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Stories from a commissioner - 2
8 years ago
General
While what kicked off these journals was fondly remembering working with artists, not all of my experiences have been entirely positive.
Originally when I started commissioning, I had ideas assigned to artists. I wanted to see X artist draw Y scene. The problem I kept running into was... X artist wasn't open for commissions. I lived in Korea at the time, so I was also outside of their time zone by 12-15 hours. They would open commissions for five slots, at 3:30am. They would obviously be filled before I even had a chance to throw my name and idea in the pot. Then, I made pitches to a couple artists that refused them. So I had a list of ideas that were, quite frankly, never going to get drawn. My fix for this was to give my list to every artist and let them choose which of my ideas they wanted to draw. Literally a google spreadsheet, all filterable and searchable. An artist could open my spreadsheet, set the filter to only what they are willing to draw (e.g. No cubs, no humans, males only, 2 characters or less, etc.), and have everything they need. First few artists that I approached, absolutely loved it. A couple were really excited by some of the ideas I presented and offered to draw several of them. Then I had a string of artists that absolutely hated it.
One of said artists was so angry he apparently took leave of his senses and started claiming that some of the things I wanted were "literally impossible to draw." I wanted to say the pose's reference picture was drawn, you boosted Kappa-chino, but decided against it. I doubted they'd get the reference.
Another artist reprimanded me for being "indecisive" and demanded that I pick. So I did, she told me the price and gave me her payment info. She then took my money without a word of acknowledgement. Ninety days later I noticed that her furaffinity account was closed, so I emailed her to ask about the status of my commission. She insisted that I had never paid her, what she agreed to draw was something she would hate to draw and she would never have agreed to, and said I had been "creepy" from my first contact, and that if I ever contacted her again she would report me to the police. I was a little surprised, as my first contact is a copy-pasted business offer I give to everyone, and I very clearly had the payment transaction record. She tried to run off with my money, and bully me into not reporting it! So I just sent my dispute to Paypal, with a polite "Sorry our deal didn't work out." I didn't contact her again, but got my money back.
So I'm going to recommend to anyone who wants to commission, keep tabs on the dates that you pay. Some artists are, quite frankly, scam artists. Requesting a refund through Paypal is only possible for 120 days, so if you've been waiting three months without progress, demand your work be expedited, and if you don't get it by day 115: Demand your money back. If they say no, go above them. Otherwise, you might end up without your art, or your money.
Originally when I started commissioning, I had ideas assigned to artists. I wanted to see X artist draw Y scene. The problem I kept running into was... X artist wasn't open for commissions. I lived in Korea at the time, so I was also outside of their time zone by 12-15 hours. They would open commissions for five slots, at 3:30am. They would obviously be filled before I even had a chance to throw my name and idea in the pot. Then, I made pitches to a couple artists that refused them. So I had a list of ideas that were, quite frankly, never going to get drawn. My fix for this was to give my list to every artist and let them choose which of my ideas they wanted to draw. Literally a google spreadsheet, all filterable and searchable. An artist could open my spreadsheet, set the filter to only what they are willing to draw (e.g. No cubs, no humans, males only, 2 characters or less, etc.), and have everything they need. First few artists that I approached, absolutely loved it. A couple were really excited by some of the ideas I presented and offered to draw several of them. Then I had a string of artists that absolutely hated it.
One of said artists was so angry he apparently took leave of his senses and started claiming that some of the things I wanted were "literally impossible to draw." I wanted to say the pose's reference picture was drawn, you boosted Kappa-chino, but decided against it. I doubted they'd get the reference.
Another artist reprimanded me for being "indecisive" and demanded that I pick. So I did, she told me the price and gave me her payment info. She then took my money without a word of acknowledgement. Ninety days later I noticed that her furaffinity account was closed, so I emailed her to ask about the status of my commission. She insisted that I had never paid her, what she agreed to draw was something she would hate to draw and she would never have agreed to, and said I had been "creepy" from my first contact, and that if I ever contacted her again she would report me to the police. I was a little surprised, as my first contact is a copy-pasted business offer I give to everyone, and I very clearly had the payment transaction record. She tried to run off with my money, and bully me into not reporting it! So I just sent my dispute to Paypal, with a polite "Sorry our deal didn't work out." I didn't contact her again, but got my money back.
So I'm going to recommend to anyone who wants to commission, keep tabs on the dates that you pay. Some artists are, quite frankly, scam artists. Requesting a refund through Paypal is only possible for 120 days, so if you've been waiting three months without progress, demand your work be expedited, and if you don't get it by day 115: Demand your money back. If they say no, go above them. Otherwise, you might end up without your art, or your money.
