Search the Community

Artist sells regular monthly YCH auctions, purchased a spot at significant auto-buy price and paid promptly. Item was completed and no further contact from artist. This weekend the artist posted their latest batch of finished commissions and I noted that mine was posted - as well as another near duplicate piece featuring another character from the same base sketch. The artist resold the same sketch to a second regular commissioner without notification to the auction winner/original buyer. No mention that this was a possibility was in the auction terms, nor in any terms of service the artist provides. For the significant price paid, I feel it is reasonable to assume the exact sketch would not be reused as a base for additional work. Evidence below: Original YCH Auction Posting: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/31055673/ (NSFW) My completed commission: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/31414530/ (NSFW) Second piece from same base: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/31414687/ (NSFW) I did contact the artist and they did confirm that they sold the piece twice. All that was offered was an apology and statement they would avoid doing it in the future. However, I did note a second set of identical pieces in the recent postings - I cannot speak to the situation of those and will not link them here, but it gives evidence that this may be a recurring pattern and makes me doubt changes will be made to their practices. While I don't expect any resolution from the artist (they did deliver a completed piece as commissioned), I did want to warn the community about the incident given the high profile of the artist and high cost of their work. Buyers beware.

I was approached in-game by someone offering art commissions, and given that I didn't have many done of my characters and didn't have much money, I spoke with them a little bit about it. The price was decent and so I agreed to talk about it over discord messages. I got information from them, and provided references as well as what I was looking for, which also included the only commissioned art piece I had of the character in question. The payment was sent, but there was some issues over how it was to be sent to them. I originally used the payment option but was told to resend it as a friend after he refunded the prior payment. In the end, the payment issue was fixed and the agreed upon amount was received. There was a little more discussion on available times as well as an ETA on seeing the linework. Past that point, the next time I contacted them was a little over a week later, on April 5th, to check on the progress given what they had told me about their usual turn-around times. They messaged me a week later on the 13th that they were finished with the prior line work for a previous commission (the draenei in the screenshot) and that they were going to be starting on mine next. Three days later on the 16th I received a message saying that we needed to discuss pricing. I told them that we had already negotiated and agreed on the price, and that I had paid them in full and up front and that I wanted to see the line art to see if there were any changes I would like made. There were a few things that I had an issue with and voiced them, as well as restating that I would not be paying anything further since the agreed upon price for the digital color portrait had already been paid. They attempted to pass blame off on me for not working with them, despite during negotiations a few weeks prior on the 19th when I stated I would be more than happy to provide further assistance should they need more references or clarification from me. They continued to attempt to re-negotiate further payment on a transaction that was already concluded and payment rendered. When I declined, and told them that I would simply take the incomplete product, they agreed. After that, they messaged me that they would probably go ahead and finish the coloring of the art piece anyway or possibly use it as practice for shading and that I should keep an eye out for it. When I attempted to confront them on this, Discord's bot informed me my message could not be sent because I had been blocked/unfriended by them. I attempted to go to their Instagram page where they had posted the work and reply to their work. The post was rapidly deleted and my Instagram account blocked from viewing their page. As the payment was changed from a business transaction to a gift, I know I cannot be refunded. I wouldn't have minded being out the money for this commission, but when I was told that they were essentially going to finish the drawing anyway -after- I had told them I was done, I wanted to make others aware of this artist.

Bourbon. (dead_punk_fox) wrote in artists_beware, @ 2018-11-01 15:47 Commissioner Beware - Prince_Vaxis WHO: Prince_Vaxis on FA, Vaxi on Discord WHERE: Through FA, then through Discord DMs WHAT: Commission fell through, he wanted to commission me for digital artwork to have one slot auctioned off. WHEN: October 29-30. EXPLAIN: At first I was hesitant to post a beware about this, but the more I thought about it the more obvious that his conduct was wildly inappropriate with me. A few of my associates (commissioners and artists) also felt a beware was necessary to warn other artists about him. Especially since it can be intimidating dealing with a client who has a good amount of watchers and commissions more well known artists, and it's common for artists to acquiesce to a client's demands because of these things. It started off as him claiming a slot on FA (since deleted) and then wanting to discuss it further via Discord, which I don't mind. I keep my Discord public and am fine talking to whoever. At first he wanted a bust commission, which would have fit within his budget. Then he waffled and decided he wanted a much larger idea, however he fought me every step of the way on cost. He was pushing for more and more to be included, things which are way outside the amount of time I have to devote for so little pay. At the end, I told him he was demanding way too much for what he was paying, because what he wanted was essentially a two character full color, which I charge $300 for per image. The end of it has him cursing me out, trying to call me over Discord (I assume to yell at me over voice, had this happened I would have recorded it as well), which I am EXTREMELY uncomfortable with and what really pushed me to write this beware. I don't voice chat in private with random people, and certainly not with someone who's behavior turned suddenly sour. It was likely an attempt to intimidate me into handing him a full refund (which I have done at this point). And him bringing up breaking his commissioner's TOS (??? which sounded extremely sketchy to me, since a TOS is a terms of service for the person providing a service). PROOF: Some of the screenshots do have NSFW art in them, this was him illustrating what he wanted. The conversation is also NSFW as it delves into the aspects he wanted included in the picture. Also included is the sketch work I had done for him that he didn't want to pay for. I apologize for how many screenshots there are, I wanted to include everything. The only part I left out was conversation about our pets and other casual stuff. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GhKNGZqpq0ZsFPMAmvPV1k8ZPuP9MxzC Edit: Update 4.12.19 I actually do have an addition to this caution. Several weeks ago another artist DM'd me on Twitter saying that Vaxis had told them he'd apologized to me and was trying to be a better person. He has NOT spoken to me since before he was removed from the original A_B LJ community. I have had absolutely no contact and he has not made any apologies to me. If he's messaging anyone claiming he has, he's lying.

This is an old Beware, but I was unaware of this website's existence at the time of this commission. To date, the commission has still not been completed as detailed, and the user continues to have me blocked, so I consider it still relevant. The commission took place on FlightRising, and thus all screenshots are from Private Messages and Crossroads (transaction history, basically) from that site. On a side note: all icons and names from PMs show up as Panicat because that's how the website shows them. However, I have marked clearly which ones are my replies and which are theirs. This is the original post I had made looking for art. Take note that it has not been edited since almost a week BEFORE any of our correspondence took place, so you're seeing the exact same message that they did when contacting me. The text links -- Tattoo Reference: Pose Reference: And a link to the original thread which still exists and has not been edited since, to verify that I'm not altering any of that information. On Dec 09, I received a PM from Panicat offering to fill the commission. The References link: Not perfect, necessarily, but most of it seems solid enough. So I replied: Their reply: For an idea of the cost, 1.5k gems is somewhere between $15 and $20. That was about 3x the going rate for that kind of commission on the site itself at that time, but since I was asking for a PSD to be edited by me later, and because I trusted in their ability to provide a quality commission given their sample images, I was willing to pay it. My reply. I should probably have waited to send payment, but honestly, I've commissioned dozens of pieces of art (not including adoptables) and had never been burned before (or in the three years since. Proof of payment. The diamond at the bottom is gems, the premium currency on the site. As you'll see, though, they did NOT keep me updated, though that's a minor complaint compared to anything else. This is what I received almost a full week later. Take note that this is NOT the pose I had asked for, nor do I believe this is "solid human anatomy," as the character looks like he's going to topple backwards. Also, should he put any weight on that left hand, with his fingers bent like that, he would BREAK HIS FINGERS. Regardless of knowing anything about the character or not, this not only does not match the reference pose, but I'd argue, isn't solid anatomy at all, nor is it representative of the samples they provided. So I contacted them, mentioning the various problems with the art they'd provided: I tried to provide positivity (what a cool breakdancing pose!) to soften the blow of the art being so wrong that it would probably need to be scrapped and done again. I also provided more specifics on WHY I liked the pose reference I had provided, hoping it would prevent a second mistake. I do not feel that I am in the wrong to request that they ACTUALLY draw what I paid them for. Their reply. They messed up, and they want ME to pay THEM to fix it. Just... WHAT? And 1kg? That would put it at 2.5kg for what is basically PARTIAL LINEART that is PROBABLY on top of a very, very rough sketch. That's absurd levels of payment, in my eyes, even given that I was asking for the license to animate the resulting image with a basic glow effect. For reference, that puts it very clearly above the $25 level. For again, what is essentially partial lineart. On principle, I refused to pay someone to fix their own mistake. I asked several artists (both friends and strangers) whether they felt I had been clear enough in the original thread, and they all replied that yes, the misunderstanding was on Panicat's end, not my own. So I replied: As mentioned there -- if they had questions, I would have happily answered them. If they'd "kept me updated," as they claimed they would do, I would have pointed out the error the moment I saw it. But they did none of those things, and instead blatantly ignored my requests. Their reply: They're insisting that I still pay, because "well how could I know better?" So my reply: I feel my solutions are pretty fair. They didn't deliver the commission as ordered. I would have PREFERRED a redraw, but it's entirely possible a YCH auction would've earned them money back for the (incorrect and inaccurate) work provided. Their reply: They delivered the WRONG work, and decided to blame me for not accepting blatantly inaccurate work that didn't reflect the original commission. My reply: I never received an answer to that PM, and soon after posted the entire exchange to the website-specific version of ArtistsBeware. I have since learned that they've blocked me. This is what I see when I try to view their profile: And this is what anyone not blocked by them, or me via incognito window (logged out) can view: So no resolution will ever be found, it seems. They scammed me out of my gems, refused to correct their mistakes, and blocked me when I tried to find a resolution.

I've tagged this as NSFW because of the mature theme (strip-tease), but if it is SFW enough please let me know and I will change it ♥ Below is the product in question. I recently decided to make my first ever P2U base (above) and I was contacted by Nekolover24 who requested to purchase a copy from me on the 6th February. The next day, on the 7th, I responded and promptly sent them an invoice for £20. They replied very quickly to let me know that they had paid the invoice, and once I had confirmed the payment had been recieved I went straight ahead and sent them a message that included links to the files for the base (I will censor the end of the link). Below is the complete invoice + details of the transaction. Later that same day they responded confirming that they had saved both of the files. There is more to the conversation, but it's about brushes and them planning on using it soon etc. and so not relevant I think. If I should still add it then I am happy to. However, on the 4th of March I discovered that I had an outstanding case that this same person had filed against me on the 28th of February. It was my mistake that I had not checked my emails or Paypal itself between the claim opening and when I noticed, but thankfully I realised within the deadline to respond (I had until the 10th) and was able to phone PayPal in time to find out what was going on and try to sort it. Nekoloveart24 didn't contact me or notify me in any way that they had issued a chargeback, and so this was a complete surprise to me. The only clue they provided was a vague journal prompting artists that they have commissioned to message them if they have been affected by "this" because they didn't want to explain the reason publicly. This of course was an instant red flag to me, as I would hope that if some genuine hiccup had caused a chargeback then they would try to at least notify about it and try to make things right. I am very suspicious and sceptical due to their lack of action and the continuation of their claim despite their vague acknowledgement of it. I can confirm that I'm not the only one affected by this person, but of course I know that I cannot provide evidence on their behalf so all I can do is suggest that they also come forward and write their own beware to help warn others of this person. I have already contacted PayPal and they are sending off my evidence to this person's bank/financial institution (unfortunately they chargebacked via their bank directly and so there's only so much PayPal can do to help me here, and so now I am waiting to see what is decided). The reasoning was apparently an "unauthorised transaction", which as you can see in my screenshots (and their journal acknowledging "this"), they appear to have every knowledge that they were purchasing something from me. I have been told to wait 10 days (as of 4th March) before contacting PayPal again for the status of the case, so hopefully then I will be able to update this with more info on if I will be able to have my money returned to me. Once I had made sure that I'd done all I could in countering their claim I reached out to them on FA via note, but as of right now they haven't replied or seemingly even looked at the message itself. Now we're all up to current date (7th March), so I will update this as things continue to unfold. I hope that this will end in my favour and that this person does not get away with both what they bought from me AND the money ? I think that's everything? As my first beware I hope I did everything ok, but of course if not please feel free to let me know so I can make changes! Thank you so much for taking the time to read, and I hope this can help others ♥

I was victim from an internet fraud scheme. Philipe Mathäus, resident of Brazil asked me to work 3 commissioned artworks for him. I charged $250.00 for each illustration making it $750.00 in total. One on December 17, 2018 The second on January 2, 2019And the third on January 8,2019 The transaction was made through Paypal, AUTHORIZED and paid on FULL by mister Cardozo on the dates before mentioned. The artwork was delivered digitally a few days later. So this was a full and complete sale. On February 1 2019, Mister Cardozo files a false claim to his bank or card issuer, claiming that these transactions were done without his knowledge. By default, his bank withdraws the money from my bank account! After some research I found that is customary from Mister Cradozo to file malicious complaints to his bank to other artists as well. The problem is that Paypal doesn't have coverage for paid services since there's not a tangible object involved, so hey can't solve the matter. I don't feel secure since this person already found a way to cyber-steal money from my bank. His malicious procedure provoked the blocking of my Paypal account, the cancelation of my credit card for fraudulkent robbery and an outstanding overdrive of $535.00, leaving me and my family without access to our funds for a week. Damages sum $1,285.00. This person is commiting credit card frauds all over the world and needs to be stopped.I can provide evidence of transactions and other people's testimonials.

inklopbunny (inklopbunny) wrote in artists_beware, @ 2018-11-10 12:46 Dog-Bone / XenoForge WHO: The XenoForge, Dog-Bone, DogBoneArtwork, Leachymonster WHERE: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/dog-bone , https://twitter.com/TheXenoForge WHAT: Digital art, YCH WHEN: Early December 2017 to now. EXPLAIN: Dog-Bone had posted a Christmas YCH auction, for multiple characters. I purchased one of the slots, and sent payment on the same day or the next. I have contacted them. multiple times since, they've ignored my messages for the most part, and no progress has been made. PROOF: PayPal confirmation screenshot, 7th December. On the 29th December I emailed them for an update, using the address they had on their YCH entry's description (dog-bone changed their email later on). At some point I managed to get through to them via Twitter DMs, but I've lost the messages: they said their computer died. 6 months ago, the artist deleted their entire gallery, announced they were abandoning FA, but assured their watchers that the account will remain open until all owed art is done. I leave a comment asking for details, and they claim they never received my message. I emailed their new email address on the 2nd of November; I still haven't heard from them or seen an update on their Trello, which they update every few days, or their Twitter. Dog-bone accepts and finishes commissions every week on Patreon. Their Patreon price sheet lists their two contacts, so it's not as though they have multiple inboxes to check. They only accept telegram and emails. The activity for the YCH hasn't changed since 26th March.

WHO: Onnanoko WHERE: FurAffinity: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/onnanoko/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Onnanoko Tumblr: http://onnanoko-artwork.tumblr.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/OnnaNoNo DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/onnanoko Weasyl: https://www.weasyl.com/profile/onnanoko Trello: https://trello.com/b/mg2YeGAt/onnanoko-commissions-queue Further Confusion 2017 - Dealer's Table (Purchase Transaction) Post-FC2017 - Telegram Conversation (Idea Submitted) WHAT: Half-body double-sided digital badge of my dragon character Sabre ($140.00 USD) WHEN: January 13, 2017 - Further Confusion 2017 - Commission Paid in full at Onnanoko's Dealers Table via Paypal March 9, 2017 - 1st Telegram Chat - Established contact. Installed Telegram. Stated that I'd like some time to think about commission details May 22, 2017 - 2nd Telegram Chat - Officially submitted commissions request details August 13, 2017 - 3rd Telegram Chat - Asked for status update, message went unread with no response September 25, 2017 - 4th Telegram Chat - Asked for status update, message went unread with no response December 30, 2017 - Final Warning with intention to post to artist_beware if no response given in 1 week - no response September 4, 2018 - Onnanoko updates her Trello page moving my commission from "Queue" to "Completed" with no work performed January 5, 2019 - Finally followed-through with threat to post to artist_beware after giving free 363-day extension of previous deadline EXPLAIN: At Further Confusion 2017 in San Jose, my mate Zaelgolin and I were doing the rounds in the Dealer's Room on January 13, 2017 before coming across the table of Onnanoko who was dealing at the convention. My mate Zaelgolin had previously gotten a badge from this artist a year before through an FA commission and liked it a lot, so he recommended I get one as well. I agreed, and requested a half-body double-sided digital badge of my dragon character Sabre. Onnanoko quoted the price as being ($140.00 USD), which I agreed to, and paid for at her table using Paypal using a Square reader extension on her cellphone. I mentioned that I did not know exactly what I wanted at the time of purchase, and asked if I was able to view her FA gallery once I got home from the con to try to formulate my idea. Onnanoko said this was OK, and recommended I contact her on Telegram once I was ready. I grabbed a business card from her, saw the Paypal receipt come through on my iPhone mail, and I was on my way. Here is a picture of the business card I have from Onnanoko placed with original items I am the only owner of (artist's email address redacted). On March 9th, 2017, I first established contact with Onnanoko on Telegram after creating a Telegram account and installing the desktop program. I confirmed the purchase details and explained that I would like to view all her posted art first while I thought of an idea, which she was OK with. On May 22nd, 2017, I re-established contact with Onnanoko on Telegram after viewing all of her posted art on FA and really enjoying it. The conversation with friendly and cordial, but unfortunately this would be the last time she would ever contact me (unbeknownst to me). There was a lot of friendly chit-chat about her artwork that I was complimenting in the middle of this conversation, so I have only supplied the beginning and end of the conversation in my screenshots. This is where I officially provided my detailed request. In all fairness, since I took a while to do this, I consider the clock starting from May 22, 2017, and not January 13, 2017 when my payment was made. This was just due to me being busy with work, life, and other things. I was in no rush to get the commission and was willing to wait patiently. Onnanoko explained that she would be busy with BLFC2017 upcoming, and to contact her after the convention sometime. On August 13, 2017, I sent Onnanoko another message on Telegram asking for a friendly timeline update. Unlike my last message, Onnanoko never read the message and no response was ever received. On September 25, 2017, I sent Onnanoko another message on Telegram after not hearing anything for 6 weeks. Again, Onnanoko never read the message and no response was ever received. On December 30, 2017, I had visited Onnanoko's FA page again and noticed that several previous commissioners all had posted "Shouts" on her page all asking for status updates from years prior, as they were not getting any communication back from her despite having their commissions paid-in-full. I then sent Onnanoko an email to her posted Commissions/Paypal email on her FA page stating with the final warning that I intend to open a Artist Beware post and Paypal Dispute if I do not receive some type of response within 1 week. A week came and passed with no response given. This was really disappointing, as I really did not want to have to resort to going through with this. This is likely the reason why I took an extra 363 days to follow through on my threat, because I really didn't want to have to go through the effort to do so, as well as all the negativity surrounding it. However, with Further Confusion 2019 less than 2 weeks away, I felt it was my moral obligation to warn others about the risk of giving this artist any money. Admittedly, I did not yet perform the official Paypal dispute that I threatened to do in my final email. This I feel is a bit drastic, and I would first like to try the Artist_Beware route in the search for a resolution. On September 4, 2018, Onnanoko updated her Trello page and fraudulently claimed my commission was finished by moving my commission from a "Queue" status to "Completed" status. It was actually a friend of mine that first noticed the status change, and asked me if they could see what she did. The truth is that I received no contact of any sort from Onnanoko since May 22, 2017. The fact that Onnanoko was starting to fabricate work completions that were never even started was particularly disturbing. And today, January 5, 2019, I finally followed through on my Artist_Beware posting, just 1-day short of a full calendar year after my communicated deadline. The artist has ruined the working relationship with me so much that a full refund of the ($140.00 USD) I paid her is the only resolution I will accept at this point. PROOF: January 13, 2017 - $140.00 USD Paypal receipt for commission - https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4842/39658182993_61b9782185_b.jpg March 9, 2017 - 1st Telegram Chat - https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4858/39658181953_ded4f49154_b.jpg May 22, 2017 - 2nd Telegram Chat (Commission request details provided) - https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4821/39658182353_50695157f8_b.jpg August 13, 2017 - 1st Status Update on Telegram - https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7835/39658182643_7af2d8624b_b.jpg September 25, 2017 - 2nd Status Update on Telegram - https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7835/39658182643_7af2d8624b_b.jpg December 30, 2017 - Emailed Artist_Beware Post Warning - https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7924/39658183473_978b511e5c_h.jpg September 4, 2018 - Onnanoko updates her Trello page fraudulently claiming commission was completed - https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4851/39658184213_8844282090_b.jpg January 5, 2019 - Took picture of Onnanoko's business card from her table at FC2017 for Artist_Beware post - https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4874/39658183883_58913a7db0_h.jpg