July

I became a patron on Patreon of D lo and shortly after asked (via patreon's messaging system) if they were accepting commissions. They replied that they were. I gave them a few details about the piece I wanted and they estimated $50 USD (which seemed extremely low to me) and did not ask for anything up front. We agreed to finalize the details via email. Note that although their gmail name is present, I have removed the header of the email chain which contained their email address to protect their privacy, as well as my own real name. on 1/25/22 I received this email: With the attached sketch image. I recognized it as being heavily based on a piece by ItchyEars from HentaiFoundry: And when I double checked I realized it had actually been traced. The email notably does not mention the original artist, though it does say, "Again since it’ll be 50 USD (via PayPal), I will use some references to help out--" It goes on to say "oh I’ll add a simple background if you’d like to? Maybe a darker scene like a graveyard or something else?" which I feel is Dlo168 suggesting that the graveyard background is their idea (it is not, it is present in the original piece that was traced). I obviously felt misled in that what I had asked for was an original piece, not a traced piece, and the original artist had not agreed to have their art used like this. I did end up emailing ItchyEars to ask their advice and they agreed that it was in poor taste. Dlo168 did not ask for any money up-front, and agreed to cancel the commission when asked. They were apologetic about misrepresenting the nature of the piece and agreed that they should have been upfront about its source. the following is the full email chain after they sent me the sketch: