HOURS OF BUSINESS
William McAusland works 9am-5pm Pacific Time, Monday to Friday; or via email 24 hours a day, year round.

COMMUNICATIONS
Mainly phone and email are used to handle communication with clients, and if a traditional (non-digital) image is needed at the client's end, such as for photography or to hang in their offices, courier services for delivery of finished images can be arranged. Normally first contact with a client is made via phone, with the rest of the job being conducted via email. This arrangement keeps the phone bills low and allows transmission of accurate gray scale or colour proofs.

PRICE
The artist can work within a wide range of budget sizes. Typically, the illustrator provides a quote, but prefers to 'work to budget'. Working to a client's art budget means the artist can tailor the sketches and physical size of the image to meet the budget, increasing complexity, number of figures, etc. The quoted price is not exceeded unless unforeseen additions or late changes are requested by the client; such as if after the sketches are approved and painting has commenced, the client requests additional items or figures in a painting, or if a format change or final size change to the illustration surface area is called for. These changes are unlikely as such details are typically worked out long before in a pencil sketch.
If the client wishes the image to be photographed and the final press-ready file (300dpi tiff) to be emailed to him or her, the artist can have the artwork digitally photographed by a professional for a cost of $50.

DEPOSIT
A 50% deposit is required after the client approves of the pencil renderings and the okay is given for the artist to proceed with the illustration. McAusland usually starts work at once on the final before the deposit check arrives in the mail or via his preferred transaction mode, Paypal. The completed image will not be uploaded to the client's or artist's ftp site or couriered until the deposit arrives.

FINAL PAYMENT
The remaining fifty percent is due 30 days after job completion; an invoice will be sent to the client for their records. While checks are welcome, the artist prefers payment online via Paypal.

THE PHYSICAL WORK
William McAusland normally works in quick drying, non-toxic, lightfast acrylic colours as well as ink and pencil on acid free paper. Many images are completed in digital format after being scanned or digitally photographed by a professional photographer. The artist prefers to send a high quality, 300 or 600dpi tiff directly to the client's FTP site, or if the client doesn't have an ftp site, the artist temporarily loads the image to his own site for the client to download from a 'secret' web page. The original art, when there is a final physical work, is usually kept by the artist, but, if in the original agreement the client states that he or she will want the original illustrations, this affects the price slightly, and the cost of mailing the art to the client is added to the final bill.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT
"I produce a great variety of work, including fine art, and the samples presented throughout this site are by no means the limit of my scope in either subject matter or style. I welcome all questions and feedback regarding the work seen herein, and if you have a special project in mind and don't see a specific example of art that pertains to your illustration needs, send me an email anyhow and I'll be happy to discuss it with you."