"Artists Beware"

First thing's first, polite niceties: Hullo hullo!  Name's Niko and I've been a long-term watcher, but only recently clicked the darned join button.  I'll admit that my largest reason for doing this is a friend's nudging to post here about semi-recent experiences with an artist, something I was resistant to doing while in the midst of the below-mentioned drama with them.  But, now, I fee it more than wholly justified. 

I apologize in advance for the lack of brevity.  Cut, for your pleasure.

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I was told to post here for advice.

Now, I don't want to drop the name of the offending artist just yet, I'd like some feedback first. So when you read 'Artist' in this post, keep in mind I'm referring to the artist I'm upset at.

I commissioned an artist on December 27th, 2009. They had opened for commissions on Christmas, just two days prior. The artist has a pay-in-full-up-front policy, which I at the time thought was ok. Four people, including myself, made commissions. One person even commissioned them to do two sets. The artist has approximately fifteen pictures to do, 3 pictures to a set. Four commissioners, one of who commissioned 2 sets. I'm commissioner number 3, so that means the set I'm owed is number 4.

Now, the artist has posted that their policy is to update their journal every week to two weeks, keeping everyone apprised of the status of the commissions.

I noted the artist 2 months after the commission was first paid for, wondering why there had been no semi-weekly updates. I was informed that the artist responsible was busy with classes and car trouble, and that they would try to get to the commissions shortly.

A month and a half goes by. I note them again, wondering if it was possible to get a update of any sort, and also asking about the artist's refund policy.

Two more weeks go by with no response. I note them again, thinking there was a server error, and ask directly about the possibility of canceling my 3-sketch-set commission for a full refund, given that I have had unforeseen financial issues come up during the intervening four months.

My question was not answered, and I was only told "I'll let the artist know you asked." by the artist's friend, since the artist them-self could not answer the question either time it was asked.

In the intervening four months, the artist has updated seven times a gallery they own to make money off of. An online pay-per-view gallery, to be specific. Each update is multiple pages. The updates were not old work set aside for a posting lull, but started and completed since December 27th, 2009.

The artist has only done page of the very first commissioner's set. The other four sets haven't even been started yet. It has been two months since they did that one page, and yet they have updated their gallery 5 times since then, all with brand new content.

 

Additional Information:

Taken from the journal of the artist I commissioned, regarding the timespan the commissions were to be done in:

"Twelve slots. $20 each. Single character, inked, with some tone work/shading. [artist] will try to finish them all this weekend**.

TFs, fantasy MMORPG fanart, L4D/L4D2 fanart, furry and a mix of any of these. No underaged or any content that [artist] would find offensive. Look at what we've offered through our gallery to get a sense of what's allowed.

This time we will allow people to get multiple slots. 3 slots of the same character in a sequence will be $50 total.

Private message this account with your details, including your Paypal name and email address, clearly what you want in as short of terms as you can, and one link of reference if you can. You must prepay the amount to [paypal address] in order to reserve your slot(s)."

**The journal was posted in the same week I made the commission, so I was expecting the commissions to be done that weekend as the journal says.

The questions:


Am I wrong for wanting a refund?

Is the artist in the wrong for putting their pay-per-view gallery in-front of their direct commissioners?

Should I note them more often about trying to get a refund?

  Or should I instead wait for the commission to be finished, hoping the artist gets to work on it soon (having 3 other sets to go through before my own)?

I've commissioned friends before, most of my friends appreciate my business as I always pay upfront, and most of my friends deliver the goods on time.

Unfortunately, I have the habit of not setting deadlines... how do you approach a commissioned artist that is also a friend when it's already been more than 18 months since the deal was completed.

And yeah, they are aware they still owe but offer several reasons for not having completed the commissioned pieces, an art block being the most common one. In my opinion, a little hard to justify when you do chug art, even for pay-sites, albeit sporadically.

I don't want a refund, I don't need the refund... I just honestly want the art... and I'd not mind waiting more if I could tell my friends are actually being honest about their efforts.

I've thought about this for months, I still don't know if I'm doing the right thing... I know common friends visit this site and I'd not be surprised if I get chided on the side... but I could really use some advice at this point.

EDIT:

Thanks for all the advice. I'm still trying to gather the courage to bring this issue up to 'em.

People are right, I should not have mixed friendship/business together. But it has hardly been an issue before.

One of the problems is that one of my friends involved in this took on these commissions because she had financial issues.

As people have commented, sadly people take advantage of friends, whether they're the commissioned artists by delaying the final product, as is my case, or they're the commissioner by not paying promptly, as been the case of other people that have given me advice.

I hope other people here in A_B can learn from this as well, both as artists and as commissioners.

So, months back I made a post about Chapperice on FA/DA who I commissioned for an icon back in August. I had contacted her repeatedly on FA, on AIM, etc, without a response. I guess her friend or something let her know she saw the post about her on here and then she finally responded. At that point I was just frustrated at lack of communication. Here's that post:
http://community.livejournal.com/artists_beware/268449.html

So, anyway, it's been... 7 or 8 months? Either way, I'm really frustrated. If you look at the last post she offered all of these extra commissions to make up for the communication problem, which was nice of her and everything, but I probably would've cared one way or the other about them as long as I just got the icon I paid for. She's posted on FA recently, but hasn't messaged me at all, blah blah blah.

I'd be really happy with just a refund at this point, even though still getting my icon would be really great, because from the sketch she showed me it looked really cute. I'm really sad about it.

So. Yeah. I don't know what to do about it - I guess there isn't much I can do. As much as I hate to say it about anyone, I'd probably advise not commissioning her if she ever offers commissions again. It's not JUST the waiting thing, even though I do think it's been a little bit long for a icon, it's just really sort of frustrating to be promised things and then not even contacted with updates or anything like that. It especially stinks because she seemed really nice every time she DID actually contact me, and I don't want to say unkind things about anyone, but it's sort of unfair.