EDIT: The artist contacted me today and said they will refund half the price, as well as send me the SAI file due to the fact that their health issues are becoming bad (apparently they are doing this for a lot of their other commissions). I've agreed to this and I'm happy I didn't have to take this further :) Thanks for all the great comments!!
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FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE ARTIST, FOR NOW, I WILL JUST SAY "ARTIST" BECAUSE I'M NOT SURE IF I WANT TO POST A BEWARE OR NOT.
Okay...so there is an artist that I've adored since I started getting into online art-looking...and said artist recently came back after years of absence, so of course I started stalking that artist! I have been struggling with a ref sketch I did of my fursona and had been watching the artist on a livestream type site. I asked for their opinion of anatomy and coloring, because I have always been IN LOVE with the coloring style of this artist. That being said, the artist offered to color and touch up on the anatomy of my picture for $15!! It was like a dream come freaking true!! And maybe I should have realized that from the start.
So, knowing that
1) it is a $15 commission
2) the artist has a lot of health issues
3) I know it takes awhile to do great art in general
4) did I mention it was only a $15 commission?
I knew it would take awhile. But the thing is, I paid the artist on Dec 9, 2012. We kept up for awhile, I'd go and watch the artist draw when I was able, and all was honkey dory. To make things easier, I was even willing to change my character's hair design because, despite the fact that I wanted it a certain way, I had waited so long on things to progress (and they progressed quickly at first, then came to a screeching hault) that I was willing to do whatever just to get things moving along. Even though I really really didn't want to have to change my character design for a commission I paid for ($15 or not). So whatever, we decided on that....then apparently the artist flattened the image??? I get that. I understand things happen. But the artist did that 3 months ago...and I haven't seen any progress since. I haven't heard from the artist in 3 months. And I've sent numerous messages on both the artist's FA and tumblr. And I know they've been on it since then...but still no answer. All I want is a screen shot, or to be told they can't do it and refund. But how long do I need to wait before getting more upset?? I've been very patient, understanding, and tried not to be too pushy. But today I finally asked if there would be any update, or if we should talk about a refund.
I REALLY REALLY REALLY don't want to have to post an artist-beware, but I saw on their FA where someone else had noted that their lack of correspondence was becoming a worry. I love this artist, and I always have, and I'd hate to be the one to be targeted for calling them out...but when do I say enough is enough?
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FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE ARTIST, FOR NOW, I WILL JUST SAY "ARTIST" BECAUSE I'M NOT SURE IF I WANT TO POST A BEWARE OR NOT.
Okay...so there is an artist that I've adored since I started getting into online art-looking...and said artist recently came back after years of absence, so of course I started stalking that artist! I have been struggling with a ref sketch I did of my fursona and had been watching the artist on a livestream type site. I asked for their opinion of anatomy and coloring, because I have always been IN LOVE with the coloring style of this artist. That being said, the artist offered to color and touch up on the anatomy of my picture for $15!! It was like a dream come freaking true!! And maybe I should have realized that from the start.
So, knowing that
1) it is a $15 commission
2) the artist has a lot of health issues
3) I know it takes awhile to do great art in general
4) did I mention it was only a $15 commission?
I knew it would take awhile. But the thing is, I paid the artist on Dec 9, 2012. We kept up for awhile, I'd go and watch the artist draw when I was able, and all was honkey dory. To make things easier, I was even willing to change my character's hair design because, despite the fact that I wanted it a certain way, I had waited so long on things to progress (and they progressed quickly at first, then came to a screeching hault) that I was willing to do whatever just to get things moving along. Even though I really really didn't want to have to change my character design for a commission I paid for ($15 or not). So whatever, we decided on that....then apparently the artist flattened the image??? I get that. I understand things happen. But the artist did that 3 months ago...and I haven't seen any progress since. I haven't heard from the artist in 3 months. And I've sent numerous messages on both the artist's FA and tumblr. And I know they've been on it since then...but still no answer. All I want is a screen shot, or to be told they can't do it and refund. But how long do I need to wait before getting more upset?? I've been very patient, understanding, and tried not to be too pushy. But today I finally asked if there would be any update, or if we should talk about a refund.
I REALLY REALLY REALLY don't want to have to post an artist-beware, but I saw on their FA where someone else had noted that their lack of correspondence was becoming a worry. I love this artist, and I always have, and I'd hate to be the one to be targeted for calling them out...but when do I say enough is enough?
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Low cost artwork and being an artist that is well liked do not excuse poor communication or lack of product. Quite frankly I've gotten tired of seeing commissioners or artists with honest gripes fail to say anything bad because they don't want to be the one to rock the boat.
That is how people like the worst serial reportees here get away with what they do for so long.
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"So whatever, we decided on that....then apparently the artist flattened the image??? "
You mean didn't hand you the full unflattened PDF image file?
If that's the case, I'm not really surprised. Those can be massive sizes.
Not sure on that, but I believe that it was an excuse/reason for some delay finishing the art.
There's all sorts of ways for human error to creep into a workflow. In Photoshop it takes only a few keystrokes to flatten, save, and close an image, and all the relevent hotkeys (E, S, and W) are right beside each other. If someone's hand slipped when they were tired, all it'd take is hitting two in the wrong order for it to close without a dialogue box.
personally I would wait and see if they respond to your last message before naming them here, it sounds like a more serious message than the ones you sent prior (because of the mention of a possible refund) so perhaps they will get back to you about it more quickly
also try sending them an email? tumblr sometimes will eat messages and FA's note system isn't great either