"Professional sculptor taking commissions again" Topic

Many thanks for the varied, odd and interesting e-mails I've received following my previous introduction on this forum. ( if you missed it follow this link to read my earlier message and see pictures of my work: TMP link )

In relation to issues raised in some of these e-mails I'd just like to address the following points:

A "sensible offer regarding what you'd be willing to pay" needs to reflect the fact I have business overheads (albeit modest) and earn my living by working full time as professional model maker and miniaturist… So whilst I said I was looking to get back to sculpting a few gaming miniatures for some creative satisfaction with no expectation of earning the same hourly rate as I do from corporate and advertising model making/sculpting projects, I'm not willing to sculpt originals greens for less than the cost of a pint of beer! There is no standardisation of costs in the gaming industry and each sculptor will price differently just as each project will need costing individually based upon the anticipated level of work. Primarily what costs is not so much size or subject matter but detail and refinement. So whilst there's an oft' quoted price of $10 USD/mm (about £7.00 GBP/mm in UK sterling) seen on forums, the work involved in sculpting doesn't really increase linearly with height and pricing this way makes no allowance for quality, so at best it's an inaccurate starting point for negotiations rather than a reliable guide to prices. Across larger product ranges where sculpting and casting intermediate dollies or standardised weapons/equipment would save time/work then prices could be significantly lower than for a one-off complete sculpt worked from scratch. Every project is different and open to negotiation so talk to me about your own requirements as at one extreme I have sculpted what I considered to be several pretty rough 40mm figures for less than £50.00 GBP each, and I have worked upon a range of 28mm figures where after allowing for the initial costs of sculpting and casting a few dollies, each new figure variant was sculpted for an average of just £20.00 GBP In contrast I have been paid well over £200.00 GBP each for unique 20mm gaming sculpts and I've also worked on one advertising project whereby if you take into consideration all the experimental and trial pieces produced for board meetings which were thrown away afterwards, produced simply to help establish and refine what the brief actually was, then the final 25mm figures ended up costing the client well over £1,000.00 GBP each. In each case my clients felt my work was competitively priced with quality exceeding their needs and expectations and consequently they all went on to put repeat business my way.

Given the above, apparently simple questions like "what do you charge for a 28mm figure?" have to be answered with such a broad range of costs and conditions as to be meaningless, accompanied with a somewhat vague response that ultimately a commission costs as much or as little as the client wants to spend and that I'll simply do the best I can in the time you pay for. Clearly that's not a great way to make progress in any kind of negotiation so it's always helpful if a potential client can provide some sort of brief, however minimal, by way of illustrating not just the sort of subject matter they want sculpting but also the size, style, refinement and quality of end result they'd like to obtain. This is most easily achieved by providing a few pictures of comparable miniatures, either those from an existing product range you are looking to expand, or that of another producer whose work you admire. With a clearer idea of what somebody wants then I'll try be a bit more specific in my answers. Alternatively just tell me what you'd like to pay or are used to paying and I'll try explain what I think I can achieve with your budget. Putting the previous aside, the spirit of my earlier post was to say that I'm looking for a bit of creative satisfaction from my sculpting, something I'm not getting from the corporate work at the moment and so I was open to "sensible offers", as such a perfect correlation between fee offered and time taken isn't necessarily my highest priority as I'm happy for my hourly rate to drift a bit for an artistically stimulating project.

In terms of favoured sizes/scales, periods and subjects I feel a professional sculptor needs to be somewhat of a chameleon adapting to a client's needs rather than imposing their own preferences on subject matter or style. Consequently I've worked on figures as small as 2mm through to larger than life models for museums and from accurately proportioned and realistic miniatures to grossly exaggerated "deform" caricatures. I will say however, that with my background being geared more to the traditional side of painting and sculpting I favour those projects grounded in plausible reality more than those wildly over the top "chaos" fantasy monsters which seem to ignore "mother nature's rules" by which I usually judge whether or not I've produced a successful sculpt. That said as well as the naturalistic stuff I've sculpted I've also worked on pulp, fantasy and Sci-fi miniatures, for if a client can give me some good concept art and clear descriptions to work from then I feel I've got the set of goal posts I need to define what I am aiming to produce. The worst projects to work on have nothing to do with budget, size, style, detail or subject matter, but are the ones where the client can't articulate what they actually want but "…will know it when they see it!"….. (every professional sculptor reading this will just have experienced the empathetic tightening of the sphincter and clenching of the the fist and jaw that such comments bring about!)

I do run a fairly well equipped industrial unit as my business premises with my own spin casting equipment, vulcaniser, vacuum gear, kiln, lost wax casting facilities etc. etc. In the past I have been persuaded to provide complete "one stop" projects, sculpting the original greens, making both master and production moulds and going on to produce batches of castings for private collectors and/or cottage industry retailers, so I could potentially manufacture goods ready for immediate sale if you are looking to start out as a retailer in this business.

As well as the corporate and professional projects that pay the bulk of my bills, I work across all sorts of "hobby" miniatures markets from model railways to Doll's houses. I'd prefer, as much as I can, to continue in a similar vein to the way I already work for most of these clients; that is to work freelance for other manufacturers/retailers rather than become one as I don't want lots of stock to haul around exhibition/convention halls or deal in the day to day processing of mail order. I do however already work in "partnership" with certain retailers in these other disciplines whereby I produce the models they want branded and packaged under my own name, but wholesale these to them in bulk to sell on to their individual customers. Depending upon the circumstances and the individuals concerned I may entertain working in a similar manner as a means of getting a bit more work sculpting gaming miniatures.

My lead in time for booking new projects into my diary varies a lot but is typically two to four months, but I keep this quite flexible with a lot of slack to accommodate the last minute nature of the very well paid corporate and advertising projects that make all the difference to my annual income. However, since I am looking to sculpt these gaming miniatures as much for my own enjoyment as for profit then I don't mind working a few evenings or weekends here and there along the way, so if you've a deadline in mind just talk to me… The fastest I've ever had to turn around a sculpting commission was for an advertising project where I received the commission enquiry 7pm Thursday evening and needed the painted 54mm sculpt ready to be shipped with an overnight courier at close of business on the Friday in time for a photo shoot overseas on the Saturday.

Anyway, thanks again for the enquiries I've received, and whilst most established manufacturers already have their favoured sculptors, if you are thinking of commissioning any new sculpts then drop me a line (or paste your contact details here so I can reach you), you might be pleasantly surprised by what I have to offer and how much I can do with your budget.

Cheers

Aidan Campbell aidan@aidan-campbell.co.uk

Thanks for this info Aidan.

Matthew

Hi folks,

Sorry if I've not replied to your personal e-mails yet, I've received so many I've spent the last eight hours or so doing nothing but.

If you've not heard from me yet I will get around to replying but from what people have been saying and asking about I don't think I'm going to struggle to find a few interesting diversions from the boring and/or stressful corporate model making and sculpting projects on which I actually make my living.

Thinking about funding my own line of "not" miniatures inspired by popular cable tv dramas… Something in the vein of the recent "little urban achievers" kickstarter… link

Like the Adventures Of Michael Bocaraton, Sam Sledgehammer, Mike's Mom, and Mike's girlfriend Cheryl in the hit tv spy drama "You're Fired Notice"…

Or the Vicious "outlaws" biker gang from the gritty crime series "Sons of Disharmony"

Or perhaps just a pair of good old boys never meaning no harm…

Thoughts?

BTW if someone else makes them I'll -HAPPILY- just buy the things instead…

If you wanted to e-mail me aidan@aidan-campbell.co.uk we could talk this through further but two things spring to mind;

Licensing rights to merchandise goods from popular shows; Big film and TV firms have big lawyers to sue you if it's felt you're using their "property" to generate income. A few gaming miniatures is unlikley to be seen as a major finacial threat but check this out before getting yourself in trouble.

Secondly portait work, even caricatures, needs a far higher level of refinement than most miniatures so you can actually tell who it's supposed to be. Most people think ordinary greens are expensive to commission so don't think about this being a cheap enterprise.