Artist Selling Prints of Commissions

[Scourge]

So I don't know if this is a common thing, but I have been noticing a few artists selling prints such at art books or posters of artwork others have commissioned from them. I'm just wondering how people feel about that. I know that an artist retains all rights to the commission. I'm just not sure how I feel to suddenly find artwork of one of my characters being sold.

[Alkraas]

As an artist, I would never think of doing this, while yes, the art is basically ours, the character, which still belongs to someone else, is depicted in it. I would not feel comfortable even thinking of offering prints like these, unless the customer specifically asks for it to be done. I dunno, it rubs me the wrong way.

[NaughtySav]

If they were asked beforehand and said they were fine with it, I wouldn't think of it as a big deal.

Would be the polite thing to let them know ahead of time that's what you'd plan to do with the commissioned picture.

[BaronVonClop]

I'd be a bit upset as the commissioner if I wasn't told in advance. I understand that artists maintain the copyright of their art and can do what they please, but it would still be my character and my design being sold for a profit by someone else without my knowledge or consent.

If I were told in advance, I'd have no problem with it. But at the same time, I probably wouldn't commission that person to begin with if I knew that was on the table.

[Milesy]

I design a lot of craft patterns and sell them digitally.  I also take commissions for these craft items.  Commission pieces are never sold as patterns later, for the same reason that my fanart patterns are always free.  The artwork itself may be my work, but the IP is not.  I keep patterns for my own records, but nobody ever sees them.

I’ve only released one commission pattern, because while I was working on it during a livestream, the entire chat was asking about it.  The person the commission was for is one of my chat moderators, and immediately approved the release of the pattern, which I offer for free.  It’s one of my more popular downloads, and I could have made a good deal of money on it, but it doesn’t feel right.  It can be a loss leader instead.