Art Commission Sheet Maker for Your Commission Price Sheet and Artist Commission Sheet
Type your tiers and the sheet builds itself as you go, with what each tier keeps after the platform's cut. Publish it and clients pick a tier, send the brief and order.
The short answer
A good art commission sheet lists three to five fixed tiers, each with a price, an example, a turnaround in days and what it includes, then add-ons, a deposit rule and usage rights. Price each tier as your hours times the rate you need (a US freelance artist needs about $77 an hour to match the employed median). An image of the sheet gets attention; a page built from it takes the order. On a $110 half body you keep $101.20 on our Starter plan, $101.01 on VGen and $88.00 on Fiverr.
What should be on an art commission sheet?
Eight lines that answer every DM before it is sent
Every question a client asks in your messages is a line missing from the sheet.
Three to five fixed tiers
A headshot, a half body and a full body cover most requests. Each tier names what is included: crop, color level, one character, simple background.
A price on every tier
A number, not "DM for price". A "from" price is fine for tiers where complexity varies, as long as the add-ons say what moves it.
An example image per tier
The single biggest reason clients pick the wrong tier is that they cannot see the difference between "flat color" and "rendered".
Turnaround in days
Say how long a tier takes once you start, and how many slots are open, so nobody chases you on day three.
Add-ons with prices
Extra character, detailed background, rush, and commercial use. Price them as a fixed amount or a percentage of the tier.
Will draw and will not draw
Two short lists. They save more back and forth than any other line on the sheet.
Payment and deposit terms
Full payment or a deposit before you start, when the balance is due, and what happens to the deposit if the client cancels after the sketch.
Usage rights
Personal use by default. Commercial use (merch, book covers, stream branding, ads) as a priced add-on.
Commission price sheet after fees
The same three tiers, kept after each platform's cut
The sample sheet above, a US client, the artist's side only. Where you take the order changes your real price by up to a fifth.
| Where clients order | What comes off | $45 headshot | $110 half body | $240 full body |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreelanceNation Studio | 3% | $43.65 | $106.70 | $232.80 |
| FreelanceNation Pro | 5% | $42.75 | $104.50 | $228.00 |
| FreelanceNation Starter | 8% | $41.40 | $101.20 | $220.80 |
| VGen, paid through Stripe | 5% + 2.9% + $0.30 | $41.15 | $101.01 | $220.74 |
| Ko-fi free plan, Stripe | 5% + 2.9% + $0.30 | $41.15 | $101.01 | $220.74 |
| Etsy custom listing | $0.20 + 6.5% + 3% + $0.25 | $40.27 | $99.10 | $216.75 |
| Fiverr | 20% | $36.00 | $88.00 | $192.00 |
Read it honestly: our rows are the marketplace fee only, and each plan has a subscription (Starter is $9 a month), so on a small queue VGen and Ko-fi land in the same place. VGen also brings its own commission buyers, which is worth paying for when they are the ones finding you. Fiverr takes the most and adds a service fee on the buyer's side too. The platform-by-platform detail is in our comparison of art commission sites by fee, and for the payment side alone see the best payment methods for art commissions.
How do I make a commission sheet?
From price list to orders in three steps
Price the tiers
Time your last three pieces of each type. Hours times your target rate, rounded to a clean number, is the tier price. Put the fee inside the price, not on top of it.
Build the sheet
Enter the tiers, turnaround, add-ons and deposit above. The preview is the layout clients will read, and the figures under each tier are what you actually keep.
Publish and share one link
Publish the tiers as a gig page with an example per tier and a brief form. Pin that one link on every profile; clients choose a tier, send the brief and order.
Image, form or order page
Three ways to publish a commission sheet, and what each one cannot do
An image on social
Good at. Fast, visual and free to post. It is what fans expect to see.
Falls short. Cannot take an order, a brief or a payment. Prices inside a picture are invisible to search, and every order still starts as a DM.
A form builder
Good at. Collects the brief in a structured way and can attach a payment step.
Falls short. The form is not the sheet: tiers and examples live somewhere else, and nobody finds a form through search.
A gig page
Good at. Tiers, examples, a brief form and the order on one page you share from every profile, written as text search engines can read.
Falls short. It will not bring fan buyers by itself the way VGen's browse page can. You still post the image; the link underneath goes to the page.
How much should I charge for art commissions?
Price the sheet from hours, not from other artists' sheets
Copying the prices on a sheet you admire copies someone else's speed and cost of living. The method that holds up is hours times rate. BLS puts the employed median for US fine artists at about $27 an hour; a self-employed artist needs roughly $77 an hour to match that median once self-employment tax and unbillable hours come out, and about $164 to match the top tenth.
Our guide to art commission prices walks through the full example price sheet, and the freelance rate calculator works out your own hourly target from the income you need.
$27/hr
Employed median
A 3 hour half body at about $80. Fine as a hobby rate, not as income.
$77/hr
Freelance break-even
The same half body at about $230. Where most full-time commission artists need to be.
$164/hr
Top tenth
About $490. Realistic for established artists with a queue and commercial clients.
The three hour half body is an illustrative input; replace it with your own timed work.
Who uses an artist commission sheet
Built for artists whose orders outgrew the DMs
Character and OC artists
Headshot, half body, full body and ref sheet tiers, with extra-character pricing that stops the "how much for three" thread.
VTuber and stream assets
Emotes, panels and overlays priced per set, with commercial use built in because every asset is used on a monetized channel.
Pet and family portraits
Gift buyers want a price and a date. A sheet with turnaround in days sells the December slots in October.
Covers and client illustration
Authors and small studios need a scope and a license to forward for approval. A text page they can find in search does that.
Client work priced by the project or the hour is covered in our illustration rates guide, and if your clients pay by invoice, the PayPal fee calculator for art commissions shows what to invoice so you net the price on the sheet.
Questions artists ask
Art commission sheet questions, answered
First sentence first, the way artists ask them before opening slots.
What should be on an art commission sheet?
Your tiers, a price for each, one example image per tier, turnaround, add-ons with prices, what you will and will not draw, your payment and deposit terms, and usage rights. Those eight things answer almost every question a client would otherwise send as a DM, and they are the scope you point to if a client later says the piece is not what they asked for.
How do I make a commission sheet?
Pick three to five tiers, time how long each takes you, multiply by your hourly rate and round to a clean price. Add one example per tier, your turnaround, add-ons and terms. The builder at the top of this page does the layout and shows what each tier keeps after platform fees; publish it as a gig page and clients can order straight from it.
What is an art commission sheet?
An art commission sheet is an artist's price list for custom work: the types of piece you offer, what each costs, examples, and your terms. Most artists post it as an image on social media. The limitation of an image is that it cannot take an order, collect a brief or record a payment, so the sheet and the ordering happen in two different places.
How much should I charge for art commissions?
Price each tier as the hours it takes times the hourly rate you need, then round. The US employed median for fine artists is about $27 an hour, and a self-employed artist needs roughly $77 an hour to match that median once self-employment tax and unbillable hours come out. A three-hour half body therefore sits between about $80 and $230.
What size should a commission sheet be?
Design it as a tall portrait image, commonly 1080 by 1350 pixels, which fills the phone screen in most social feeds, and keep prices large enough to read without zooming. If the sheet also lives on a page, the tiers, prices and terms should be real text rather than part of the picture, so search engines and screen readers can read them.
Should I ask for a deposit on art commissions?
Yes for anything above a small sketch. A 50% deposit before you start and the balance before you send the final file is the most common arrangement, and it protects the hours you spend on the sketch. For low-priced tiers, full payment up front is simpler and avoids paying a fixed processing fee twice.
How many commission slots should I open?
Open as many as you can finish inside your stated turnaround, not as many as you can sell. If a full body takes 10 hours and you have 15 hours a week for commissions, five slots is already a four-week queue. Missing turnaround hurts repeat orders more than closing slots does.
Do I need a contract if I have a commission sheet?
For small personal pieces, a published sheet with clear terms that the client accepts when ordering usually does the job. For business clients, larger budgets or commercial use, add a short signed agreement covering scope, revisions, payment schedule, cancellation and the license you grant. The sheet sets the price; the contract sets the obligations.
Where do I post my commission sheet?
Pin it on every profile your buyers use (Instagram, X, Bluesky, Tumblr, Discord) and link each post to one page where the order actually happens. Fan and OC buyers find you through social; business buyers such as authors and small studios search Google, which a static image cannot rank for and a text page can.
Should my commission sheet show prices including fees?
Yes. Put the price the client pays on the sheet and build the fee into it, rather than adding a surcharge at checkout. On a $110 half body, the difference between keeping 92% and 80% is $13.20 a piece, which is why the platform you take orders on belongs in the pricing decision.
Turn your commission sheet into a page that takes orders
Publish your tiers with examples, a brief form and your terms. Clients pick a tier and order, and you keep 92% on Starter, 95% on Pro and 97% on Studio.
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