A Cautionary Tale Regarding Commissions
By
Bayani,
Posted on: 2007-04-22 15:06 in Multi-Media Fan Creations
Did you pay money in advance?
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.
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Did you pay money in advance?
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To clarify, I made the down payment of 1/2 which was $100. Sorry for not stating that earlier.
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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
But my tale is not all gloom and doom. I also did a commish with someone on DA and I got something great! His rendition of Dursabot 12 was sooo awesome! He put personality into the work. Sometimes I can feel the piece's attitude come through. If you check out the piece on my DA gallery and you don't see it, its that evil I'm smarter than you hawty attitude. I just love it. 
I also love the other stuff I have gotten like Alex's deathchill plays Go Fish! that's a hoot. and I'm also proud of the Blazeback piece I got from a really nice person most of us know.
One of these days I'm going to be on the look out for someone to do 2 group pieces for me when I get the nod from the wife....
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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
Out of the DOZENS of commissions I've done... I've had two not pay me. One was because the client was unhappy (just guessing actually because they dissapeared after the finished piece was posted) and the other was a mis-communication (similar to the OP. I had been asked to do a piece, I did up sketches and sent them off, waited and didn't hear back due to the person moving, a month pased and I had time on my hands, finished the piece and thought it was great, the client said "well, if you need to be paid for it I will, but it was not what I was looking for exactly". I said "np, don't worry about it", and we parted ways.
They got free art.
I got a great piece for my gallery.
/shrug
I guess we both won (?)
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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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?
You really can't. Unless your have your agreement put into a physical contract, it's really just a gentleman's agreement.
Looking down the barrel of one of those, myself.
Commissioned a young up-and-coming artist to do a two-character piece, actually paid over and above the asking price... was told that it would be worked on 'as time allowed'... received a rough sketch within a couple of weeks of the up-front payment... and since then, nada.
She's posted other pieces to her DA site, most of them personal pieces (not commissions), so I'm kind of wondering what happened.
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
Yes I just had a recent experience like that too. Commissioned a rather popular artist on DA (thousands of watchers, over 325k pageviews). She requested being paid up front, and the note/email exchange was frequent during that period. That was back in early feb. I had sent two notes, one in march and one the other day asking hey what's up? It was also very disconcerting that my commission never showed up on her 'commission list' in her journal. But after my last note indicating I was kinda upset and if she didn't wanna do it i'd at least like my money back if at all possible. Of course I really had no real recourse if she never ever responded.
But she did, and sent me near finished pencils and it's AWESOME great
So y'all will be seeing it soon i hope.
Yeah, I've had some troubles lately with some commission requests, myself. I usually look arounf DeviantArt to look for good artists that I might want to commission. Well, I found an artist whose work that I loved. He had even done quite a few CoH commissions. So I look at his work for a time, and then decide that I might want to budget some money to get one, since I have been wanting a retro-style pinup of my CoH main for ages now. So I send him an email with my character info, detailing what kind of picture I would want, and how big. I explain that I would like a quote on how much something like this might cost me. Well, after after his reply he wants me to go into a bit more detail on what is is I wanted with the pose, and how much skin I wanted the picture to show. I reply with what I wanted, and of all things, he condescendingly replies back to me and tells me that what I asked for is not what I want, and tells me that I want something different. I reply no, and then send him some other pictures that show something along the lines of what I wanted. After this, his reply was to send me an unasked for REALLY rough sketch of the pose that he wanted, which was nothing along the likes of what I requested. He then finally after emailing back and forth 4 times gave me the quote that I asked originally for.
But after all the attitude, and what he wanted to draw not being what I wanted, and a higher price than I would have even thought, I decided that I would not be dealing with this artist. So he then sends me an email asking if I would was going to go ahead with the commission or not. I tell him no, I would not be requesting any art from him. After this, during the next day I am once again looking through DA to search for some artists, and realize that he has removed himself from my "watch" list, and I have been blocked on his account. I then go to the page and see that he is so pissed about what I've done that thinks he can get back at me by giving away free art to others, to show me what I'll never get. He even goes so far as to say that I racially insulted him, and that he was taken advantage of. I then go to his forums and see that not only have I been banned there as well, my freakin' IP has been blocked. Some of you probably know who I'm talking about by now. Anyway, I responded to him explaining exactly WHY I didn't want to do business with him, and that I didn't mind that others got free art for this. Besides, why would I care? If anything, I could look at it like others were getting cool, free art because of something I did. Sorta like giving back to the community... 
I still check his art from time to time, because I still do enjoy it, but this has sort of left a sour taste for commissions lately.
HEROES
SwiftStar - Lvl 50 Emp/Dark Defender, Guardian
Alexandra Fury - Lvl 50 Inv/Energy Tanker, Guardian
The Fallen Light - Lvl 50 Peacebringer, Virtue
VILLAINS
The Heart's Bane - Lvl 39 Fire/Thermal Corruptor, Virtue
Heh.
I know exactly who you're referring to.
Awesome talent, but kind of a prickly grouchy personality... Meh.
If that happens, I just scope out the next artist...
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
Wow 6 months with almost nothing to show for it? I would feel huge pangs of guilt bearing down on me...
SMF: I have the exact opposite of your situation. Being the artist, I was given many, exacting details of the final look for a commission. I was promised money before starting, and I thought since this person was part of a group commission going on as well that I could trust them. On good faith I made several sketches trying to get the client to specify what they wanted...
There were two deciding factors they had specified, the style had to have the look of a recent popular movie, and the likeness was of someone in their personal life. SO I combined them in a 1/2 size torso piece, and sent off 3 variations on the color. I thought the likeness was fairly good, and had already sent out a non colored likeness.
For several days there was no answer and then suddenly after several weeks a strange semi apologetic response about "leaving me hanging", and then nothing. When the group commission was done, (and btw he'd requested a separate likeness for that also) I commented to his SG members about where he was, and suddenly he was there... in his defense he liked the final piece a great deal, but there was never again another email on the private piece or acknowledgement that he'd basically gotten 2 pieces free.
In the back of my mind, I was sort of relieved, I did not want to chase the money, that seemed like a headache I didn't need. And while I respect the work I put into it, I'm happier to just move on...
I have since learned to insist upon the 1/2 now, 1/2 later policy, and to specify that nothing gets sketched until an agreement is set in paypal. That sounds kind of harsh, but I'd rather not go through that again... I give out a lot of free art, as it suits my whim, but in this case I thought it was going to lead to a paying commission. At the moment, I prefer to chalk it up to experience and start work on something else...