It depends on how familiar I am with the artist, if I'm friends with them, already got art and so on. Usually I am willing to wait until the PayPal refund period which's over six months IIRC, but I've waited a lot longer due to trusting the artist.

Oddly enough, but often my "former" artist friends took advantage of this position and ignored their duties. Fortunately, I did not order drawings from them, but we had trades, and their parts are still not drawn (although it has been about five years) :’D

Yeah, I've already been taken advantage of as well, but those cases are the exception. It still stings though. 🥲

3 months.
Unless the artist gets with me and says something about their health or a family issue that has gone on and taken their attention away.
I respect all of that but, I only wish to be informed on what's happened to know why the art piece is delayed so I don't feel like a butthead when I'm over there begging for updates or getting angry on why it isn't finished yet.

100% agree
Usually people who making me wait was drawing their stuff ignoring their to-do list, disgusting 🙂

Right. I comply with the artist and their schedule but, I only ask for basic communication between them and I. For example, if somethings happens, inform your clients about it, I'll be happy to wait while you figure whatever out or etc

I am a weird and rare case, but I have no expectations when I commission an artist. I'm very patient and will wait as long as it takes. I want the artist I commission to take their time and go at a comfortable pace, they should be happy with their art first and foremost. c:

Yk that you’re a dream comissioner <:’3

I hope nobody use your kindness and delay artworks, you have to receive all the best!!!

I dont usually put deadlines on projects, but the longest ive went was probably a year or so. Theres some commissions ive forgotten about myself and only remembered when the artist pops up like the courier npc from skyrim lol

I usually prefer that the artist I am asking for work feel like they can spend time on the work and not rush it. I understand creativity is not like a faucet you can just turn on and off, some days are just off and theres nothing you can do about it.

So when I approach an artist for a project I usually don't have any expectations on completion, but I do have an expectation on communication. The artist knows their workload and can hopefully give a reasonable estimate with some padding to when they might have it finished, but I never count that as a hard deadline. What matters most to me is the artist communicates their progress and keeps me in the loop if anything comes up that will significantly delay the work.

I'm an understanding person and know life throws shit once in a while, so as long as things are communicated I'm generally okay with whenever the artist gets a chance to work on it.

What really worries me is when artists accept the work and payment and then vanish. I've got a few works out there that are on the 5+ months with not even a sketch or word from the artist. I should go ping those artists but I often feel like I'm being impatient or pestering them.

I had a lot of stories with such artists who vanish, and most did not consider it their duty to keep me up to date, and in the end when the work was not relevant (the character changed /I sold them/ no longer need to work with that idea) and I refused, they all started accusing me.

I’m sure that if you can’t do you work good – just don’t do it, stop disappointing people and using their kindness x_x

To give context to my opinion, I generally never commission artist that I see have long queues or long deadlines because I don't want to wait too long for commissions, this is why my patience may seem short to some.

Unless the artist have said they have a long queue or something else blocking them I'll generally be patient for a month but after that I would like to know why it's taking so long if I havent heard back or gotten any wip. I don't mind waiting longer but I'd like some form of basic communication at that point.
After 3 months the wait gets annoying though if I wasn't already aware of a long wait before I commissioned. Of course I am understanding of health or personal issues even though sometimes it does feel like some artists use them as a free "get out of jail" card. (The amount of pc/tablet/pen issues ive heard make it seem like these kinds of things break all the time) But as long as the artist is communicating I can wait up to 6 months. At that point I don't really care about the art anymore and will probably ask for a refund.

I think I've only "threaten" with a refund once and that was after an artist had read and ignored my messages for 3 months and the time limit on paypal charge back was coming up but after that message the artist was very quick on finishing the art... (I heard from another person the exact same thing happened to them as well with that artist)

A couple months tops. Unless it's a very big art piece that I know would require more time. Had to wait a year for an anniversary picture once but worth the wait for me