Illustration proposal template

Begin with the assignment as you understand it, rather than a description of every service you offer. Name the subject, audience, intended placement, and visual purpose. Distinguish a finished image from the supporting work needed to make it: research, reference gathering, exploratory drawing, and art direction. If the brief contains conflicting instructions, identify the decision that must be resolved before you start.

List the deliverables in a form the client can check. Clarify whether alternate crops, transparent backgrounds, lettering, and layered files are included. Name the person who collects feedback and gives approval. Keep an exclusions paragraph for work the client might reasonably assume is included, such as animation or adapting an editorial image for a campaign. Ask for reference material before committing to a delivery date.

Separate the work of making the illustration from permission to reproduce it. The creation fee covers your labor and agreed production stages. The usage fee addresses the particular license: its media, reach, duration, and exclusivity. Showing them separately helps a client understand why the same drawing can have different terms when its intended use changes.

Do not let a vague phrase such as full rights substitute for that discussion. Ask whether the image is for an article, a product, paid advertising, or several uses together. Write the selected permission into the proposal and explain how additional uses are requested. If the client asks for copyright ownership rather than a license, flag that as a separate negotiation. Your quote should reflect the assignment you actually accepted, not every possible future application.

Give each review a purpose. Thumbnails settle the direction; a tighter sketch resolves composition and important details; color review addresses the palette before final production. A client who knows what each approval means can give more useful feedback. Explain whether sketches are rough decision tools or presentation-ready drawings, because that affects both expectations and the work you need to quote.

Describe what happens when approval arrives late. A deadline should account for the client's response as well as your drawing time. Ask for consolidated notes instead of separate messages from different stakeholders. At handoff, identify the file format, dimensions, color profile, and delivery method required by the publisher or production team. Treat a new technical specification discovered after approval as something to review, not an invisible addition to the original scope.

Define a revision round as a collected set of comments on the current stage. Correcting a small detail is not the same as replacing the chosen concept. Explain that distinction with the kinds of changes your assignment is likely to involve: a pose adjustment, an added character, a new setting, or a different story angle. Say when you will pause and quote changed work before proceeding.

A cancellation provision should identify the stage reached, the work already performed, and which fees become payable. Avoid copying a percentage without understanding what it covers. Discuss whether any completed material may be used after cancellation and whether the booking deposit is credited toward the final invoice. Include a route for ending the assignment in writing. Have the contract wording reviewed when the cancellation terms need to be enforceable in a particular jurisdiction.

Paste the client's actual request, then add the missing production facts you have confirmed. Include the illustration count, chosen process, intended usage, approval contact, delivery specifications, and anything outside scope. Tell BidLogik which questions remain open so the draft does not pretend they have been answered. You remain responsible for deciding what to offer and which terms fit the relationship.

Read the generated proposal against the original conversation before sharing it. Replace bracketed fields, check every permission and deliverable, and remove promises you cannot keep. Put unresolved licensing choices back to the client rather than guessing. The editable paperwork can organize an agreement, but it does not decide your aesthetic direction or generate the commissioned artwork. Save the approved version so a later request can be compared with what was actually agreed.