jars.process — JR's Arts

Commission Process

View current pricing on my Commissions page

I can create an illustration entirely from imagination, or entirely from reference, or with a combination of both. Below is an example of my typical process creating an imaginary room combined with some real life references.

Step 1:

Describe your scene

Send me a description of what you’d like me to illustrate. For example:

I love the zoomed out pieces. Something with big windows. We love cuddling up in stormy weather, so that would be great to incorporate. We also love South Park lol and we are huge Frazier fans. Putting references to Frazier somewhere would be great. We also love Jeopardy so we’d love having Jeopardy playing on the TV.
He likes to play video games. His favorite is Red Dead Redemption. But we also have a old N64 that play together, mostly mariokart. We also listen to vinyl records, and he has a standing turn table and DJs a bit. We like all sorts of music, but house/techno our favorite. Our favorite record label is called DirtyBird, so incorporating some hats with their logo or something along those lines would be great. We have 4 pets: a Jack Russell/mini schnauzer mix, 2 American short hair cats, and a hognose snake. Including all of them would be amazing! I can send you pics or more detailed explanations of any of those things if you like!

There were more items requested, but this is a good example of the level of detail I’d need. You can also send a list with key items if that is easier, or just ask me to replicate a room based off of images.

Step 2:

Send reference photos

This would include pictures of yourselves, your pets, and any specific items or references. Below are a few items they sent. You can send me these via email, google drive, google photos/icloud album.

Living room photo. I referenced the couch, tv stand and Calvin & Hobbes painting on the back wall.

One of their favorite paintings & their pet snake

Another living room photo. I referenced the corner shelf & their laptop.

Step 3:

First Payment

Before I begin any work, I request that the first half of the payment is paid. I prefer Venmo because it does not take a processing fee, and if you decide to cancel the commission before I begin working, I can refund you the full amount. If I am paid via Paypal, I will need to charge additional few percentage to cover the processing fee.

Once I begin my initial draft & line art, this first payment is non-refundable. If you need an alternative payment method, let me know and hopefully we can work something out!

Step 4:

Initial Draft & Line Art

Now I can begin drawing. After taking in the information you’ve sent me, I start with a rough concept sketch. I’ll share this to you to make sure I’m going in the right direction:

In this initial draft, I try to capture the overall layout with rough furniture placement, people/pet locations, angle of the scene, etc. For this piece, I knew I wanted large windows to allow for a rainy view of the city, and I wanted their L-shaped couch in the corner. From there I sketched in two blobs sitting on a couch to represent the couple, with a TV mounted above a fireplace, which would light the interior with cozy warm colors.

If this concept looks good to you, I move on to finalize the line art:

From the line art I can show most references, like the cats, dog, snake, DJ stand, record player, candles, etc. Some of the other references would only appear after I start color, so I leave blank spaces to fill in later like the TV and picture frames.
At this stage, I ask for your input on any major changes. For example, I accidentally added a second dog on the rug — that was later removed. They also wanted me to add their laptop playing a song “Tadow” by Masego in the scene. These changes will be made and then the line art will be considered complete! If any more changes are necessary later on, then no problem as long as they’re small.

Step 5:

Final payment

After the line art is complete, I request the remaining balance of the commission is paid. Only then will I be able to continue with the color. Unfortunately in the past, I’ve completed commissions before collecting full payment only to have the client disappear and never pay in full. Thankfully, most people are nice :)

Step 6:

Completing the illustration

Finally, I’ll complete the illustration with full color, shading, lighting, and all that good stuff, which is where the piece comes to life:

See if you can find all of the little references they mentioned in their initial description — I promise, it’s all there, and more. In addition to what they asked, I inserted photos they sent into picture frames, converted their favorite painting of the neon buildings as part of the rainy outdoors on the left, marked their anniversary date on a calendar next to the TV, and inserted a mini version of this piece as part of the illustration itself. I try to incorporate as much as possible to make sure there’s something to look at in every corner. And with that, the piece is complete!

Step 6:

Printing your piece

FInally, I’ll email you the print-ready digital file. This would be for your personal use only and not for commercialization. I do retain copyright of the illustration, which I might use in case I want to create an art book some day. From here you can print it at a local print shop, online as print-on-demand, on canvas, on metal, on postcards for wedding invitations, etc. Here are some examples of printed & framed pieces:

Canvas print from Michael's Arts & Crafts (not sponsored lol)

Ornate frame thrifted from goodwill, with custom sized mat border

That’s all!

Each illustration requires slightly different processes but this was a standard, smooth one. Thank you for reading, I hope it was helpful. If you’re ready to order, you can request a commission below. Or if you have any other questions, please see my FAQ

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