I requested a two character commission from the artist Dragk. I commissioned them before so I assumed things would be okay until I lost communication. I have NOT received any WIPs in the two years. I've also tempted to contact on Twitter but have received no reply.
Outline:
- Original agreement was two character commission + background for $180 + paypal's transfer fees.
- Proof of payment: Paypal of $188.60
- Any relevant correspondence: Lack of replies, wips and communication.
April 23rd was the last message I sent.
Hello. Sorry for the mistakes, I'm using a translator.
The commissioner, whom I will call Chi here (according to his furaffinity profile), has not fully paid for my services as an artist. In early March 2022, Chi wanted to order a commission, but then changed his mind and bought two YCHs at auction (https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46350007/ and https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46350081/). Chi had bought YCHs before and paid for them through PayPal and had no problems. I live in Russia, so since March I started accepting payment through Boosty. We started chatting with Chi on March 15, 2022 via Notes Furaffinity. Total value for YCHs: 240$.
Chi had difficulty paying, so we often contacted Boosty support and rescheduled the payment day. I made the mistake of starting to draw before payment, thinking everything would be fine and the payment issue would be resolved quickly. The first YCH was published and given to Chi on March 19, 2022 (https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46414100/), and the second YCH on March 30, 2022 (https://www.furaffinity.net/view/46554556/). We were in touch all the time. By then the payment had not been completed. Chi was also in the process of getting a new payment card (or something like that), but in the end that didn't help to make the payment on Boosty either.
On June 21, 2022, after a month of silence, I wrote again. It was decided to switch to Telegram for faster messaging. However, we don't added to each other's contacts at time - it seems Chi was very busy in real life, and I didn't want to bother him too often, thinking it was in Chi's interest to pay for my work. On August 8, 2022, I wrote to him at Furaffinity, asking him to answer me within a week or I would have to write a beware post about him. He replied the same day, we exchanged contacts and started chatting in Telegram.
Tried some ways, we picked up a donation service. Chi managed to send me $5.
I said there would be no problem with big payments. He later sent me another $20. I also asked him not to send me too small amounts because of the high service tax.
In general, we have chatted rarely since that time because of the difficulties in Chi's life. I could wait weeks for an answer.
On November 21, 2022, I received another $20 from Chi with Boosty. Afterwards, Chi promised to add a tip for the inconvenience. It wasn't necessary, though... On November 30, 2022, Chi sent me $100.
I wrote to Chi on March 16, 2023, since I had not received any messages from him before that. I read the empty promises of payment again. I also notified about me on April 1 and 20, but these messages were not read.
It must be said that Chi posts new artworks almost daily to his galleries or writes journals on Furaffinity. Also found commissions from other artists for Chi (including Russian speakers on Boosty).
So far, $145 of the $240 for the two YCHs has been paid. I'm not sure I'll see the remaining amount at all, so I'm writing this post in order to speak out about this kind of experience with this commissioner. I'm sorry to hear about the difficulties in his life, but I also feel cheated. I drew YCHs for Chi before payment, thinking it would make happy. My mistake was trusting and being too soft as an artist. Be careful and value your time.
I initially approached SheeplyGoatus for a commission in February 2022 for a fetish-focused headshot of my character. They agreed to draw the idea, and payment was sent in full upfront. Payment was confirmed received by the artist on February 5th, 2022.
After about a month of no contact, I reached back out in March 2022 to the artist, and received a WIP of my commission and answered a few questions they had to move forward.
After four months of no further contact from the artist, I sent a message in July 2022 asking for an update, which was read but never replied to.
Their FurAffinity account has shown no activity since August 24th, 2022. I sent another message to the artist on FurAffinity on March 31st, 2023, which has also remained unread.
I managed to find their Twitter account through a link in their Patreon, which is posted to their FurAffinity page. I attempted to direct message the artist on Twitter on April 4th, 2023, and have received no response from the artist. Their Twitter account is still active, and has remained active since I have sent them the direct message.
Having waited over a year with no response from the artist, I have mostly written this commission off as a loss, as the time to file a dispute on PayPal has long passed.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
