Today, on the chopping block: Commission-Control

Commission-Control is a place for artists and clients to connect, and manage their commissions. This one is a natural expansion of the Portrait Adoption project, but less 'already finished.' With Portrait Adoption, there is no appreciable risk. The client is buying something that has already been completed, with an option to change things, but not to start from scratch, and involves no tools for interactive in-stream modification. I wanted to keep it that way, because the premise of Portrait Adoption is that you buy what you see, you get what you buy, and you're done. Simple, streamlined and there's no pressure on me to make sure that my artists deliver what they've promised. From the very beginning, that was a big part of what I wanted at PA.

But there is a community need for a way to handle commissions that, by their nature, require interaction and modification. The customization option didn't easily allow for sketch approval, for example. Changing eye colors is one thing, but commissioning a portrait or illustration from scratch when the client has a picture in their head is a very particular process - one that doesn't fit neatly within the established PA site.

So, following some brainstorming at the forums, the Commission-Control project began to take form:

( Project Details )

Conclusions

This is a fantastic idea. There's a necessary place for it in the art world. I want to make this happen.

I am, however, not going to make it happen out of the goodness of my heart - I am all dried up on general charity, and I know from experience that building a service like this is time-consuming like nobody's business, even though it will require very little to keep it going once it's in motion. I need to spend that development time working to pay my bills.

I'm on a serious hunt for paid coding work... and this project requires said coding work. I want this project to happen. So, maybe I can do both with this.

Taking a page from the Sketch Fest site, I am going to crowdfund this project. You can see from the above link that the domain is reserved, a basic site with login and registration has been started. It will take about $450 worth of work to finish getting the very basics in place: login, registration, small, unmoderated artist galleries, project entry, contract upload (but no template - you provide your own), basic communication (logged at the site and emailed), and private project artwork posting, with approval tracking. Another $250 would get all the payment tools in place, including tracking off-site payments and managing the escrow system. Another $200 would put the contract template service in place. Deadlines and alerts are a little tricky... probably $200 there, too, but more info once I get further into the guts. Another $50 gets you gallery search tools. Peer reviews and other improvements I can't even foresee at this point will be available in the future (options to commission writing as well as artwork? print services? advertising?). (And let me note that as someone who has in the past been a client buying webpages from other people, this is about half price for a project of this magnitude.)

Paypal's limitation on refunds is 60 days. If you donate to the project and we don't hit the $450 cap to get it up and running by February 1, your donation will be fully refunded. Anyone who donates $5 or more will receive supporter benefits throughout beta testing and for one full year after the site is out of beta testing. Anyone who donates $20 or more will receive supporter benefits for life. Work starts immediately once we've made the $450 threshold.

Make Commission-Control happen!

Don't have money? You may use EMG credits! Remember that EMG-Zine articles, fiction and poetry pay in credits - submit work to support this project! Spreading the word helps, too! :)

$367.50 / $450 to Commission-Control. 82% done!

Wednesdaily

It IS Wednesday, right? Where is this month going?!

More chopping block posts done... still have to do Printing Services, Custom Tarot, Convention Collection and Torn World. I think that's all. Maybe? Then I get to go back to some of the unresolved issues and make big decisions. It sort of floors me - normal people would consider any single one of these projects a full time job. I do all of them AND a job. No wonder I've gone stark raving mad... >.>

Do take a moment to weigh in on any that you have any interest in - input is not going un-noticed, and failing to speak up now on issues you have (including improvements you'd like to see) may mean that I don't consider your ideas in next year's workload, or possibly that the project you're interested in goes away entirely. http://ellenmillion.livejournal.com/tag/chopping%20block

Coding now, and maybe a load of laundry, and a walk in the woods with the dog - my ankle is feeling loads better, and Norway needs some running time. Then lunch, and a shower, and more coding. My life is thrilling. :P

I've got holiday socialization planned on Friday - mmm.... seafood!

(Also, a reminder that the Clearance page is getting slimmer and slimmer, and everything goes away in five days!)

Muse Fusion - Tuesday!

Next Tuesday, on Solstice, is the next Torn World Muse Fusion! Please join us with prompts and questions that we can answer for you with short stories, poetry and artwork.

You can watch for it here - I'll list a link for you when it happens! :)

I am collecting sponsors for stories and artwork as I work throughout the day, and I'm donating half of what I earn to the Severn Hospice in Val's name. For those of you who knew her and live close enough, her funeral will be on Thursday: http://www.myfamilyannouncements.co.uk/shropshirestar/view/269678/higgins-valerie

(The site will allow you to leave messages, presumably that will reach the family - you do have to register at the site and enable cookies, and the comments are moderated.)

Today, on the chopping block: Printing Services

Once I had finally found a good system for high quality prints, I wanted to share this ability with artists everywhere. At that point, on-line printing options were non-existent. As I expanded the gift shop, I offered these products to artists directly, with their own artwork. I envisioned a Cafepress/Zazzle storefront option long before those sites were ideas in their creators brains.

First, I was going to build my own - I used that same greymatter blogging engine that powered Portrait Adoption and EMG for so long, and laboriously built a few beta-test sites. They... were extensive to build and maintain - far too involved to do for free, and it hadn't occurred to me then to charge for them. When Portrait Adoption and the giftshop were moved to php, I hired a programmer to build me a site that would let an artist upload their artwork, have me approve print files, and offer them little custom-made shopping pages that would order from me and let me pay the artists anything above the base pricing. The programmer worked fast and did a fine job (I hired a number of programmers about that time...), but... the flow of the site was clunky. I still had to do a lot, there were some bugs (normal in beta testing), and my profit margin was minuscule. I let it run for a while, with a handful of beta testers, and sold one print. "This," I said to myself, "is not a good plan."

I let those beta testers keep their sites until the domain expired, some three years later, but never took the project further, and of course, just last year, I pulled the plug on every product but prints.

I do still provide prints for a select dozen or so people. My prints are - and I'm not exaggerating - without compare. They are high quality, with a fast turnaround, and exceptionally carefully done. They are not nearly as cheap as other printing services, because I use only the highest quality papers and inks, and I've learned many (expensive) lessons about how to price so I don't screw myself. I do prints for a few locals, a few not-so locals, and a few big names - people who already know how to provide good quality print files, are good to work with and have, over the years, done good consistent business with me. Most of them don't order huge quantities at once, but they are, generally, steady.

I don't make a ton with these services, but they do keep my printers in action (which is important - you don't want printers of this type sitting around getting clogs!), and they pay for themselves.

Ironically, I've completely automated this service through the lilypad (the EMG backend) in terms of uploading, managing and ordering prints, but none of my regulars use it... preferring to keep using ftp and email. Go figure! At least they know what they're doing and asking for, so it doesn't waste too much of my time.

I see no real reason to stop providing existing clients my print services, but I'm not terribly interested in offering them generally. Possibly in the future, this service (and maybe a related Limited Edition service that uses certificates like PA does) will become publicly available. But for now? Nah. Not that I hate doing prints, but there isn't enough reward to go through the learning curve that comes with new clients. This is off my radar entirely right now.

Best Christmas Tree Ever...

http://icestories.exploratorium.edu/dispatches/like-no-other-the-south-pole-christmas-tree/