Why should I take commissions as an artist?

Every artist should be open to taking commissions because they can completely change the trajectory of your career. Throughout history, countless artists have had their lives and careers transformed by commissions. Alphonse Mucha was a broke, unknown illustrator who took a last-minute poster commission and essentially invented Art Nouveau overnight, becoming the most talked-about artist in Paris. Commissions are essentially customers telling you what the market wants. They give you constraints to push against, which can actually free your creativity. As Stravinsky said, ‘The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees oneself.’ A commission is like a box someone else built for you, and that box can be a gift. It leads you down paths you never would have taken on your own and helps you discover what the market actually wants. You don’t even have to accept every commission — you can use them as a feedback engine to understand market demand.

---

Asked by artists hesitant about commission work · Answered by Unknown presenter · art-marketing-podcast · 2026-06-22