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Vent your worst artist encounters :D
4 years ago
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Let's share some horror stories. But keep the artist anonymous as per the 2.4 harassment CoC rule of this site.
I don't commission other artists but I have a few horror stories related to trades and collabs. If the artsts in question recognize the events, please don't take it as an attack. For me it's water under the bridge and I hold no grudges at this point, I'm just sharing my stories because I want to hear some from others. Besides I have failed people several times too on the personal side, I suck at building relationships, I actually struggle with a strong fear of people in real life.
Here we go \o/
1.
Alright, one was a trade with an artist I liked a lot both in style and personality. The trade was just one character sketch and their character was pretty cool so I did my sketch and gave it to them... they never did mine.
Soon after that I started realizing that artist had terrible ethics, keeping long commission lists, making people wait forever, always taking more commissions despite that long list, etc. So I walked away. I stopped watching them. I don't know what is of them now, they were kinda popular at the time this happened having over 5k watchers. Hope they cleaned their game and are being more professional.
2.
Another one is this one artist with whom I agreed to make a comic collab. I adjusted my schedule to make room to work on it after we decided the involved characters, one was going to be one of mine, and... They never gave me the references for their character.
They did give me a very simple chibi ref, so I had "some" idea of what I was working with, but I asked for a better description of their details, size, body build, etc. Even if was just text. I asked a few times, through several months. Never got the details. They were managing the script. It never got handed to me so I could start sketching up the pages.
Then one day I mentioned that my character I purposedly draw to look more like a kobold than a dragon because I like to get that character triggered when others think is not a dragon. Then the artist proceeded to discard my character from the project because they wanted a dragon, not a kobold. Like they just read what they want to read instead of what I was telling them.
So after that I dropped off the project for my whole schedule and time being messed with. A year passed, I talked with them again, we decided to give another try at working together on something, same thing happened, nothing progressed from their side.
I liked this person. To a large degree I empathize with them and their personality and hardships. They are a very jaded person, having grown through a very complicated environment full of prejudice and injustice. But I gave up on trying to work with them or befriend them, they failed me at every turn.
How about you guys? Do you have some financial or personal horror stories with artists? Share some, just remember to keep them anonymous.
I don't commission other artists but I have a few horror stories related to trades and collabs. If the artsts in question recognize the events, please don't take it as an attack. For me it's water under the bridge and I hold no grudges at this point, I'm just sharing my stories because I want to hear some from others. Besides I have failed people several times too on the personal side, I suck at building relationships, I actually struggle with a strong fear of people in real life.
Here we go \o/
1.
Alright, one was a trade with an artist I liked a lot both in style and personality. The trade was just one character sketch and their character was pretty cool so I did my sketch and gave it to them... they never did mine.
Soon after that I started realizing that artist had terrible ethics, keeping long commission lists, making people wait forever, always taking more commissions despite that long list, etc. So I walked away. I stopped watching them. I don't know what is of them now, they were kinda popular at the time this happened having over 5k watchers. Hope they cleaned their game and are being more professional.
2.
Another one is this one artist with whom I agreed to make a comic collab. I adjusted my schedule to make room to work on it after we decided the involved characters, one was going to be one of mine, and... They never gave me the references for their character.
They did give me a very simple chibi ref, so I had "some" idea of what I was working with, but I asked for a better description of their details, size, body build, etc. Even if was just text. I asked a few times, through several months. Never got the details. They were managing the script. It never got handed to me so I could start sketching up the pages.
Then one day I mentioned that my character I purposedly draw to look more like a kobold than a dragon because I like to get that character triggered when others think is not a dragon. Then the artist proceeded to discard my character from the project because they wanted a dragon, not a kobold. Like they just read what they want to read instead of what I was telling them.
So after that I dropped off the project for my whole schedule and time being messed with. A year passed, I talked with them again, we decided to give another try at working together on something, same thing happened, nothing progressed from their side.
I liked this person. To a large degree I empathize with them and their personality and hardships. They are a very jaded person, having grown through a very complicated environment full of prejudice and injustice. But I gave up on trying to work with them or befriend them, they failed me at every turn.
How about you guys? Do you have some financial or personal horror stories with artists? Share some, just remember to keep them anonymous.
I'm too stubborn to ask for a refund, also wanting to see how it plays out.
However, due to line up and such of the finished commission and my thing I was working on getting finished shortly after, they saw it as me calling them out on things even though I told them before they had been the closest ever any artist has gotten to getting everything right that I was ok with that quick and eaily and promptly told me that they didn't want to take commissions from me in the future. uvu;
It sucks cuz I really liked their style and as far as I'm aware too (looking through their gallery and such in a few different places), they took the piece that they did that I commissioned down. So it's good i saved it i guess!
Dunno. Not cool from them though.
It's not cool yeah, but I guess I can understand them.
They asked for a fetish I was not comfortable with, and told them as much at the very beginning. They said that was ok, I didn't have to draw it. However, when it came to creating the piece, they kept micromanaging me and trying to sneak the fetish in using more 'subtle' methods. But as someone who has been in this fandom a long ass time, it wasn't very subtle to me.
Que a lot of running around in circles, me saying no, them saying it was ok but could they 'add this detail' that was clearly fetish and welp...
In the end I just refunded them and said I would not work with them anymore since basic consent was an issue they stuggled with.
Another story is likely one many artists have heard, this time it being one from an exceedingly impatient commissioner. This one ordered a commission on Christmas Eve, then proceeded to pester me many times throughout the next two weeks for the status of their commission, including Christmas AND New Years days themselves, every time I told them the same thing - I was taking a 2 week vacation for the holidays and they were the last commission I took to be completed when I resumed work once again in January. They also left passive aggressive comments on personal works and journals I posted during my off time. In the end, they got their work, but I would be extremely reluctant to accept work from them again.
I've had a few cases where the client gets very nitpicky about details AFTER the thing is done, but they at least were nice about it and wasn't about pushing for things I was not wanting to draw.
On the whole though, my experiences with commissioners has been of the positive kind =D
After that I proposed a collab with this artist, a ych with 3 slots. And that went terribly wrong. I did the sketch, no problem on that and people took the slot on the ych. We shared the money and then I give her the folder to do the line and color. First, I waited month to have it, but also it wasn't made by her. The line were terrible and they were a lot of mistake in the color. She paid someone else to do it because she was sick! I can understand if someone is sick that it take time, but don't let someone else do it when it's a collab! I had to redo some of the line and color and add shading. The ych took a lot of time to be done in the end wich I don't like.
for me that's the end, but after I learned by a friend that she was redrawing pictures and photos for her ychs that she was selling, also that another artist made a collab that went terribly wrong... strangely, when she did collab with an artist that was much more famous everything went right!
lastly she changed her account (cause everyone was saying that she was a stealer and a bad artist). I watched her second account and for a moment it went normal, ych and collab etc. Then one day she stopped posting. it's been month since she didn't post anything. But some people are still waiting for ych that aren't done
here it's the worst artist I know for now ^^
There's this comic artist famous for tracing porn scenes and other artist's work to make his lines, and he's been super successful doing it for Marvel itself, I can't remember his name. Also Ross Draws on Youtube, he was using people's photos to paint over without asking for permission, paying them or even crediting them for yeeears until one person calling him out managed to go viral enough that it came around to bit him in the ass and he had to acknowledge it in an "I'm sorry that you got offended" apology video.
Sad stuff u_u
When he got to having the work finally done; mailed it out to another client!
So i was only ever given a photo (not a scan) of the art. And somebody else got it. (Was super hyped for it too.)
Finally got a refund for that this last month cuz he kept making more excuses to fail delivering a promised piece.
———
Another ongoing one i’ve been awaiting just being added to their long ass list of works and refunds since 2018.
Even tried to change the commission from a ref sheet to three icons to make simpler for their sake and STILL not changed as after year of gratuitous reminders. (They post updates every other day, soooo…)
In this case it was a “one month turnaround”, but ZERO addition of my name to any client lists on their three lists at the time (now to one, but not on refund/waiting/commission, etc.)
But, I wanted to bid on a YCH, and found that I couldn't because I was blocked. As far as I remember, I had never interacted with this artist before.
---
Something else I feel like sharing here is rather the opposite of what you're asking here, and it's not one artist, but practically all the artists I got art of Rigel from.
There are a few details that almost always go wrong, even though they are properly present in the ref sheets. And I find that it's never an issue for artists to fix this when I point it out. So kudos to the artist community here.
Though another artist has managed to run off with $300 for little more than a couple half-finished sketches.
Sadly there are a lot of scammers around, and some have talent for art but prefer to create new accounts, do a few legit commissions, then scam a bunch of people until their name starts getting bad rep, then vanish and start again with another name.
Though, there's one story I still carry around with me, just 'cause it's kinda funny to me.
It's... approaching two years, now, since I won a raffle from an artist, they put it up on their todo list, and I even got a WiP sketch or two from them, that they were progressing on it.
In those two years, they have since abandoned their entire todo list, not touching it and leaving me completely alone with a 0% progress marker on a todo list they still have linked in all their journals, despite never using it. They still regularly post art, take commissions, even other requests from people, but I've not heard a word from them myself in quite a long time now. It was a raffle reward, rather than a commission I'd paid for, so I've never really felt comfortable pressing them on the matter, but... I still find it quite entertaining to count the days, see how long it'll go before they either contact me again, or clear me from the todo list~
Honestly, my heart goes out to the other people in this thread... you poor souls...
That freebie in wait sucks. I mean, it's a freebie, but still not cool to just abandon the compromise like that, not even talk to you that they are cancelling it for X reason and they are super sorry, or something like that D:
I can't remember the artist anymore but, they had a "waiting" list. If you wanted on, they charged you $50 to get on it
Then once on, they'd review your request to decide if they wanted to make it or not. If not, they don't bother refunding you
A friend of mine, wanted a ych this artist was doing and I thought it looked neat to, was a two page comic. And we had to pay half upfront. ($150 each)
After looking at our sona's said artist complained our designs were to complex (Was my spotted snep Sona and friend was a black wolf)
They reposted the ych again, and didn't refund us, our money. Claimed we never paid them. Even though we had a transaction receipts
blocked both of us after we showed them proof with notes, and receipts
We had to get Paypal to refund us. Five days after that. They claimed they were leaving the fandom, claiming to many people were ungrateful and greedy
It sucks. But glad you managed to get your money back.
After that, Geekko send a note to tell that's not really cool from this person. So, after some time, the person sent him another draw but it was like she didn't want to do something and just wanted a free art from Geekko...
2. I met an artist who I liked their personality and art style on making tarot cards, however, not long after I paid them, they disappeared entirely.
3. I met an artist with who I clicked and befriended for some month, however, we both had motivation and inspiration problems, so I suggested working on something story + art related, however, he blocked me one day and not long after used some of my ideas for ych.
I was selling trinkets at Furnal Equinox (or not selling them to be more accurate, as it was a dismal year for all the dealers there), when I was approached by this guy who said he'd heard that I was a fan. I have an auditory processing disorder, so I was completely unable to interpret his introduction and just sat there smiling stupidly, trying to figure out who the hell he was. About 30 seconds into that very awkward conversation it clicked that he was, in fact, a very popular artist who had taken the time to come and speak to a fan. Fucking whoops. He opted to try on a ring from my table, and discovered a serious design flaw by getting it stuck on his finger. He removed the ring with some struggle, then proceeded to purchase it anyways. Years later I'm still humiliated that I must have looked like a completely clueless dumbass to him, while he handled the situation with perfect grace. I wish I could make it up to him somehow, but I also sort of hope he completely forgets that I exist.
Dunno, I'd recommend you tell them this story on a note, it'll help you get at peace about it too.
Within 20 minutes he's posting an "oh woe is me" journal about how commissioners are so inconsiderate of his feelings and basically just calling me out in the journal without saying my name and it was quite obvious it was about me. Also bear in mind that I was nothing but polite the whole time.
Well he relists the YCH and it sells again in less than 2 weeks. I hear nothing from him so a week-ish later I note him again asking when he plans on sending me my refund to which I got "Oh, I already spent the money from reselling it so I can't refund you right now." like great, you have my money and someone else's money and I have nothing to show for it. Again, almost like clockwork another journal about how people are so impatient when it comes to refunds and, again, quite obviously it's about me again.
2 months go by without hearing a word from him so I note him one last time, it's almost 6 months at this point so I know I'm still within my 6 months PayPal guarantee so I note him and ask where my money is and I do bring up possibly making a claim against him if he doesn't cough up with my money (which by no means was an insignificant amount either) and finally he coughs up and, again, like clockwork, another journal about shitty customers. Like ok but I feel like he stole my money for almost 3 months after I asked for a refund but I guess I'm the bad guy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The moral of the story is remember you have your PayPal guarantee for transactions for goods and services (and if someone's ToS says "no refunds" run for the hills). It may not feel nice using it as a threat but you paid for goods and services and if they aren't being rendered, you deserve your money back because the alternative is potentially being a victim of theft.
Not to victim blame, but there's at least partial responsibility from the people who enable these entitled artists to believe that they are allowed to take people's money and waste their time like that while they could have used that money on an artist that was actually going to do the artwork. They might not be scammers or thieves, but their entitlement gets them to take people moneys as free loans, and that is a really shitty thing to do.
Indeed people need to stop working with no refunds artists, or letting them get away with keeping their money for months, when a week's notice before filing a chargeback is perfectly reasonable at some point after the artist refuses to refund for a job that has not been started.