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A guide for requesting art in exchanges
I've decided to write up a guide how to request art in exchanges, since this is a question that has come up multiple times on ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fail_fandomanon, and various anonymous users will crowdsource some advice, which promptly gets lost in post turnover and is not easily linked when a new person comes by asking the same question. So I've decided to collect some advice in an easily accessible place to answer the questions of How do I make good art requests in an exchange? and What details are artists looking for in an exchange request/letter? and What should I say in my requests/letters to encourage artists to treat me?
Note that every artist is going to have their own preferences and opinions on art requests: ways they would like information to be presented, things that excite them, things that are a turn-off, etc. This guide is just one artist's thoughts, and other artists may completely disagree, or not care about the things I've written, or care about things that I personally don't mind. I speak for myself as a single artist, not for all artists, but I hope what I write here is useful nevertheless.
The main guiding principle to keep in mind when crafting your request or letter to be art-friendly is that you want to convey to a potential artist creator or treater that you enjoy art and would be happy to receive it.
There are many ways to convey this, and I will start off with basic and simple (low effort) that nevertheless has a big impact and get more elaborate over time.
This is the most basic thing, and small tweaks can make a big difference: When you address your creator, avoid alienating a potential artist creator by using writer- or fic-specific language.
❌: "Thank you for writing for me!"
❌: "Don't worry, I will absolutely LOVE anything you write for this pairing!"
These are lovely notes to leave your creator, and it's easy to accidentally forget about artists when writing them. But be sure to comb your sign-up or letter to make sure you've genericized this language if you're requesting art:
✅: "Thank you for creating for me!"
✅: "Don't worry, I will absolutely LOVE anything you come up with for this pairing!"
A small change, but this goes a long way in convincing an artist reading your sign-up that you do in fact want art!
You don't have to provide an extensive set of prompts or a detailed list of art likes in order to request art (for tips on how to do that, though, see below). However, you should make sure that there is at least something for an artist to latch onto in case they don't have ideas of their own and/or they don't want to have to go totally ODAO (optional details are optional) on you and gift you some random art idea you didn't mention anywhere in your sign-up. So you should provide at least one prompt that an artist can work with.
What makes for a good art prompt, though?
A good art prompt is anything that can be captured in a single still image. Concrete, visual scenarios and snapshots of a single moment in time are what you want here. By contrast, things that don't work well for an art prompt are things that involve a time/gradual change element or that focus on internal emotion, abstract concepts, or other things that are difficult to convey visually.
✅: Poses or activities: "Character X and Y holding hands." "Character X knitting with their cat." "Forehead kisses."
✅: Outfits or looks: "Character X and Y in fancy ballgowns." "Mermaid!X." "Character X with long hair." "Character X if character Y had adopted them and raised them as their protege instead of character Z" (as long as this yields a visual change and not merely a personality change). Art is a good medium for costume porn, as well as hair kink, various AU imaginings, and many other things.
✅: Visual displays of emotion: "Character X crying in the rain." "Character Y looking devious/scheming something." "X and Y having a peaceful moment together."
✅: General mood: "Something fluffy." "Something creepy and spooky." Art is a great medium for conveying a particular aura.
❌: Stuff that requires time/gradualness in order to convey: "Characters in an arranged marriage catch feelings." "Angsty time loop." "X and Y solve a mystery together." In order to pull these off, you need to have a gradual progression, a before and after with character/relationship development in between, etc. A satisfying mystery requires a plot, and so on.
❌: Internal emotion: "Character X dealing with the fallout of the events in episode Y." "Character X's touch starvation." These kinds of things are just very difficult to convey visually in a single piece of art.
❌: Exploration; character/relationship study: "I'd love to see an exploration of the messiness of X and Y's relationship." "An exploration of character X's canonical time as a scientist before the start of the series." These can be conveyed in art to some degree, but it's not going to be an in-depth exploration because art isn't a great medium for that. It'll be more a surface-level snapshot. An artist might take on a prompt like this but they might also angst a bit that they're not really giving you something that will scratch your itch.
Genres like hurt/comfort are also tricky for art. Some scenarios can be conveyed with a snapshot (for example, a wounded/ill character in bed as another character tends them) but often it's hard to get both the hurt and the comfort in there in a satisfying way, because hurt/comfort as a genre generally requires a progression like status quo -> increasingly bad stuff -> rescue -> comfort/care/recovery. Also, sometimes the desired hurt might be emotions expressed internally, which is difficult to convey.
Note that it is possible to pull off all of the above kinds of prompts with art, but in order to do them well, it would probably require your creator to do them in some narrative form like a comic, which is way above the level of effort required by most exchanges and may not be your creator's strength/wheelhouse anyway. But if you're participating in a heavy-effort exchange that does encourage the creation of comics, see the section on prompting for comics below.
⚠️ Note of caution: Just like with fic prompts, it's possible to provide an art prompt that is too detailed and micromanage-y. For example, a too-detailed fic prompt in an exchange might be like:
❌: "I'd love to see something where X and Y go camping in the woods and get kidnapped by villain Z. While in captivity, X takes a hit meant for Y and almost dies. Y gets a chance to escape and X tells Y to leave them behind, but Y refuses to do that and manages to get both of them to safety, and then Y heals X's injuries."
This is enthusiastic and gives a writer something to work with but it's so detailed to the point that a writer might worry that the requester is really invested in this ONE idea and would be disappointed to get something that doesn't touch on all the elements they mentioned. It doesn't give the writer a lot of wiggle room or opportunity to make their own creative decisions while drafting the story -- it backs them into a corner. A similarly too-detailed art prompt might be like:
❌: "I'd love to see X and Y cuddling while standing in front of a fireplace (cozily backlit). Y standing behind X with their arms wrapped around X, and X looking up at Y. Both of them in their looks from episode 3x02 and a pink/purple color palette would be great."
This is too specific! It's true that this prompt is definitely tailored to art, and it specifies things that are easy to convey in a visual medium that the requester is clearly enthusiastic about, so parts of it would make for a good art prompt. But like with the overly-detailed fic prompt, all that detail might make your artist creator feel less like they're crafting a gift for you and more like they're taking dictation/a detailed commission from you. Like with fic, give your creator open-ended prompts and let them make their own creative decisions.
✅: "I'd love to see something fluffy between X and Y (cuddling, sharing a coat/blanket, etc.)."
✅: "Pink and purple are my favorite colors."
✅: "I adore the looks X and Y had going on in episode 3x02."
In lieu of or in addition to prompts, you could also specify art likes. As with fic likes, art likes can serve as vague, non-fandom-specific prompts to give your creator some ideas about what you generally like and guide them when it comes to brainstorming a gift. Speaking from experience, a list of art likes goes a long way in convincing an artist skimming through requests that you really do want art, even if it's a fairly basic/minimal list. Plus, they can save you a lot of time as you just need to write down a list once and then you can copy it from exchange to exchange or from letter to letter.
However, crafting a general art likes list does mean you need to have a pretty good idea of what you reliably enjoy in art regardless of fandom/character/relationship, and it means you need to have the vocabulary for articulating those likes. Therefore, some people might find drafting an art likes list more difficult than coming up with a specific prompt. Remember, though, your list doesn't have to be comprehensive -- it just needs to give your artist a starting place or something to latch onto so that the possibility space isn't huge and intimidating.
When you're requesting art, it's also good to make sure your creator is aware of any art-specific DNWs you might have as well. For example, maybe you're okay with explicit fic but don't like looking at explicit art. Maybe you like depictions of cuts and blood but don't like depictions of other injuries. Be sure to note things like that. (If your art DNWs are covered by your general DNWs, though, no need for a separate list or note.)
Some things to think about when making an art likes or DNWs list:
🔵 Poses / scenarios: Are there any poses, activities, or setups you reliably like? Hugging, one character kneeling in front of the other, bridal carry, sleeping, sparring, walking in the wilderness? If requesting smut, any sex positions or acts you especially like?
🔵 Elements: Are there elements that you always like when they're in an art piece? Cats, women with swords, religious imagery, characters using magic, wings, borders, etc.?
🔵 AUs and looks: Are there any AUs you reliably like seeing? Vampire AUs? Historical AU? Rule 63? Do you generally like seeing characters dressed to the nines? Like mentioned earlier, art works well for AU requests and requesting certain looks.
🔵 Color / color palettes: Do you like certain color palettes? Black and white art? Black and white with a splash of color as an accent? Do you like warm colors, cool colors, loud/clashing colors, earth tones?
🔵 Art media: Are there certain media you reliably like art in? Digital art, pencil sketches or charcoal, watercolor, ink, marker, color pencils, pixel art, etc.? Keep in mind that artists generally can't just pick up media unfamiliar to them, so this has to be a suggestion you're throwing out for the artist to go with or not to help them if they're undecided between multiple options, not a requirement or strongly-held preference.
🔵 Settings / backdrops: Are there certain settings you always like seeing? During a certain season or certain weather? By the sea? Sunsets? Cozy rooms? Dismal dungeons?
🔵 Mood: Like I mentioned earlier, art can easily have a mood or tone. Do you like fluff? Humor/crack? Romantic smut? Creepy horror? Melancholy loneliness?
🔵 Art in other contexts (commercial, consumer, etc.): Art is a medium that can serve specific uses or be consumed/used in a particular way. Consider: Tarot or playing cards (e.g. requested character(s) matched to a card that suits them). Pin-up art, sexy calendars, or magazine spreads. Travel posters, ads, agitprop, movie posters, etc. Postcards or greeting cards. Fake Instagram feeds, fake anime screenshots, or parodies of meme formats with fandom characters slotted in. Concept art. Book illumination. Fake stained glass windows. (Sometimes canons themselves have a visual style or in-world visual elements that suggest these kinds of genres -- if you would enjoy more of that/art in that vein, it might make for a good canon-specific art like!)
🔵 Literalness of depiction: How abstract are you willing to let an artist go with art? Do you want the characters straightforwardly depicted, or are you open to the artist breaking with reality / using art elements to convey things that can't literally be happening (for example, a character surrounded by panels that represent their character arc or a dilemma they're facing), or going completely abstract and not depicting the requested characters at all (for example, depicting objects that represent two characters' relationship but the characters themselves are nowhere to be seen)?
🔵 Art styles: Are there certain art movements that you especially like? Impressionism, Pre-Raphaelite art, art deco, art nouveau, pop art, ukiyo-e, Edward Gorey style, etc.? Do you like cartoonish or anime-style art, or chibis? Is it important for the characters to look "on-model" (matching how they look in canon), or is it okay for an artist to render the character in their own style or tweak the character's design/reinterpret the character? Do you like cutesy art or is that a turn-off? It's also good to specify if there are styles that are a dealbreaker for you, but see cautions below about expressing art style likes and DNWs.
⚠️ Word of caution: DNWing broad art styles or specifying that characters should look on-model:
Note that for most artists, there are hard limits on what art styles they're able to pull off and how close to a visual reference they are able to get with their art. Therefore, likes/DNWs that mention a preference for certain styles of art over others can get into specifying/DNWing an artist possessing a certain artistic skill level in order to create for you. Like with fic likes or DNWs that seem to suggest that you're DNWing or not interested in fic below a certain quality threshold, (1) art DNWs related to art style are probably not enforceable, and (2) additionally, art likes/DNWs like the above may cause your artist creator some anxiety or back them into a corner where they feel compelled to default, which is not a great experience for them.
That said, however, if being in/not in a certain style really would ruin a gift for you or make it underwhelming, my personal philosophy is that you should mention it so that your creator is aware, even if the DNW is not enforceable and even if it means some people can't create for you. However, I imagine people might disagree on this point, where if you really would be unhappy with receiving art in a particular art style, you either shouldn't request art at all or you could request it but without the style DNWs and with the understanding that there is a risk of getting a disappointing gift (which is always a possibility anyway).
Like with fic, the line between a reasonable preference/DNW and an unreasonable preference/DNW is tricky and depends partially on what you can reasonably expect a creator to accommodate, which, when it comes to art, may not be at all obvious to non-artists. For example, when requesting fic, "DNW: 1st or 2nd person POV" is a completely reasonable DNW. But "DNW: 3rd person POV" is not and is unenforceable, because that would be considered railroading a creator into doing 1st and 2nd person, which it's not reasonable to expect people to want to do. As an example for art, I have seen people DNW chibis and I think this is a reasonable DNW because chibis are a very specific and exaggerated sort of art genre and it's reasonable to expect an artist to be able to produce art not in that style. But "DNW: cartoony art" and "DNW: characters having unrealistic proportions" are somewhat nearby "DNW: chibis" but in this case, I doubt they would be enforceable because it's not reasonable to expect to get an artist who can do non-cartoony art or who can nail proportions.
Anyway, I don't have time to cover every case, but feel free to ask here or onfail_fandomanon if you want to workshop some art likes/DNWs to avoid railroading or being generally offputting to an artist.
So to summarize, here is my advice: be careful when choosing your DNWs; be sure to write them with non-judgmental language; consider changing DNWs into open-ended likes that nudge your creator in the direction of things you like without implying they have to go in that direction; and keep in mind that there are limits to how much an artist can change their style, same as with fic writing style.
⚠️ Word of caution: Linking to specific pieces of art as examples of what you like, or naming specific artists you love.
Personally, I don't mind this at all and would find this useful, especially if you don't have the vocabulary to describe artistic elements you like, but can look at art and be like "*points* That! I like that!"
However, some people find it intimidating for someone requesting art to be like, "Here are some of my favorite artists! *links a bunch of artists whose art you have a snowball's chance in hell of being able to replicate*"
But if you want my opinion, I encourage you to do this, especially if you have difficulty articulating color palettes/media/mood/styles because you don't know what the names for anything are, but you can pick them out visually. I ain't no van Gogh or Shakespeare, but if you say, "I like things in the style of van Gogh's self portraits" or "I want a Shakespearian sonnet but like fannish though" I get what you're going for. It's not going to be anything at that level but it's going to be in that vague style. I am aware that I'm an amateur artist making fannish gifts for people in my free time, and I assume anyone requesting art will be aware of that too and have their expectations set appropriately.
However, just be careful with your wording so that naming art/artists you like sounds like an idea to get the artist's creative juices flowing and not like, "I definitely want THIS exactly."
The short answer is yes, but ⚠️ proceed with caution. The main thing you want to avoid doing is alienating potential art treaters by implying that art is a lesser gift. So don't do this:
❌: "I didn't request art because I know I'd be disappointed if my only gift in this exchange was art. However, I do generally like art and so I'd be happy to receive it as a treat!"
This may be true/honest (i.e. the real reason you don't generally request art in exchanges but would still appreciate art treats), and, heck, there's nothing wrong with having this set of preferences. Nevertheless, I definitely do not recommend putting it this way because you'll probably annoy an artist by implying that art isn't good enough for a full gift but you're happy to receive it on the side. And just in general, explicitly mentioning you're open to extra presents is just an awkward situation to put yourself in.
Keep in mind my guiding principle here: you want to convince artists that you enjoy art and would be happy to receive it. By not requesting art in an exchange, you're already putting yourself at a disadvantage in terms of conveying this thing to artists, so you need to be sure to compensate for that. But I have definitely seen people request fic only and opt into art treats in a way that didn't annoy me, and in fact successfully convinced me to make them an art treat. A few strategies/tips for doing this:
✅: Be an artist. Okay, I know this is the least helpful advice for the main audience of this guide who are by and large non-artists. But still, it is definitely true that I easily give a pass to artists who are requesting fic only but noting opennness to art treats, because it's clear they like art as a medium but it's just that for this particular request, they are mainly interested in fic.
✅: "I didn't request art because I'm not confident in my ability to prompt for it. But if you do see something here that inspires you, just know that I love art treats and would be very happy to get art!" Okay, at the other end, you can take advantage of the fact that you are an art noob in order to get away with this way of framing your request pattern. Imply that you would request art if you could but for the time being, you want to make sure you match on a fic writer so you don't let down an artist creator with your sign-up. Best when combined with...
✅: Leave enthusiastic comments on any art gifts you receive. This will go a long way to convincing a potential treater that despite not requesting art, you'll still be a great art recip. (How do you write a good comment on an art gift, though? See below for advice!)
✅: "I'm mainly interested in fic to scratch this itch I have for these pairings/characters/whatever. That said, I do appreciate art and would be happy to get art as a treat." Slight tweak of the original wording to avoid implying anywhere that you generally view art as inadequate. Instead imply that your fic preference just applies to your current set of requests, that you're just in the mood for fic at the moment, etc. It's still a bit awkward as you have to explicitly mention the possibility of getting extra presents, but overall this is probably fine.
✅: Participate in exchanges whose mechanics facilitate these kinds of requests in an unobtrusive way.trickortreatex, as part of the sign-up process, allows you to select a tag that says, "You may ignore my Art/Fic preferences for extra gifts." This allows you to request fic only but indicate you're open to art treats without drawing attention to yourself or having to explain any further. Drop some art likes in your letter/sign-up for treaters and you're good to go. yuletide_admin is a fic-only exchange, but it has a vibrant side-challenge called Wrapping Paper where you can sign up in order to indicate you are interested in art treats. Every Yuletide participant has to request fic only but there are clearly a lot of people who are interested in art and interested in making art treats, so you'll be at home in this exchange asking for art treats while only requesting fic. These exchanges are also both very large, so there's plenty of opportunity to request your fandoms even if they're small or obscure (only if they're small and obscure, in the case of Yuletide).
Edit to add: Since February 2022, AO3 has a default setting on new user accounts that makes it so gifting works to that user -- outside of fulfilling an exchange assignment -- is disabled. As a result, some exchanges require you to specify whether you are open to receiving non-assignment gifts (i.e. treats). This has made it so that it's a bit more normal for people to have a note on their standard sign-up that says something like "I am open to treats" or "I am open to treats, including art treats" or "Treats of any media very welcome!" or whatever.
Anyway, this is a long way of saying that "I am open to treats, including art treats" on a fic-only request is now pretty common! But do keep in mind my advice above that it's also good to make it clear with art likes or your comments on art gifts that you really do enjoy receiving art.
Okay so the important thing to keep in mind here is that art and fic are two very different media. With fic, even a fairly short fic, there are different parts of a fic, so you might like some parts while finding other parts meh; you might experience multiple emotions reading the fic, with some parts being sad, some parts being tense, some parts being sweet, etc.; you can stretch out the experience of reading a fic in order to "savor" it; and as you read, you can react to different parts of the fic, and later quote those parts and talk about your reaction. Art is not this way at all. Art tends to be consumed much more holistically where you absorb the whole piece of art in a quick glance; you can draw out the experience of consuming art a little more by focusing on smaller details of the piece and absorbing them and thinking about them, but you'll still probably spend less time doing all that than the time it takes to do a single pass over a short fic; and you can't exactly quote back parts of the art in order to give a detailed account of your reaction as you consumed it.
So what does this mean? It means this: it is natural for a comment on a piece of art to be much shorter than a comment on a fic. Artists are aware of this, so please don't be nervous about leaving a short comment.
But still, my guiding principle is relevant again: in your comment, you want to convey that you enjoy art and were happy to receive it. So how do you do that? Are there things that artists like to hear or don't like to hear? What if I don't have the vocabulary to properly appreciate the art?
Here are some of my suggestions about what things you could include in a comment, starting from what I think is most important/meaningful and going down to more optional/unimportant.
✅: Words of thanks. Yep, basic, but it's a gift so it's always polite to thank your maker!
✅: Your emotional reaction to the piece. This can be anything. Were you surprised to get this fandom? Did it make you go "d'awww" with the cuteness? Was it chilling? Like with fic, artists always want to know how people reacted to consuming the piece, and like with all gifts, we want to make sure it made the recipient happy.
✅: Impressions and descriptions. How would you describe the piece? Sweet, sexy, serene, gorgeous? How would you describe what the characters look like and what emotion they're expressing? What situation are they in and how are they reacting to it? What do you think the artist was going for with the piece, and did they succeed? "This is a very sweet moment." "I like this piece contrasting character X's last scene with character Y's last scene." Yeah, this sounds basic to describe the premise/intention of the art, but it's always nice when the recip is like "I see what you did there!"
✅: Appropriateness. Did they fill your request/hit on some of your likes? Does the piece feel right/in-character for the characters? Does the piece capture whatever it is that drew you to this fandom/character/pairing and compelled you to request it in this exchange?
✅: Any details you appreciate. "I like the cute hat they're wearing!" "Wow, the detail on the dress!" You don't have to be knowledgeable about the technical aspects of art in order to pull out some details you like here. Just talk about anything that strikes your fancy. That said, it's true that the more you know about art, the more you'll have to say about the technical execution of an art piece.
✅: Technical execution. Some technical aspects that artists might appreciate people remarking on: the color palette or use of lighting and shade and how well it supports the mood/vibe of the piece, what emotions it makes you feel, etc.; linework, especially if there's a lot of details or intricacy like armor, jewelry, lace, etc.; composition (what elements are placed in the art and how they're laid out), especially if it's interesting, elaborate, meaningful, etc. Again, if you don't feel confident remarking on these aspects, you don't have to!
Again, it doesn't have to be long. If you're short on time or energy, just stick to the first two things: a note of thanks and your emotional reaction.
Note that this advice really only applies to heavy-duty exchanges where you have a reasonable expectation that someone might create a comic for you (likefffx). Comics are generally a level of effort far above the standard exchange minimum -- so you might get it, but you only need to worry about prompting for it in exchanges like fffx.
The good thing is that comic prompting resembles prompting for short fic, so if you're used to doing that, you can reuse a lot of the same prompts. Comics open up the space for exploration, for short narratives, and for conveying inner emotion and character study, which non-narrative art can't do. That said, it takes a lot of work on the part of the artist to convey a fairly small bit of narrative. I would estimate a 10-page comic conveys about as much story/action/dialogue as a 600-1000 word ficlet does. It can convey a series of brief scenes/snapshots, or it can convey a short scene in a detailed way, or it can convey a short story with beginning, middle, and end, but in a brief and minimalistic style.
Chapters in manga that convey a complete "episode" are usually about 30 pages or so, so hopefully that gives you an idea of how much story can be conveyed in 10 pages. Formats like 5 things or 5+1 work fine for comic requests (2 pages per thing!), just like they would with a ficlet. Comics also are perfectly fine for PWP. So my recommendation is that you reuse prompts you make for 500/1k-word min exchanges when requesting comics. I wouldn't recommend reusing prompts for a 5k or 10k fic for a comic request, though. 5k and 10k fic prompts should be geared to meatier/plottier fics, which will be way too much plot for what can be conveyed in a 10-page comic.
❌: Heavy-duty plot prompts (case fic, slow burn, etc.).
❌: Momentary snapshots ("Characters X and Y hugging" "Character X crying in the rain"). This doesn't give a comic artist enough to work with.
✅: Exploration; character/relationship study; dialogue. With a comic, it's possible to delve into a character interacting with the world more, or characters interacting with each other and having a dynamic.
✅: Internal emotion. This is now fine because it can be conveyed through events and the character's reactions to them, internal monologue, etc.
✅: Open-ended premises. "What if Character X had been adopted by character Y instead of character Z?" "I want to see more of character X and Y's life post-canon. Are they still friends? Do they check on each other from time to time?" These work well for fic prompts and they work for comic prompts because the artist has a lot of flexibility in crafting the story they want to tell and how much detail they want to go into.
And that concludes my guide! I hope this was helpful and gives people the confidence to request art in exchanges. I'm very open to suggestions for improvements and things I've missed with this guide, and am available to answer any questions people have. Good luck with art requesting!
fail_fandomanon, and various anonymous users will crowdsource some advice, which promptly gets lost in post turnover and is not easily linked when a new person comes by asking the same question. So I've decided to collect some advice in an easily accessible place to answer the questions of How do I make good art requests in an exchange? and What details are artists looking for in an exchange request/letter? and What should I say in my requests/letters to encourage artists to treat me?Note that every artist is going to have their own preferences and opinions on art requests: ways they would like information to be presented, things that excite them, things that are a turn-off, etc. This guide is just one artist's thoughts, and other artists may completely disagree, or not care about the things I've written, or care about things that I personally don't mind. I speak for myself as a single artist, not for all artists, but I hope what I write here is useful nevertheless.
The main guiding principle to keep in mind when crafting your request or letter to be art-friendly is that you want to convey to a potential artist creator or treater that you enjoy art and would be happy to receive it.
There are many ways to convey this, and I will start off with basic and simple (low effort) that nevertheless has a big impact and get more elaborate over time.
Use art-/artist-inclusive language when addressing your creator
This is the most basic thing, and small tweaks can make a big difference: When you address your creator, avoid alienating a potential artist creator by using writer- or fic-specific language.
❌: "Thank you for writing for me!"
❌: "Don't worry, I will absolutely LOVE anything you write for this pairing!"
These are lovely notes to leave your creator, and it's easy to accidentally forget about artists when writing them. But be sure to comb your sign-up or letter to make sure you've genericized this language if you're requesting art:
✅: "Thank you for creating for me!"
✅: "Don't worry, I will absolutely LOVE anything you come up with for this pairing!"
A small change, but this goes a long way in convincing an artist reading your sign-up that you do in fact want art!
Provide at least one art-friendly prompt
You don't have to provide an extensive set of prompts or a detailed list of art likes in order to request art (for tips on how to do that, though, see below). However, you should make sure that there is at least something for an artist to latch onto in case they don't have ideas of their own and/or they don't want to have to go totally ODAO (optional details are optional) on you and gift you some random art idea you didn't mention anywhere in your sign-up. So you should provide at least one prompt that an artist can work with.
What makes for a good art prompt, though?
A good art prompt is anything that can be captured in a single still image. Concrete, visual scenarios and snapshots of a single moment in time are what you want here. By contrast, things that don't work well for an art prompt are things that involve a time/gradual change element or that focus on internal emotion, abstract concepts, or other things that are difficult to convey visually.
✅: Poses or activities: "Character X and Y holding hands." "Character X knitting with their cat." "Forehead kisses."
✅: Outfits or looks: "Character X and Y in fancy ballgowns." "Mermaid!X." "Character X with long hair." "Character X if character Y had adopted them and raised them as their protege instead of character Z" (as long as this yields a visual change and not merely a personality change). Art is a good medium for costume porn, as well as hair kink, various AU imaginings, and many other things.
✅: Visual displays of emotion: "Character X crying in the rain." "Character Y looking devious/scheming something." "X and Y having a peaceful moment together."
✅: General mood: "Something fluffy." "Something creepy and spooky." Art is a great medium for conveying a particular aura.
❌: Stuff that requires time/gradualness in order to convey: "Characters in an arranged marriage catch feelings." "Angsty time loop." "X and Y solve a mystery together." In order to pull these off, you need to have a gradual progression, a before and after with character/relationship development in between, etc. A satisfying mystery requires a plot, and so on.
❌: Internal emotion: "Character X dealing with the fallout of the events in episode Y." "Character X's touch starvation." These kinds of things are just very difficult to convey visually in a single piece of art.
❌: Exploration; character/relationship study: "I'd love to see an exploration of the messiness of X and Y's relationship." "An exploration of character X's canonical time as a scientist before the start of the series." These can be conveyed in art to some degree, but it's not going to be an in-depth exploration because art isn't a great medium for that. It'll be more a surface-level snapshot. An artist might take on a prompt like this but they might also angst a bit that they're not really giving you something that will scratch your itch.
Genres like hurt/comfort are also tricky for art. Some scenarios can be conveyed with a snapshot (for example, a wounded/ill character in bed as another character tends them) but often it's hard to get both the hurt and the comfort in there in a satisfying way, because hurt/comfort as a genre generally requires a progression like status quo -> increasingly bad stuff -> rescue -> comfort/care/recovery. Also, sometimes the desired hurt might be emotions expressed internally, which is difficult to convey.
Note that it is possible to pull off all of the above kinds of prompts with art, but in order to do them well, it would probably require your creator to do them in some narrative form like a comic, which is way above the level of effort required by most exchanges and may not be your creator's strength/wheelhouse anyway. But if you're participating in a heavy-effort exchange that does encourage the creation of comics, see the section on prompting for comics below.
⚠️ Note of caution: Just like with fic prompts, it's possible to provide an art prompt that is too detailed and micromanage-y. For example, a too-detailed fic prompt in an exchange might be like:
❌: "I'd love to see something where X and Y go camping in the woods and get kidnapped by villain Z. While in captivity, X takes a hit meant for Y and almost dies. Y gets a chance to escape and X tells Y to leave them behind, but Y refuses to do that and manages to get both of them to safety, and then Y heals X's injuries."
This is enthusiastic and gives a writer something to work with but it's so detailed to the point that a writer might worry that the requester is really invested in this ONE idea and would be disappointed to get something that doesn't touch on all the elements they mentioned. It doesn't give the writer a lot of wiggle room or opportunity to make their own creative decisions while drafting the story -- it backs them into a corner. A similarly too-detailed art prompt might be like:
❌: "I'd love to see X and Y cuddling while standing in front of a fireplace (cozily backlit). Y standing behind X with their arms wrapped around X, and X looking up at Y. Both of them in their looks from episode 3x02 and a pink/purple color palette would be great."
This is too specific! It's true that this prompt is definitely tailored to art, and it specifies things that are easy to convey in a visual medium that the requester is clearly enthusiastic about, so parts of it would make for a good art prompt. But like with the overly-detailed fic prompt, all that detail might make your artist creator feel less like they're crafting a gift for you and more like they're taking dictation/a detailed commission from you. Like with fic, give your creator open-ended prompts and let them make their own creative decisions.
✅: "I'd love to see something fluffy between X and Y (cuddling, sharing a coat/blanket, etc.)."
✅: "Pink and purple are my favorite colors."
✅: "I adore the looks X and Y had going on in episode 3x02."
Provide a list of art likes/DNWs
In lieu of or in addition to prompts, you could also specify art likes. As with fic likes, art likes can serve as vague, non-fandom-specific prompts to give your creator some ideas about what you generally like and guide them when it comes to brainstorming a gift. Speaking from experience, a list of art likes goes a long way in convincing an artist skimming through requests that you really do want art, even if it's a fairly basic/minimal list. Plus, they can save you a lot of time as you just need to write down a list once and then you can copy it from exchange to exchange or from letter to letter.
However, crafting a general art likes list does mean you need to have a pretty good idea of what you reliably enjoy in art regardless of fandom/character/relationship, and it means you need to have the vocabulary for articulating those likes. Therefore, some people might find drafting an art likes list more difficult than coming up with a specific prompt. Remember, though, your list doesn't have to be comprehensive -- it just needs to give your artist a starting place or something to latch onto so that the possibility space isn't huge and intimidating.
When you're requesting art, it's also good to make sure your creator is aware of any art-specific DNWs you might have as well. For example, maybe you're okay with explicit fic but don't like looking at explicit art. Maybe you like depictions of cuts and blood but don't like depictions of other injuries. Be sure to note things like that. (If your art DNWs are covered by your general DNWs, though, no need for a separate list or note.)
Some things to think about when making an art likes or DNWs list:
🔵 Poses / scenarios: Are there any poses, activities, or setups you reliably like? Hugging, one character kneeling in front of the other, bridal carry, sleeping, sparring, walking in the wilderness? If requesting smut, any sex positions or acts you especially like?
🔵 Elements: Are there elements that you always like when they're in an art piece? Cats, women with swords, religious imagery, characters using magic, wings, borders, etc.?
🔵 AUs and looks: Are there any AUs you reliably like seeing? Vampire AUs? Historical AU? Rule 63? Do you generally like seeing characters dressed to the nines? Like mentioned earlier, art works well for AU requests and requesting certain looks.
🔵 Color / color palettes: Do you like certain color palettes? Black and white art? Black and white with a splash of color as an accent? Do you like warm colors, cool colors, loud/clashing colors, earth tones?
🔵 Art media: Are there certain media you reliably like art in? Digital art, pencil sketches or charcoal, watercolor, ink, marker, color pencils, pixel art, etc.? Keep in mind that artists generally can't just pick up media unfamiliar to them, so this has to be a suggestion you're throwing out for the artist to go with or not to help them if they're undecided between multiple options, not a requirement or strongly-held preference.
🔵 Settings / backdrops: Are there certain settings you always like seeing? During a certain season or certain weather? By the sea? Sunsets? Cozy rooms? Dismal dungeons?
🔵 Mood: Like I mentioned earlier, art can easily have a mood or tone. Do you like fluff? Humor/crack? Romantic smut? Creepy horror? Melancholy loneliness?
🔵 Art in other contexts (commercial, consumer, etc.): Art is a medium that can serve specific uses or be consumed/used in a particular way. Consider: Tarot or playing cards (e.g. requested character(s) matched to a card that suits them). Pin-up art, sexy calendars, or magazine spreads. Travel posters, ads, agitprop, movie posters, etc. Postcards or greeting cards. Fake Instagram feeds, fake anime screenshots, or parodies of meme formats with fandom characters slotted in. Concept art. Book illumination. Fake stained glass windows. (Sometimes canons themselves have a visual style or in-world visual elements that suggest these kinds of genres -- if you would enjoy more of that/art in that vein, it might make for a good canon-specific art like!)
🔵 Literalness of depiction: How abstract are you willing to let an artist go with art? Do you want the characters straightforwardly depicted, or are you open to the artist breaking with reality / using art elements to convey things that can't literally be happening (for example, a character surrounded by panels that represent their character arc or a dilemma they're facing), or going completely abstract and not depicting the requested characters at all (for example, depicting objects that represent two characters' relationship but the characters themselves are nowhere to be seen)?
🔵 Art styles: Are there certain art movements that you especially like? Impressionism, Pre-Raphaelite art, art deco, art nouveau, pop art, ukiyo-e, Edward Gorey style, etc.? Do you like cartoonish or anime-style art, or chibis? Is it important for the characters to look "on-model" (matching how they look in canon), or is it okay for an artist to render the character in their own style or tweak the character's design/reinterpret the character? Do you like cutesy art or is that a turn-off? It's also good to specify if there are styles that are a dealbreaker for you, but see cautions below about expressing art style likes and DNWs.
⚠️ Word of caution: DNWing broad art styles or specifying that characters should look on-model:
Note that for most artists, there are hard limits on what art styles they're able to pull off and how close to a visual reference they are able to get with their art. Therefore, likes/DNWs that mention a preference for certain styles of art over others can get into specifying/DNWing an artist possessing a certain artistic skill level in order to create for you. Like with fic likes or DNWs that seem to suggest that you're DNWing or not interested in fic below a certain quality threshold, (1) art DNWs related to art style are probably not enforceable, and (2) additionally, art likes/DNWs like the above may cause your artist creator some anxiety or back them into a corner where they feel compelled to default, which is not a great experience for them.
That said, however, if being in/not in a certain style really would ruin a gift for you or make it underwhelming, my personal philosophy is that you should mention it so that your creator is aware, even if the DNW is not enforceable and even if it means some people can't create for you. However, I imagine people might disagree on this point, where if you really would be unhappy with receiving art in a particular art style, you either shouldn't request art at all or you could request it but without the style DNWs and with the understanding that there is a risk of getting a disappointing gift (which is always a possibility anyway).
Like with fic, the line between a reasonable preference/DNW and an unreasonable preference/DNW is tricky and depends partially on what you can reasonably expect a creator to accommodate, which, when it comes to art, may not be at all obvious to non-artists. For example, when requesting fic, "DNW: 1st or 2nd person POV" is a completely reasonable DNW. But "DNW: 3rd person POV" is not and is unenforceable, because that would be considered railroading a creator into doing 1st and 2nd person, which it's not reasonable to expect people to want to do. As an example for art, I have seen people DNW chibis and I think this is a reasonable DNW because chibis are a very specific and exaggerated sort of art genre and it's reasonable to expect an artist to be able to produce art not in that style. But "DNW: cartoony art" and "DNW: characters having unrealistic proportions" are somewhat nearby "DNW: chibis" but in this case, I doubt they would be enforceable because it's not reasonable to expect to get an artist who can do non-cartoony art or who can nail proportions.
Anyway, I don't have time to cover every case, but feel free to ask here or on
fail_fandomanon if you want to workshop some art likes/DNWs to avoid railroading or being generally offputting to an artist.So to summarize, here is my advice: be careful when choosing your DNWs; be sure to write them with non-judgmental language; consider changing DNWs into open-ended likes that nudge your creator in the direction of things you like without implying they have to go in that direction; and keep in mind that there are limits to how much an artist can change their style, same as with fic writing style.
⚠️ Word of caution: Linking to specific pieces of art as examples of what you like, or naming specific artists you love.
Personally, I don't mind this at all and would find this useful, especially if you don't have the vocabulary to describe artistic elements you like, but can look at art and be like "*points* That! I like that!"
However, some people find it intimidating for someone requesting art to be like, "Here are some of my favorite artists! *links a bunch of artists whose art you have a snowball's chance in hell of being able to replicate*"
But if you want my opinion, I encourage you to do this, especially if you have difficulty articulating color palettes/media/mood/styles because you don't know what the names for anything are, but you can pick them out visually. I ain't no van Gogh or Shakespeare, but if you say, "I like things in the style of van Gogh's self portraits" or "I want a Shakespearian sonnet but like fannish though" I get what you're going for. It's not going to be anything at that level but it's going to be in that vague style. I am aware that I'm an amateur artist making fannish gifts for people in my free time, and I assume anyone requesting art will be aware of that too and have their expectations set appropriately.
However, just be careful with your wording so that naming art/artists you like sounds like an idea to get the artist's creative juices flowing and not like, "I definitely want THIS exactly."
Can I mention that I appreciate art treats even if I'm not requesting art/wouldn't want art as a main gift?
The short answer is yes, but ⚠️ proceed with caution. The main thing you want to avoid doing is alienating potential art treaters by implying that art is a lesser gift. So don't do this:
❌: "I didn't request art because I know I'd be disappointed if my only gift in this exchange was art. However, I do generally like art and so I'd be happy to receive it as a treat!"
This may be true/honest (i.e. the real reason you don't generally request art in exchanges but would still appreciate art treats), and, heck, there's nothing wrong with having this set of preferences. Nevertheless, I definitely do not recommend putting it this way because you'll probably annoy an artist by implying that art isn't good enough for a full gift but you're happy to receive it on the side. And just in general, explicitly mentioning you're open to extra presents is just an awkward situation to put yourself in.
Keep in mind my guiding principle here: you want to convince artists that you enjoy art and would be happy to receive it. By not requesting art in an exchange, you're already putting yourself at a disadvantage in terms of conveying this thing to artists, so you need to be sure to compensate for that. But I have definitely seen people request fic only and opt into art treats in a way that didn't annoy me, and in fact successfully convinced me to make them an art treat. A few strategies/tips for doing this:
✅: Be an artist. Okay, I know this is the least helpful advice for the main audience of this guide who are by and large non-artists. But still, it is definitely true that I easily give a pass to artists who are requesting fic only but noting opennness to art treats, because it's clear they like art as a medium but it's just that for this particular request, they are mainly interested in fic.
✅: "I didn't request art because I'm not confident in my ability to prompt for it. But if you do see something here that inspires you, just know that I love art treats and would be very happy to get art!" Okay, at the other end, you can take advantage of the fact that you are an art noob in order to get away with this way of framing your request pattern. Imply that you would request art if you could but for the time being, you want to make sure you match on a fic writer so you don't let down an artist creator with your sign-up. Best when combined with...
✅: Leave enthusiastic comments on any art gifts you receive. This will go a long way to convincing a potential treater that despite not requesting art, you'll still be a great art recip. (How do you write a good comment on an art gift, though? See below for advice!)
✅: "I'm mainly interested in fic to scratch this itch I have for these pairings/characters/whatever. That said, I do appreciate art and would be happy to get art as a treat." Slight tweak of the original wording to avoid implying anywhere that you generally view art as inadequate. Instead imply that your fic preference just applies to your current set of requests, that you're just in the mood for fic at the moment, etc. It's still a bit awkward as you have to explicitly mention the possibility of getting extra presents, but overall this is probably fine.
✅: Participate in exchanges whose mechanics facilitate these kinds of requests in an unobtrusive way.
trickortreatex, as part of the sign-up process, allows you to select a tag that says, "You may ignore my Art/Fic preferences for extra gifts." This allows you to request fic only but indicate you're open to art treats without drawing attention to yourself or having to explain any further. Drop some art likes in your letter/sign-up for treaters and you're good to go. yuletide_admin is a fic-only exchange, but it has a vibrant side-challenge called Wrapping Paper where you can sign up in order to indicate you are interested in art treats. Every Yuletide participant has to request fic only but there are clearly a lot of people who are interested in art and interested in making art treats, so you'll be at home in this exchange asking for art treats while only requesting fic. These exchanges are also both very large, so there's plenty of opportunity to request your fandoms even if they're small or obscure (only if they're small and obscure, in the case of Yuletide).Edit to add: Since February 2022, AO3 has a default setting on new user accounts that makes it so gifting works to that user -- outside of fulfilling an exchange assignment -- is disabled. As a result, some exchanges require you to specify whether you are open to receiving non-assignment gifts (i.e. treats). This has made it so that it's a bit more normal for people to have a note on their standard sign-up that says something like "I am open to treats" or "I am open to treats, including art treats" or "Treats of any media very welcome!" or whatever.
Anyway, this is a long way of saying that "I am open to treats, including art treats" on a fic-only request is now pretty common! But do keep in mind my advice above that it's also good to make it clear with art likes or your comments on art gifts that you really do enjoy receiving art.
How do I leave a good recip comment on art? I'm not an artist and I don't know what to say. /o\
Okay so the important thing to keep in mind here is that art and fic are two very different media. With fic, even a fairly short fic, there are different parts of a fic, so you might like some parts while finding other parts meh; you might experience multiple emotions reading the fic, with some parts being sad, some parts being tense, some parts being sweet, etc.; you can stretch out the experience of reading a fic in order to "savor" it; and as you read, you can react to different parts of the fic, and later quote those parts and talk about your reaction. Art is not this way at all. Art tends to be consumed much more holistically where you absorb the whole piece of art in a quick glance; you can draw out the experience of consuming art a little more by focusing on smaller details of the piece and absorbing them and thinking about them, but you'll still probably spend less time doing all that than the time it takes to do a single pass over a short fic; and you can't exactly quote back parts of the art in order to give a detailed account of your reaction as you consumed it.
So what does this mean? It means this: it is natural for a comment on a piece of art to be much shorter than a comment on a fic. Artists are aware of this, so please don't be nervous about leaving a short comment.
But still, my guiding principle is relevant again: in your comment, you want to convey that you enjoy art and were happy to receive it. So how do you do that? Are there things that artists like to hear or don't like to hear? What if I don't have the vocabulary to properly appreciate the art?
Here are some of my suggestions about what things you could include in a comment, starting from what I think is most important/meaningful and going down to more optional/unimportant.
✅: Words of thanks. Yep, basic, but it's a gift so it's always polite to thank your maker!
✅: Your emotional reaction to the piece. This can be anything. Were you surprised to get this fandom? Did it make you go "d'awww" with the cuteness? Was it chilling? Like with fic, artists always want to know how people reacted to consuming the piece, and like with all gifts, we want to make sure it made the recipient happy.
✅: Impressions and descriptions. How would you describe the piece? Sweet, sexy, serene, gorgeous? How would you describe what the characters look like and what emotion they're expressing? What situation are they in and how are they reacting to it? What do you think the artist was going for with the piece, and did they succeed? "This is a very sweet moment." "I like this piece contrasting character X's last scene with character Y's last scene." Yeah, this sounds basic to describe the premise/intention of the art, but it's always nice when the recip is like "I see what you did there!"
✅: Appropriateness. Did they fill your request/hit on some of your likes? Does the piece feel right/in-character for the characters? Does the piece capture whatever it is that drew you to this fandom/character/pairing and compelled you to request it in this exchange?
✅: Any details you appreciate. "I like the cute hat they're wearing!" "Wow, the detail on the dress!" You don't have to be knowledgeable about the technical aspects of art in order to pull out some details you like here. Just talk about anything that strikes your fancy. That said, it's true that the more you know about art, the more you'll have to say about the technical execution of an art piece.
✅: Technical execution. Some technical aspects that artists might appreciate people remarking on: the color palette or use of lighting and shade and how well it supports the mood/vibe of the piece, what emotions it makes you feel, etc.; linework, especially if there's a lot of details or intricacy like armor, jewelry, lace, etc.; composition (what elements are placed in the art and how they're laid out), especially if it's interesting, elaborate, meaningful, etc. Again, if you don't feel confident remarking on these aspects, you don't have to!
Again, it doesn't have to be long. If you're short on time or energy, just stick to the first two things: a note of thanks and your emotional reaction.
How do I request comics?
Note that this advice really only applies to heavy-duty exchanges where you have a reasonable expectation that someone might create a comic for you (like
fffx). Comics are generally a level of effort far above the standard exchange minimum -- so you might get it, but you only need to worry about prompting for it in exchanges like fffx.The good thing is that comic prompting resembles prompting for short fic, so if you're used to doing that, you can reuse a lot of the same prompts. Comics open up the space for exploration, for short narratives, and for conveying inner emotion and character study, which non-narrative art can't do. That said, it takes a lot of work on the part of the artist to convey a fairly small bit of narrative. I would estimate a 10-page comic conveys about as much story/action/dialogue as a 600-1000 word ficlet does. It can convey a series of brief scenes/snapshots, or it can convey a short scene in a detailed way, or it can convey a short story with beginning, middle, and end, but in a brief and minimalistic style.
Chapters in manga that convey a complete "episode" are usually about 30 pages or so, so hopefully that gives you an idea of how much story can be conveyed in 10 pages. Formats like 5 things or 5+1 work fine for comic requests (2 pages per thing!), just like they would with a ficlet. Comics also are perfectly fine for PWP. So my recommendation is that you reuse prompts you make for 500/1k-word min exchanges when requesting comics. I wouldn't recommend reusing prompts for a 5k or 10k fic for a comic request, though. 5k and 10k fic prompts should be geared to meatier/plottier fics, which will be way too much plot for what can be conveyed in a 10-page comic.
❌: Heavy-duty plot prompts (case fic, slow burn, etc.).
❌: Momentary snapshots ("Characters X and Y hugging" "Character X crying in the rain"). This doesn't give a comic artist enough to work with.
✅: Exploration; character/relationship study; dialogue. With a comic, it's possible to delve into a character interacting with the world more, or characters interacting with each other and having a dynamic.
✅: Internal emotion. This is now fine because it can be conveyed through events and the character's reactions to them, internal monologue, etc.
✅: Open-ended premises. "What if Character X had been adopted by character Y instead of character Z?" "I want to see more of character X and Y's life post-canon. Are they still friends? Do they check on each other from time to time?" These work well for fic prompts and they work for comic prompts because the artist has a lot of flexibility in crafting the story they want to tell and how much detail they want to go into.
And that concludes my guide! I hope this was helpful and gives people the confidence to request art in exchanges. I'm very open to suggestions for improvements and things I've missed with this guide, and am available to answer any questions people have. Good luck with art requesting!