What to do

[kamidake]

Well, this has got nothing to do with cels... but I need some suggestions from anybody who had commissioned online artists before.

About a year ago, I commissioned a pretty popular artist on Deviant Art for a character design, 6 months later I got a design, of something I didn't ask for. I contacted the artist, and she admitted that she made a mistake and is willing to redo it. So, now, another 6 months later, I tried messaging through deviant art and e-mailing over a month ago, and nothing. On her journal she claimed to be super busy with her new job and haven't had time to look through messages, but she recently submitted 2 pieces of artwork within the last 3 weeks or so.

I usually like to give people the benefit of the doubt, and I consider myself to be pretty patient, but now... I don't know what to do. Should I try to get my money back? It's too late to file a claim I'm sure, since it's been over a year. I don't really want to publicly call her out or be a nuisance, but it is really too much to ask for a reply? And do people really not check their e-mail for months? *sigh*

Thanks for listening to my rant. Anybody had any similar experiences?

[theultimatebrucelee]

well I had commissioned this painter to paint a garage kit for me and paid her upfront in march since she seemed to be trust worthy and promised me to finish it in 3 weeks. but a month later when I contacted her asking for a progress update she replied me that she wasn't able to started the painting job since the tools she ordered didn't arrive. another month later I contacted her again but didn't get any reply so I just thought maybe I got jipped since the paypal refund date has already passed. tho later on I decided to try contacting her one last time. with my luck she replied about a month ago but also saying that shes got this new job and really been busy so couldn't get to it...so now I'm also in this pretty stucked situation and don't know what to do, only time will tell I guess..funny shes also got a deviant art account. maybe I should try and ask her to ship the kit back and refund my money..errrr..

[ReiTheJelly]

You paid for a service that you haven't received. That is fraud. Just because she has a new job doesn't mean that she is allowed to completely ignore all previous obligations. I truly dislike how people feel that just because a transaction is "online" that somehow it doesn't exist in the "real" world.

I would start by e-mailing the artist and explaining the situation. Tell them that you've been more than patient (almost a year!) and that you are considering taking more serious action against them - filing a report with IC3, at the very least.

[graymouser]

I have had quite a few commissioned artworks done for me over the years. I don't know if my experience is typical. It seems that the more popular and in demand the artist is, the longer it takes for them to finish the piece. I have had 1 artist take just a couple of weeks, but have had 2 artists take over a year. I separate out 2 types of artists, because they can be very different.

1) Most fan artists kept in contact with me during the entire process; even the very popular ones. I don't mean they emailed me weekly or anything, but they updated me from time to time. I can't remember exactly, but I am pretty sure all the fan artists took less than 4 months to finish. If I gave them a particular image, I tended to hear from them less often since there really wasn't any need to ask about the particulars. I sometimes give the very experienced fan artists a lot more flexibility on the exact image. In these cases, I usually ask for something original and just name a character I want an image of. This second group kept in closer contact with me just to see if I was agreeable to how the image was progressing. ---->If this person is a fan artist, I would be very alarmed at how long it is taking. I would be also be worried that this artist has not tried to contact you. I can understand the possibility of her losing your emails (spam folder, new email, etc), but she still should have contacted you to keep you appraised of the situation. I can understand that in this economy people may be working more at their regular jobs (if possible) to make ends meet. Still, she should have taken the initiative and contacted you about it. I would email/message her and ask for your money back. If she still wants the commission then it is now time for her to trust you. Have her return the funds and you will pay her when the piece is delivered. If she ignores you and a lot of money is involved, then I would say making a big fuss is definitely indicated. Even if she is a bit flaky, 6 months of no contact and 1 year with no artwork is too long.

2) If she is a professional artist and not a fan artist, the situation can be quite different. Most of these artists are sneaking commissioned works in between their bigger and more commercial projects. All of them were very honest and upfront with me about how long it would take. The longest was 1-1/2 years for a large and very elaborate drawing. One of the paintings also took over a year. All of these artists had very loose rein on the images. Most of the time it was X character (such as a gray cat) somewhere in the piece and Y atmosphere (such as creepy). Anyways, contact with most of them was sketchy at best. For 1 of them, the only time I "heard" from her was when the piece arrived. Only 2 of them sent me preliminary images. All of the results were incredible, and I was very happy. Still, it was definitely a lot more scary due to the rarity of contact, the wait time, and the amount of money involved. ---->If this person is a professional artist, I would be a bit more forgiving. I admit that it seems rather rude of some these more established artists to be so bad about communication, but unfortunately, it seems to be fairly standard.

[Sky Rat]

There is definitely a range in professionalism as far as commission artists go…most commissions I’ve had done were fairly prompt… but I have had one take 4-5 months, and required me reminding the artist at least twice during that time span to get done (and it was a very small one, maybe only about a simple 5 x 7â€

[pixie_princess]

Well, this has got nothing to do with cels... but I need some suggestions from anybody who had commissioned online artists before.

About a year ago, I commissioned a pretty popular artist on Deviant Art for a character design, 6 months later I got a design, of something I didn't ask for. I contacted the artist, and she admitted that she made a mistake and is willing to redo it. So, now, another 6 months later, I tried messaging through deviant art and e-mailing over a month ago, and nothing. On her journal she claimed to be super busy with her new job and haven't had time to look through messages, but she recently submitted 2 pieces of artwork within the last 3 weeks or so.

I usually like to give people the benefit of the doubt, and I consider myself to be pretty patient, but now... I don't know what to do. Should I try to get my money back? It's too late to file a claim I'm sure, since it's been over a year. I don't really want to publicly call her out or be a nuisance, but it is really too much to ask for a reply? And do people really not check their e-mail for months? *sigh*

Thanks for listening to my rant. Anybody had any similar experiences?

Could the person in question be a perfectionist? It could be that they keep finding something off with it and continually fixing it. Then again they should contact you at least within a week of your message. I'd message them directly on deviantart and ask point blank what has happened. It could be that your emails are going in the spam bucket or something.

For my part on the commissions note -It took me about 6months to a year to make a custom plushie for a trade. At first I wanted to gather the right materials and go to a special fabric store, then when I gathered the right materials (I increased the quality of them from what they were originally going to be), and created a prototype and did a lot of pattern altering. Doing the eyes themselves took a while and the person was presented with options. From the get go I told her it would take a few months, and I tried to make sure I always sent her updates.

Then again I suppose the key is communication. A lot of communication would have probably made you feel at ease and not worry about it. If you still get no response in sending her a private deviantart message, post on her page somewhere and ask (innocently/politely) about the work you commissioned. She wont be able to be mean or rude to you without coming off badly herself and you will have gained a response from her. I sincerly hope you receive your artwork soon.

[kamidake]

Thanks all who shared their experiences!

This person is a fan artist, and I doubt she has been working on my commission since 1. she said she was busy with work, and 2. she cranked out several other art pieces. I do feel that I've given her fair share of chance to communicate and to complete the project, so I actually don't feel bad about ask for my money back. But hopefully she will eventually read her e-mails. ^^;;

Generally speaking though, I’ve developed a pretty cynical opinion as far as commissions go in general. I’ve only had one take a long time, but I’ve never once been completely happy with the art I’ve gotten back (and I’ve done a range of different types, both fanart and conventional illustrations, paintings, etc.) No matter how carefully I explain what I’m looking for the artist’s vision always seems to hit a mark pretty far from what I wanted. It’s generally a pretty risky endeavor even if you can completely trust them to actually finish it. I pretty much only ask for commissions these days if the artist is a friend needing money and I want to help them out.

Actually, I share the sentiment. I'm a plush artist myself, and the couple of commissions I requested I always thought that they could have been better (or I could have made it better). But since this was a digital art and I liked the artist's style, I thought I give it a shot. Well, we all know what became of that. -_-