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Artists Beware
The namesake database. Submissions are categorized by "Bewares" and "Cautions".
On august 2019 i commission kitamonplush for two plush on her facebook page and payment was sent via paypal and i not ask for update because of covid happen in 2020 and i ask for 0ne on 5/30/20 she did give me a update the next time i ask for a update it was 2/25/21 she give me the some update it almost does. at the point i now some was wrong . so i look some of her other accounts now like her etsy page you can tell she make plush for her store and some people neve get it too the two plush was for my brother he die from covid i was did i get scam so i talk to her about it and we change the plush the next time i ask for it was 1/26/22 still no update and still not have be read so i make a new account and send her a message she did read it say have be read so i have mark it and now i have be block on my account bye her so i cant message her
Short Version/Timeline:
I ordered two chibi headshot sketches from Funbelle (now Sorbuns) on Toyhou.se. It has now been over a year since my original order and I have not received any work from them. They appear to have abandoned all socials.
Ordered placed and confirmed on 3/10/21.
Asked for update on 3/27/21
Received response 3/28/21 that they would work on the commissions soon
Asked for another update on 4/13/21
Received response 4/14/21 that said they hadn't gotten to mine yet, but they had completed one and offered to send it to me.
Responded to that message on 4/14/21 -- Message unread as of 3/25/22
Asked for refund 2/21/22 -- Message unread as of 3/25/22
The most recent update regarding commissions is a Toyhou.se bulletin posted 5/27/21
My order does not appear on their public commission queue anywhere, even though the last update was on 5/30/21 (over a month after first my unread message)
Most recent update/activity I can find is art posted on their Facebook 6/16/21.
Some time between 2/21/22 and 3/25/22 they deleted all content off of their user profile on Toyhou.se, including their links to DeviantArt and Twitter which were both completely blank at the time I was checking 2/21/22.
All screenshots are taken 3/25/22--Not all have dates visible on the posts due to Toyhou.se using the amount of time that's passed rather than exact dates. I have also censored out the username of someone not directly involved in the transaction.
Comment/Conversation in Thread 3/10/21:
Proof they accepted the commission and received the payment:
Paypal Invoice:
Text of both March and April updates (reads in reverse chronological order)
First Unread Message:
Proof of unread status from Toyhou.se Outbox
Second Unread Message:
Proof of unread status from Toyhou.se Outbox
Most recent public updates for Commissioners 5/27/21:
Public Comm Queue: Latest update 5/30/21
Latest activity on Facebook:
Final contact attempts:
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Original Agreement + Proof:
I was contacted by Mechogama through my FA notes on Oct. 11, 2021 with an offer to draw two individual pieces of my horse sona for a total price of $300, fully colored with background. After a cursory investigation there was an art trail showing that despite the out-of-the-blue solicitation the artist did have a track record of delivering and agreed to the proposition and we exchanged Discord contacts.
Fig 1.0: Initial message over Furaffinity
Fig. 2.0: Initial Discord message to establish continuity of account “HACKED” being Cleam/Mechogama the name had been CLEAM as of initial conversation but latter events lead to a name change and new account.
After establishing that we were who we said we were we got down to brass tax. My quote for the work would be:
2 Pieces @ $150 ea.
- Fully Colored
- Background Included
- Multi-Character with central focus on my horse
Fig. 2.1: Reiteration of agreement, addition of update schedule and providing an EOD sketch.
Fig. 2.2: Transactional Proof
Things proceed apace in payment but the end of day sketch and the 2 day update schedule do not come.
Fig. 3.0: Sudden request for more money under false pretenses
A request for $50 instead arrives in confusing format with me initially mistaking it as an attempt to be upcharged. No work has been completed thus far and I let the artist know my qualms with the sudden request.
It has been about a week and a half since our initial conversation and I approach Mechogama about our agreement.
Fig 4.0: CLEAM as shown in cap is original avatar and name of account as can be seen in Fig. 2.1. I am told that I will receive an update when he returns home.
While I do not receive said sketch at the end of the day, I do receive initial sketches 4 days afterward.
Fig. 4.1: Initial sketches arrive
By this point I believe the artist is just pre-occupied and am willing to acquiesce to the slight delays. I do not hear from Mechogama again until Nov. 11 2021.
Fig. 4.2: Mechogama let’s me know that he is still aware of my commission.
Fig. 4.3: Mechogama contacts me again about alleged technical issues with his computer and a timeline for repair + compensation for the trouble.
We would discuss some specifics of the commission again on 12/04/2021 and I would hear from him one last time on 12/25/2021 before radio silence on that account.
Fig. 4.4: Offer for more pictures, details on an after-pic, no agreement on paying for after-images but semi-regular communication seemed apparent.
Fig 4.5: Last message received from the original CLEAM account before allegations of being hacked would appear nearly a month later in Mechogama’s first Discord chat: “The Dirty Paw”.
Fig. 5.0: Mechogama alerts his server that his account has been hacked. It has been one month since I have heard from him. The details of the hack are slightly suspicious but seems to be standard Discord phishing. The account in question was never deleted but the alleged hacker had since deleted their's.
Fig. 5.1: Supporting evidence of the hack, names have been removed aside from mine for the server-wide alert. Server effectively dies.
By this point I had not been aware of the hack as I had been busy with my courses, however after another month I would contact Mechogama through FA after having seen no attempt to get back in touch with commissioners or announcement from any other source of information. I had discovered that this alleged hack occurred while trying to get a hold of Mechogama about my commission.
Fig. 5.2: I messaged Mechogama on FA and he promptly responded to me. This is the first time I’ve spoken with him since Dec. 25, 2021.
I join the Discord to find it hosting some people but far less lively than before, there is evidence of some activity and posts. This allows me access to Mechogama’s new iteration of CLEAM to continue trying to find a resolution to this commission issue.
Fig. 5.3: My attempt over the last half a month to get information and this apparent ‘update’ on my commission. I had messaged CLEAM at various hours to get his attention, and it is obvious that he had been avoiding responding.
At this point I had decided that this commission was never going to see the light of day and that I wanted a refund. Due to Mechogama refusing to answer my DM directly, even while online in “League of Legends” as his account status showed, I posted an @CLEAM into his new Discord: “Furry4Ever” to get his attention, the contents including the information on his avoidance of me. He promptly deleted the message in the public Discord and finally responded to me in DM.
Fig. 5.4: After my notice in his Discord server, Cleam/Mechogama finally deigns it appropriate to respond to me and promptly removes me from his Discord group.
Finally, after months of silence, I am granted my audience and he agrees to refund me. As of the time of this Artist Beware I am awaiting confirmation from Paypal that my refund has been processed, however I am not convinced that it will not be forced into claim status. Mechogama immediately went back to play League of Legends after the outburst at the end and no update on my refund through Paypal has been shown nor has he responded to my question regarding if he has even seen the refund request.
Fig. 5.5: Outlandish response to request for refund, I inform Mechogama that the refund request has been sent and receive no indication from him that he has even so much as looked at it.
Mechogama has been an unreliable and unprofessional artist at best, and outright attempting to con a client at worse. Reasonable attempts to rectify a situation and patience shown considering circumstance were disregarded and the attitude towards myself as a client and commissioner was dismissive. If you are expecting regular communique, timely updates, or for the original agreements of your commission terms to be met you should look elsewhere.
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Original Agreement:
Sam agreed to compose an original musical composition for use in my streams on November 7th, 2021.
Proof of Payment (and Paypal Resolution):
Correspondance:
During the initial agreement, he directly stated that he would be providing WIP pieces of it "as I go" but not once delivered.
On Nov 21, he reached out, stating he would have a draft ready in a couple days, but nothing came of it.
This was the beginning of a pattern.
Over a month went by without receiving the promised Draft, and I reached out to Sam again on December 27 asking for updates. He got back to me on Jan 2 stating there had been some issues with his health and he had taken on too many commissions. I replied that it was okay as long as he communicated with me. He still hadn't sent the initial draft promised on Nov 21, but he promised he'd send it "once I get home."
This draft did not arrive either.
I reached out again, a month later, on Feb 2 to ask for updates. According to him, it was now "basically done" despite no received drafts. At this point I just wanted to hear something, anything.
Ten days later, I again asked for an update since I was debuting a new related project and I wanted to get a listen to it to see if it was in a good state. As he had said it was "basically done." I figured this wouldn't be an issue. Sam did not respond. It was also around this point when he disabled read receipts on messages, as prior communications could be noted as Seen but now all were reflecting "Sent."
I then gave him until March 7th, which was exactly four months since payment was made before reaching out for a final time and requesting either proof of work or a refund within 48 hours.
Sam did not reply and on March 9th, I submitted a case to Paypal and received a refund instantly via purchase protection.
Timeline of Events:
11/5/21 - Initial contact for commissioned work.
11/7/21 - Artist Acceptance of commission and payment of $20 price plus $30 tip completed. Artist notes that he will “send bits and pieces of the product as [he] goes.”
11/10/21 - User gives go-ahead to use existing artist samples and accepts limitations of workflow.
11/21/21 - First promise of a WiP “within a couple days.”
12/27/21 - First update request due to failure to deliver promised WiP.
01/2/22 - Artist response and second promise of WiP “once I get home.”
2/2/22 - Second update request due to failure to deliver promised WiP.
2/2/22 - Artist response: “It’s basically done.” Please note that no WiP has yet been received despite promises to the contrary.
2/12/22 - Third update request due to failure to deliver promised WiP. Additional request for preview to utilize for upcoming event for the user as “it’s basically done.”
3/7/22 - Final update request with demand of either promised work or a refund within 48 hours.
3/9/22 - No Response. Refund requested through Paypal Resolution Center.
I had initially been introduced to Sam via a friend of a friend who said he had fallen on some hard times and was taking commissions for help. I understand things are rough for everyone, and I understand the pitfalls many artists end up in when taking on too much work, but it's unethical to promise something and not deliver it. As stated to Sam, I was more than happy to work with someone struggling or having issues (as I have in the past) and even wait upwards of a year for a commission as long as I can see proof that it's being worked on. Even if that work in miniscule over time, just give me something. But don't promise WiPs multiple times and not send a single thing. Don't ghost me for 30+ days at a time after each promise.
I know of at least one other commissioner of Sam's that has also had to deal with this from him, but I will allow them to document their own experiences or leave comments here on their own.
Full Communication Log including Irrelevant Conversations:
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So, about more than a year ago, I found this one 3D artist who goes by the name BlueBerry,
It was through this one post that I saw he was making a model of the character “Waltt”
and thought it was pretty cool, asked him if the model was functional, to which he said yes, thus getting my interest for a comm, I went ahead and DMed him asking for the prices, 50 for the model + 50 for the base, we agreed with a commission of two models for 200, with all and bases, I did this because I also wanted to get priority into the queue, but that was a horrible mistake.
After payment was made, he said he would start with a 2D reference before going for the actual model, but after a while of getting ghosted it turns out that the guy had a personal problem of which he didn’t talk about and that he was going to deactivate his Twitter, I uselessly attempted to cheer him, but to no avail.
I asked him for a refund, but there was no answer whatsoever.
Nevertheless, after some time passed (about a month or so) he recovered from his issue and said he was all ready to work again, giving me the 2D ref at the very last, it looked good enough.
After some time more he worked on the face/head and sent me the WIPs, all good, just needed to explain him that the character owner was ok with having models of his OC.
He also requested to post the work of the model, I said it was good, the WIPs were published after a while as some work went on private.
Time went by and he showed me the body, everything seemed to be going well, though the conversation was cut short after one point, he began publishing the updates in public without contacting me, but this was just good enough for me.
He even went as far as posting an animated video with my model.
After a while I decided to change accs to make a small project, the two models he was working on would be involved in it alongside some art I had planned, but oh oh.
The guy had another mental breakdown for another problem he had, and again I uselessly tried to get his self-esteem up, he claimed that he didn’t want to model anymore, but that he would give me a refund, and even though I claimed multiple times that I rather have the base, they ghosted me for several days, no refund nor model, just silence.
After almost losing my patience the guy finally answered, just saying “sorry” this was enough to get me back to my calm self as he had finally answered.
He then said that his PC was broken and that he couldn’t model, but he got a new one after a while.
Everything went normal for a while, and I received a couple more updates (the last ones I ever got).
But after some time without receiving anything relevant, I checked on his profile and saw that he was making a free art thing alongside some WIPs of other (free) models, this made me realize that he didn't really wanted to work on my comm and was leaving it for whenever he felt like it, so I finally asked him for his email as I wanted a refund and my hype for the model was gone, it was about to be a year since I paid for it.
He said he didn’t have the funds, he had already spent them.
I got ghosted for several other days as I tried contacting him, only to get ghosted, this went on for a while until the guy opened commissions claiming that he would refund me with them and that my models "brought him problems", when asked why, he didn't gave any context.
But, as it is obvious, I haven’t gotten a single penny back.
Any other attempt of contact was ignored, I even tried DMing his BF and some of his friends, only to get ignored, too. Most likely they were told by the guy not to answer me.
And whether I get my funds back or not, my experience with this artist has been utterly horrifying and I wouldn’t advise on giving money on his way. More than a year for a model is just WAY too much, specially if the commission didn't even got finished and you got ghosted for several days/weeks, let alone having your funds stolen.
Also, people, do not commit the same mistake as me and don’t give your money away so easily, nor let time pass by, if you’re getting ghosted and the deadline for a refund is getting close you should REALLY set on your red flags and take action on it, stay safe.
Mod note: Sent to us March 16th
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In April 2020 i won one part of a collaboration commission between Theodrekr and Tierhund. The original description can be found here :
I requested updates via e-mail and sent the needed details in the note below. No updates were provided by e-mail so so everything still happened via notes or journals.
I also paid for the commission on paypal:
Due to medical and live circumstances commissions got delayed more than once. with updates to what commissions are up next in journals like this one:
after some more time the collab was sent to his partner:
Journal update 4 (note: my collab commission is not even mentioned here)
After almost a year of wait and still no concrete progress information i started asking for updates in different places.
Shout on Theodrekr's page:
A note to Theodrekr asking for an update back in august 2021 mainly because it made replying easy for him without having to search an old note.
Shortly after that i also sent a note to Tierhund ( since he is the collab partner) for an update on it:
which got a reply later:
I also put up a comment on the original commission listing:
And got two Notes from Theodrekr regarding the state of the commission:
____
To summarize that: Partner lost the file. and they had to figure out how to solve that.
After that exchange there was another update via journal which contained no further information on the state of the commission:
Since more time without an update passed i decided to write another note to Theodrekr asking for an update and a solution for how he intends to get the commission done with following content:
which is still unread as of writing this.
the last thing i did to try and resolve this issue is to contact Tierhund asking for an update:
as well as provided another note for an easy reply:
Please keep in mind that the first reply from Tierhund took months and only came in after Theodrekr spoke with him so i don't expect to get an answer on that one anytime soon.
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For privacy concerns, I have censored my username on these images.
Around October/November 2021, I had discovered Mayo1nomor1 while browsing for some artwork & had decided to message them on furAffinity first to ask if they were open for commissions. They said yes, and we agreed to move it to Discord afterwards.
Unfortunately, I no longer have proof of this as I have since then deleted the PMs from fA, but I had asked the artist on furAffinity how long they generally took to finish artwork. They replied saying no more than 8 days. (This will be important later)
I sent them my commission details for what I wanted—two flat-colored pin-ups of an OC of mine, of which I paid $100 in total. 1st pic was a thigh-up pin-up, and second pic was a bust-up pin-up.
Commission details were sent on 11/09/2021, and on that same day I paid for the commission—the artist later got back to me hours later with WIP sketches of the first pin-up, of which we were discussing what to change on it and whatnot.
The 1st pin-up was essentially finished on 11/10/2021, one day after I had paid for it—though it was finished, there were some slight coloring errors I noticed that I told them about on the same day the pin-up was sent and finished.
One of said errors was fixed in a new version that was sent on 11/13/2021, however I had noticed the other error was still unfixed so I let them know about it and provided them with a custom edit I made to demonstrate what & how exactly it should be fixed. Nothing unusual here.
This is where it begins...
Admittedly, I may have acted a bit impatient here, but it had been 8 days since I commissioned the artist and I hadn't received an update back on what I wanted to be fixed. So I asked if they had gotten the chance to fix that coloring error on the 1st pic, and if they had also been able to start on the 2nd pic.
11/22/2021. Still nothing. The artist had been posting lots of new artwork pics and adoptables on their Twitter profile since the last time I messaged them (11/13/2021), so I asked once again about the commission. Reminded them about what they told me in regards to how long it'd take to finish a commission, and also asked if there were any hold-ups preventing them from continuing further.
I finally got a reply back on 12/07/2021. Artist had finally fixed the coloring error I mentioned and apologized for the delay. They didn't answer my question about the "hold-ups", so I asked once again, to which they told me they had been struggling to get work going due to issues they were having with their laptop.
Anyways, the 2nd pin-up was all that was left, so this is what I was currently waiting for at this moment.
January had come by and I hadn't gotten back any more updates from the artist since 12/07/2021. As seen in the pic above, I messaged them on 1/12/2022 for more updates on the commission. Artist continues to post more artwork on their profile, so at the very least I was aware that they weren't inactive or anything.
Sent them another message on 2/08/2022. At this point it had practically almost been 3 months since I paid them the money for the commission. Still no response.
The pic above is the last message I sent to the artist, on 2/14/2022. Originally I had planned on waiting one more month before deciding to ask for a refund, but I dug through Twitter that day and found out that the artist seemingly had a history of ghosting their customers the same way I was being ghosted here. Having known that, I send a message to the artist stating that I no longer had any interest in the 2nd pin-up and wanted to request a refund for it.
The artist still hadn't replied back hours later, so at this point I decided to dispute it with PayPal and escalate the issue over to them. Thankfully I won the case and got a refund for that 2nd undelivered pin-up. I have since then unfriended the artist on Discord and ceased communications with them.
Although I got my refund, I still STRONGLY recommend you do not work with this person under any circumstances whatsoever. I would've been more than happy to continue supporting the artist via more commissions but I can't really justify that anymore, given how I had been treated here throughout the entire ordeal.
- beware
- artist
- lost the bellsprout
- bellsprout emporium
- mayo1nomor1
- lexustanuki
- lexus tanuki
- the lost artist
- commission
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During October of 2021, I had noticed that this artist was selling a couple of YCHs that I enjoyed the style for. I've commissioned them once in the past and had some issues with them in delivery time. While I wasn't going to commission them again, I decided to give them a second chance. This time however, it's gone more than 4 months with very little communication and other issues that I felt I had to make a post here as I tried to give them a lot of chances.
On 10/28/21 I had seen that this artist had reduced the price of a YCH they were running from $175 "...TO $75 IF PURCHASED TODAY" on their twitter. So, I commented to claim it (Seen below (#1)). I followed their instructions and started a DM with them on twitter so that we may start the transaction process. (Seen below (#2)).
After I sent the message, they had supplied their PayPal link which I was then informed they were wanting the payment through CashApp or Venmo, which I thought was very strange. I told them that I couldn't do either as I didn't have the accounts for them (Seen below (#3)).
After a while, they told me it was okay to send, so I did. I sent them confirmation of the $75 they required sent over (seen below (#4)) and had then received nothing back until November when I sent them another message to check in with them. They told me that they had a family member pass, which I understood they needed some time to recover from (seen below (#5)). I figured that I'd give them some time to handle it before messaging again. That was on 11/5/21.
I later (12/19/21) sent them a message as I had still heard nothing back and wanted to check in with them. However, I received no response and was ghosted for a while (seen below (6)). I don't usually worry about artists that take time as I feel they deserve the time to work. However, on 1/4/22 I had seen the exact YCH I had purchased being offered AGAIN on their page. Except this time the words "YCH" had been covered by a dog sticker (Seen below (7 & 8)).
I immediately sent them a message to check in as I didn't want to come off accusatory, even though I felt I had been ripped off at this point. They sent me a message saying that "...I am so sorry. Would you like me to just make you a brand new hypno icon? Please let me know what I can do, I'm so sorry for the silence" (Seen below (6)).
To give some context, the first ych I bought from them (the one I alluded to at the start) was that of a Hypno icon. I had gotten that one a little earlier in the year and really didn't want another one. I wanted what I paid for or my money back at this rate. I told them that I don't want a duplicate com and asked if the thing I paid for initially was no longer available (Seen below (9)). The artist rebuttled saying the icon was in their old style and never answered my question.
It seemed that what I had bought was no longer available to me and so I asked if they could make something similar for me as I wanted what I bought initially. They told me that they could create something for me like what was sold out from under me (Seen below (10)). They told me that they could make me something worth the price and I verified the idea I wanted. Eventually they said it was all good and that they'd get back to me. I had made one minor change to my character and had sent it over as I figured I may as well update what I have one my character at this point (Seen below (11)).
I later reached out on 1/8/22 as it seemed the artist was back to giving me silence. I sent them a message today (2/13/22) as I still have not heard nothing back about my commission (Seen below (12)). My next step is to ask for a refund of the $75 I had sent them as this is getting ridiculous.
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Beware: Tankdragon
By Vengo, in Artist Bewares,
I commissioned two pieces from Tankdragon (Furaffinity) back in August of last year. He also goes by Commanderblackfire (Commiss.io) and dragonboy238 (Twitter).
The pieces together totaled $130 dollars. I waited several months hoping for the pieces to be completed or at least worked on.
The artist has gone dark and has not posted anything since December of last year on any of the accounts that I am aware of. They did not respond to my attempts to contact them via Twitter or Commiss.io.
I am currently waiting for the Commiss.io staff to contact me back in regards of the refund due to the total noncompletion of the ordered projects.
Below are my attempts to contact the artist via Commiss and Twitter, as well as proof of the projects and invoices from the Commiss.io site.
Edit: 02.19.22
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This beware is about Calima, aka. Storm Shy Arts. I initiated the commission transaction in October 2020 (see attachments; all edited for names, email addresses, or any personal/private information) for a 2-character commission. Details were worked out and payment was sent via Paypal. 2 months later in December 2020 I sent a message to the artist on Fur Affinity asking for an update, but did not receive a reply. I sent another message in January 2021 for an update and again received no reply. I again sent a message on FA in March asking for an update with a notification that I would be filing a complaint on Artists Beware, and received no reply. [Note: I was also sending a copy of the January and March messages to the email associated with the Paypal payment, but that turned out to be an address the artist only ever used for Paypal, not correspondence.]
In May 2021 I started the action of filing a complaint on Artists Beware. The moderator was able to find me a valid email address for the artist, so the complaint was put on hold as I reestablished contact. The artist did quickly reply to my email (see attachments), and we got the ball rolling to continue with the commission. Over the next several days and weeks we exchanged several emails that cleared up some details and some WIP updates were sent to me. The last WIP I received was 5-30-21. On 6-13-21 the artist said she was going to "play with the background a bit more" and said it would be ready by July 10th. On 7-23-21 I wrote again asking for an update. The artist replied on 7-31-21 that her laptop had died, and as the replacement was soon to arrive she would have my piece finished very quickly.
On 9-29-221 I wrote again asking for an update. The artist replied the same day with the excuse that there were technical problems and they were moving, but she would "aim to finish the five details of this background this week". I never received anything. On 12-30-21 I wrote again asking for an update. The artist replied the same day with health reasons as the excuse for no progress, and promised to send an updated version soon. I wrote back and said I was willing to work around complications and that I just wanted to know the commission hadn't been abandoned. Since then I have never received any update or any other contact from the artist. Calima finally returned to Fur Affinity a few days ago after being away for so long, but when I tried to reply to a journal I found I'd been blocked. That's when I knew it was time to post something here.
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