Over the last few weeks I've had alot of dicussions with people who have gotten chinsed on trades and commissions, and it's led me to yet another public musing post.

My worst example of getting jipped in a trade was on the VCL forums. Four (maybe five by now?) years ago I entered into a trade with an artist named Akeyla. They had an incredibly strange fursona that was based off a real life sculpture they had done of the character, and so I did a real media piece for me that was a painstaking amount of detail and in realism. Looking back at it now, I've improved so much it's ridiculous, but at the time it was one of the best pieces I'd ever done, and I was quite proud to give it to them, and anxious to see what I would get in return. Well to this day I never got anything back, after months of emailing once every two weeks, and more recently, back in September when they made a post to an LJ community begging for commissions. I brought up the matter in a comment, and she wrote that assuredly she would get right on it, and then after more emails from me to her, there was never any further response.

Anyways! That's not an emo rant or anything, it's just a lead up.

 Hyd made a post the other day about how people don't give back trade pieces, and I liked her post. This isn't a duplicate, this is an extension off it.

There's two things that presently boggle my brain.

1. Those who take on trades, don't return a piece, and yet they KNOW they owe art. Time passes on, and then they're too "embaressed" to talk to the other person at all, even if just to say "sorry, I just can't do this," because of how much time has gone by. Wouldn't it be less embaressing to admit to it, rather than to have people see you chat up other artists on a daily basis and know that you're ignoring whoever you owe a piece to? You would get a monkey off your back, and keep yourself from being labeled a deadbeat.

But here's the main thing I don't understand.

2. People who take on so many commissions that they have a list of 30-40 people that they take the money from, and then make them wait months, to years, to get their pieces back. And then they still take on more trades, join communities, etc, while oweing that amount of art.


Now, I can understand that there are certain artists who are VERY good. I also know that in order to be VERY good, you have to invest time into each piece, and give yourself room so you don't get burnt out. Hey, c'mon, I'm an artist too, I get that. And I know if there's someone I idolize, heck, I'd wait months to for a piece, IF I knew it was being worked on actively, even if only in small bits at a time.

But what I DON'T understand, nor condone, is accepting money from people when you have such long lines, excepting of course in the case of an emergency (which I mentally still think, eh, to, but it's at least more understandable)

Shouldn't you say okay, I'll put you on my wait list, but reserve payment until I get back with you?

Now there are artists who CAN handle having a huge amount of people in queue for art on their commissions.

 guyver47 for example. Alicia ROCKS. Every single dang badge, piece, even chibi art that comes from that woman is awesome, and in fact, if anything, her art gets BETTER with each badge, not worse from having alot to do. If you see her with a stack of badges to complete, you KNOW yours is going to get done, it's going to be done RIGHT, and it's going to be killer.
 Tamen Here's another chica that if you give her money, you KNOW you're getting back a piece promptly.

But then there's other folks. I can think of a few specific names, but I'm not here to start drama, only to muse.

These are the people who know they're swamped. They already owe art to quite a few people who have already paid, and yet if someone says "hey you open for commissions?" they'll say yes and eagerly take the cash. They won't even take the character description most of the time, they say hold onto it for now and I'll get back to you when I need it.

What's even WORSE, ugh, is the ones who take the commission, then say "YOU are responsible for the information I have. I know you already GAVE me a description once, but I lost it. Therefore, I'm making a post saying I don't know who I owe art to. If you don't respond to this, you don't get anything back. PERIOD."

This is very bad business practice. Yes, I consider people who commission me as customers making a business transaction. They're giving me money that they earned and worked hard for, and expect something in return. I'm aghast if I make a person wait even a week from the date I recieve their payment to when I give them a finished piece. 80% of the time, I finish a persons commission before they even make a payment to me. This keeps me from getting bogged down, and even if I only do a sketch before I recieve the payment, by the time the money is there, it means that I have less of a work load to finish their drawing.

And with me personally, if I tell someone, hey, your drawing will be done tonight. Then I don't get a chance to finish it, I send them a note and say "oh, I'm so sorry, it'll be tomorrow afternoon instead." People don't mind if it's a few hours longer - but they want to be updated. Telling them nothing of the product is non-optional, to me.

SO, discuss. What do you guys think of people who have 20+. 30+, whatever, queues of commissions they need to do? Would you commission someone if you knew they had that kind of line? Would you take money from people if you already owed a massive amount of art and felt overwhelmed?

Further, what do you think when someone is a GREAT artist, but they give you back something way below their skill level because they've taken so long on commissions they just want to "get it done"?