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  • Artists Beware

    The namesake database. Submissions are categorized by "Bewares" and "Cautions".
    Plasma
    Who: @Arts_Studio2210 (Twitter), OLIVIA ARTS STUDIO#4671 (Discord)
    Where: https://twitter.com/Arts_Studio2210
    https://www.artstation.com/artsstudio2210
    https://twitter.com/Web_tech10
    When: 12/14/2022
    What: Commission



    An artist who traced another artist's work, and when I asked for a redo, I was given low-effort art that does not match her portfolio.
    December 14th, 2022
    I commissioned Arts Studio after she contacted me in my Discord DMs asking for emergency medical aid. I paid her $90 ($120 CAD) for a full-body drawing.
    I was already commissioning an artist to do my main fursona, but I still wanted to help. I didn't have another OC on hand, so I asked her to turn a spare Roblox shark avatar I had into a character. I knew sharks generally have the same body type, followed by simple tattoo patterns. So, the request was to draw a generic grey shark body that wore the accessories and clothing of the avatar, which included a black tank top, shorts, and a red bag.



    Because I thought she was in a tight situation, I wanted to be less of a burden and reframed from giving her too many specifics so she could focus on styles and poses she was familiar with. 
    I learned shortly after that she was unfamiliar with shark furries, but she was willing to do it. I explained to her that they generally have the same body type, and I showed her a few examples from other artists so she could get some inspiration and an idea of what they are. 


    January 16, 2023
    She sent me the rough sketch and awaited approval. The PNG she sent was intentionally small, blurry, and watermarked, so I couldn't recognize anything wrong with it. I approved it. She then guilt-tripped me into paying another $41.46 ($58 CAD) for a background, as I thought she needed the financial help.



    January 20, 2023
    Arts Studio sent me a larger PNG, and I realized it was a traced copy of art by @notglacier (from Twitter). The art by @notglacier was one of the many examples I showed her, but I never told her to make a copy of it. It was to show her what shark bodies looked like in the fandom.

    I had already told her before that I just wanted the body type. At that time, I was still new to commissioning artists, and I assumed they had a code of conduct against copying. So, I didn't think I needed to tell her anything explicitly. I thought she knew selling copied art was shameful, and the final copy would be completely different. For now, I only gave her subtle hints:

    But then she ghosts me from that day until Feb 23rd.

    February 22, 2023 - February 27, 2023
    I tracked down her email and contacted her on Feb 22nd. She responded on the 23rd and agreed to finish it.

    On Feb 27th, she sent me the "completed" version, but it was the same one from Jan 20th, just bigger and without the watermark. You can see the traced resemblance to @notglacier's but mirrored. It had been clear she had not been working on it since she sent me the approval sketch. 
     

    overlay
    March 1, 2023
    I emailed her. I told her (very explicitly this time) that the point of those references told was to give her an idea of what shark body types look like and that I wanted her to implement it with my avatar. I asked if she could make a redo with a different pose and style so it isn't a copy. I didn't provide any further instructions after that because, again, I wanted her to have artistic freedom, and it had already been three months. The pose or style didn't matter as long as it wasn't copied. She agreed to make a redo.
     

    March 29, 2023
    Art Studio submits the redo. She created a random character with none of the attributes I explained from the start. I told her I thought she would draw the same Roblox character, just with a different pose and style. I had never asked for those clothes, glasses or four arms.  


    The quality was also bad, so I showed her an image of her previous work and asked why this one was so low. She acted clueless and ignored my questions. I expressed my frustration, telling her that I gave her $130 (CAD $178) for something I did not want and was not worth the quality. 

    I ask the same question again because she ignored it the first time. She ignored this one as well.

    This was the expected quality

    March 31, 2023 - April 3, 2023
    I start a new email thread. She abruptly sent me an unwatermarked version of the redo, but I told her I wanted to talk.

    Here, I'm desperately trying to get an answer as to why the quality is so poor, but she keeps ignoring the question.

    Here, she is being oblivious and asks me to repeat what I asked in the previous email because she had apparently forgotten. I do just that, and she tells me she "forgot" (again) and never gave me an answer to my question. She thanks me and leaves. But I wasn't done.

    I stopped holding back my feelings and lay out all the reasons why I was frustrated. She said she started a new job and won't do another redo unless I pay her.

    Then, I asked for a refund because the redo took no effort and was in no way worth $130. I only asked for 50% to be generous, but she declines.

    At this point, I knew I've been scammed, but I still wanted to know the questions I asked earlier, along with why she couldn't give me a refund. Again, she ignores.

    The takeaway is that she traced another artist's work and submitted art that didn't match her portfolio. It gives me reason to believe that the art she posts on Twitter doesn't belong to her.
     

    Masada
    Who: ObscuraSpark (Twitter)
    Where: https://twitter.com/ObscuraSpark?s=20
    When: 10/13/2020
    What: Commission



    I commissioned ObscuraSpark on October 13, 2020 for a NSFW nude color sketch of 2 characters, I paid the same day. On December 11, 2020, ObscuraSpark said they would start working on my commission The commission slipped my mind due to my own personal things happening, and I asked for an update on November 26, 2021 ObscuraSpark claimed to have forgotten, but agreed to do the commission a second time. I resent them all the commission information, with a change in character which they agreed to. ObscuraSpark left the commission information unread for 2 weeks, after which I contacted him with the request to reimburse me the money instead since I didn't feel confident in their professionalism anymore. This was December 9, 2021 ObscuraSpark answered the same day, telling me they would reimburse me when they could. I asked for an update on the reimursement on February 3, 2022. This message is still left unread as of today, March 23, 2023 Again it slipped my mind, due to my own life. I asked for another update on the reimubursement on March 14, 2023. This message has also been left unread as of today, March 23, 2023 At this point, I don't think I will ever see my money back again. Through this way, I hope to prevent other people experiencing the same issue with this artist in the future.





    Xyveon
    Who: Kittbites
    Where: https://kittbites.carrd.co/
    https://twitter.com/kittbites
    https://www.furaffinity.net/user/kittbites/
    https://www.patreon.com/kittbites
    When: 04/24/2022
    What: Fursuit/ Fursuit Parts



    In April 2022 I met Kittbites at a party at my college. She said she was open to doing my commission after she took care of some things. I commissioned her because she said she would be able to finish my suit in time for Megaplex 2022, in early August.

    I took a little while to think about it, and then confirmed that I wanted to buy from her on May 15th. Three days later the invoice was paid. The total price was a fursuit head for $800, handpaws for $200 and a tail for $200.

    (I should first mention that this post is going to be very long. Kitt strung me along for almost an entire year while holding onto over a thousand dollars, and after finding out she has an extensive history of scamming, I just managed to get under half of that back, as well as a barely finished product, under the threat of legal action.)
    At first things were fine. But within a couple of weeks Kitt's responses began to become more and more sparse. This would set the precedent for the rest of our interactions, and it only got worse from there.

    It should be noted that Kitt was up front about some personal issues that she was going through at the time, which I have tried as best I can to leave out of this post. The problem is that over time it became clear she was using these problems as an excuse to not work on my commission. I know this because I was later able to find other examples of her work that were completed around this time. I will do my best to leave these issues out of this post regardless.
    I was a little upset that she left for two whole weeks at this point, but she eventually got back to me with correspondence.

    The suit was progressing along pretty well at this point, and Kitt was still responding in a semi-timely manner. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before the fur was lost by Fedex. I'm fully aware this isn't Kitt's fault, and I'm including this to give her the benefit of the doubt that she could have gotten my suit finished by August. (Also I hate Fedex)

    Eventually August rolled around. It became clear Kitt probably wouldn't have the entire suit finished in time. I remained hopeful. On August 1st Kitt gave me this update. "I have most of the fur sewn." This implies that she barely did any work on the suit from this point onwards. Shortly after this Kitt had some stuff happen in her personal life, and wasn't able to finish ANY of the suit on time.

    A few days later, Kitt completely dissapeared. August 8th was the last I'd heard from her, and I didn't hear from her again until September 12th. Due to the rules of this website I am not allowed to disclose where she went, but suffice it to say that she left the internet for the time. She gave me no warning that this could or might happen, and when she came back she gave a half-hearted apology. At this point I was beginning to get suspicious of her, but I had no recourse in the event that she take my money and run, so I was forced to smile and feign forgiveness.
    Unfortunately she immediately left again for another two weeks. The upper texts of the first image here are from September 15th.

    Then another week.

    Kitt then showed some more progress with the suit, including a fully furred head, but she got sick immediately after. However, she promised she would be able to have the suit delivered by November. I won't provide the screenshot of this mainly because it almost exclusively consists of cities and events Kitt and I are local to. However, I can show that she ghosted me again throughout the month of November:

    Kitt then promised she would have the suit done by Christmas. After leaving for another 2 weeks, some more "stuff" happened. At this point I was fully convinced that she was making things up, and was about ready to confront her about her making me wait almost seven months at this point. It was 4 days before Christmas and she sent me a picture of the "finished" head. I honestly really didn't like it but at this point I just wanted to get it over with so I said it looked fine. I had a separate friend who edited fursuits and I was planning on just having them finish any changes I didn't like.

    Kitt then decided to cancel half the order, deciding to refund me less than the original $200 I paid for both the handpaws and tail. Christmas came and went without any kind of correspondence, and I finally put my foot down.

    On January 7th I brought up the prospect of legal action. Kitt did not address this in any way. Through some investigation I also discovered that she had a commission manager this entire time that she neglected to tell me about. I messaged them and they immediately got her to send the unfinished fursuit head. This was about the best outcome I could have hoped for and at this point I wanted this all to be over with so I didn't contest it. This was also the last straw, and I gave her a final deadline of March 15th, 2023 to BOTH send me the suit and give me a refund of 500 dollars that I could use to pay my other friend, who would finish the suit. 

    Kitt's manager responded much quickly, and was able to almost immediately get Kitt to send me what she had finished. The package arrived a few days later. Here was Kitt's finished product:

    This all but confirmed my suspicions that Kitt had barely even been working on my fursuit since August-November, and only found time to work on it with repeated pestering. Even at the time that I told her to stop and send me an unfinished version instead, she had over a month to continue from being "almost done." In any case, I now had her legal name and number on the shipping box, and was fully intending to report her in for what technically constituted as a felony. Kitt stopped texting me for almost an entire month before the deadline, but on March 13th, she finally got me my refund. I genuinely wasn't expecting her to.

    In conclusion, Kitt almost stole $1,200 from me, led me on for almost an entire year by taking advantage of my sympathy, and in the end somehow did the bare minimum in delivering an UNFINISHED product. It took the threat of police action to get her to do anything. Please for the love of god do not commission her. She has a history of this and I only happened to be lucky enough to be local to her and able to contact local authorities. In addition, she has dropped her commission manager and there is now no way of contacting her in a way that will get a reliable response back. Good night.

    Logan
    Who: Red_Avenier, RedTsuyoku
    Where: https://twitter.com/RedTsuyoku
    When: 09/11/2022
    What: Commission



    September 11, 2022
    I reached out to the artist inquiring about a commission to be done by the end of September (biceptember theme). We eventually agreed to a 2 character, shaded, full body commission for $105. 


     
    September 12-14
    At the time, I was working nights so spent most of the daytime sleeping but noticed that the artist started to become pushy for the details. I ended up getting the details to them on the morning of Sep 14 after work. I noticed the price was increased to $120 but let it go thinking maybe the descriptions made it more intricate. I sent in the payment at this time and they confirmed receipt. 





    At this point I let the artist be to focus on their work. 
     
    September 30, 2022
    I reached out to the artist to inquire about the status of the commission as September was almost over. I got no reply until October 18 and was taken aback that they apparently didn't realize I had a commission with them. I corrected them that I had already paid, and noted this as a major red flag, especially the note about needing money. 


    December 18, 2022
    I reached out again, growing frustrated that this artist was making no effort to update me on status. 

    I received additional excuses. While I am lenient on extenuating circumstances, the artist never took the initiative to notify me. It was always me reaching out because of long periods of silence. 
     
    January 26, 2023
    The straw that broke the camel's back was when I saw the artist open slots for YCH, which they apparently filled out. I immediately messaged them, wondering what was going on with my commission. 
     


    At this point I was alerted to this artist being a scammer from mutuals and fellow commissioners and I immediately requested a refund. 
     
    February 4, 2023
    Receiving no reply, I issued my ultimatum. Unfortunately, at this point I realized I sent the money on PayPal using thr "friends and family" feature on accident, rendering unable to charge back. 
    It is now March 12 and I have gotten zero replies back. The artist posts occasionally on their Twitter, completely ignoring my DMs. I may have to chalk this up to a loss of the almost $130 total. 
    Again, I am very lenient when it comes to extenuating circumstances but I expect the artist to keep me updated. This is a business transaction, and one that has already been paid. I have had other artists in similar situations and they kept me up to date and even issued full refunds when they couldn't finish the piece. In this case I have not received even a WIP, and only excuses. 
    I urge any potential commissioners to avoid this artist. 

     
     

    Assortedark74
    Who: Kilwin, Kilwinz, Kilwin2459, bluemarshh
    Where: https://twitter.com/kilwinz/media
    https://www.furaffinity.net/user/kilwin/
    https://ko-fi.com/kilwin/commissions
    https://www.etsy.com/shop/Kilwinz
    When: 06/07/2022
    What: Commission



    I originally commissioned Kilwin for a Kigurumi last year and they have since finished the commission but have ghosted me after talking about shipping, and haven't shipped it or given me a refund still they also deleted their Etsy post which is where i originally found them to commission them.
     






    Update from 3/23: Kilwin was contacted one last time.


    James

    Beware: Kancler_Vell

    By James, in Artist Bewares,

    Who: Kancler_Vell
    Where: https://twitter.com/Kancler_Vell
    https://www.instagram.com/kancler_vell/
    https://www.deviantart.com/kanclervell
    https://www.deviantart.com/kanclervell
    When: 02/25/2022
    What: Commission

    Resolved
    On Feb 25, 2022 I responded to a now deleted commission ad put out by Kancler_vell, and paid $70 USD for a colored headshot.  Their email has been left uncensored as it's publicly listed.



     
    On Feb 27th they asked for my email to keep in touch when Russia invaded Ukraine.  That was the last I heard from this artist.  I have sent follow up messages and received no reply.

     
    Message sent on Instagram:

    Email attempts:


     
    I've learned from a Russian artist that Kancler_Vell is ok, but is only active on the Russian social media site, VK, on what might be a private profile.  So, I sent one last attempt at reaching out.

    Edit March 15, 2023: after sending an email to this artist with links to this post, she has gotten in contact with me to figure out our next steps.
     
    Edit 2:  Kancler has sent me a refund!

    CrimsonVexations
    Who: versera, ahazai, blackravenva
    Where: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/versera/
    https://www.furaffinity.net/user/ahazai
    https://www.furaffinity.net/user/blackravenva
    When: 10/29/2022
    What: Commission

    Resolved
    Proof of transaction/ original agreement:





    Backstory:
    10/29/2022
    Versera had posted a journal with links to their still open multiple slot ych commissions, I really liked the heart glitch ych and decided to comment to get one of my fursona Nyx. They responded to my comment and then dm'd me and I paid promptly.
    01/22/2023
    It had been a while since I had seen them post anything so I decided to check their page and noticed they hadn't posted any artwork since December 22nd and they had cleared the shouts on their page. Their public journal with their queue size had also grown significantly vs the amount of artwork they had produced so I decided to note them and ask them with my worries and ask what the status on my commission would be.
     

     
    02/02/2023
    My note had remained unread so I decided to leave a public shout hoping it'd catch their attention asking them to please respond to my note.




    After I wrote the first shout I was looking at their page and saw that they had two other accounts of theirs listed in their bio. (A NSFW account and an Adopt account) I decided to check them to see when they had last been active. They had been active posting multiple NSFW YCH's on their NSFW account as recently as four hours before my initial shout on their SFW account and had been posting YCH's on their adopt account three days before. This NSFW also had a journal with a separate queue from the one on their SFW account showing that their queue was a lot larger than I thought.



     
    I decided to leave a shout on the two other accounts asking them if they could read my note that I sent them on their main account.

    02/04/2023

    I checked their page again and noticed that on their NSFW account another user was posting in their shouts asking where their artwork was as they had been waiting for over a year. This raised alarm bells so I wrote them a shout stating that I was going to give them two weeks to do my artwork or refund me or I would be writing a Beware.

     
     
    02/09/2023
    They messaged me from their NSFW account stating that they were sorry for the long answer, and that they were in another country temporarily and very sick but they had their laptop and tablet so they could do my artwork if they felt better in the next few days. I responded that I was looking forward to hearing from them and waited. They had nuked their shouts on all of their accounts.

     
    02/13/2023 - 02/17/2023
    They uploaded three YCH pieces on their nsfw account and two brand new YCH's.
    On their sfw account they uploaded a piece of personal artwork and one YCH commission on the 15th.
     
    02/25/2025
    It had been over two weeks so I noted them again and this note has went unanswered since.

     
    I honestly don't feel like I'm going to get my artwork anytime soon if at all. The payment was through Boosty and I'm not sure if you can charge back a payment through Boosty through Paypal. I don't want to attempt it and get banned from the platform as I have a lot of Russian artist's that I want to commission. I'm just glad the payment was only 25 dollars.


    Solik

    Beware: Lewdtime

    By Solik, in Artist Cautions,

    Who: Lewdtime, Lewdtim_e, Lwtime, lazy-time, lazytim_e
    Where: https://twitter.com/Lewdtim_e
    https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/12418876
    https://lewdtime.fanbox.cc/
    https://twitter.com/lazytim_e
    When: 04/02/2022
    What: Commission
    NSFW Content

    I pledged to Lewdtime from April to June of 2022 on Fanbox. I was subscribed to their $45 tier for those three which guaranteed a colored sketch commission. Here are the receipts for those three months.


    After pledging to the tier, I had Dm’ed them on discord about the details for the first sketch. A month went by and I asked for an update. 
     


    soon after I realized that I had continued staying pledged for a couple more months. It wasn’t intentional but I didn’t mind because I figured the commission would come pretty quickly since I had already gotten the sketch for the first commission. I asked if it was alright to send the ideas for the other two commissions which at first got no reply until a few days later when I checked again.

     
    I omitted the post on June 12th as it was simply my post about the details of the commission. But this was not replied to by Lewdtime after I posted the details.
     This last screenshot is the several months of update requests in which I attempted to make contact with them. I also tried contacting them on Twitter since they are mostly active on there. I also received no replies. At this point I had asked for a refund on Twitter and discord which had received no replies.

    Today I was able to get in contact with them, but I believe it was only due to the fact that I told them that if I received no reply that I would make a post on Twitter warning users to not commission them. They quickly replied and I was able to receive a full refund. Of course I am still posting this here because I have already seen one other post on this site with the same situation as mine. I do not have the messages from today anymore as I blocked them on every site after confirming the refund, but it was simply them requesting my PayPal address to refund the money to and then confirming that I received it. So please beware of this artist especially if you try the fanbox tier pledges since you cannot force a refund as easily as your typical direct PayPal transaction.


    MagiPuvia
    Who: @uswithoutwings (Twitter), uswithoutwings (Deviantart), Uswithoutwings #3790 (Discord)
    Where: https://twitter.com/uswithoutwings
    https://www.deviantart.com/uswithoutwings
    When: 01/25/2022
    What: Commission



    Chronology below. Time stamped in Discord and Deviantart Chat is GMT+7.
    - The artist contacted me through Deviantart Chat on 24/01/22, offering commission service. We agreed to continue the conversation through Discord DM.
    - The artist and I discussed the details of the commission through Discord DM on 25/01/22. I agreed to commission a Low-grade Pin Up commission and paid for the commission through Patreon on 25/01/22. Artist confirmed that payment had been accepted on 25/01/22.
    - I contacted the artist on 01/03/22 to ask for update on the commission. The artist replied on 02/03/22, citing delay due to bereavement.
    - I contacted the artist on 08/05/22 to ask for update on the commission. The artist replied on the same day, citing delay due to real-life issues.
    - I contacted the artist on 12/07/22 to ask for update on the commission. The artist replied on 16/07/22, claiming that they had a WIP of the commission ready. I requested the WIP as proof of progress, but WIP was not provided.
    - I contacted the artist on 25/08/22 to ask for update on the commission. The artist replied on the same day, citing delay due to health issues.
    - I contacted the artist on 24/10/22 to ask for update on the commission and possibility of refund due to lack of communication initiated by the artist. The artist replied on the same day with a long, unclear response. I reiterated my firm request for updates and consistent communication from their end in regards for any delays.
    - The artist provided the WIP of the character I commissioned on 26/10/22 and I confirmed on the same day that the WIP had been accepted and I was satisfied with the progress.
    - I contacted the artist on 12/11/22, 17/12/22, 27/12/22, 04/01/23, and 22/01/23. As of 10/02/23, the artist has yet to respond since their last correspondence on 26/10/22.

































    Truun
    Who: trinkety, peterpurplefrog
    Where: https://twitter.com/Trinketyz
    https://www.facebook.com/Trinketty/
    https://trinkety.bigcartel.com/
    https://www.instagram.com/trinkety/
    https://www.patreon.com/trinkety
    https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Trinkety
    When: 01/03/2022
    What: Commission



    This is a beware that involves somebody that was once a friend of mine. For that reason, this is quite a tough one for me to write. I have tried to limit the amount of personal information to what is required for anyone to be able to follow this beware.



    It all started over a year ago. The artist posted in a discord server that she had an unexpected bill for her new house. As a friend, I wanted to help her out, so I originally offered to let her borrow some of my money for free. She raised the idea of a commision instead. The screencap below is my response in PM to the post she made on the discord server.

     
    After this reply we had some chit-chat about trading cards that I have not included here. Afterwards, I asked what she could do for 250 pounds. Besides a plushie that was currently not a good option, she could do at least two “standard colour pictures”.  What I knew of this type of artwork is that they were of just the character's face. 
    She asked for screenshots of one of the characters, Truun, which I provided a while later. After that I asked her where I should send the money to. It was recommended to use paypal with friends and family. She also mentioned that normally she only asks people to send the money after the work is completed. However, given she had this emergency bill, I decided to pay right away. After mentioning the paypal that sent the money, she confirmed the payment.







    At the end of all this, the strongest I would say that we agreed to here is 250 pounds for 2 and a half standard color images. These are the type where I knew they were just the face.


    A few months went by without any progress. Besides the regular chatter, occasionally we would be in a group voice chat in a WoW guild discord with multiple people casually talking about all sorts of things. During those she would often on the side mention how she was sorry that she still had not started yet with the art and would start soon (which she then never would).
    After one group voice chat I started having my doubts about the “2 and a half image” agreement when she would mention that she would start on my 'one' character soon. So I asked for clarity on that after the voice chat. She ‘confirmed’ that it was indeed just one character. I agreed to that, under the assumption that it would then not be a standard color image given those were 100 pounds each. If we look here at a learning moment, I should have pushed at that moment for more clarity. Though I found it difficult to do with her being a friend. However, I do also believe that the artist has to do their part in asking questions and being clear when there appears to be doubts.



    Many months went by. During that time we still had our usual conversations and she would continue to occasionally mention how she felt bad that she had still not started yet.
    At one point I sent her a message to ask her to double check with me before she gets started. This commission was for a roleplaying character and a lot of character development had taken place between the first transaction and then. This would affect the work. I did not get a response to this one.



    Around two weeks after this message our friendship reached a breaking point. This was not due to the art commision itself, but a long buildup caused by painful interactions over time. I decided the best thing to do was to take distance from her and also leave the WoW guild discord she was part of. A lot can be written about how this friendship broke down, but I prefer to keep this private. Around three weeks later I decided to ask for a full refund for the commision. It had been over a year where no progress was shown. I decided to present the situation to two artists first before requesting the refund and they both mentioned that this would be fair. I hoped that after a whole year of having the money for free and having no progress, and me having done this to help her as a friend, she would understand and would have agreed to the full refund so that we could both leave this commision and everything attached to it behind us peacefully. At this point, I was not convinced this commission would ever still be finished and even if it would, I felt the work would only remind of the painful experiences that I tried to leave behind. I would not be able to seperate the art from how it came to be.


    She was not willing to offer the full refund even though it had been over a year. The reasoning being that she had started working on the commission since the moment I took distance. However, between me notifying her that I was taking distance and requesting the refund, there had been no contact from her what so ever. Also from what you can see from a previous image, I asked her to double check with me before she would start.



    I was not willing to accept this. I was also very skeptical whether she had actually already started at this point when she mentioned she could only show me progress the day after. After some pushing, and with a bit of time passing, she actually managed to show me the sketch that represented the progress she had made so far. I was skeptical about whether this sketch had not been done during the time I asked for the refund and when she posted it. She tried to convince me that was not the case and then went on to ask about details for the sketch itself. She also mentioned that I have had information along the way, but this has been mostly limited to the voice chats I mentioned earlier where she would apologize for it still not being done. There was never any progress shared or any questions asked regarding how the art should be.



    So she showed me a sketch of just the face of the character. As this seemed to be heading towards being one of those standard images that I originally would get 2 and a half of, I asked if it would indeed be just the face.
    I got the answer back that this was indeed the case. At this point out of good will she was willing to do a sketch of another one of my characters.

     
    As you can see above, she mentions that I agreed on this single image in voice chat. Though I asked her after the voice chat for clarity about how many characters were going to be done, and I did agree to just one (see an earlier image) , I never agreed to it being just the face. 
    I offered besides the full refund that she could refund me 150 pounds and just finish the one image as a way to accomodate.
    She refused both offers and pointed at what her regular commisions are, which are indeed only faces, but these are the "standard color images" that I would originally get 2 and a half for. In the same response she grudgingly offered to do a full body instead for the full amount.



    At this point, I took some time to think about what to do next. At this point, I would not be able to separate the art from how it was produced and looking at it would mostly just give me painful memories to this exchange and all the things that ultimately made it better for me to take distance from her. A few days later I made the final offer. I would give her 50 pounds for the work she had already done (the sketch), without asking anything in return for it. She would be allowed to pay back the 200 pounds in installments of 50 pounds per month.
    She also refused this offer and this is where I have left it at.


    While this beware was pending, she came back to me to offer me 125 pounds without offering any art with the argument that it is 'common to do 50/50 with these large commissions'. However, this would still not be fair. We never agreed to this split up front and all the way at the start, she even mentioned that she commonly let people pay afterwards (see an earlier screen cap). So this is a pretty weak argument. A standard color image is 100 pounds, all the progress she has is the sketch of the same size. This would mean she is letting me pay 25 pounds more for less (or actually none as I won’t get any work for it).



    Ideally, I would have preferred not to have had to make this beware. I had hoped that after all this time she would have agreed to the full refund and we could have both left this peacefully behind us. Even after she refused that offer, I tried to accomdate in multiple ways. I feel my offers have been more than fair. At this point, I will only still accept the 200 pounds refund.

    This was the first art commission I ever tried and it has been the only one so far. It feels as if my friendship has been taken advantage of. Though this has been a rather painful experience that makes me somewhat hesistant to commission art in the future, I have learned two important things. One is that I should have pushed for a very strict written agreement even though we were friends. Another is to never do these types of transactions using “friends and family” for paypal.

    I hope with now having written this all down I can start leaving this behind me and have been able to warn others and perhaps tell a cautionary tale.

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