I'm confused, was I scammed or not ?

So from what I can tell, I cannot really say if you got actually scammed or not. I would say the artist just did their own interpretation of your character into their style, and from your art received and their examples I would give the benefit of the doubt and say "maybe this artist experimented with my commission". However here are some questions I want to ask that perhaps can help to determine if this artist did scam you or not.

-How long did it take them to complete your commission right after you payed them the money (or did you pay the money after they were finished?)

-Did you and the artist communicate? Did the artist send updates, WIP (Work In Progresses) often, was honest and transparent with you with the business?

-Did they state on their commissions post that they are experimenting with their artstyle or not?

Edit: Wanted to ask a few more questions!

-Did the artist ever say that their examples are older examples of their art? Or did they say nothing at all?

-Did they give you a time frame of how long the commission will be worked on on their commission post/website/whereever you found them? (Like for example and artist may say "my fullbodies take (insert a number of hours)")

I hope you can get this sorted out! And feel free to ask me to clarify anything if you do not understand as English is my first language! ^^

how much did you pay for the fullbody? the first sign of a scam is if it seems too good to be true, if the fullbody was really cheap you may have been scammed

can you ask the artist for screenshot proof of the file/layers? i'd be upfront about the finished art looking very different from the provided reference and ask for changes, and a version with a transparent background. if the art was stolen they wouldn't be able to provide any of the above.

also, for future reference, since this is not an actual service review (no namedropping, no documentation of transactions), threads like this should go into Help & Questions before you make a PSA

The drastic style differences with the result you got compared to the commission example (which, is also low-res) is suspicious, particularly because that example is from someone on dA who's commissions only make mention of a sketch portraits and nothing about full bodies.

I'll refrain mentioning the dA persons name out of pre-caution if it is the same person, but def do what other people mentioned above.

I can’t say for sure if you were scammed or not but i think the art is way too different from how the character looks and if I was you I would 100% definitely be asking for edits to be made 

some areas that just seem wayy to different in my opinion 

so unless you added specific instructions on edits to be made for changes I personally would feel uncomfortable with the large scale changes they made with how different it looks. regardless of how the ref is if they were unsure of anything they should’ve asked, because the ref might be small but to me you can see all the details needed with perhaps a little clarification on the bottom bit of the clothing around the socks/boot area things just to make sure it was as correct/done to your liking 

also, just another point, for the art comparison of what you got and what the example shown, i think the only areas (to me) that look similar are the hands/fingers, to me the eyes and faceshape both look really different so maybe ask the artist why the change in style or if they were experimenting with things. Like one of the people above i would definitely ask for screenshot proof of the file/layers and if they refuse that, and refuse to edit the art the best bet is that they scammed you and you ask for a refund 

Thank you for your answer, it was very understandable !

I will try to answer your questions ! VictoryDrawsManga

- About the communication: it was almost non-existent, the reason being that the artist doesn't seem to understand or speak english, I tried at first but quickly realised it was useless, most of the answers were a single "yes" and they never made full sentences.

- About the time, I sent the references at 3pm and they deliveried the commission at 2pm the day after but I think they were asleep when I sent them the references because they insisted to deal with this on discord and they were off-line and when they were online they sent me several "Hey?" to check if I was there.

- No the artist didn't mention anything about the examples being old of the possibility of the commission being experimental, actually their commissions sheets is like them. Not very communicative (?), it's very simple, you have the prices, the examples and nothing more.

I'm really sorry I posted on the wrong place sardiine ! Thank you for the info, I will keep it in mind !

Yes it was really cheap and it was when I first started to be suspicious, it was $25 BUT it was supposed to be the price for a sketchy headshot. When I reached out to them I first only asked for an headshot and they were the one to tell me to take a fullbody ! They ignored my demand for an headshot ! Which was very weird but I though maybe they were tired of doing headshots and since they said I could pay after I was like "Ok we'll see !"

heterodont I think the person you found on da is the same person, I was informed they can easily be found with the art example. Which is a bit annoying because I wanted them to remain anonymous but I think the example is relevant to the thread. The quality is bad because it's a screenshot, the artist's name was in the file so I though it was juste more convenient to take a screenshot. And yes you're right, they didn't mention doing fullbodies, as I said in my answer to sardiine they only started advertizing their fullbodies in private !

SlayerOfDucks I agree, there's too many differences and that's what motivated me to do this thread. If they really did the art I don't understand why they did it like that, I just don't see why or where all the modifications came from... I did ask to remove the crystals though but only the big ones in the front not the small ones in the back, and for the outfit I did not ask to change it.

(I'm sorry if I made a lot of mistakes in my answers ;w;)

Alright! Based on your answers and what others have said, I would say yes, you are right to be suspicious about this artist! The fact that they gave no communication (even if they cannot understand English, translators do exist and they probably should have used one.) and gave the art within a few hours (in which in my opinion yes that is quite fast) along with what you have said about the suspicious prices, I would say yes, this artist is suspicious and you aren't being paranoid I would say!

yeah, as a commissioner they should be communicating with you, and unless they were given permission or informed you beforehand that they were going to make a lot of changes to the character's design, they should not be changing any details. their behavior has been very suspicious, and it honestly appears as if they just googled similar designs and stole another piece of art.

if they cannot make changes to the art so it resembles your character or they cannot extensively prove that they drew it, i would issue a refund and create a PSA on this artist.

The artist gave me more informations. They told me it was really cheap and they wanted to do a fullbody because they wanted to have more examples in their portfolio ! Also they explained the differences by the fact that they "mixed 3D models" to gain time but as I'm not an artist myself I'm not sure what it means... 

Does that count as a scam to mix models to make a commission if it's not said before ?... From what I understand they also draw on top of it.

(Also the artist was not talktative AT ALL and a few minutes after I posted this thread I received a whole wall of explanations so if you're reading this I didn't want to hurt your feelings, I was just really confused....)

I wouldn’t be comfortable with that if it’s not mentioned before hand as I heavily think that’s something they should be required to inform you of, if I was to order a comm I’d expect it to be drawn free hand or with minor artist-made bases as long as the base bits were disclosed to me before hand. I’ve never heard of mixing 3D models and haven’t worked with any artists who use that format so hopefully someone else will be able to answer that question bit of yours but I wouldn’t feel comfortable with it.. especially since they didn’t inform you about it before hand 

Im assuming from what they mean by "mixed 3D models" is that they used a 3D model as a base of sorts. I do that as well for posing and hands (on clip studio paint) but looking at the image you received that's not how the 3D model works. In my eyes the characters look vastly different as they added and changed a lot of the clothing and detail.
Examples:

I think personally you have been scammed in a way since the character itself does not look like your character aside from a similar color palette and vibe. I think your best bet would be to ask for a refund.

I kind of consider that to be more of a scam now. They should have been more transparent with what they were about too do and the fact that they "mixed 3d models" (whatever that is since they didn't even say they were too do that.) too make the art that you payed for is just honestly scammy behavior. They also should have communicated with you, their client as well during the business. I agree with the others, it is best to get a refund as soon as you can AND make a PSA about this artist to warn others about them. 

VictoryDrawsManga occultluxury Garghoul I was not sure either what they meant by that so i asked for details and I think I'll have to quote them on that because maybe I'm utterly dumb or maybe it's because I'm not an artist but I did not understand at all...

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/776194215930494977/854080314350895124/unknown.png

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/776194215930494977/854080457180577832/unknown.png

I would say what they’re talking about should’ve been mentioned to you before you bought/paid any art from them as some people may/do consider this tracing (not gonna go into that much since I feel it’s an argument starter so will neither confirm nor deny my stance on it) so with that fact in mind you should’ve been informed because that could’ve completely changed your mind on ordering the commission 

(also, someone correct me if i’m wrong) to explain what they’re doing (In my understanding) is they place a 3d model of a human body in said pose and then use it to go over where the lines are as a sorta overlapping reference/body base like thing In order to help with anatomy/pose. Basically, to simplify it some people would consider it drawing over a base (again, if i’ve got this wrong someone please correct me)