You should not finish your half of the trade... I would express to the person whom you were trading with that you are not happy with the little stunt that they pulled and that you are no longer interested in this trade and just leave it at that. You should have no reason to finish an art work when you were giving such a substandard and unacceptable product from this author.

What? Ugh!

I'm tempted to say put a mishmash of your other work together, trace it, then give him that, but two wrongs don't make a right.

What I would say is do something of the same effort he did. Do a sketch instead of a colored piece, but be upfront with him about it. Because he didn't give you new work, you feel that he did not honor your trade. He did not appreciate the work he was asking you to do by taking a short cut. Tell him this before doing anything for him, he may admit that it isn't fair and just say that you don't owe him anything, or at least open the floor for what amount of work is appropriate for what you got.

If nothing else, completing the full trade with him is encouraging his behavior. It's tricky, but this is a case where being professional doesn't mean just being pushed around.

I would take one of my old drawings, doodle a little over top of it(like, if it's a drawing of a character for them, I'd sloppily draw that character's outfit ontop of the outfit already in the drawing) and send that to him.

Granted a more mature approach would be just to inform him that since he didn't uphold his end of the trade, you're no longer obligated to uphold your end.

Agreeing w/ Lazer that you honestly shouldn't do squat. (Not the mishmash of your own previous work) That's not fair to you at all. Or if anything give them a fraction of the trade you agreed upon, ex: you were asked to do a colored piece, give em a rough sketch or something.

I'm appalled that they thought that would even be remotely OK.

Edited at 2012-02-13 07:03 pm (UTC)

is it possible to just... ask him to start from scratch and legitimately write you the original story he'd promised? that way you'd be able to complete your half and no one gets cheated. its kind of vital that he's aware that what he did was pretty shitty and he's gotta own up to it.

I'd say, do your half of the trade... on an ACEO-sized card.

A few people have said to take mix matches of what you have done and give it to him in return. I do not agree with this as it would harm the integrity of your work.

I would not ask him to re-write it as its difficult to find out if it would be plagiarized, given your experience with him already, I would not trust him to re-do it and have the next copy be legit/original. Either give him a sketch or nothing at all. Either way is fine, as he basically tried to pull the wool over your eyes and should not be rewarded for doing so.

Yes that was good he told you up front about what he did, but that's not completing his side. I'm not sure if you ought to do a piece of similar quality as your work reflects who you are and making a piece that matches his quality would not reflect your true skills and be potentially poor advertising for yourself. I would most likely back out and tell him the reason for doing so as he has not completed his half. As Celarania stated, he's pretty much given you a bad knockoff. Having him try again will just leave you wondering if it's legit or another counterfeit...

As others have said, don't finish your half. He technically didn't do his half anyway since the agreement was for him to write a story, not cut and paste a bunch of them together.

Echoing the 'tell him what he did was not okay, and cancel the trade' advice. There's no telling he won't do the same thing again, unfortunately, so the trade's probably not going to be worth the effort on your part.

I'd take the mature route and decline any further participation in the trade. Thats the only way you'd come out smelling like roses in my opinion. Like others have said, giving him any thing after what he tried would just reward bad behavior and you have no reason to do it. As long as youve been keeping a level head throughout and didnt go off at him then I think you have no reason to worry about coming off looking like the bad guy in this situation.

Agreeing with others that you should cancel the trade and make him thoroughly aware of why. If the deal was an original story, you should get an original story. Cutting up older works and inserting your characters' names is no better than frankensteining a visual piece together, and you have every right not to trust him after that move.

Edited at 2012-02-13 09:37 pm (UTC)

Would they be alright if you mish mashed a bunch of old art for their half?

I doubt it. They didn't produce *original* (as in, they did it FOR the trade) work for you, so they don't get freebies.

If he gave you insincere work, you owe him nothing. I would strongly encourage you not to do the mish-mash stuff others are suggesting- the 'eye for an eye' flavor it has will not sit well with you or your watchers in the long run.
I'd be pretty happy I didn't do my half first- then he would have gotten away with free art for very little effort. You're in a perfect place to just walk away and find someone worthwhile to trade with.

echoing above. If they aren't going to uphold their half, why should you? The trade was not for a mishmash of old work with your character's names in it. It was for an original piece. I do hope you post a full beware on this gentleman or lady though, because even though I don't accept Stories for Art trades, I'd like to avoid them, just in case I ever start.