How to take art commissions through your link in bio

Say you post a character study on a Tuesday night and forty people comment "do you do commissions??" By Wednesday you have a pile of DMs that say things like "hey how much for a pic of my dog." Each one needs a reply, a price, a question about size, a question about deadline, and a reminder that you are not free until March. That is a week of admin before you have touched a pencil.

A commissions page fixes the order of operations. People read your terms first, tell you what they want in a form, and only then land in your inbox. This post walks through what that page needs and how to hang it off your link in bio.

Why DMs are the wrong front door

A DM is an open question. The buyer decides what to tell you, and most tell you very little. You spend your energy chasing the details that decide whether you take the job at all: what it is, how big, when they need it, what they will pay.

The other cost is that DMs have no state. You cannot see at a glance who is waiting, who got a quote, and who vanished. A form turns each request into the same shape, so you can compare them side by side and answer in the order you choose.

You do not need a custom site for this. You need one link in your bio that opens a short page, and a form at the bottom of it.

What goes on the commissions page

Keep it to one screen of reading plus the form. Buyers decide quickly.

Say whether slots are open. Put it first, in plain words. "Open: 3 slots, closing when full" or "Closed until January, join the waitlist below." Nothing frustrates a buyer more than filling in a form for a studio that is not taking work.

List what you do and what you decline. "Pet portraits, character art, album covers. No logos, no NSFW, no fan art of living people." A short no-list saves both sides a round of emails.

Show prices as a starting point. A base price per type with a note on what moves it: extra characters, a background, a rush deadline. If you will not publish prices, say what range a typical job lands in so people can rule themselves out.

Show three to five finished pieces. Choose the kind of work you want more of. Buyers commission what they see.

State your terms in a few lines. Deposit up front, how many revision rounds you include, how long a piece takes, and what the buyer may do with the finished image (personal use, or also print and resale). Commission sheets from working artists commonly cover these same points. Write yours to match how you actually work.

What to ask in the request form

Every extra field costs you a few buyers, and every missing field costs you a back-and-forth email. Aim for the questions you would otherwise ask first.

• Name and email. Required.
• What they want. A long text field. Ask for the subject, the mood and any references.
• Which type of piece. A select field with your offerings, so you can price it before you read the rest.
• Deadline. Is there a date it must arrive by, and why? A birthday is a real deadline. "ASAP" is not.
• Intended use. A checkbox for "personal use only" saves a licensing conversation later.
• A confirmation. One checkbox that says "I have read the terms."

That is six fields, well inside what a form can hold. Resist adding a seventh. If you need reference images, ask for a link to a folder in the long text field instead of building an upload step.

How to build it on Linky

On Linky the commissions page is one page with a handful of blocks, which suits the Free plan's limit of five blocks plus the header every page has. A layout that works:

1. Header: your name, a one-line description, and "Commissions open" or "Commissions closed" in your bio text.
2. Text block: what you do, what you decline, prices and terms.
3. Image block: a strip of finished work.
4. Form block: the six fields above.

The Form block supports text, email, long text, select and checkbox fields, up to ten in all. Submissions arrive inside Linky, and you can export them as a CSV, so a slot list becomes a spreadsheet you sort by deadline. Linky does not take payment. You send your own invoice or payment link once you accept a request.

Then point your Instagram bio at that page. Instagram lets you add up to five links, but only the first shows on your profile without a tap, so put your commissions page first while you are taking work. When you close, edit the header and swap the form for a waitlist signup. The link in your bio never changes, and old posts keep working.

If you also sell prints or run a shop, keep the main link in bio for the shop and give commissions their own page. The how many links learn page covers how many links is the right number.

A worked example: a pet portrait artist

Say you paint pet portraits in gouache. You take four a month and have a three-week turnaround. Here is a page for that business, and again, this is an invented example.

The top line reads "Pet portraits, 4 slots a month. May is full, June opens on the 1st." Below it, two sentences on what you paint: dogs, cats and small animals, from photos, A5 or A4. Prices are a base figure for one animal with a plain background and a clear add-on for a second animal. The terms say fifty percent deposit to hold a slot, two revision rounds at the sketch stage, and a delivery date confirmed in writing.

The form asks for the pet's name and species, a link to three clear photos, the size, a date it must arrive by, and whether it is a gift. The gift question is the clever one. It tells you at a glance which requests are urgent and which are an emotional sale, and you can open the warm ones with a more personal reply.

When June fills, you change the line to "Closed, next opening in July" and switch the form to a waitlist: name, email, and the type of pet. By the first of July you have a list of people who already asked.

What to do when requests come in

Decide a reply rule and stick to it. Answer within two days, even if the answer is "waitlist." A fast no beats a slow yes.

Send a written recap before you start: the subject, size, price, deadline and the number of revisions. Both of you can point to it if the job drifts. Take the deposit before the first sketch.

Keep a simple record of who asked and what happened. The exported CSV works as a start, and a column for status is enough. Over a few months you will see which kinds of request turn into paid work, and you can rewrite your offer around them.

Finally, treat the page as a living thing. Update the open or closed line the day it changes, and swap the finished work for newer pieces every few months. For more on how other creative trades set this up, see the tattoo artist page guide and the freelance designer guide.

If you want to try this, build the page on Linky and add the Form block last. New accounts start with a 14-day Premium trial, so you can test the whole layout before you decide.