--- title: "Illustrator — Commission requests with a deposit attached, a waitlist when books close · ApplyForm use case" description: "Commission requests without a deposit are just conversations. How a illustrator runs it on ApplyForm: Commission request, quote within 7 days (€60 deposit) → Books-closed waitlist by style & budget (free) → Patrons: priority slots + 10% off (€8 / mo) → Books-open dates & WIP (free) → Art-direction…" url: https://applyform.app/use-cases/illustrator --- Use case · Creative · Illustrators, concept artists and character designers # “Are commissions open?” _€60 deposit, quote in 7 days._ Books open on Instagram and forty DMs arrive. Half want a price, a quarter want fan art of a character you can't sell, and the rest go quiet the moment you name a number. A commission request without a deposit is a conversation. This is the request with €60 attached, credited to the piece, refunded if you don't send a quote within a week. Around it: a waitlist that sorts itself by style and budget when books are closed, a patrons' tier that gets the first slots and 10% off, a free books-open letter, and an art-direction call for the commercial clients. [Set this up with the agent](https://applyform.app/#hero-chat) See the whole stack Free to start. You keep 80%. Requests you don't quote refund themselves at the deadline. _applyform.app/c/noor-draws/commission · €60 deposit · quote within 7 days_ What do you want drawn? Two characters, full body, rendered, simple background: my D&D party's cleric and rogue. References (up to 5 images, plus your own character sheets) cleric-sheet.png · rogue-ref-1.jpg · rogue-ref-2.jpg · pose-idea.jpg Use, deadline, budget Personal use · no hard deadline · €300–500 **Pay the deposit and submit** €60 · credited to the commission · refunded if there's no quote by Monday 6 Oct €60 Rung one · Paid form ## The request they fill in instead of _the DM._ What they want, the references, and the three things that decide the price: use, deadline, budget. The €60 is a screening deposit, not the fee. It filters the people who were never going to pay, funds the hour you spend on the quote and the first sketch, and comes off the total. Set the spots per books-open round, add the countdown, and the form closes itself when the slots are gone. [Start from a blank form](https://applyform.app/signup?template=custom) What you send back ## The quote is _the answer._ Scope, price, timeline, rights. Four lines, sent from the inbox within the week, and the deposit is earned. The quote is valid for 48 hours like the rest of the market; if they accept, the balance runs on your usual terms and the €60 comes off. If they don't, you keep the deposit for the time spent, which the form said before they paid. Disputes are rare when the deliverable is a dated quote. _Inbox · Commission request · quote due in 4 days_ **Scope** — Two full-body rendered characters, simple background. Rendered full body is €350 each on my sheet; two characters in one piece, €650. **Price** — €650 − €60 deposit = €590. 50% on sketch approval, the balance before final files. Quote valid 48 hours. **Timeline** — Sketch within two weeks of the 50%, final three weeks after sketch approval. Two rounds of sketch changes included; colour changes after approval are billed. **Rights** — Personal use, no reproduction for sale. Your character sheets stay yours; I post the finished piece unless you ask me not to. **Quote sent** Buyer notified · €48 to your balance · slot held until Friday Answered The whole stack ## Five products, switched on _in this order._ Commissions at €180–800 are above the €200 form cap by design: the deposit lives here, the balance is invoiced the way you already do it. Everything around the commission is what you switch on. 1. 1 Day one · Forms & Requests ### Commission request, quote within 7 days _€60 deposit_ Brief, references, use, deadline and budget. A quote within seven days counts as answered; no quote, automatic refund. Spots per books-open round, a countdown, and the deposit credited to the piece. 2. 2 Day one · Leads & CRM ### Books-closed waitlist by style & budget _free_ When the spots are gone the bio link switches to this: style, budget band, use, one reference. Contacts land in the CRM tagged by all four. When books open, you email the segment that fits the slots you have. 3. 3 Week two · Community ### Patrons: priority slots + 10% off _€8 / month_ Discord role: books open 48 hours early for members, 10% off every commission, a WIP channel and a monthly sketch critique. Yearly plan on, cap at 150. Access switches off the day someone stops paying. 4. 4 Week two · Newsletter ### Books-open dates & WIP _free_ One issue a month: what's on the desk, the next books-open date, one process video. Free, because it is the thing that fills the form. The agent drafts it from your WIP posts; you edit and send. 5. 5 Week four · Bookings ### Art-direction call _€80 · 30 min_ For studios and commercial clients: brief, mood board, licence, deadline, budget collected as intake before the call. Google Meet, reminders at 24 h and 1 h. The quote follows within the week. _Noor · books-open letter · monthly_ #### Books open 6 October — eight slots, patrons from the 4th On the desk Three pieces in progress: a two-character D&D commission at colour stage, a book cover at sketch, and the personal piece I keep not finishing. Crops of each. Books open Eight slots on Monday 6 October at 18:00 CET. Rendered full body now €350 (was €320); everything else unchanged. Personal use only this round. Process Ninety-second timelapse of last month's cover, sketch to final. The thumbnail stage took longer than the rendering, as usual. Patrons: your linkpaid Your books-open link goes live Saturday the 4th at 18:00, 48 hours ahead. 10% is applied at the quote. Two of the eight slots are held for you. Critique recappaid September's sketch critique: six members, six redlines, the one lesson that came up five times (shoulders before hands). Rung four · Newsletter ## What the monthly letter _actually contains._ What's on the desk, when books open, one process video. It is free, because its job is to fill the eight slots before Instagram hears about them. The two blocks marked paid are the patrons' part: the early link and the critique recap go only to the €8 members, and the rest of the list sees a line saying so. That is the whole format, once a month. The agent drafts it from your WIP posts and the last critique thread; you spend ten minutes on it. Sending the date to the list two days before you post it is what makes the list worth having. Rung three · Community ## Patrons who get _the first slots._ Art memberships fail when the reward is “support me”; the median art Patreon earns under $100 a month. The ones that work sell something concrete, and for a commission artist the concrete thing is access: books open early, 10% off, a sketch critique once a month. That is already how working European illustrators run their patron tiers. ApplyForm grants and revokes the role as people pay and cancel; you run the rhythm below. - Wednesday **WIP post** One crop of whatever is on the desk, one sentence on what's hard about it. The habit that keeps the channel alive between rounds. - Monthly **Sketch critique thread** Members post one sketch each; you reply with a redline. Six to ten a month; anything more becomes a €80 call. - Before each round **Books open early** Members get the commission link 48 hours before the letter and the bio. Two slots held for them; the discount applies at the quote. - Always on **Brushes and questions** Brush packs and PSDs live in a pinned channel, delivered inside Discord. Questions get an answer within a day or two. Why these prices ## Numbers from the _market._ **€180–800** base commission prices, one European illustrator Five tiers from a bust to a full illustration; commercial licence +50–100%, extra character +€200, copyright transfer 100–200%. Intake by form, quote, then 50% deposit. The €60 is the step before that. **$75–925** commission bands by hours, US market Sketch headshot 1–2 hours at $75–155, flat-colour half body 3–5 hours at $230–385, rendered full body 6–12 hours at $460–925. The price sheet is the same idea everywhere; the deposit protects the hours. **50%** the upfront payment that is already normal Half on the signed quote, half before final files; 100% for rush. Nobody argues with a deposit in this market. The €60 screening deposit is what comes before the 50%. **+7.3%** PayPal fee some illustrators pass on to clients today Quote by email, invoice by PayPal, add the fee. The deposit here costs the buyer nothing extra and you keep 80% of it. **<$100** median monthly income of an art Patreon Support tiers don't sell. Priority slots and a discount do, because they are worth money to someone who was going to commission you anyway. **48 h** how long a commission quote stays valid Standard in illustrators' terms. The inbox shows the quote as sent and dated; the slot is held for the same 48 hours, then goes to the waitlist. Market figures from published industry and platform data, September 2026, rounded. Your prices, volume and retention will differ. Common worries ## “A deposit that _refunds itself?_” Only if you don't send a quote within seven days. The quote is the answer; once it is in the inbox the deposit is earned and the refund never fires. From there your usual terms apply: accept within 48 hours and the €60 comes off the total, decline and you keep it for the time spent. The form says all of this before anyone pays, which is what makes a non-refundable deposit hold up. **“Will my references be used to train an AI?”** No. Nothing uploaded is used to train anything, files are deleted after the window closes, and the submitter keeps every right to their own character sheets. The terms say so in plain words, on the form, before payment. Your own work never enters the system at all; you deliver finals the way you do now. **“They want fan art of a copyrighted character.”** The form asks for use up front. Personal-use fan art is your call and a normal part of the market; anything commercial using someone else's character is declined at the quote, and the deposit is refunded because you chose not to quote. The chips make the rule visible before they pay. **“Commissions are €350–800, not €60.”** Correct, and the €200 form cap is why the deposit lives here and the balance doesn't. Quote from the inbox, invoice the 50% and the final the way you already do. What changes is that nobody gets a quote without paying for your hour first. ## Commission requests _with a deposit attached._ Tell the agent your Instagram or Cara handle. It reads your work, proposes the deposit form, the waitlist and the patrons' tier with prices from your price sheet, and sets them up when you create the account. [Set this up with the agent](https://applyform.app/#hero-chat) [Create an account](https://applyform.app/signup?template=custom) More in Creative: [Music producer](https://applyform.app/use-cases/music-producer) [Editor or literary agent](https://applyform.app/use-cases/literary-agent) [Chess or esports coach](https://applyform.app/use-cases/esports-coach) [YouTube strategist](https://applyform.app/use-cases/youtube-strategist) [Photographer & educator](https://applyform.app/use-cases/photographer) [All use cases](https://applyform.app/use-cases)