Personally been lucky with the few commissions I have paid for but I stay very cautious with dealing with artists.

It's a wonder that there isn't more legal protect that can help stop shitty scumbag artists from stealing people's money. I guess if you get the artist's info and then you could take them to a small claim court if they fuck you over but I highly doubt most artists would do that.

You just never know. I've seen artists that had been doing commissions for years just disappearing one day with a bunch of people's money. Or taking FOREVER to get an art piece done.

I just know that I would do some shopping before giving someone a significant amount of money over the internet to drew cartoon porn.

I inagine a contract of sorts that can be brought to court. A code of ethics maybe tjat artists start agreeing to. Something

Preach it

*gets a soapbox*

This whole post makes me very grateful that and I
seldom have that kind of trouble. Most of the artist he and I
commission, have the kind of mutual understanding that you
and seem to find so completely rare.
Of course, some of that may be because most of our comms
run in the $30-40 range. Or we may just be lucky. Lord knows
if either of us commissioned someone like TheBlackRook,
we'd be sure to have everything neatly laid out in a row,
before hand, simply because for the quality he puts out,
he deserves the price he charges for his work.

He is very professional. I know theres a lot of rumour about him but i assure you he has never failed me. He's responsive, timely, owns his mistakes, and works hard.

I am a really slow artist myself and I felt kinda bad reading this...but I sent WIPs, talk to customers that I have not forgotten about them and even started to tell new commissioners that they are set quite behind a few others.
Surprisingly, EVERYONE is okay with it!

I am grateful that I have patient customers, I really am.

Being slow isnt so bad as long as your progressing and keeping in touch. Its literally all mostt ccommisioners ask

I've commissioned quite a few artists. I usually prefer to pay up front, but some would rather not be paid until they actually start the work, or complete the work. I've worked with all three.

Those which, after having been paid, take more than a month to complete the work I hestitate to commission a second time.

Those which work on other projects, especially ones they solicit for after accepting my commission, I never commission again.

I do have a list of artists that I love to commission because they are prompt, communicative, do good quality, if not great quality, work. If they are swamped, they tell you, and they will not accept payment until such time as they actually begin work on your commission.

Some can be quite pricey, yes. Because their work is well worth it.

I am very much the same way

Part of the reason I tend to stick to artists I either trust deeply, or can commission in stream. Been waiting a year and a half on one now with absolutely no communication from the artist, who decided it was acceptable to take 10, finish 1, and drop off the internet. Except for tumblr and twitter of course.

Or another who forgot to keep working on it after I asked for tweaks to the WIP, deleted their entire art folder, and then had the audacity to lie and say that what they had sent me was the finished product.

You can send them the information in the exact way they want, give them the money when they ask for it, do whatever is necessary to abide by their TOS, but some simply have no problem screwing you over when it's convenient.

Yeah they expect the respect but dont give any back. And for some of them. Why should they? Theres more people willing to pay

This is why I love my russian and one of India artists.
The state's ones atm is slowly becoming mordor so huge delays all arround
I have a Canadian artist I like but all my munies go to foreign continent's atm.

Its good tl have reliable artists

axelferdinan is a pretty good comic guy if you want

Is it strange that most of the art I commissioned and received on time, were pieces of work that were created by a Russian? ;w;

That does seem odd. I also noticed this with my comms

I dont really commission people since I can draw things myself and I do my work in a good time window.

But My lil foxy dont have that advantage :/
So seeing him flip the coin every time he commissions an artist, to see if they do it good and timely or just vanishes for month or year...really makes me cringe x.x...

Like I also dont understand why so many of them pull such moves :/

Because they can. Thats why

This is honestly why I tend to commission artists who aren't so well known. I like to commission artists who are in that medium bracket in terms of popularity. Most of the "popufurs" I've commissioned take an interminably long time to complete their tasks. One such artist took on my commission and told me to expect at the very least a sketch within 3 months. Three months pass and nothing. Then he understandably went through some difficult times and I totally understood. But then when things seemed to have gotten better and they started taking on more commissions and YCH auctions, I felt optimistic that I would be expecting something. Then I hit the year long mark and I politely asked them if they were in the process or at least close to starting on my commission. It took them a month to reply and when they finally did they claimed that they had lost my information and requested that I send the info once more. So I did and expected something within a couple months. Then I noticed that he was taking on more and more YCH auctions and that they were being completed within a couple of months if not weeks and I have yet to see anything. The 2nd year mark hit and I ended up calling them out, stating that I felt like they had just simply stolen my money at this point because I have not seen even a rough sketch of my commission or even heard from them. Luckily they ended up refunding me the full amount but I can't help but wonder just why the hell they didn't even bother trying to contact me and why I had to go out of my way to contact them. I'm fairly convinced that I would still be waiting on them had I not called them out on it and at least gotten a refund.

I now have to deal with this same problem all over again when tomorrow will mark the two year mark of another commission by a very popular artist who once again, seems to be pumping out commissions and YCH auction pieces left and right but not a single thing for my commission. I've even tried sending him a few notes before and the last one I sent a while back he still has yet to respond to. Now I also have to back track and find the information I sent to another artist who has a fairly complicated looking queue on a separate website and I'm not listed at all in any of the queues that they have listed and I had already sent payment for that commission already. And I dare not call any of these artists out publicly cause I've seen other commissioners get banned from FA for defamation which is utter bullshit if you ask me (if what they're saying is true, anyways) And that artist beware website? No one uses that anymore it would seem so what's even the point for using that website any more?

This journal pretty much sums up my feelings as well. It's the same if a commissioner were to buy something at the store but after their transaction, I would just simply take their product and just keep it for myself. It's blatant stealing in my book if they refuse to at the very least contact you with an update on your commission whether its a WIP or just a simple "Hey, I'm sorry it's taking so long, but I haven't forgotten about you." That's really all I ask for. I realize life happens and situations come up that makes the artist's lives difficult but I'm also tired of hearing them using it as an excuse for why they can't deliver your product by the specified deadline (if at all.) And their TOS's? Some of them are so harsh and restrictive that I would never in a million years commission them simply because of their brutal TOS. My personal "favorite" are ones where they specify that they retain the right to keep a portion (usually about half) of the money you sent them for a commission even if they haven't even started on it. That's complete and utter bullshit as well and I NEVER commission someone who has a TOS like that.

Or another personal favorite of mine are artists who just utterly fuck up your sona and refuse to fix anything regardless of whether or not they've given you a WIP. I have a proper ref sheet and I also use additional images of my sona as references to back up my ref sheet so there won't be any mistakes. And what happens half the time when they mess something up? They refuse to fix anything and blame it on me, the commissioner. One artist, whom I've commissioned three times, messed up on all three of my images and when I've asked them if they could fix it, they simply stated "Oh I don't keep my .PSD files, sorry." I mean wtf? One of them would've literally have been to just change the color of my hair... Which was all blue... Which isn't even in any other piece of artwork I have commissioned, ever.

*Siiiiiighhhhhs*

Feel better now... Lol But going back to my original comment, these are all reasons why I tend to commission other, lesser known but still highly skilled, artists. They seem to be much more honest and I've honestly never had a problem with them (Except one who just simply fell off the face of the Earth some years ago.) Like as a couple examples,  king-monster  wasabitea  nerian  kenkou.  rowfy -- just to name a few, have been perfectly pleasant dealing with, had fast turn around times and kept in constant contact with me either via a stream or notes or what have you and have been open to changes or tweaks to be made to a commission. People like them give me hope that one of these days, some of the extremely toxic artists that lurk here will eventually either wisen up and start being more accommodating or understanding towards their commissioners and treat them as actual people and not just a means to an end.

That's the end of my rant lol

Hehehehe thanks for the rant. I love reading em

That's the biggest issue with commissioning right there, the total leap of faith you have when you commission someone. You put in the money, and you just gotta wait around, day after day, and be left alone in the dark until you finally get a note back with any kind of progress. That is only made worse by the fact that while you can ask, there's a lot of stigma behind such a simple request. "Don't rush the artist!" A lot of people think, well I say to them "If I give them my hard-earned money, I will damn well expect their time and effort."

The sad part is that these artists can literally use any justification to avoid working on your comm, and, as you said, if they get some bad rep then who cares? There's always more people to commission them. I've had a case where an Artist that I had respected and commissioned in the past had completely blocked me after I had said their writing wasn't that good... while I had been waiting on a commission from them, already paid and everything.

I'm just glad that I was able to open a dispute with Paypal and get my money back, but not everyone will have that pleasure. Some artists expect to be given over a month or two to work on something (I remember an artist I used to watch would literally finish commissions over a year passed, but would still open slots about once or twice a month.) and others would give you only bits and pieces of a WIP just to get past those months and never finish. There are artists that spend the money immediately after receiving payment, and plead for you to be patient with them for a refund, even though that they should never have spent the money in the first place. Point is, commissioning can be hell and is probably the riskiest thing to spend your money on. Unlike businesses which have a much higher standard of professionalism to uphold, Freelance Artists can be excused for acting irresponsibly.

This is why we need some sort of code or contract or something

If the artist keeps in touch with the commissioner, I have less of a problem if the art takes a little while (as long as 'little while' doesn't become more than say 'two months' save for special circumstances like a fursuit or if something bad came up in the artists life). However, there have definitely been times I commissioned someone and it took a long time with zero communication, making me feel like a burden on them so I end up regretting getting art that would be attached to negative feelings.

That sucks. :/ i can't imagine how it feels to be so disappointed in an art that you just delete it. Everything i got no mafter how much trouble i had with the artist i posted.

Ah jeez, this is definitely some good words, and I'm sorry to hear there are some artists that have have appeared to con you, friend...

So I did a little test, it seemed Russian artists were nicer and more appropriate with their schedules and art-load than other artists.
It sounds biased, I know it does, but when I commissioned other artists, who were either from the UK, US or other countries. I had to remind them weekly about the commission, had to remind them to give me the original file when it was done. Or simply, I had to ask if they were still alive.

Boi, it does sound biased now does it? I don't mean for it to be like that, I've had other artists who hailed from the good ole' States. Some from Europe and so on, who were nice and quick with the commission. It's just a lot of the bad apples are mixed in with the good ones.

I hate to admit it, but I've had a "few" artist who slathered on the guilt-tripping when I asked for my commission, after they said they would finish it a week later, with it being two months later.

It is odd so many russian ones are good at customer service.

Most artists have this weird aura of expectations that they dont return. Its aggravating. And what can we do? They arent obligated to change. Theres always a buncha furs willing to toss money at them.