Behind the Scenes: About Commissions.
I, an ancient dinosaur, didn't know for a long time what the word "commissions" meant (even though I was drawing on commission), such a funny story.

Commissions are drawings made to order, a calque from the English commission, which actually means "assignment" and in literature, when referring to a drawing, it is mentioned something like "I commissioned him to do a sketch of the park for me".

Well, okay, new times, new terms, but the essence is the same: a drawing to order.

I accept commissions through Hipolink (there is a special form <- you can see how it looks by following this link), and they are mostly ordered by people who read the English version of my comic. By the way, take note, colleagues: when you publish a comic, especially on a separate website, it simultaneously works as a portfolio. I charge a little for them ($15 is about an hour of unskilled labor for foreigners: at McDonald's, for example), but I also draw in a simplified style.

And now the main question: who in the era of AI would even want to pay a living artist for a picture?
And the answer. In my order form it says "I will draw you a picture without AI, show all the stages so you don't doubt, and along the way chat with you about your worlds and characters".
And that's where the magic begins.

I am a writer myself and I know how lonely a writer is now. In my youth, I was surrounded by many reading people with burning eyes, and I could discuss both my books and books in general with them. But now there is emptiness around me. No readers. No one who cares. It hurts and is lonely. So: those who order an illustration for their book or fanfic or just a character that lives in their head and begs to be put on paper feel exactly the same loneliness and pain.
In the era of AI, people want someone without that very AI, with their hands, with simple human warmth, to draw a picture based on a story they love unrequitedly, and to talk with them about that story. And often these people then come back many times for new pictures.
And I'm not such a great artist. And AI will draw better, faster, and for free. That's how it is.

#behindthescenes #comics