A few years ago, a couple in Portland decided they wanted a painting made specifically for their living room, a large-scale landscape that would bring the feeling of the Oregon coast into a space where they spent most of their evenings. They had seen work by a local artist at a gallery opening and felt that her particular way of handling light on water was exactly what they had in mind. They sent an inquiry. Three months later, they were living with a painting that had been made specifically for them, in conversation with them, and that meant something the gallery experience of buying existing work had never quite offered.
Commissioning original art is one of the most underused options in a collector's repertoire. Most people who buy art buy from the existing inventory of galleries, fairs, and online platforms. But artists take commissions, many of them actively prefer commissioned work because it comes with a relationship and a degree of creative certainty, and the process is more accessible than most people assume. You do not need a large budget or industry connections to commission original art. You need a clear sense of what you want, the willingness to communicate it honestly, and a basic understanding of how the process works.
Is Commissioning Right for Your Project?
Not every art-related need is best served by a commission. If you want a work that fits a specific color palette, size, and subject matter with a great deal of precision, and if you have a clear artistic vision, commissioning makes sense. If you have a more open-ended desire to own original work and don't have strong specific requirements, buying from existing inventory is faster, lower-risk, and often just as satisfying.
Commissions work especially well for: portraits (of individuals, families, pets, houses, or significant places); large-scale works where finding existing work at the right dimensions is difficult; works that integrate specific personal or family references; site-specific pieces designed for an unusual architectural context; and cases where you've found an artist whose style is exactly right but whose existing inventory doesn't include what you need.
Commissions are more complicated than buying existing work, require more time (typically three to nine months from initial inquiry to delivery), and introduce some uncertainty, because no matter how clearly you communicate your vision, the artist will interpret it in ways that reflect their practice. If you need total predictability and zero creative risk, a commission is probably not the right approach.
Finding the Right Artist for Your Commission
The best commissions come from artists whose existing work you genuinely admire. The key insight is this: you are not commissioning an artist to make something outside their practice. You are inviting them to apply their practice to your specific brief. Asking a landscape painter to make a portrait, or a printmaker to create an oil painting, is almost always a mistake. The quality of their work in unfamiliar territory will not match the quality of work they make in the areas where their practice is developed.
Look at an artist's portfolio with specific attention to work that is close to what you have in mind: similar scale, similar subject matter, similar mood. If you can see three to five examples of existing work that excite you and are in the general direction of what you want, the artist is probably right for the commission. If you have to squint to imagine how they'd approach your brief, keep looking.
Sources for finding commission-ready artists include: galleries that represent artists who take private commissions (many do, especially for portrait work), emerging artist networks including degree show alumni, artist-run platforms including Artwork Archive and The Dots, and Instagram discovery. Many artists post that they are open to commissions directly on their Instagram profile or website.
How Artists Price Commission Work
Artist pricing for commissions is based on several factors: the size of the work, the complexity of the subject matter, the medium (oil takes longer than watercolor; sculpture costs more than painting), the artist's career stage and market position, and whether the work will be exhibited or published.
A general rule of thumb for established gallery artists is that commission prices are broadly comparable to their gallery prices for work of equivalent size and medium. Do not expect a significant discount simply because you are commissioning rather than buying from stock. The time and attention required for a commission is often greater than for a work made speculatively, because of the consultation process and any revisions involved.
For emerging artists who do not yet have established gallery pricing, the most transparent approach is to ask what they would charge per square inch or per square foot of canvas, how they calculate their day rate, and whether they require a deposit. Most artists who take commissions regularly have a clear pricing structure and are comfortable discussing it. If an artist seems uncomfortable with any direct conversation about money, that is worth noting before you commit.
Typical Deposit Structure
Most artists require a deposit before beginning commissioned work, typically between 30 and 50 percent of the agreed fee. This is a reasonable professional expectation and protects the artist against buyers who change their mind after work has begun. The balance is typically paid on delivery or shortly before. For large or complex commissions (over six months of work or significant material costs), an installment structure with payments at agreed milestones is worth discussing.
The Brief: How to Communicate Your Vision
The most important determinant of a commission's success is the quality of the brief you give the artist. A good brief is specific enough to give meaningful direction but open enough to allow genuine creative expression. The worst briefs are either too vague ("I want something that feels peaceful, maybe with some blue?") or too prescriptive ("I want exactly this scene, with this lighting, from this reference photograph").
A well-structured brief typically includes: the intended location and context for the work (the room it will hang in, the light conditions, the adjacent colors), the desired scale, reference images that capture the mood or visual qualities you're drawn to (not necessarily of paintings, but anything that evokes what you have in mind), a clear description of the subject matter if the work is representational, any colors or compositional elements that are non-negotiable, and a budget range.
Provide your reference images with brief explanations of why you've chosen them. "I like the hazy quality of the light in this one" is more useful than "I like this painting." Give the artist something to respond to, not just a list of requirements.
Approval Stages
For significant commissions, it is reasonable to agree in advance on one or two approval stages: typically a compositional sketch or small-scale study at the beginning of the process, and possibly a view of the work in an intermediate stage. Be clear in your contract about how many rounds of revision are included in the fee, and what counts as a revision versus a fundamental change of direction (which might be out of scope).
Do not expect, and do not request, the kind of iterative revision process you might use with a graphic designer. Artists are not service providers in that sense; they are makers of original work who are bringing their creative intelligence to your brief. The more you micromanage the process, the less likely you are to get work of genuine quality at the end of it.
Contracts and Copyright
For any commission of significant value, a written agreement is essential. It protects both parties and prevents the misunderstandings that most commonly cause commissions to go wrong. A basic commission contract should include: the agreed fee and payment schedule, the agreed dimensions, medium, and general subject matter, the delivery timeline, the terms under which either party can cancel (and what happens to the deposit in each scenario), and a clear statement of copyright.
Copyright: Who Owns the Image?
This is the issue most frequently overlooked by first-time commissioners. When you commission a work of art, you own the physical object. The artist retains the copyright to the image of that object by default under most national copyright laws, unless you explicitly agree otherwise in writing. This means the artist retains the right to reproduce the work in their portfolio, to exhibit it in future shows as a commissioned example of their work, and to publish images of it. If you require exclusive copyright (for example, for a portrait you don't want reproduced anywhere), you must negotiate this specifically, and it will typically increase the fee.
For most personal commissions, this is not a practical problem. But for any work with commercial potential or where privacy is a concern, the copyright question should be addressed explicitly in the contract.
When Things Don't Go as Expected
Even with a good brief and a well-chosen artist, commissions sometimes produce work that is not quite what the buyer imagined. This is a natural consequence of the creative process: the artist has interpreted your brief through the lens of their own intelligence and sensibility, and the result may be more surprising than you expected.
The right response in this situation is to look carefully and give it time before reacting. Many commissioned works that seem wrong at first viewing become exactly right over days or weeks of living with them. If after considered reflection you have genuine concerns, raise them with the artist in specific, constructive terms: "The scale of the figure feels larger than I imagined relative to the landscape" is more useful than "I don't think this is what I wanted." Artists can often make targeted adjustments if the work is still in progress; if it is finished, the scope for changes is more limited.
For all aspects of looking after commissioned and purchased work once it's in your home, read the guide on how to store and preserve artwork at home and the overview of framing art properly, both of which will ensure that what you've invested in is looked after for the long term.
