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I seem to have no luck with artists lately, I swear.


A few weeks ago, on the FB page of a local community college anime club, I saw that an artist was saying she was taking furry commissions because she wanted to learn how to do furries. So I decided to become her guinea pig.

When I saw her art I almost laughed. It was newbie-otaku quality. Her art had anatomy errors up the wazoo, straight line torsos and noodle arms, proportions all wrong. But I understand that people have to start somewhere and everyone started out bad before they became good artists, so maybe she'll become good later. That's fine. I did find it ironic that she had a stack of anatomy books but still drew kinda badly.

So I gave her some money, not expecting much. She'd doodle something bad and I'd thank her and go about my way, and maybe she'd become slightly better because of it. But it was after I gave her money that everything started going to pot.


First off, she mentioned a "Holding fee". Once she finished my art we'd agree on a time I'd pick it up. If I didn't pick it up, she'd charge a holding fee of $3 a day. She said she got the idea talking to professional artists.
Yes, but those are PROFESSIONAL artists. People who do art for hundreds, or thousands of dollars, the holding fee is sometimes used and makes sense. Not for something less than $10. Within 4 days you will have surpassed the original price.


Second thing she did was insult me to my face. Several times. I'd bring up a detail or aspect of my fursona, and she'd say it was stupid, and suggest something "better", because she claims she knows a lot. For example, I wanted a flaming halo on my fursona:
"I was thinking of giving him a flaming halo over his head, it might look cool."
"No, that's stupid. Why don't you give him a crown."
Me, insulted, thinks: ~Did she just call my idea stupid?~
Me: "A crown?"
Her: "Yea, sure. A silver, wire crown with a gem in the center."
Me: "That sounds like a tiara."
Her: "No, it's a crown. Trust me, all demons wear crowns. They love to wear crowns. I know, I've studied everything about demons." <-- here's that know-it-all attitude.

And then insulted me about my furry name:
Her: "So, what's this demon furry called?"
Me: "I used to call him Leonis but now just call him Lee."
Her: "That's a dumb demon name. Was that the best you could come up with?"
Me: "Well, I thought of naming him K'tan, I used that in a tabletop RPG once..."
Her: "That's stupid too. Why don't you name him something more exotic, like blahblahblah."
I am fully aware that the name Lee is a dumb name. I suck at making names. But to insult me like that was just mean.

So she insults me at least twice and acts like she knows more than I do. That's not just it though. Currently she has sent me a rough WIP sketch. It's low quality, as expected. But she added a scythe to it. When I asked for a sword. When I questioned her about the scythe, she replied that the sword would be able to change shape and turn into a scythe to "Symbolize strength" or some s**t.
But, I didn't ask for a scythe, I asked for a sword, so now she's going off and doing her own thing with MY fursona.


I can tolerate the shitty art quality, I expected that going in. But I can't tolerate her condescending, know-it-all attitude. She can't be treating customers like this. And she can't be charging people like that for not picking up their artwork.

I tried complaining about this over on FA but someone brought up that art debacle I was involved in last year, and they're just assuming it's all my fault and it's me being an a*****e again. I guess when you have a bad reputation if something bad happens to you, people just assume it's your fault and don't feel bad for you. Oh well.

I hope I can sort this out but this girl needs a reality check. :/

I believe every word. After seeing the way some artists behave, nothing like this comes as a surprise. Even if someone is a spectacular artist, you know what professionals do? They behave professionally. But when someone isn't even very good, that's the least they can do.

Next time you commission art consider checking this out: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/trustedartists/

OR

Try commissioning me. wink

Oh ho ho ho. Self-promotion.
I don't see a commission thread or anything like that though.


Well, on an update, she sent me an inked version of the picture. The anatomy is certainly a very big improvement to the piece I posted before, but still full of errors. In fact the biggest errors are things I'm surprised anyone would miss because DAMN they stick out. I'll post it soon once I have a way to do it. I'm not going to have her fix them because she already inked and it's just not worth it. Might as well just take what I got and say screw it.

That being said I don't think her attitude is malicious, but rather just ignorance. I don't think she's trying to be mean. She just thinks she knows more about certain subjects than others and thinks she's showing me how wrong I am about certain things. It's funny she claims that she knows so much about demons and then draws my character with scythes she borrowed from a VIDEO GAME, as if video games are accurate when it comes to demons.

It'd be like saying "I know everything about demons I played Devil May Cry." or "I know so much about vampires I watched Twilight/True Blood/Hellsing."

Yea, she does need to tone that "know it all" kind of attitude down though, it's so off-putting.

Well, that's perplexing, I usually don't commission out of charity or anything around the lines, its only when I crave something specifically from someone because most of the times it ends up in dramas like this.

I tried first following their train of thought and planting myself on my beliefs, it didn't work so I did research and brought it up proving my point and it only made it worse. thus I simply demanded refund and threatened if there was none =/
I might end up like the arse, but I don't regret it.