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.
User FA ordered a commission, contacted me in a Discord, agreed with the price, after which the order was completed, but since there was a payment condition after the order was completed, he added me to the blacklist and disappeared.
WHAT: Tracing other artists and selling them as adoptables and merchandise.
This started with me purchasing an adoptable from nemi on November 8th, 2019. I paid, I got the adoptable, and for a few months, that was it.
On January 11th, 2020 I discovered by coincidence an image that looked strikingly familiar to the adoptable I bought. I located the original artist and superimposed my adoptable with their original art and found that my adoptable was traced and heavily referenced.
NEMI ADOPTABLE:
ORIGINAL PIXIV SOURCE:
SUPERIMPOSED:
You can find all the screens from the website here: https://sta.sh/22cm0ib5dcr6
I submitted a beware on deviantART, and that was it for awhile. I treated this as a single issue, never heard from nemi, and left it at that. At that time, I had not filed a chargeback, I chalked it up to a lost and let it be. In hindsight, yes, I should've filed a chargeback and should've tried to be more proactive in my attempts to bring this to more light. I take fault for that.
Recently I was approached by a user who was curious if I had known the adoptable was traced and responded I did know. They investigated a bit further and found much more evidence that nearly all of nemi's gallery is either traced or referenced heavily. Not only does nemi continue to try and sell traced/referenced adoptables, but they have online stores that host traced/referenced artwork.
All of these further discoveries happened May 6th and May 7th. As of May 7th, I attempted a chargeback, but missed the cut off by a couple of days unfortunately. I've since been blocked by nemi after they found out about my beware. Hopefully this will help warn others about their practices and to steer clear. I hope I have everything in order. Thank you all.
I was doing a commission for this person who happened to lie about a ton of stuff to me, i canceled the commission and refunded him the paid €51.00 eur
He still had the preview sketch without my watermark to show him what it was going to be, and this person used this sketch, from a refunded commission to get it done by someone else (Later he admit he did it himself!).
STORYLINE:
First payment (€51.00 incl. Tip) DATE: May 3rd.
First Sketch where i was working on it: 3rd of May
First preview: 3rd of May (he changed his name Princess Kuda to Grandma Wilma a few days before the commission.)
First heat in the moment: 5th of May
PROOF OF REFUND FROM ME TO KUDA: 5th of May
First encounter of stolen Art including confession AND Refund: 6th of May
Twitter post by Kuda (Removed by the owner on 7th of may)
Overlay done by one of the Moderators here on 8th of May. Many thanks to her!
End.
I bought a shaded chibi from uwusports some time in early October on a now deleted dA journal, but managed to get a screenshot of my commission in her Trello and money sent to her back in October. It was 11USD
A few months later, I also proceeded to buy a hypokit from her in March of 2019 (10USD) then two more in May of 2019 (20USD).
Transactions:
In total, I spent about 41USD on this artist. Some time began to pass with me asking for updates and receiving little to no response.
(Hypokit) Asking on Aug 19th, 2019 (5 months since ordered); Nov 13th, 2019 (8 months); & April 6th 2020 (13 months), only receiving one response.
(Shaded Chibi) Asking on Dec 7, 2018 (2 months); Jan 1, 2019 (3 months); Mar 11, 2019 (5 months); & Nov 24, 2019 (13 months) only receiving one response.
I never received the update promised in the second screenshot
(I admit I probably should've asked for updates more frequently)
All of these were read but never responded to:
(Unread notes have the icon on the side as yellow rather than grey)
After moving accounts due to a breach in her old account (uwusports) she has required commissioners to fill out a form to get on a list. I have filled it out twice now at two different dates (about a month between) and am still not on her new Trello from what I can see despite being on her old Trello
I am hoping to receive my three hypokits and shaded chibi soon, but I have no idea if that will happen due to the lack of updates. I would also not like to forcefully chargeback due to the artist being in a rough financial position, so this beware seemed like the next best thing to do.
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