos Space Marine army; suggestions as to topics for future Hobby Tips; or even a cheerful comment to help brighten my day.
- After the entry period ends at midnight on March 5th, I will randomly pick a Follower who has made a "useful" comment and that lucky soul will get essentially what amounts to a free painting commission out of me on a Single Figure of their choice per the Commission guidelines on my painting website. I don't care what brand, I don't care what style, I don't care if it's a new technique, I don't even really care what color - my "painting toolbox" is very deep, as it were.
- (Out of consideration for me being unemployed, just trying to liven up things, and trying to turn my luck around, the winner will need to pay shipping and/or purchase costs of the figure in question for me to both A) get my hands on something to paint, and B) get that painted something in the hands of the winner of this thing. Again, the Commission guidelines on my painting website should clarify most details - except the painting of the winner's figure is FREE!!1!)
- Um, the specifications for the figure, intended paint scheme, and "periodic progress updates" will be posted publicly, so all the non-winners get to share in the fun. (I'm also inclined to take suggestions on the theoretical work-in-progress, too, as I'm always trying to improve my skills BUT the final say as to the figure's appearance is between me and the random winner - Sorry!)
- I'm thinking I'll have to leave conversions out of this giveaway as well, as that that would open a whole other can of worms and increase the working time on the figure. That being said: gap-filling, pinning, posing of original parts, and everything else is still on the table.
Have at it, folks! Thanks!
Keep your head up, pal. The best advice I can give you in getting your commission service off the ground is use eBay to get your name out there, as well as posting your work in places like DakkaDakka and Warseer. Put links back to your blog in all your forum signatures.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you have Golden Demons under your belt, pimp that fact HARD. Always have links to high-quality pics of your winning pieces in every forum post and eBay listing you place.
Your paint jobs are always inspiring; I know I've loved your work for years. Even if I only found your blog a couple of months ago, your work has cropped up several time on forums back in the day.
ReplyDeleteIt's unfortunate that you've fallen on hard times, but hopefully this little publicity stunt helps. You may also want to post what sort of work you do, as maybe someone online here has a lead on a possible job?
Lastly, I don't know how eager you are for work, or what your prices are, but I just naturally assume you want more than I can afford, since the quality of your work is so high. Do you have a link to a generic price-list that you work from?
Whatever the case, I hope things pick up for you soon.
Cheers!
Oh der... the link is in the post several times. Actually those prices really aren't bad, at all, considering the quality of the work.
ReplyDeletehey, I've been following your site for a while now, So far I used your technique of blending to paint my word bearers (when I find that camera I'll post them up!). May I suggest you post for painting tutorials up? There are too well put together but so few. And great job on your index of painting techniques. Top notch articles!
ReplyDeletekeep it up Tinweasel
This page was the best reference I ever saw on building commission sales:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=19590&st=30
It's a fine line to tread though, because you can over commit yourself and end up losing work because of the time frame ("I can get to that in a year" syndrome)
I would suggest you that you place a ction in your blog where you show your best personal work and specially the golden demon piece, with that offer to paint it to that level remember the more prominent your service apears in the places you can put it the most it will atract attention and that should get in turn more customers.
ReplyDeleteand about the employment part I hope you get it soon.
Sorry you've fallen on hard times. I may be joining you in the next few weeks :( Just remember, this too shall pass.
ReplyDeleteAs for your site, I'd suggest putting some thumbnails of some Tyranids and Blood Angels. They're hot right now, and Blood Angels are going to be even hotter in April. Maybe make some kind of a Space Hulk deal. It might be a bit late for that, but you never know.
I would also suggest offering a "Tabletop Quality" service that's cheaper, but you could get larger groups done and that would open up a new customer base, those that just want to get their stuff painted quickly.
This is more for your army building woes but try to use the blog to set goals publicly. Nothing motivates me more than the thought of the guys at my FLGS busting me for not getting something painted. I've also seen the personal paint offs and challenges on CMON keep people motivated.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your recent bad luck.
It's obviously past midnight of March 5th, so I just wanted to thank everyone who's offered ideas, suggestions, and comments. I'll be doing the random drawing shortly of one lucky person's name out the 7 folks who "helped me out," as it were, and make an official announcement of the winner shortly.
ReplyDelete