Do you commission art of your characters?

[Vars]

Do you guys have some characters you prefer and/or use more often than others?
Do you commission art for any of your characters?

If you do or don't - why?
Do you draw your own characters?
If you commission art, how large is your collection, how long have you been at it, do you have any favorite artists or pieces you'd like to show?

I know a lot of people make RP characters and then snag some image off the internet with "they look like this, that's good enough," and just end it there. That's fine- I've done that too. A lot of my characters started out that way.
But characters I reused for a few years got upgraded a bit and special art commissioned just for them.

I've been looking around the characters section of this site (btw hi, I'm new) and it seems like most people either don't reuse their characters often or don't show off more than one image? Or maybe I'm just making totally wrong assumptions here.

Anyway, yes, your art collections. How obsessed are you with your original characters?
I've over 300 art pieces for one of mine.... But in my defense I've been collecting since 2004.

 

[Mu]

I have three roleplays running with the same main character. I play this cute ass demon boi and @Hana plays his lover. I did a mass commission once on another site and so far have two couple pieces and four pieces of the guy and 4 pieces for his girl. I'm still waiting for more and I'm pretty excited, to be honest 8D.

I rarely draw my own characters because I'm not very skillful, so I'm afraid of ruining the character's image for me. I usually doodle chibis and stuff like that, or headshots/busts instead of full body. But I'm always scouring the free art sections of forums I'm in because I'm cheap, hehe~

I'd say I'm hecka obsessed with my babies.

This one is my favourite piece by someone called mukufries/mukurofries:

 

[Greenie]

Unless someone's offering for free, I usually don't commission. As much as I love my chars, I can't justify spending money on getting them drawn.

Needless to say, however, I do have some friends who've drawn some of my chars for free :3 and I was given a gift last year of my OTP by my buddy, who had commissioned his friend. The girl in the pic is my absolute favourite character <3 The guy belongs to my bud.

For the most part, I just do without or I simply try drawing my chars myself. Mostly without success but... Try try again? ^_^'

 

[Sidhe]

I don't so much these days (because I can't really afford it and there are other things I'd rather be spending my money on), but I used to buy a helluva lot of art of my characters! I still gladly would, but I just need to pick a month where my extra cash goes towards art and not other things (like... nail polish...) I also used to buy all of my art through Subeta when it was popular, but I don't play that site anymore so I don't really know how to find artists to commission.

Most of the characters I have uploaded on this site feature art I commissioned of them! I do wish there was a way to have a 'gallery' of art, though, because I sometimes have trouble picking just one.

By far the favourite piece I ever commissioned is this one of my character Liathari, who was back then named Victoire; she's a Dragon Age OC because I'm a nerd.

I commissioned it from a user on Subeta who was then named 'lambda,' and I've had a hell of a time tracking them down since then. It's absolutely brilliant though. I love it.

There's also this piece of my Necromancer Imilia from GW2 which I love huehuehue
This one is by thisgolddolyak.tumblr.com -- I've commissioned him twice and he's fantastic.

I also draw art of my characters... or should I say 'drew.' I don't draw very much anymore and when I do it's art of other peoples' characters. I should really start doing that again. D:

 

[Vars]

I've drawn my own characters before, but usually I'll just edit something, like a pixel doll. Earlier this year I got into the whole "pay to use" lineart/character creator thing on a furry site. It has helped, but wasn't really worth the expense (especially since most my characters are human, and the options for humans on those are kind of lacking).

Drawing something entirely myself just makes me sort of agitated, because it never comes out right and I know other people can do better. But recently I've gotten into the habit of drawing something super primitive to tell an artist what I am looking for, and then they just sort of "interpret it."
That's how something went from this to this

Spoiler

EDIT: Also the extremely casual nature of that first image is because I had commissioned this particular artist several times in the past.

Personally, it blows my mind every time. xP

 

[Vars]

I do wish there was a way to have a 'gallery' of art, though, because I sometimes have trouble picking just one.

There sort of is. I've done it on my character pages.

Spoiler

The art appears really small here, but on the character pages you can see it's more appropriately sized.

Scrii @ FurAffinity

Outputt @ FurAffinity

Loocemo @ DeviantArt

Gothkakashi @ DeviantArt

Bayanghitam @ DeviantArt

Dinmoney @ DeviantArt

Amosa @ DeviantArt

Loocemo @ DeviantArt

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Scrii @ FurAffinity
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Outputt @ FurAffinity
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Loocemo @ DeviantArt
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Gothkakashi @ DeviantArt
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Bayanghitam @ DeviantArt
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Dinmoney @ DeviantArt
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Amosa @ DeviantArt
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Loocemo @ DeviantArt
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[Rain of the Night]

@The Mood is Write

Here ya go.

 

[Kye]

I tend to draw my own characters for rps and the like. I think I'm fairly skilled, and I like having pictures that fit exactly to the images in my head, and the closest way to get that is draw them myself. I've never commissioned an artist before, don't really have the money for it.

And people who know me know that rping with me usually gets them free art :P

 

[Shiri]

I used to draw my OCs a lot during high school. I've since gotten better with human form so I should really go back to drawing them and see what happens. There's one character I revamped that I really, really want to draw. So many wings! Just gotta get the gumption.

I've commissioned a few pieces. I'm a bit shy to show them though. ^^; And some of them are a touch on the adult side. Ehhhhhhh...

 

[Vars]

@Shiri I have commissioned 2 adult pieces so far. Both this year. I... Don't like either of them. >_<
I dunno. The idea was there, but maybe I just haven't found an artist I like for that stuff yet. Or maybe adult art just really isn't my thing.

Anyway, there's nothing wrong with adult art. I am active on FurAffinity (furry deviantart, basically), and a lot of people have some really great porn of their characters. Makes me a bit jealous. There's quite a few human artists on FA but not many of them do porn (of humans).

It's really hard to find people who draw humans in a style that's not "generic anime" imo.

 

[Valkyria]

*is one of those artists open to doing character commissions*

I draw all my characters and characters for my friends if I like our RPs enough. I've bought commissions in the past because I like seeing my characters in other styles, but now I'm getting to a point where I want to commission more people, but then I remember I can just draw everything myself...

Coincidentally enough, my friend recently commissioned dinmoney from dA to draw chibis of our characters. It was all really nice.

 

[Kitti]

I haven't commissioned. Partly because I always have things that need the money more and partly because I tend to switch characters from roleplay to roleplay and don't have many repeats.

There was one, though, that a wonderful lovely person drew as a gift and I have since lost track of them but she's a cutie.

 

[Jorick]

Nope, never have, don't think I ever will.

The main reason for that is that I almost never reuse characters. If a roleplay is rebooted I might bring back the same character, or if a roleplay dies quickly I might reuse the idea elsewhere. Other than that, nah, creating new characters is a large part of the fun of joining a new roleplay, so I don't go plugging the same character into different places. I like to make characters that are inextricably tied to the world, built specifically to exist in that setting, and that just doesn't work well with reused characters.

Most of the time when I create a character I go searching for an existing image to use as their appearance. That means there's no need to commission anything since I already have an image, and I have no use for extras.

Oh, and two other important reasons I don't commission character are lack of funds and me being really picky. Paid commissions are just off the table entirely. For free commissions, I would want things to be exactly perfect to my mental image or I know I would be dissatisfied. I can tolerate images that are not perfect when I go seeking existing art to use for a character because I know it's unlikely to find exactly what I want, but if something is being specifically made for me then that line of thinking won't suffice and I would likely be one of those irritating assholes who requests a lot of minor tweaks repeatedly.

I can see the appeal, but commissions just aren't my thing. :P

 

[Vars]

@Jorick I used to create new characters for every rp. Now I have 3 characters I pretty much make fit everything else. I've been RPing since the 90s and I'm not sure what exactly happened but it's so much harder to come up with a completely new character now. In addition to just not feeling like I'm that creative anymore, it feels like a waste to put all this time and effort into creating a person with history etc. and then just never using them again.

Sometimes I wish I could be as creative as I used to be, and just easily make characters. It certainly opens up a lot more rp possibilities. I don't know where I'm going with this. Sorry. =/

 

[Jorick]

@Jorick I used to create new characters for every rp. Now I have 3 characters I pretty much make fit everything else. I've been RPing since the 90s and I'm not sure what exactly happened but it's so much harder to come up with a completely new character now. In addition to just not feeling like I'm that creative anymore, it feels like a waste to put all this time and effort into creating a person with history etc. and then just never using them again.

Sometimes I wish I could be as creative as I used to be, and just easily make characters. It certainly opens up a lot more rp possibilities. I don't know where I'm going with this. Sorry. =/

Yeah, I can understand the feeling that it can be a waste. If I didn't love the process of character creation then I might feel the same, but as it is I find the creation to be its own reward that is worth the effort. I get a little annoyed when I don't get to actually play with that creation for long, but one of the things I do to get over that is making myself look at it as an opportunity to find another roleplay and make a new character. XD

I don't think I'm wildly creative with my characters though. Some are ridiculous and way out there, but most are at their core just a basic character archetype with a few important tropes applied (and possibly subverted for fun) to give it a little more depth. A charming rogue with a dream of being a hero, a mage who feared death so much she became a pacifist and a vampire, a crippled man who uses sheer ruthlessness to get ahead in the world, a prince with a nearly debilitating level of self doubt, etc. Nothing tremendously creative, just fun core concepts shaped to fit firmly into the given world.

 

[Hellis]

Forum RP charachters? Never. Like jorrick, said, they aren't permanent enough.

For Tabletop and shortstories. It happens. Currently at work, so I cannot post any of the commish art. It is funny, I did a few commissions myself a year or so back.

 

[GlassTrinity]

I draw my own characters as well as commission them if I think the artist is skilled enough and worth the price. The money I make from doing commissions is my play money, so I usually use it for games and commissioning others. Its always really exciting when you find an artist you really love and then get to see your characters drawn in their style.

Some of my art

Stuff I've commissioned

 

[Icystorm]

I have an obsession with getting art for my characters. If only I had a job and a way to pay for commissions. When I did have a job, I got most of my art from Liger (celestial artistry).
Most of the art I commissioned from her. Pictures might be large.

Spoiler

This character does not actually have wings, we just thought he would look cool with them.

My spoiled baby who I have gotten three pictures of from Liger. One I won't post, one is my avatar pic, and the last is this.

Another spoiled boy who holds a special place in my heart. Paid FR currency to get another commission of him, just waiting to get it.

And then the first commission I got from her was this guy.

A commission not from Liger that I enjoy. I can't link to the artist since they are no longer on DA.

Reikon

I also tried drawing my character Jack once, but it is not very good. Been a couple months and he still does not have a face. File-page1

 

[King]

I draw a lot of character concepts for those who are fairly inhuman - Aliens, or monsters. But I'm too broke for commissions and not talented enough to fully commit to drawing them!!

I'm also that guy who likes the gifs and the face claims for human Ocs, mainly because in my head I see it a movie rather than a story ygm lmao.

 

[Turtle of Doom]

I tend to make new characters for every RP I play, but I'm considering having my Charp characters drawn. I've also drawn my own characters. I'm not great, and I've lost all my digital stuff (used to have PS and a graphics tab, don't anymore) so it makes it a bit difficult to do what I want with what I sketch.