Hello, to those reading this. It's been a moment.
A TLDR for life updates: I'm in training for a government position with ties to aviation,
won't say much more than that right now, but know that im safe, and doing well enough for the moment.

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As anyone who has commissioned artwork for long enough can/will attest to.
The longer you commission art from different artists, the greater the chances you will eventually be scammed.
It really is a question of "when" rather than "if", as long as you pursue different artists than your "core" group you trust.

I can, quite reasonably say i've had this happen a few different times.
Sometimes it's been A.I. mashups that tried to look like the character, other times it's been crude work for a price point that doesn't even come close.
I even had an artist try to tack on extra charges before starting, even though we had an agreed price for work laid out.

And of course, there's the "ghosted" problem, where money was taken, and either work was half delivered, or never delivered at all.

I've had each happen, and enough times, that it now takes a *lot* for me to go out of my way to commission someone new.
And even then, i now have a criteria list, including prior gallery, style, prior commissions delivered, ect.
In short, im a touch jaded by how many people have taken advantage of my kindness when it came to commissioning.


While i do have a "blacklist" at this point of artists whom i've been burned by, I want to focus for a moment, on a specific case.
And for those of you who have been around awhile, this will probably come as no surprise.


Back in 2023, coming up on 3 years now, I made contact with an Artist by the name of Xibalbakat.
Now, Xib had a style that i liked, one that beared close resemblance to another artist by the name of TankDragon, just with less extreme subjects being drawn.

After reaching out to them through twitter, and then telegram, I found out that they were running some fairly cheap emergency commissions at the time, and jumped on the opportunity.
This, as i would later come to realize, was the start of a 3 year mess, and would end without anything to show for it but a hole in my wallet big enough to have been a year's worth of good commissions.

So, let me explain. XibalbaKat, is/was the artist behind TankDragon, and is also the artist Arody.
This is someone who has, at least once, publicly, said to their waiting commissioners "I owe you nothing, go away, you're not getting shit from me".
And then promptly walked off into the sunset with who knows how much money, thousands, perhaps over 5 figures. I can't tell you what the first time was like.

What i can tell you, is that this happened again, albeit in a less destructive/public manner.
Xib took on, well over a hundred "emergency commissions" from dozens of people, that even at the barest estimates were well into the multiple thousands of dollars in total.
However, at least at first, they did deliver on the works in queue, slowly, but there was progress.
Though, as time went on, Xib's personal situation deteriorated, family, housing issues, ect. Eventually they were staying out of hotels with their parents things had gotten so bad.
And through this all, the collective 70 or so people whom now had work with them, tried to support them. Mostly through donations, small ones, that added up to quite a large amount over the months and years.

However, after a time, we stopped seeing progress, any sort of updates, even sketchbook sketches. The only time Xib would reach out would be for money for food, or for another hotel room.
The art stopped. The progress, non-existent. People were, understandably, not happy.

Some looked for refunds, others who were still in the 6 month paypal window, forced refunds.
Those of us who were outside of that window could only watch the chaos unfold.
The mood was split by those who were now supporting Xib for the sake of charity, those who were doing so out of a sense of sunk cost, and those who now wanted their money back because they had had enough waiting.

What stoked the discontent, was the radio silence to the majority of the group, but the incessant poking behind the scenes for more money, rent, food, tavel, ect. If you showed any possibility of giving Xib money, they'd beg on a regular basis until you told them you didn't have money, or to fuck off until they had deliverable artworks. Multiple people, myself included, had this happen.

We all thought that if we got them through the next week, the next month, we'd see a change. An announcement of permanent housing, or a job to help repay things, or some sort of update.
We got none of those things. We never got our artwork, we never got an explanation. We never even got a life update.

As of about late january early February of 2026, they quietly abandoned the telegram group that they were in as a way to keep the group of commissioners informed.
They haven't posted to their socials, in well over a year. I know they're still around, people talk, Telegram shows they've been online.

But im out, at last count...somewhere between 1000-1300$ USD.

At one point i was/am owed 16-18 works of varying complexity.
I consolidated that down to 6-7 to try and make it more appealing to get my stuff out of the queue.

I even bought a sketchbook commission from them to try and help when their digital drawing setup was down.

I have, for my time, money, and patience, nothing to show. not even a rough sketch.

I have resentment, anger, and a healthy suspicion of "emergency commissions" for my time spent.

But what i think pains me more....is that I really, genuinely, thought things might work out, that even after learning of their prior history, that this might be different.

Instead i'm left wondering where it all went wrong, and if this in reality was one giant scam from the start....get enough people invested in getting art from you,
build up a massive queue, and then get people on the sunk cost train to keep you going while art got "worked on", with no intention of finishing the queue....?

That's the level of cynic i am right now with that situation. nearly 3 years, the single longest i've waited, and for nothing, the artist having seemingly run off, again.

So i leave you with this. Study Arody's style, TankDragon's style, Xibalbakat's works. Be familiar with them.
And if you see someone offering work in an almost exact style? Give them no more than a single commission, with the expectation you'll get nothing back.

I would love to be proven wrong, to suddenly have them deliver even one of the works we discussed, to be able say "This journal was for nothing, i was wrong".

Arody, Xib, whomever.
If you see this, prove me wrong. Prove that you actually intend to make good on that queue.

Otherwise....shame on you, you were/are, a *good* artist, who had, might still have, potential.