Comrade Hero

Here's to you recovering fully and getting back to enjoying what you do best!

Very, very nice

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Bumping!

Attention all finalists, you should be getting a PM in your box about the COLOR PROOFS

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Most excellent

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AH HA! I thought you chose her alternative outfit I approve

And I do loves it much. And I liked that movie <_< for the action. Rest of it was so-so :P

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Yeah as much as I love Milla Jovovich, the only thing that kept me interested in Ultravilet was the action and her changing outfits/hairstyles.

Glad you like the piece Sorah, was good inspiration.

I used Trust as the reference image to base Karnal Sin on. I tried red with black but it didn't come out terribly well.

The shades were a nod to Ultraviolet. Again I did experiment with crimson eyes, but settled on the shades because they suited the bad-[censored] assassin chick that Karnal is.

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Amazing Doug... one of your best, and definitely my fave of your women.

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Actually it's James, but thanks

Here's a Poser image I did of Sorah's character Karnal Sin.

She has a little more clothing than usual but there be nipples for those at work!

This was commissioned earlier in the year and was finally completed today. Worth the wait methinks

Graviton Girl

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It's weird seeing my name up in "lights"... I'm so use to people calling me LJ here... whuh oh... identity crisis! Thanks again SMF, I think the piece is great, gonna send it to my D&D buddies still playing in NY without me, lo these 5 years...

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I'm glad you enjoy the piece, and I have to say Haleth is very easy on the eyes.

Kasia88 has been doing ink sketches of my characters. So far he has completed Albtraum and Graviton Girl.

Bobby was also kind enough to do some sketches of Albtraum for me so I returned the favor and did a piece on his oldest D&D character, his 15th level Barbarian Haleth .

Enjoy!

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There was one instance where I did pay in advance and got burned, if you guys recall the Mike Lilly piece I got. It came out great, but what was suppose to be a one month delay turned out to be over a year. I'm kinda stuck in a bad situation regarding an art piece right now, as I commissioned someone from these forums to do a piece for me and paid $125 up front, and really haven't seen any progress made on it at all since then. It's been 11 months now.

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Sorry to hear you got burned like that Bayani.

I'm still waiting on at least four commissioned pieces that are around the same timeframe. In this case though I understood that the artists were under contract to either DC or Marvel and were working to deadlines. Thankfully these artists do stay in touch.

The one thing I'd like to know if anyone has had the experience, is how you can recoup your paid money if someone fails to deliver the commission?

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And I was pleasantly surprised today with a free sketch from Baquitania. A very nice way to start the day.

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You can call me Bobby or LJ which is easier to type and I still know you mean me despite the gender switch. Here's another go at your toon, I'm feeling creative today, since I'm semi- bed ridden and "have" to sketch...

Albtraum

LJ

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Thanks Bobby

I didn't pay the artist any money as we hadn't even gotten to the discussion on prices and payment options.

I like to be straight up with the artist I intend to commission. I tell them I prefer to pay 50% up front, and the remainder upon completion of the final image.

If they ask for 100% upfront I don't go further. On the other hand some artists have asked to hold off payment until the sketches/inks have been approved and I don't mind paying then.

And I was pleasantly surprised today with a free sketch from Baquitania. A very nice way to start the day.

That's what I like about this forum. The people here are ready to offer good advice and opinions.

And you all got it right.

It was the simple lack of communication between artist and client that waylaid what should have been a straightforward commission. It's something that could happen to anyone, and I learned from this experience. From my point of view, I didn't feel the need to name the artist. In my email to the artist I explained where and how I felt the communication had broken down so it could be avoided in the future. I also still want to work with the artist in question but that outlook appears doubtful at this time.

I do agree though that there are times when you should name the party. Non-delivery, or unreasonable, lengthy delays of paid for items or services would certainly count towards outing the culprit as a warning to other potential clients.

This mistake wasn't costly and was avoidable. I'll learn from it and move on. And hope none of you find yourself facing a similar circumstance in the future.

Thanks Zekrian, I'll update that form now.

Zairyo did a wonderful job, very, very nice!

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Sorry to hear about this bit of miscomunication. I would like to applaud you on your handling of the situation.
Telling your tale is a good idea to be sure. It also may have been tempting to "name names" which you did NOT do. That was also good.
There is no need to begin some petty campaign against siad artist to express your disappointment. I only bring this up as I have seen it done on these very boards not so long ago. It very quickly degenerated into a flaming of the OP.
Thanks for your story but just as importantly, thanks for your maturity.



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You're right, the artist is a great person and has real talent. It was the lack of understanding and communication between us that made this a cautionary tale. I have communicated him stating that I do admire his work, would like to work with him, and start again afresh. No response so far. But that's as far as I will take the matter.

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What was the information you sent him about the character in the first place?

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If you click on the link to the CoX Character Information, that is what I sent the artist to consider.

I asked him for pricing, timeframe, payment options and his feedback/comments.

No replies for three months and then out of the blue a finished commission.

Generally, I try to cover all the bases when I ask an artist about potential commissions based on my CoX characters. But as I learnt recently things can go wrong. It's how you deal with them that determines how much hand wringing you actually do.

I contacted an artist on deviantArt back in January to do anime/manga style commissions of my characters and sent off all the information. I requested information on pricing, payment options, and timeframes.

I heard nothing back from this artist until April when he posted a completed picture of my character Albtraum on his website and said he had done so.

This came as a surprise as I had received no prior contact for three months. No discussion on pricing and payment options, and no details on character poses or draft sketches.

The finished commission, while admittedly very good had two flaws with it. The most glaringly obvious one was that the artist had made my female character into a muscle bound male. The second and more important detail was that I had never approved the commission.

This artist is very good. I would love to get commissions from him, but the way this panned out was not good. I got him to withdraw the offending image, told him I wouldn't pay for something I hadn't approved, but did say I still wanted to work with him to bring my characters to life in his unique style.

Unfortunately for me, I may have crushed that hope already.

What I did learn from this is always keep a record of any emails, IM's that you have with an artist. I kept copies of all the correspondence we had and was able to prove we had not progressed much further than the 'considering' your request stage.

I have also made changes to my CoX Character Information Sheet on my deviantArt site to include something that I overlooked when I originally wrote it up. The gender of my characters. As well as gender, I included links to Side, Back and Profile shots to further avoid any future confusion.

Sooner or later, you are bound to have a bad experience dealing with artist commissions. The best thing you can do is to minimize the fallout by making sure you have everything in order.

This was a learning experience for me, a little negative, but also positive as I have improved upon the information I provide now.

And thanks to those of you who have used the CoX Information Sheet as a template for their own heroes and villains.

Aww! The little guy is so handsome and rugged

Three cheers for Sovereign 1!

Happy Joyous Day of Birthing to You!

Big congrats to Ma'aseruat and Lady Liberty! Can't wait to see how these paintings turn out

Happy joyous day to you and many more!

Very nice gallery, I especially like what you did with The Morrigan. Here's my little submission, her darkness:

Albtraum

Powers:
Primary and Secondary Sets: Icy Blast, Electricity Melee
Other Sets: Concealment, Leaping, Leadership, Fitness
Epic Power Set: n/a

Details:
Pale white skin tone
Crystal Blue Eyes
Black Hair
Pointed Ears
Approximately mid 30’s
6ft 2in in height

Outfit:
Black Leather Gloves, Spiked Forearms (skin colour)
Black Steel Shoulder Pads
Black Leather Sleeves with Red Straps
Black Leather Jacket with Chaos Symbol
Black Metal Belt with Blue Jewel in buckle
Black Leather Pants with Straps
Black Leather High Heel Boots with Red Tribal Pattern Stripes

Background:
Marlene ‘Mara’ Dieter was born in Berlin on April 30, 1935. The only daughter of Major Johannes Dieter and teacher Francis Stober. Francis Stober took the young Mara from Berlin to Bautzen in 1939 to live with her parents as Major Dieter’s unit was ordered into action in Poland. Johannes Dieter was later killed in action on the Eastern Front during the Battle of the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket in 1944.

Life resumed a semblance of normality and stability after the War. The German Democratic Republic was joyfully declared in 1949, and in 1955 the government of East Germany joined the Warsaw Pact with the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries.

Mara excelled academically and graduated from secondary school in 1953. In 1956 Mara was honoured with selection to attend the prestigious Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, in Moscow.

Mara was sent to Hungary in 1965 as a ‘scientific advisor’ as part of a special KGB OSNAZ operation to investigate a mysterious sarcophagus that had been sealed in the catacombs beneath Castle Buda by NKVD troops in 1945 after an incident involving the unusual deaths of over two dozen dead SS soldiers, officers, and scientists of the Ahnenerbe - The Ancestral Heritage Research and Teaching Society.

Each man showed signs of having suffered from frostbite, hypothermia and extreme electric shock. Most disturbing of all was the twisted look of horror frozen on each man’s face, and splayed in blood on large letters behind the sarcophagus was the word - Albtraum - the German word for Nightmare.

The special team entered the catacombs in July 1965, and broke through the sealed chamber into the sarcophagus room. Mara examined the ancient sarcophagus, bewildered by engraved symbols and pictograms that seemed to have been drawn from at least four languages of antiquity. When Mara traced her fingers around the outline of a darkened circle of glass at the head of the sarcophagus, she vanished.

In March 2005, security guards discovered a previously unknown section of the catacombs beneath Buda Castle, a sealed section that had apparently been broken into and the unknown contents stolen. What puzzled the security guards and Police was the shattered concrete blocks appeared to have been gouged by claws, and there were signs of giant dog-like paw prints in the dirt next to large tracks marks indicating something heavy had been dragged.

In July 2005, the container ship Carolinian ran aground near Independence Port. The Coast Guard and several heroes investigated the Carolinian, to find a bloody scene. The bodies of not only the crew of the Carolinian, but Council Soldiers and Warwolves and Circle of Thorns Mystics and Behemoths. A battle had taken place between the Council and Circle of Thorns, but over what?

In the depths of the Carolinian the remains of a shattered sarcophagus was found, inside was nothing more than ash, dust and a broken pair of spectacles.

Watching impassively from the shore was a pale-skinned, raven haired woman with darkened eyes and a row of spikes protruding from tattooed forearms.

Comments:

When Marlene Dieter examined the sarcophagus hidden beneath the catacombs of Buda Castle she accidentally awakened an Intelligence that had been sleeping undisturbed for many millennia. Something ancient, alien and inscrutable that it had forgotten its own name, its reason for existing, and why it had been entombed in the sarcophagus in the first place.

The earlier intruders had annoyed the Intelligence, with their chanting and irritating orders. So the Intelligence had swept them aside like an annoying mote of dust and returned to its slumber.

Then along came the woman who ran her fingers along the sarcophagus and spoke the ancient words showed respect, reverence and awe. And the Intelligence remembered all to well what that felt like.

If the mortals were so eager to awaken it, then the Intelligence would oblige. For curiosity’s sake if nothing else.

Mara vanished and in what appeared to be brief moments for the Intelligence, shattered the confines of the sarcophagus and leapt over the side of the Carolinian as the Circle of Thorns and Council fought.

The Intelligence has permanently merged itself with Mara Dieter, altering the human body to accommodate its essence. But Mara is not dead. She maintains her own memories, knowledge and experiences - even if a lot of it is forty years out of date.

But Mara also has the memories, knowledge, experiences and personality traits of an Intelligence that had walked the Earth when Man was little more than a naked ape.

What they both seem to agree on is the name Albtraum - a nightmare to those who would prey upon humankind. Both feel a desire to walk amongst the humankind and protect them from the taint of criminals and supervillains, and to help shape a fairer, more just society for these people.