Illustration Contracts: How to Write an Illustration Contract

Image by: Scott Graham

So we’ve previously discussed some important legal terminology you should know as an illustrator. If you haven’t seen that post you can find it here. Now it's time to put that knowledge to use and build a basic contract. But don’t clients have their own agreements they want us to sign? Yes, big clients might have premade contracts if they commission frequently but that's not true for every client. Remember contracts protect you and the client, you don’t want to start working on a project without having an agreement in place. If a client refuses to sign a contract it's not a good sign and you should think carefully about the risks and rewards of continuing to work with that client. That being said a client has every right to come back and ask you to change certain terms in a contract. This is all a part of the negotiation phase at the start of a project. This also means that for any contract given to you, you also have the right to come back and ask for certain terms to be changed. This is something you can do with any contract so make sure you take the time to read through them and ask questions.

The Format

At the top of a contract, you're going to want a header with your name and contact info. This includes an address just in case the client wants to send your payment via check, a phone number, and your email.

The next section will have the client's information. Their name, title, address and contact information. If you don’t have all of this information don’t be afraid to ask for it.

Then we put the date we are writing the contract. Make sure to write the date out in full, not 12/24/24 we want December 24th, 2024. This is important because the date and the month are sometimes switched in different countries. Writing it out in full can save everyone confusion later on.

In the next part, you write out all of the information about the project. This means your schedule and dues dates for certain parts. A description of what the client is asking for, the dimensions, colour, and what you're drawing. The usage the client wants. Is it for a magazine, a website, or an advertisement campaign? Is it for just one issue? Is it going to be on their website forever? This is important information not just to put on the contract but also the information you need to price the job. With this all figured out we then put down the fee, how many illustrations and how much each of them will cost. Taxes if applicable and the total cost. 

With taxes, you have to be a registered business the charge them. This percentage is the government's money that you have to pay back when tax time comes around. You can only charge the taxes of the country that you are in. If you have a client from the US and you're in the UK you don’t charge them UK taxes, you don’t tax them at all. Be sure to research about what taxes apply where you live. In Canada, we had provincial and federal taxes. If I had a client in the same province as me they get charged both taxes. If they were in a different province they only get the federal tax. Make sure to research how taxes work in your country. You don’t ever want to mess with the government when it comes to money.

Now we get to write down everyone's favourite part the terms and conditions. Now I’m not going to tell you exactly what terms and conditions to use in your contract, that's up to you as a business. However, I will make some suggestions of things you might want to include. I also suggest you write these terms out in a way that is easy for both you and the client to understand. Lots of contracts use big legal jargon to make it more difficult to understand in hopes you just give up and sign without looking at what you're signing. Contract terms don’t have to be overly complex and your clients will appreciate that.

Terms You Can Include in Your Contract

Reservation of Rights- A clause that means all rights not discussed in this contract stay with the artist. 

Additional Usage- The client is only allowed to use the image for the usage that has been stated in this contract.

A Kill Fee- A percentage of the total fee that you get if the client suddenly drops the project. It is usually 10%-100% depending on when the project is dropped. That's up to you to decide.

A Late Payment Fee- On average it can take up to three months for all of your payment to reach your bank account, in some cases even longer. Once the three-month grace period is up you can start charging late fees. It’s usually about a 2% increase in the total project cost per day late. This clause can help get clients who are dilly-dallying a kick up the rear.

Revisions- You want to decide beforehand how many revisions you're willing to do before you start charging more for your time. Usually, people have it at about two or three revisions.

Rights Upon Full Payment- The client only has access to all of the rights they’ve purchased once you have received full payment.

Sketch Ownership- All sketches and ideas developed in the project belong to you, a client can’t take one of the unused concepts you developed and use it in another project.

Right to Self-Promotion- You have the right to use the image you created on your website or social media to prompt yourself. This is only after the client has started distributing the image.

Derivative Rights- The client is not allowed to change, edit, or make adaptations to the image without the artist's permission. 

Protection Against Misuse of References- If the client gives the artist an image as a reference without getting the rights to use the reference the artist will not be held legally responsible.

Advances- Usually used for more long-term projects. Let’s the artist receive a percentage of the total fee before completing the project. That percentage is up to you.

Return of Artwork- Once the specified usage is up all rights return to the artist.

Sublicencing- The client cannot sublicence the rights given to a third party.

Document Precedence- A clause stating that this document takes priority over any other documentation about this project. If the client wishes to make changes to anything in the contract a new contract must be written up.

Lastly, we have the space needed for signatures. One for you, one for the client and a space to write the date signed.

This seems like a lot written down however it can all fit on one page. Below I’ve included an example of the format in action. The best part is once you’ve set up the format you can keep the document as a base and just fill in the information about the project, you don’t have to remake the document every time. And that's it, hopefully, now you can start writing your own contracts!