Beware: Vani

Jun. 3rd, 2012 at 1:50 AM
OH MY HEAD
nanook123
WHO: Vani/Vanimute/Vanillakitsune/ stripesandteeth

WHERE: VanillaKitsune.deviantart.com (now deactivated)
also
Vanimute@DA
Vani@FA
Stripesandteeth@Tumblr

WHAT: One Traditional Badge costing 45$ (Paid $46 to cover paypal's fee as a courtesy) and a Full Body Digital Badge Trade, my half was completed for AC 2010

WHEN: June 16th 2010 for the Badge Trade, June 22nd 2010 for the Paid Badge. She had been known for drama in the past, but I thought she'd gotten her act together. I guess I was wrong. I don't pressure folks to turn the art over, but I waited a year before I contacted her the first time, and that was because she made a Journal on FA updating everyone that had commissioned her of their place in line. http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1953643/

PROOF: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/nanook123/badgecommission.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/nanook123/badgeconvo.jpg

EXPLAIN: Well, 2 years ago, I commissioned a couple of icons from Vani and she turned them around pretty quickly. Soon thereafter we agreed to a trade, in time for AC 2010. I performed my part of the trade as outlined in my evidence image entitled "badge convo". The link to my part is here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4020610/ In her reply she mentions finishing my part before she leaves for AC that year. I was simply happy to get a piece from an artist who's art I admired. Then she made a post on June 21st 2010 http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1494591/ for a round of badges before AC. I noted her as referenced in my proof called "Badge Commission". I sent payment of 46$ and set to waiting patiently like everyone else.

As an artist myself I don't make a habit of pushing another artist for work. I like everyone else had just kept quiet, even as Vani made post after post fretting about not having enough money to live on. I waited even as she took on more commissions from others. Even as she went from Con to con, making money off of other people, producing art and posting it on her blog, on her art sites and twitter. I clammed up afraid to speak up. I didn't want her legion of fans to come and get me. I didn't want to create drama. Like others who have posted here, I'm tired of that. It's not about the money now. That money is thrown away, it's gone. It's about the principal. 

Well, in March I decided to speak up. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/nanook123/emailcheckin.jpg I emailed her to ask for a status. To this day I haven't gotten an email back. Part of me never really expected to. If she had any intention of doing the work, she would have shown at least a sketch or something by now. 

Finally I got fed up this week and made an inquiry to her on her Tumblr Page. To my surprise she replied with the attached... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/nanook123/tumblrmessage.jpg Her reply left me a little stunned. I mean, she literally has no intention of finishing any of the work she took from those on FA. I can tell it just by the way she's speaking. Just based on the badge commissions she took, basing them at about 40$ a piece, she made close to 800$ off of us. So after reading her reply, I sent her another message outlined below:

"I appreciate the reply, and sadly I fully expected the answer I got. I'm very disappointed. I know you're a college student with a lot on your plate, but your commission list is 8 miles long. You made a commitment to all those people that you would draw them something if they gave you money. You made a commitment to those who drew for you in exchange for a piece back. 

You haven't even so much as done a sketch, but you're so happy to fill your blog with drawings daily. Instead of doing that you could do a commission a day until you're caught up. You know...if you'd just given me a sketch of the things you owed me, I would have been more than happy to call my debt paid and colored the dang things myself. You didn't even try. 

I don't think it's fair for you to say that you're going to a con to earn money to live on when you've already lived on the money that you got from every single person on your commission list. You've already spent that money and even if every single one of them demanded their money back, there's no way they'd ever get it. Your answer to me is a cop out. You're more than willing to draw at a con or doodle on your blog, but for people on the internet you're just leaving them on the back burner with no idea when you'll actually get to it. 

I'm very sorry you're in whatever situation you're in at school/home, but you made commitments to ALL of the people you took money from. So I guess consider the art I gave you a gift and consider the money I gave you a donation. I still really enjoy your art, but it isn't worth continuing to wait and hope for anymore.

Best of luck to you,

Trish"

So the purpose of my post here is to help others be warned before commissioning her online or at a con. Her art is pretty, well done and balanced. I really enjoy the style, but it's not worth the headache. 2 years have gone by. I don't think I'll ever see the pieces I commissioned from her. I don't want the money back. I want what I paid for. Even if she did it now, it would feel forced. I don't trust her to do what she says she'll do and neither should anyone else. So, Please, don't mark it resolved, because short of a public apology to everyone she owes stuff to, there isn't much else she can do for me. Please mark it as warning. She owes 54 people plus 5 trades. I somehow doubt she'll ever do it. Even if each of these commissions was a single character at $40 that's over 2000$ she's made off of a community that trusted she had changed. I don't want anyone else to make that mistake.