I beg of you, artists, please don't just look at what people online are openly charging for commissions to price your illustration work, talk to any other illustrators/ADs you can (if you don't know them well, ask if you can ask), look at data from surveys and suggested rates...

And also figure out how much your time is worth and try to stick to that. And please remember that it's not just about your time, but their use, ie, personal use is gonna be less than corporate use, etc.

A VERY ROUGH guide to figuring out rates: (yearly living expenses + desired savings) plus 35% for taxes, divided by 260 (aprox. workdays in a year) = your Required Amount per Day. Then use this to figure out roughly what you'd need per gig to sustain yourself full-time.

From here there are a lot of variables to factor in, but it gives you an idea, at least, of what your base should be. For people who are financially dependent on others, I'd suggest calculating what your expenses would be if you weren't, so you don't get a falsely low number.

Once you've found your base for LABOR, you can start factoring in VALUE. This is a lot of abstract stuff, like your years of experience and who your client is and what your client is going to do with your work, rights, etc. All of these add to the rate you should be charging.

As your experience grows, you raise your rates, as you get bigger clients, you raise your rates. Rates for personal commissions should be different that for large clients. WFH is a surcharge, always. You are providing a desirable service. You shouldn't be scared to ask for more.

Despite it being a great place to start out & build a following, doing commissions can expose you to a lot of toxic ideas about the value of art. Don't NOT do commissions, but resist the urge to be cowed by cheapskates, and importantly, talk to successful/working artists.