commision pet peeves?

When buyers whip out references on me AFTER I'm halfway done with the art. I request all info I need beforehand and yet there are people who still want me to do shitload of changes that could have been avoided if they gave me the refs right at the start. I get the person can forget some things if they aren't on the ref itself but when it's changing big things that need me to redraw the entire art like come on

I'm willing to do designs so when someone comes in wanting me to design them a character but have no idea what they actually want. "X aesthetics" isn't enough, please be more specific;;;

People wanting spicy art even tho the comm post says I don't do nsfw c': 

Personally I don't like to stray from the website I buy it off of (usd payments have to be off site I understand that) but like I don't want to sign up to a different website or go to discord to communicate I prefer PM's (only happened once though) Oh and artists taking orders and just yeet into the void for 5 months with no notice

Someone might've already said this, but when someone contacts you in interest, asks about your prices and as soon as you give them, the person complain they're broke?? And they start to whine that it'll take forever to save up? If you don't have the money or you don't see yourself having it anytime soon, then don't ask? I mean, they're obviously asking and then complaining hoping you'll throw them some free art pity party but.... Have intentions to pay me beforehand or don't waste my time and get me excited for no reason please :'c

When people send WIPs or panic when I ask how everything is going. It’s okay!!!! I don’t need an image if you haven’t made any progress. :) 

As a commissioner I can’t stand when an artist changes a skin colour drastically when it’s right?? in?? the?? reference??

I paid for a pretty expensive commission to get some artwork of me and my friend’s character together. All was well, the artist gave me a beautiful WIP sketch and I loved it. Then they came back a few days later.

My boy is meant to be from the north of America. He’s from Colorado and he is WHITE. My friends character is from the Middle East and so is supposed to be much darker in colour. But nope, they were both the same golden tan colour. And I couldn’t say anything because they had already done the shading of it all since they didn’t give me a colour WIP.

Had this only happen once, but... When the artist just draws your commission on a base? Like what? I commissioned for an original drawing and got colored in base that barely looks like my oc. You didn't say you were gonna use a base, your commission examples didn't have bases and now you just say its not true? Boi, i fond that base on deviant art. Who do you want to fool? Even if it wasn't a base, it was super faulty. My character don't look like that. Dx

Someone just copying/heavily tracing stuff from my already existing images. What? What are you doing? You expect me to pay for that? Dx (I realize a lot of this stuff happens to me because I give new artists a chance)

Artist asking if the piece needs any changes, you specifying what you want changed and then they just proceed to ghost you. Had this happen recently. They asked if artwork needs change, i explained what I wanted changed ( just some colors) they said it will be done tommorow.. No answer since. Its been weeks.

Artists just ghosting you in general. i don't really care anymore if I didn't already pay and they didn't start yet, but if I did pay, please answer!! Ghosting a client you agreed to draw for is just so rude.

Artists giving you heavily watermarked image as a final product. Had someone give me a drawing with five watermarks covering it. (Almost couldn't see the artwork) they refused to change it.

as an artist it drives me nuts when people i didn't know beforehand try to get friendly with me after i work for them. like,,, i have anxiety! i have trust issues! especially with strangers! i did a little $20 commission for you and now you're acting like we're best buds,,, i don't want to disrespect anyone or make them feel bad or be rude so i just go along with it but man do you chat up the cashier when they finished ringing up your groceries ten minutes ago?? ; - ; you paid me for a service, i completed the job, the transaction is done my man. i don't mind a lil bit of bantz while i work or some parting words but i have had people commission me and then straight up act like we're friends of 10 years afterwards, dumping their personal problems on me and asking for a load of advice. that was the worst case of it, but jeez what was that person on asdflkjsdlfkj. it's so awkward it kills me

if folks wanna be friends with artists they're commissioning,, please please please don't commission them as an opener, talk to them a bit before hand cuz otherwise its WEEEEIRD

this thread honestly gave me the push to make a public art queue and after a couple of months of having it, it def helps me keep organized/ motivated and not worry about lack of communication on my end. 12/10 recommend having a public art queue

i do gotta ask tho (to anyone willing to answer), how often is too often on updating people on their commissions?? before i made an art queue, it was really hard for me to keep track of the time from when i last contact clients. i usually update clients on every stage (ex. sketch>lineart>flat) then i had a point where a few pieces were taking longer than expected. so instead of updating them on when i finished the stage, i was like "hey, it's been a week and this is just an update for your piece!" and it was like. half of the lineart or smth just not completed its stage yet done each week. since then, i tried to keep clients updated on anything if it's been ~a week, but i also feel worried that i'm bothering them? ;; like i don't wanna poke em w/ an update and there's just 5% of the commission done from last update too. idk, i just get worried about being a bit overbearing on that

anyways, a some pet peeves (as an artist):

• not following the form i laid out, there's a reason i need this information and i put an explination on each section, but people give me the wrong/ unneeded info
• when i ask for personality/ design details and they just write "it's in the profile" and the profile has essays about their character w/ an extensive code layout. like... just give me bullet points, i don't wanna sift through your character's profile just to get the idea that they're just snarky, or flirtatious, or literally any other adjective you could write to get the general idea across
• lack of notes in design details, if it's already shown in the ref then it's nbd but i mean trust me it's super easy to miss certain details on the characters and i wanna make sure that doesn't happen
• "this character is toned and athletic" -shows an image of a typical anime character with 0 organs and only bones for "reference"- 
• shaded.... ref sheets.... w/ no flat colour palette at the side (and even if it's provided, it's sometimes hard to tell which colour goes where sometimes)
• lack of communication on client end, just tell me if u want to cancel when you want to cancel it not immediately after i give you an update wip
• when i try to sound friendly in my messages and the client sounds super...? flat? i'm most probably reading into it too much and i know they don't owe me the same energy but it just makes me feel awkward when i go like "thank you so much for commissioning me!! ^^" and they reply "k"
• not so much of a pet peeve but it bums me out, when people don't upload your commission/ trade piece in the character's gallery. like, i 100% understand that they can do whatever w/ the image and the transaction was already completed but by not uploading my piece it just ends up making me feel like you're not satisfied w/ the result ;; (please! just tell me what you want fixed, i promise you're not bothering me!)

omg same like cozylittleartblog .. I absolutely don´t like this as well. It makes me uncomfortable and I honestly take "all the time I need" to respond in cases like that. and go like "oh hah.. sorry didn´t saw your message" and then send them an update of their art piece at the same time, hoping this will change the topic or end it. maybe that´s awkward but I just don´t want this kind of stuff in a commissions progress at all. also because I have social anxiety.. People who communicate simple, focus on the commission and are straight to the point are so relaxing to work with.

Another thing to mention is people who don´t communicate with me after I finished the commissions. I had this happen many times before and it feel like they are not happy with the result I gave them and it´s just making me sad a bit when there is zero reaction. Just happened with my last two ychs I did. These people commissioned me before, it wasn´t the first time so I don´t think they disliked my quality? but it feels weird still.

artists who don´t send you flat color wips. It´s very important for me that my characters actually look like.. well.. my characters. I had more than enough bad experiences with that. Most artists don´t make any change anymore if the artwork is complete but didn´t showed me a flatcolor before they do details, so I could have pointed out mistakes. This is one reason why I´m afraid of commissioning people often times. Unless I know their progress. idk why but so many mess my characters up very badly... it´s like they don´t even pay attention at all. 

the issue with wrong skin colors is nothing I personally experienced , also because most arts I buy are of my animals and creatures but honestly I don´t get why this gets messed up so much? all you have to do is to color pick the skin tone(s)... I hear about this issue so often it´s crazy 

CanineKing re: your question about how many updates is too many.. i think it depends on the timeframe you gave for the piece and how fast you work. if the piece will take 1-4 weeks (fast imo) i think youre fine giving 1 update, if it takes longer maybe 2 or 3 spaced out evenly - don't know how fast you work but i think 1 week is frequent, maybe 10 days would be better. you can also add completion percentages to your public queue or a work log, which would be a nice indirect way of updating people. i think clients enjoy receiving wips, or are indifferent at worst lol

artists that like, don't give any updates to your commission at all. Like, come on. As a customer, I feel at least obligated to being told that it might take some more time or something like that. But to go like silent mode for like, weeks on end? It gets on my nerves SUPER bad. am I being too nitpicky? I feel kinda mean for thinking this way but a sketch and a full piece you would expect to be different, right? 

As the client... how often is it alright to check on comms?? It's been over 2 months from the sketch and okay it's a pretty big artist with many comms and it should be okay. They sent the sketch when I asked how it was going but then two months later I sent another one and?? No reply?? For a few weeks now. A peeve of mine is when the artist doesn't have a time frame in their info and doesn't tell you either... like  I must know some estimate so I won't bother youuu ;;

-When you give them a perfect pose reference and they just... do something completely different. Though most of the time it looks good anyway but I'm surprised tho, this isn't what I asked but thanks u kno'.

As the artist:

-I PANIC everytime you contact me, even if it's not about the commission because at first I think it is and even though it's been 3 days is like AAAAA I'm sorry I'm taking so looong ;; And whenever they are all kind and say they truly dont mind I still get the bad thought that they do care and are just being polite and are actually mad at me. I know you are being honest and you're not mad at me, my anxiety is just a b*tch, it okay.

- When they suddendly tryna be friends with me. It feels weird and anxiety kicks in again. There are more casual ways of befriending people. Like light comments or commenting on personal art. But you know, if you ramdonly send me pics of your pets I'm not gonna complain at all.

- When they never check the queue link you gave them and just ask you directly, lowkey impatient. A wild user has appeared, the customer is exerting their pressure! I take within 1 and 7 business days on each comm. Please relax.

- Kind of personal but when they don't give me pose, expression nor even vibe. And the character's profile is blank. Just gimme a hint of what would make you happy aaa