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YOU CUSTOMERS ARE JUST MY ATM MACHINE!
14 years ago
General
Did I get your attention? Good. Short rant here as a warning to you guys and gals.
Beware of "ARTISTS" (and I use that term loosely) who demand money up front for commissions then have a history of taking over six months to complete a single commission. How can you tell if an artist you commissioned recently is the type I'm warning you about? Look for these signs...
1. Money up front
2. Long waiting lists
3. Lack of, or rare finished commission postings
4. STILL accepting commissions, even posting journals about their availability despite their long list and low to non existent output
5. the "Life Happens" clause...lemme clarify on this one...Life DOES happen and art DOES take time...however...if life happens more than art does? Re-evaluate your ability as a commission artist
6. Prices higher than the norm...yes...supply and demand...I get that...but if you never complete any of your commissions it's a false supply.
You, as a consumer have rights. NEVER give money upfront without knowing a rough estimate of completion. If they can't deliver what they promise I would recommend getting your money back (politely okay guys?)
You have rights and no artist, no matter how good they maybe, have the right to treat you like an ATM, dangling those ever rare commission slots in your face so that they can make a quite buck while you wait a year for your transaction to be completed.
Artists? If you can't complete your obligations in a timely manner STOP FFFFFFing TAKING MORE COMMISSIONS!!!!!!
Beware of "ARTISTS" (and I use that term loosely) who demand money up front for commissions then have a history of taking over six months to complete a single commission. How can you tell if an artist you commissioned recently is the type I'm warning you about? Look for these signs...
1. Money up front
2. Long waiting lists
3. Lack of, or rare finished commission postings
4. STILL accepting commissions, even posting journals about their availability despite their long list and low to non existent output
5. the "Life Happens" clause...lemme clarify on this one...Life DOES happen and art DOES take time...however...if life happens more than art does? Re-evaluate your ability as a commission artist
6. Prices higher than the norm...yes...supply and demand...I get that...but if you never complete any of your commissions it's a false supply.
You, as a consumer have rights. NEVER give money upfront without knowing a rough estimate of completion. If they can't deliver what they promise I would recommend getting your money back (politely okay guys?)
You have rights and no artist, no matter how good they maybe, have the right to treat you like an ATM, dangling those ever rare commission slots in your face so that they can make a quite buck while you wait a year for your transaction to be completed.
Artists? If you can't complete your obligations in a timely manner STOP FFFFFFing TAKING MORE COMMISSIONS!!!!!!
I am writing about a specific artist that is a thorn in my side but there are many others I've heard about...they do seem to have the "because I'm worth it" trait that makes their prices higher than the norm
Case in point... we are all adults here lets act like it, talk things out make arrangements and remember that at end of the day we are not all that different and are all reasonable folks! I doubt an artist is going to freak out if you ask them a question, or ask for an arrangement just be vocal polite and respectful =) and i think we can all get along!
-Shadow
darn t9
-shadow
Thanks for posting this. It's always great to know there are artists who care about their customers and who are actually willing to help people avoid falling into traps like this.
While it is not the paramount, and has it's flaws, it does help to see which 'artist' has already been spotted by other furs as being unreliable, and which is a pleasure to commission. Yes, A_B is not only to bash on bad artists, but also to praise the good ones.
Because you KNOW what'll happen is they take the money, spend it immediately - then their computer dies or their tablet breaks and they can't do the commissions, and can't refund you either....
I've seen it happen more than once, and it's an ugly situation.
I suggest your girlfriend try http://community.livejournal.com/fu.....mefurs/profile on livejournal, or artists_beware, both groups give good advice and a multitude of opinions would be a good idea when pricing up work.
I think she should have no problems getting commission work. What I would recommend is finding other artists whose quality is comparable and going a couple bucks cheaper since she's new to the game.
The route I took when I first started commissions was free art. This gave me time to adjust to the demands/request of a second party and get used to hearing I did something incorrectly. It's easy to get flustered that you didn't hit the nail on the head when a commissioner says you messed a part up, but after a few requests you get the ability to read between the lines of a request and ask the right questions so that you can get the commission right with as few errors to be corrected as possible...
If you'd like I could write up a journal on "so you wanna do commissions" or something like that
your advice to her, so far, has been good advice imo
Again, I find myself wishing I could fave journals....
I an 'artist' in the fact that I have the ability to draw, but lack the motivation. Haven't uploaded in months, so I get the 'life happens', but if I'm being paid to do something? I may be obliged to maybe get it done, xD
Another thing I think is important, reccommend good artists to each other, I can't stress this enough. I'm reliable, flexible and a good worker but I don't get a lot of reccommendations so several times my income from art has dried up while AB is being bombarded by posts about con artists running off with money.
Also when looking at someone's gallery, look for skips in quality, an artist with drastic changes, ie perfect rendition of say wolverine one minute, barely able to draw hands the next is likely to be a tracer/copier and those often run with the money.
Also avoid emergency commissions like the plague, AB is littered with complaints caused because an artist took 'cheap' emergency commissions, the emergency passed and all of the sudden the artist didn't feel like doing the work because the emergency was no long pressing and they would be working for basically cents an hour.
There are many tracers out there but also there are lots of artists with consistency issues....When they're good they're SOOO good but when they're bad.....watch out!
While artist have their bad days too a gallery should show a quality consistency that get's better over time as the artist matures. While artist are always evolving your commission slot should not be used for experimentation unless it's been pre-approved by the commissioner
On emergency commissions...
I'm sort of against these in general. I don't like to be manipulated. We're all going thru stuff now and again and while emergencies do come up I think simply posting more commission slots and advertising will suffice. I had issues with my taxes this year so I posted an art auction. I didn't go into details about how my lights would get shut off or that my pets would starve. This is my fault that I owed on taxes so my solution is to just sell more art...not cheap or crudely done art...just more of it. (the auction was like...a package deal where you got a discount by buying in bulk). While I didn't get any bites on the auction at least I don't have a list of 30 plus bleeding hearts to draw for after the dust has settled
I second the god damn I wish I could fav this journal x.x'
Hope that helps,
write back if you need me to clarify anything