Commissioner Standpoints on Character Bios

commenting instead since i wanted to use two poll answers aha

How much do you read when you take a commission of a character?
i love reading profiles!! when it comes to drawing art for others, i typically try to read some parts of the info at least! personally to me, it helps me with art block because it helps me come up with ideas on how to draw the character [when the person doesn't have a specific idea in mind]. it's also to make sure i don't draw something "off-character" for them. tho i don't always read everything when it's very long, i typically focus on the personality + design notes most then :]

How much do you write for your characters that you make public for people to read? Do you anticipate for people to read everything?
my character profiles are quite long [like, 4 paragraphs long lol], tho i don't expect artists to read them all! still, i'd like them read the design notes at least [it's pretty important to me, especially details like body type, etc because some people keep getting them wrong :'D]. tho if they do read the profiles, i highly appreciate it honestly, it just makes my day aha

When I draw for others I typically just try and get the personality down! Just because it is important to me to try and portray that when drawing. Sometimes I’ll dig deeper and find something related to their backstory to draw inspiration from-!

I write quite a bit for my character profiles, but I don't really expect artists to read through anything except the artist/design notes! I tend to get a lot of "artistic freedom" comms so I usually give a TLDR; of their personalities/important points to the artist! Other things I like to do are set up mood tables where I list their habits/expressions for different moods – it was mostly for my own entertainment but I've had artists who refer to those tables and draw inspiration from them ^^

As for comms, I do a lot of outfit design work! So artist notes/reference notes are very important. I also really appreciate personality details and those "trivia" tables with a character's likes & dislikes because those help to inspire how they express themselves in their outfits. I also really like reading backstories and checking character links because sometimes I spot something that can be incorporated into the designs, especially for couple fits!

As an artist: as much as i would enjoy reading profiles, it takes up a lot of energy from me to keep up my focus so i try to skim/ prefer to ONLY have info about the character's design and nothing else. i want info on how they look and details about it (like specific scars or markings to keep in mind) and general personality (+ poses or heights if w/ different characters/ w/ a background). i don't look any deeper into it just because i am only interested in drawing the character and i want to have it accurate and up to their standards. having to read a backstory makes me lose focus and forget important details on a visual art piece. sometimes i do read it just out of curiosity but it's pretty low bc again i'm trying to save on my energy for the day lol

As a commissioner: in turn, i try to have as much details on the character's design as much as possible and also a brief rundown on the personality. i split main profile and references separate just so that if i link my profile it won't overwhelm the artist lol (pretty much like this). a part of me feels bad bc i feel like i have TOO much info on the character's appearance but i have gotten comments on how helpful my details are lol. i don't expect them to read ALL of my reference notes and don't mind getting questions on things, but it's still there in case the artist doesn't want to bother me/ waste their time w/ back and forth messages when they can just read further lol (i don't even link my profile but rather a google drive folder w/ all of the visual references compiled there but i still say the personality)

I pretty much has always been taking coms through a form of sort where the client only link the png reference so I never really go to the OC's profile nor browse their gallery. For my brain, checking those only makes me feel like it could lead to more errors.
"What if I accidentally draw the OC doing something he no longer enjoy because the info blurb was outdated or only referred to his younger-self?"
"What if I draw the wrong accessory because 80% of the gallery has him wearing it but he recently stopped wearing that?"
"The Oc is wearing a different outfit in every single pic in their gallery, which is the 'correct' one?"
Sticking to just a single png reference with minimum necessary text on the pic just avoid having to deal with these doubts and questions for me.

When I buy commissions I very much expect the same. I just send one (or two if necessary) reference and that's it, I almost never link their profile (I do write a lot in them but dont expect anyone to read all dat). To me my OCs pose and expression in his ref is enough for people to read his personallity without having to type it out myself.

when i comm people i link them right to the brief bullet point design notes + fullbody reference, like this. if they scroll up they can read the entire bio if they like but it's also absolutely ignorable. i know some artists do go up to read the profile because they'll compliment the lore/story/website which is always a cute bonus :3 but i do just think of it as a bonus, i don't expect them to read the bio.

I don't expect artists to read anything at all. They're spending enough time on drawing already, why would I expect them to spend one hour reading everything ?

I would expect capturing the characters personality and attitude is way more important than just drawing personalityless reference image number 15, unless thats what the commission is supposed to be. Personally i prefer people taking creative liberties with the design as long as it fits the character, if the pose, action, facial and style expression is accurate to their soul, i dont care if the artist changed their hair or clothes entirely. 

Which means i work with this assumption while drawing other peoples characters too. I hate having just one stiff reference image to work off, like what am i supposed to draw the character doing if im not familiar with their attitude, style hobbies, relationships with friends and family, their world... youre getting a jerma yellow m&m pose on a flat single colour background ass drawing

As a commissioner, I don’t expect artist’s to read the bios but I do hope they read just a little. I will try and give what I think is the necessary info depending on what I am commissioning. There may be times when I have higher expectations, since the personality or character is meant to shine through. That is less important with those YCH’s, as I have chosen them as they fit.

I really enjoy those artist’s who ask about personality, when ordering a commission. As I often feel, those are the ones who makes my characters shine through.

when i draw for others i look through the page for relevant info - design notes, character traits to better understand what emotions are and aren't applicable etc. i don't read long backstories and stuff like that (i also usually ask if the person who orders has any wishes for their character's facial expression/emotion, honestly it's easier to ask then to try and figure it out/assume from a bio,,,)