Yesterday was a special day, and though I'm a bit late, I thought I'd talk about the art I've commissioned from artists on Skeb up until now to celebrate the occasion.

In case you're not aware, Skeb is a platform for commissioning art from Japanese artists. But it has a bunch of particularities compared to the typical art commissioning process. The big thing is that you and the artist are not allowed to communicate with each other during the commission. You just send your commission request, the artist accepts or denies, and if they accept, you won't know what you're getting until it is done. It's kind of dumb, and there's more strict rules that need to be followed, but it's... fine for a lot of clients and artists.

I've been following Japanese artists for a while so I've been long familiar with Skeb, but only last year did I actually decide that I'll use it to make some commissions... and my credit card didn't work with Skeb. So did the other one I tried, and even a gift card credit card I had didn't work. However, I did have a friend who also used Skeb that I talked about this issue with some time later, and my friend gave me a tip for what will work. By the time I finally found out how to get Skeb to take my money I didn't really know what I wanted anymore. Eventually though, I finally bought some Skeb points, and commissioned an artist I've been wanting to commission for a long time.

The first artist I commissioned is Natsuden. I really liked their Gizaba Crazy Letter fan art and found their other art pretty awesome. So I basically shot off a sort of "test commission" to see how well the Skeb thing works. My request was pretty simple: draw my sona making a peace sign. And after like a month of waiting I got this. I was shocked at how good it is.

Natsuden in a sense created details I didn't really think about when making my sona in Vroid, like how the fabric crinkles on the cropped sweater where the ribbon goes. And the hair and eye details are just perfect. Although I do have some nitpicks such as how the heart-shaped belt-buckle is missing the center wire. Though overall, it's amazing art and I am very satisfied with it.

After I got the art, I got the option to "boost" the art, which is essentially a way to clients to give a little tip with a thank you message to the artist and have the art thumbnail get a golden border in the Skeb UI to show that it was boosted. In my boost message I told Natsuden that I would consider commissioning them again... and when I tried to, this is where I ran into a small problem.

So basically a rule Skeb has is that artists can't draw copyrighted content or characters that they don't have permission to draw. Some artists take a risk and skirt this rule. And with stuff like Vocaloid where basically any individual can draw stuff for money, it's fine as far as I can tell. I saw many artists draw Vocaloid stuff on Skeb. The thing I wanted fell more into this latter category.

What I wanted was for Natsuden to draw fan art of Haze. I assumed that it would be fine because it's vocal synth stuff. Natsuden rejected my request, and was like "nope, can't draw that, it's against the guidelines." However... plot twist... Natsuden drew it anyway, for free. I was so happy. I assume Natsuden is a fan of the MV too, and just decided to draw it because I put up money for it. Also, when I made the request I was like "there's no way Natsuden can come up with something as cool as the video," but the art completely blew my expectations. Anyways, you should consider commissioning them too, such a cool artist.

Next artist I skebbed was Yuuta Rou. My request was just my sona in a maid outfit with a long dress and short sleeves. For this I only waited a couple weeks for the art. And what I got I was very happy with. It's basically flawless. When I was making the request I was thinking more of a modern maid cafe kind of maid, but Yuuta gave me an anime Victorian era kind of maid, which I totally vibe with.

What I found really cool is that Yuuta gave me their entire PSD file that they used to draw the art with, including the sketch layer, and various colouring layers. And also there was like a little brainstorming layer that had this super cute doodle on it. I'm thinking of requesting a completed version of it eventually. Sadly, this is where my fun with Skeb ended, and I ran into the problems of the "you don't know what you're getting until it's done" approach.

So I made three more requests from this point onward, but they weren't delivered in the same order. For my fifth request I skebbed an artist called Ramune. Their art style is quite cutesy, but I saw they had some pieces that were still cute but more in the style I wanted my sona to be drawn. I shot off a "draw my sona doing whatever" request with no other details, and eight hours(!) after the request was approved I got this. I don't hate it, there's some details I do like, and it's hella cute, but it's not what I thought I'd get.

I didn't want my sona drawn super moé with a little fang. However, I got exactly what I asked for... "draw whatever." If I wanted the less-cutesy style, I should have specified. Also I could have specified my sona's vibe or personality or whatever in the character sheet or request message. This is kind of important as people seem to perceive my sona more cute than cool. Though I mostly just feel bad because I feel like I wasted my money and the artist's time drawing something I'm not fully satisfied with.

For the fourth request I skebbed an artist called Okayu. Mainly because it was pretty cheap, but I also loved their vocal synth art. Again, I was dumb and shot off a "draw my sona doing whatever" request. After five days I got this. Besides the little fang, I actually kind of love it. I'm perfectly okay with it.

Both of these "draw whatever" requests fortunately were the cheapest skebs I requested, but I still should have used my head. And I saw a lot of other people make similar kinds of requests with a lot more detail (yeah, you can see other people's request messages). If you're considering doing open-ended skebs, don't be dumb like me and clarify as much details as needed. Don't assume the artists magically know what you are thinking.

This tale of mine ends on a happy note though. For my third request I skebbed an artist called Miyoru, which I loved for how nice they draw their eyes. My request was for my sona crouching cutely. I waited the longest for this request, and it arrived right before the deadline after two months of waiting. This is what I got. My first impression of this drawing... it felt something was wrong, and I felt like the request might've been rushed. But after looking at it closelier a bit later, I think Miyoru lowkey made the best drawing of my sona.

And now after a few days I'm beaming just like my sona in the art. Just as expected, the eyes are really nice. They even got subtle yellow highlights to match the colour scheme. And every other detail is flawless as far as I can see. I've set a bunch of my profile pictures to this art, which is the first time I've done this with a Skeb. Definitely consider checking out Miyoru's stuff.

One more thing I need to talk about before wrapping up this post are the Skeb "appeals" I got. Appeals are basically a way for artists on Skeb to "cold call" clients and offer a lower price on their art than what they normally show. Apparently in the past it had no restrictions and artists spammed a lot of clients, but now it's a lot more limited. I received three appeals in total.

These appeals I got... the messages were fine, but didn't really feel like they actually cared, they just did the most surface level look at my stuff and essentially said "nice twin-bun character, I can draw her for this price." Sorry if I sound mean, but all the appealers' art was kind of mediocre in my view. Also I got a few "subtle" twitter interactions from other artists with Skeb links in their bio with art I didn't vibe with. But whatever, I'm not complaining about these artists trying to get that bag. At least one seemed to be successful.

So yeah, I had a little adventure commissioning art from Japanese artists on this platform. The total sum I've paid I wouldn't consider too expensive, but I do feel like paying for more per piece than I did would require clarifications, WIPs, and revisions like an actual commission. And like I see artists on Skeb charge many times more than what I've paid (their art usually looks worth at least that much), and they definitely get clients, sooo... I don't know... I hope they are all happy. I will probably do a few more Skebs, but I've kind of run out of ideas that would suit this format, and will probably stop soon.

If you got any questions about Skeb, feel free to ask me.