# Do you have to be popular to be taken seriously?



## kura-ou (May 31, 2015)

I've just been wondering about this for a very long time... (And I  apologize beforehand because this topic will deviate into many different  sections >< I also apologize for being dumb and stupid back then  that I have to list out so many of my mistakes...)

Even before I  started making adopts, I have been stiffed by many potential  commissioners that asked for samples and (one commissioner that hired me  for a project but then disappeared halfway when I was done with the  manga page ><). I understand that because I was commissioned by a  minor and wasn't very wise in managing my time correctly, that being  listed on Artists Beware is a major turn-off for most people...

1) I should have checked the commissioner's background
2) I should have declined her commission
3) Even if I accepted her commission, I should have been more communicative

With  this commissioner, I delivered her commission and an extra full-body  flat-CG of another of her OCs (because she initially complained that I  took so long, she was bored with the previous one) about 8 months after  she commissioned me, but she left my beware as it was to further ruin my  reputation, and when I tried defending myself, I was reprimanded for  it. At this time, I was also depressed over a childhood friend's suicide  (I still am), so it's a permanent reminder to me of how personal issues  can interfere with professionalism. 

About 2 years ago, I was  hired by a commissioner who was interested in my artwork and wanted to  commission me for digital full-body sketches of normal women with varied  body types (each with a lingerie layer and a casual clothing layer) for  $7 each. He commissioned me for 10 of these, and told me to "take as  long as I needed" because he knew I was a uni student. I was dumb again,  and overestimated myself even though I was taking 3 courses with 3 labs  alongside outside research work. I told him I'd have drafts in 3-4  days. The days turned into 3 weeks. I haven't checked my secondary email  for so long and saw that he sent a bunch of angry messages (which was  my fault). I also saw that he lied to other people about his "friend"  also commissioning me for something worth $78 and was disgusted that she  never received her commission but at the time, I have never received  that amount for any commission in my 3 years of being commissioned with  my current username (wages were pathetically low with my first account,  too...beginning artists that underprice  ). When I asked him directly  about his friend and if he could send proof of the receipt and message,  he froze. 

But unlike on A_B, no one ripped my reputation apart,  only he did. One of my commissioners (who commissioned me at around the  same time he did) understood but I was really disgusted with how he had  to lie to drag down a reputation I barely had. At the time, out of 20  commissioners, only 2 were ever bad. And still today, despite reasoning  with the person and giving a free painted headshot CG, he just brushed  it off, and it's been over 2 years...I want to refund him because I feel  stressed about his commissions and how he treated me. I understand that  he had been tricked out of >$2k over the years he's commissioned  artists, but if he had so little trust in artists, it would be better if  he didn't go on a forum to find and hire them  (Please excuse me if  I'm wrong)

 I repeatedly reassured him before he paid me that I was a busy uni student, but *I would never run away with anyone's hard-earned mone*y.  This is what I reiterate all the time, and I mean it. However, it's  been years since I delivered him a draft...I haven't brought myself to  finish these because 1) I will never forget how he lied to slander my  reputation and 2) he seemed like a two-faced person (CLIENTS ARE PEOPLE,  TOO...I don't want to work for someone who underpaid me and dehumanizes  me...No job is ever worth that...I'm constantly reminded of how my own  mother is treated in her self-employed work .__.). I've just been  struggling with the refund because the majority of my $ either goes to  textbooks or bills...and I accepted his commissions in the 1st place  because I needed funds for textbooks. I do want to refund him,  however... When he lied about me, I felt like I was being used as one of  his scapegoats for the 10 previous artists that ran out on him  I  didn't run out because I've never had the intention to steal his money  and did have a lingering want to finish his commissions, but his words  and actions still make me feel uneasy and unmotivated. Plus, I still  have a lot of schoolwork to finish before finals to keep my grades up  before graduation  

...I hope it's not ugly of me to want to  refund a commissioner who mistreated me...even if it's my own fault that  I was mistreated in the first place...but...I still think I was a  scapegoat for his pent-in anger 

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Up to date, I  have been commissioned by 48 different people, which isn't much, but I'm  still very grateful to be commissioned at all with my meager skills.  I'm very grateful to have been hired to draw people's beloved OCs and  family.
However...just recently, I've felt quite sad over my  adoptables and how they were being resold before my rules changed. I  felt that these people didn't respect me. Like they bought my $25-$40  full-body adoptables that were painstakingly-painted over a period of 10  hours and had love put into them... Only for one of the owners to  inform me AFTER the adopt she bought from me was resold...and then I saw  her buy hundreds of dollars worth of chibi adoptables from popular  artists... The other person was a friend of mine...she started ignoring  me on twitter, skype and dA over a year ago even though I asked for her  opinion on the adopt extras I was working on for her... I was quite  disappointed to see that she gave the character a name and background  but then, was listed at the bottom of the list of adoptables she was  reselling that didn't fit in into her universe. She didn't even inform  me beforehand, and one of my rules at this time was to not resell my  adoptables. Even now, she ignores my messages, so...I don't know how to  feel... She also buys primarily from popular adoptable artists and  spends quite a bit on them... I'm sad because I thought she was a good  friend. I really admired how hard she works and how skilled she is...  She also seems to help out a lot of people, but in concern to me...I  just feel ignored. She didn't used to treat me like that... Plus, I  still have WIPs of her adoptable extras...I'm not sure if I should  release them to her or not now that she's reselling the adoptable  without telling me...she ignores 97% of my messages anyway .___.

I'm  not saying that people should spend hundreds of $$$ on me... I just  feel hurt that people tried reselling my adoptables despite my no resell  rule before. I feel that because I'm not popular, that my rules could  be freely ignored by people like I wasn't a sentient being  My no  resell rule wasn't put in place to see if people could follow my rules.  Plus, every adoptable I've ever made wasn't lazily sketched up and  generic. I love designing different characters and I like seeing them go  to good homes... It makes me so happy to see that a design I made fits  into someone's vision of a character, so happy that I can't properly  describe it...

But I know that people can get bored of their  designs...and it was selfish of me to keep it just so I can track who  follows my rules or not. I don't have a copyright on anything, and there  are times when people need $ (whether it's for a different adoptable or  actual necessities such as bills). This is why I've changed my rules to  allow resells of my adopts one year after they're purchased. If I'm  lucky, my designs will be used and given life as actual characters  within that time period and beyond, if not, they'll be put up for  adoption again after. 

For adoptables I'm reselling from other  artists, because I'm not the popular artists themselves advertising, I  don't think I can resell them to good homes. I was asked about a Fluffen  resell a month ago and the people who inquired basically flaked out on  me (one promised to have payment but her PayPal was being  verified...even though I know that she buys a ton of adoptables from  others and usually doesn't have a problem). Just this month, one person  who tried claiming 3 of the adoptables I made backed out last minute,  and I don't know if I removed the holds from the people I trusted to pay  for them on time, that she would have actually purchased... The entire  thing is kind of fishy to me... I'm not sure if people get billed right  after they go into the hospital (because I accompany my elderly parents  all the time for visits and overnight stays and never see bills be  mailed out that fast, maybe within 1-4 weeks but not days). Five years  of flaky buyers on commissions, adoptables and actual merchandise have  made me quite jaded.

I keep thinking if I were popular, would I  still have to deal with bad commissioners or flaky buyers (granted, it's  a miniscule amount, but no one likes dealing with these type of people  .__.)? I know that a few popular artists have had to deal with flaky  people, too, but probably not to such a great amount...

I'm really sorry for posting such a long, lengthy read in such in unprofessional tone, but...

*I  wish I could be taken more seriously... I love drawing and I put effort  into what I do (it's taken 16+ years to get this far), even if people  outside just see it as generic anime art, why can't I have a similar  level of respect for my craft? *


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## Charrio (May 31, 2015)

I'm really sorry  you have had such a bad time in commissions. 
It really sounds bad at times there. 

I would suggest drawing more then adoptables so people can see more of your skills. 
Do art just to fill out your gallery not to just sell. People get iffy when all they see is paid for or 
stuff for sale. Especially if they have never heard of an artist. I guess just post more and more 
of your personal art. The more you post the more people are likely to see your art which will lead 
them to your page and you can have commission info. 

I'm just saying have your adoptibles but show off more personal work too. More then the sales amount. 
I'm at like *1788 *Submissions, I get Commissions now and then but more offline then on.


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## Deleted member 64551 (Jun 7, 2015)

I think it might have something to do with the audience you attract because of your prices, style or subject matter.
Try branching out and draw something else or raise your prices. (You don't have to stop drawing what you want but you could try expanding your audience a bit more)
I found out that some people who pay me the lowest price tend to be difficult to deal with.

If you raise your prices, it will cut out certain commissioners because these certain commissioners never respect you to begin with and thinks art should be cheap.

Also always demand upfront payment or half payment to ensure you won't get screw over and do not give out free samples ever. However, there's a downside to this, you have to be professional and always update your commissioner with work in progress. 
Then again, if you're proven to be a professional, people will respect you more.

But this is for commissions. For adoptables, I'm not sure how I'm going to help on that.


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## monochromatic-dragon (Jun 7, 2015)

2 years is way too late for a refund, and for what they did to your reputation, I wouldn't refund them at all. Does this person bother you anymore? Have you communicated with them recently at all? I'm not telling you to "run off" on them, but finish the job you started. Even though its been 2 years and they likely don't even want it anymore, I think that finishing their commission would be the professional thing to do. 

Communication is key. I've found that people don't mind delays if you at least tell them what is going on. I've been backed up on commissions almost all year because of school work and a death in the family. As much as I hate to tell people "I'm sorry for the delays, my life has been very busy/stressful lately" or "I'm mourning for the loss of my grandmother" people tend to be very understanding.


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## Yarik (Jun 9, 2015)

I'm studying computer science so I can relate to your situation. I try to never have more than two clients at a time to be able to give frequent updates on their commissions. (Frequent = no more than 3 days without a new WIP to show.) If I'm unable to provide any updates I'll wait no longer than the magical three days before I'll give them an update why there'll be a delay and when they can expect to hear of me again.
In general I feel like most clients are very patient and friendly but communication is necessary. I'd feel ignored if my E-mails remain unanswered for several days, let alone weeks. (Lies and reputation-ruining on purpose is never a good thing, though. I can see why your client would be angry with no communication over several weeks but his reaction was just as unprofessional and upsetting.) I can't tell if there'd be a difference if I'd be popular; but I was told very often that if you charge very low you're very likely to attract commissioners that value your work low.

The only bad experiences I made so far are the obligatory "take the free sketch and run"-type of "commissioners". Luckily it weren't many and it also never was anyone on FA or the forum but off-site people. I only made positive experiences on Fa so far - but I never made anybody wait in silence either. Eventually I just never gave anyone a reason to be upset with my work&amp;communication? Actually I think that the reason why popular artists have happier clients might be that they work more professional and with less delay. I witnessed a popular artist getting artist-beware entries and a lot of hate for never finishing anything in-time and making commissioners wait for months while taking more and more new commissions. Said artist even was banned from FA for a while. As soon as they caught up with their commissions and delivered everything as promised they were allowed to return to FA. Ever since they seem to manage their time a lot better and handle the commissioners properly. I don't think popular artists have an easier life, I just think that the majority of popular artists has a gigantic experience regarding handling commissions and planning their daily life.

If you have troubles replying in time, try to get your smartphone (I assume you own one) to ring each time you get an E-mail and check them asap. That's how I do it and it makes sure I reply in time. (I also check FA notes at least once a day. Which helps a lot, too) 
For your reputation: I think the best way to gain a good reputation is to finish commissions with good quality and in-time. Happy clients will spread their word for you better than yourself can do : )
(And a gallery full of commissions of similar type express that you're experienced and trustworthy.)


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