I had commissioned this artist around 3 months ago, and under the pretense that a reduced price would be had, in addition to a handmade item being sent to them in exchange for 2 pieces of art.
As far as my end of the deal, it was a handmade blanket, as I happen to loom things and promised her a handmade blanket specifically to fit her couch. I value a normal, full size blanket (around 30$ in materials and usually a 7x5 size) at 80$, and also gave her 30$ cash, amounting to a full 110$.
A WIP of the work done. (The item was shipped off 5/22 to another purchaser after I was blocked, so this photo is all there is.)
After nearly 2 months, they returned to me with a first draft that wasn't anywhere near what I had requested, and she was incredibly rude to me, claiming my character was a trap, as well as turning a SFW image commission into a nearly NSFW one. She had a fair criticism to ask for more details from me, but when I had first commissioned, I had explicitly asked if she had enough details.
After this, she pushed my commissions to the bottom of her queue, and ghosted me for 2 weeks. After this, I confronted her about why she did this and she claimed she would work on others who "appreciate her art" first, and used this to rectify not working on my commissions. I then asked her to either refund me due to her continued disinterest and expressed desire to not do these pieces, and that's when she removed me from her server on discord, blocked me, and is continuing to refuse delivering the product she agreed to. She has since blocked me from contacting her and has kept the 30$ I sent her.
Below I've attached all conversation material.
(date of these caps is May 21st 2020)
Proof of removal/block
Client was terminated from an Artistic Liberty quote before payment was made since the changes requested by them on the concept provided during the first contact were not interesting for the studio production at the time and the unpaid design created during quote was kept by the studio, as described on the TOS agreed by said client during the application process.
Link to our TOS
Client tried to continue the application process but we already sent the email terminating it and we didn't felt it was necessary to proceed contact, since no invoices were sent and no further agreements were made - at that stage we already let the client know that the design created for that commission would stay under the studio property.
Weeks after said client decided to public harass our studio on our own posts on Instagram and after being blocked on multiple accounts for doing so, started to spread misinformation about our TOS, the commission process and also decided to claim the unpaid design as their own under claims that goes against the TOS agreed on before the design was sent to them. We sent a private message to the third account and by that time it felt like the situation was under control.
The harassment continued the next day with another account claiming the studio stole the client OC, tagging other clients and spreading more half truths and accusations.
The studio posted a public note via Instagram stories to spread awareness on the information and also decided to share on beware groups what happened. One of our followers let us know the client still insists on spreading false information and we decided to enlighten the situation public posting everything here.
These are the accounts that continued harassing us and our clients/followers:
@wetsnobblobb < has posted the stories spreading misinformation
@foolish.adopts < has harassed us on posts
@beesandcubs < first account to start online harassment
[Moderator Note: A 4th IG that was harassing OP exists, but the account is held by someone underaged so we have censored it out.]
That user is claiming that the art is stolen and that our character sheet bases are also stolen fro] third party, which is a blatant lie since our lead artist has all the files and recipes to prove that all the art was created by us and belong to Alecrim Carmim brand.
To clarify any half truths shared by the accounts listed before:
- Our art is 100% designed by our lead artist. We have all the files and proof of the authenticity of our creations, designs and production;
- We never ghost any client; in that specific case, we simply terminate the commission and sent an email informing the client on said termination and reason (the project was not interesting for production at that time);
- No designs were stolen from the client; in fact, our design is being claimed without payment by said client under accusations that "since the mood board and directions were given, the character belongs to them”; said claim goes straight against our TOS (that was agreed on BEFORE the commission process even began by the client);
- No invoices were sent to the client before the commission termination. Not the 30% from the commission process nor any amount of money was received from the client by Alecrim Carmim. Preparing / being ready to pay does not mean actually making a payment.
We always ask for future clients multiple times to read AND agree with our TOS before moving forward with the commission process. For our sake and for the sake of our current clients and followers, we’re deleting that design made for that specific commission from our social media and premade library.
We do not stand for harassment and we do not want to associate with the illegal usage of our intellectual property, no matter the claims. We're a positive brand that try our best to avoid that kind of drama, but sadly some of that might hit our way once or twice in our studio development.
For that reason, we decided to expose the situation and upload a client beware so our fellow makers have some feedback on said client for future reference. All the relevant screencaps are attached to this message.
The art itself is being used without credit and the Client is claiming the design to be their character.
In addition, the Client attempted to sell the design, using the full original, unpaid artwork in the advertisement on May 9th
Artist On a public Discord, did not hold up their end of the deal, and choose to try and run away with the money without doing the correct work or even hold up their end of the deal. The First part about the commission remaining private is also a lie on their end. As it is posted on their FA https://www.furaffinity.net/view/36446919/ Also an imgur link in case they try and hide the proof. https://imgur.com/HHNJI1F
Edit: 05.21.20
The artist has put my private email up on their website.
She tried to hire artists on FA under guest name, alex-rose-nitya on mar18, 2020.
She PMed me, but said no Paypal, only Cashapp. I declined.
Then again on April18, 2020 as foxyfluffstudio.
I lost my regular income and was desperately seeking work. So I agreed to accept Bandcamp giftcards. (I had planned to spend the full amount on about 10~20 musicians / bands, some charity to help them through this rough time...)
I noticed that she was having thoughts of selling adoptables created from the bases she commissioned, and Her FB profile was non-exsisted, but whatever who still uses FB.
Total summary of her crime - She commissioned 4 base packs ( 32 full-body lined characters in total ) and paid $60 out of $480.
I finally recieved half of the total payment, after weeks of stalling. Finally, I let her download the 2 completed base sets.
At this time I realized my balance went down, but don't know any better, and bandcamp 's staff was overwhelmed with emails, and their waiting line took a lot longer than usual. She denies that she bounced my payment.
And once I received bandcamp's feedback and did some digging. (thinking she might be a kid)
Found out she is not a kid and asked again if she can switch to PayPal. She kept on lying.
The last confrontation of this sad story - After showing her the copied response from Bandcamp, her FA status went immediately from New member > Pending deletion.
I commissioned this artist back in October 2019. I had previously received completed work from this artist and at first everything seemed fine. So I commissioned him again this time for a new OC character. It was planned to be for a much larger story project, however I ultimately couldn't afford the project it so I called off the project and stopped at just doing the the commission for the new OC character. It was still agreed on to complete the character which had been started and paid for. And is shown by a previous message on December 23 asking for an update on that commission.
The most I have received of that commission is an incomplete sketch, nothing close to the completed piece, and that was over 7 months ago at the time of writing this.
Later when cancellation is mentioned I spoke only on condition of receiving a refund if the work would not be completed. It was either giving the money back for the art or completing the artwork. And I have received neither.
Working with him he acts extremely unprofessionally, when I would ask for an update on the art and eventual refund would completely flip out in a rant and try to guilt me into thinking that I had done something wrong by asking for an update on art that I had paid for. He would cite things such as others have paid him thousands for art on why he's not working and things with life (such as his daughter and other family) repeatedly as another reason why the work isn't done. As well as guilted me for simply asking for an update for art I paid for, calling me selfish and saying I only cared about myself for asking even though I would go months in between asking about the status. And finally threatening legal action for saying I would go to my bank to report undelivered goods.
He mentions doing free work, however that was never the case. There was never any free work agreed on or done, only paid work.
An important note he originally reached out to me to get me to do a commission with him, by complementing my character and generally buttering me up and acting friendly just to ask me if I wanted to commission him.
I previously had posted a client beware message on his Deviantart page as a comment, however he deleted it and blocked me from his page entirely. He operates another page which I am also blocked from viewing.
As of writing this I have received no contact from him it has been nearly a month since the last series of messages. And no updates beside the sketch from 7 months ago on the art I have paid for. While he continues to remain very active and post art on patreon, deviantart, furaffinity and twitter.
Below I have included conversions with him asking for status updates, and a refund. As well as the message showing payment send and the WIP sketch.
I'd like to begin this post by saying that I've finally received my money back, but I still felt it necessary to make a PSA about this artist because this spree of not fulfilling commissions has apparently gone on for much longer than I expected. I greatly respect their talent and think their posted art is absolutely beautiful, but their lack of communication and responsibility for someone who is supposed to be a professional leaves much to be desired.
This was when I first commissioned him and he took the payment. Perhaps I should have done half and half, but he assured me it'd be done within a week, and I always like paying artists upfront, delays or not. Unfortunately, a long time went by when I received no word, despite my attempts at contacting him through email and other platforms.
Eventually, I managed to find his discord server and tried contacting him there too. While the first time I got no answer, I sent a message right when he was about to stream and managed to get somewhat of an answer.
Eventually, however, the result was the same as before. Complete radio silence after the fact.
A refund was only received on June 27th because a dispute was filed. No other followup was made.
He opened up 2 commissions at this point, and I managed to get in contact with the second person that commissioned him, only to hear that they went through a very similar issue. Here is the conversation they allowed me to share.
I commissioned copycatz back in October of 2016, they approached me with interest in drawing art of one of my characters, they were enthusiastic to do so.
I saved up money for a few months so I could commission them at the time and paid for a full colour, shaded commission at the time. I know some artists can take time so I did not contact them too terribly much afterwards. By the point I started to become suspicious/worried it was too late for a charge back from Paypal. I figured they'd deliver eventually, probably had a queue.
I contacted them some months later an inquired how it was going as the last time I had talked to them they stated they had a WIP and would upload it soon. I cannot discuss what they said but they had medical complications (supposedly) and were unable to work for a period of time. I backed off for a few months before contacting again. Shortly after that contact a year after commissioning them they were banned from Furaffinity.
I figured at that time my commission was lost in the ether until other commissioners posted about how to get in contact with the artist and how they owed them work. They were available on DeviantArt and Twitter so I contacted them on DeviantArt. What followed was a run around of saying they didn't remember me ever commissioning them, then me providing the screen caps edited below of paying them then being ran around saying they had a WIP. This continued for some months while they were posting more artwork they were creating.
Again this continued on for several months until I essentially threw my hands up in the air. I had no real recourse to retrieve the amount owed by this point and it was apparent they were not going to produce the work.
Their ban on FA has ended and they are allowed to post on the account again so I decided to make a public airing of this dirty laundry to show what I went through in hopes they do not take anyone else's money. At this point all I'd want is a refund plus interest for the money they received from me with no delivered work.
Take away: Copycatz will approach people first seeming enthusiastic on commissioning them.
They will then try to get the person to commission them.
They will not communicate at all with the commissioner. The commissioner has to engage in all contact.
They will bring forward excuses as to why they cannot work on it now, claiming personal or medical reasons.
They will promise WIPs and progress but never deliver.
There is no other way to put it but this person is a thief. They take money and do not produce work.
I commissioned Patrikthedog 5 years ago for a single page comic. All she's done since then was a single sketch to see if there were any changes needed. Ever since then she's basically ghosted me, as well as several others. She's kept hundreds of dollars from commissioners while constantly making more art, claiming she doesn't have the money needed to give out refunds. When I made a post calling her out on a YCH that other people commented on, she deleted it to hide what she did. She contacted me after that post, but she once again ghosted me after promising a refund. She clearly has no intention of ever giving out the refund as promised.
I had purchased an egg adopt for $45 USD in October of 2019. In the following weeks I gave the artist details I wanted for the body and character as they stated an AB would grant this, a full ref, a chibi version, and a half body.
I had over half a year of nothing from them and came back with a question on progress to find out I had been blocked by them on FA and that nearly everything from the account had been removed. This includes the egg adopt I had paid for, which I sadly do not have an image for.
There has not been a single item as a result of my payment to them, no sketch or verification from them.
Below I have posted 5 images of their trello, a conversation in the beginning the paypal transaction, the blocking notice, and an image of the messages I left with details to them.
( opted to not capture as they are in regards to the adopt and the details I had specified I would like to keep private for a future idea of mine )
My experience with this artist has been terrible. Correspondence is non-existent, and she seems to take forever on all of her commissions.
I ordered an emergency commission back in November of 2019. Since it was an emergency comm, I was under the impression that it would have a relatively quick turnaround time. Six months later, and I haven't even received so much as a sketch from her.
Her commission queue is ludicrously huge - I only found it after some digging. I never would have commissioned her if I saw how much outstanding work she has. She even has a queue for refunds. Refunds. The last update to her queue was made in February of 2020 - three months ago.
I sent her a Twitter DM a month after paying for the commission. No response. Two weeks later, I sent another. No response. Fed up, I sent an email requesting a refund nine days afterwards. Only then did I get a response on Twitter. She stated she was halfway through the sketching process, and offered to have it completed in a couple of days, even upgrading the type of commission from a coloured sketch to a cell shaded piece. I felt satisfied with what I was offered, and accepted.
January of this year. I send another DM asking about the progress of the sketch. Again, I received no response. I had been periodically checking her Trello for activity, and it was incredibly slow. I have waited, and waited, and waited, and received nothing. Not a word, not a WIP. Nothing.
I sent an email requesting a refund again today, and stated that I will never be doing business with her again. I will also be warning my friends about her, as well as leaving this Beware. Her conduct is completely unprofessional - and, despite her gigantic queue, she still constantly bumps her commission posts and takes on more, only adding to the enormous pile.
Please, do yourselves a favour and do not buy from her.
