fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #5911 ]

[ SECRET POST #5911 ]

⌈ Secret Post #5911 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

__________________________________________________

02.

__________________________________________________

03.

__________________________________________________

04.

__________________________________________________

05.

__________________________________________________

06.

__________________________________________________

07.

[Miraculous Ladybug]

__________________________________________________

08.

[Clockwise from top left: Ducktales, Until Dawn, Arknights]

__________________________________________________

09.

__________________________________________________

10.

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 42 secrets from Secret Submission Post #846.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

02. https://i.imgur.com/B9pJ4dh.png

Agreed with the sentiment - if an artist wants to sell their art they need to produce content and treat their customers well.

Also ironic in that many artists who do this probably complain about the evils of capitalism on a socieyal level while not doing what they want big companies do - treat their customers well.

However, I see that note on the side and now I'm 50/50 on whether OP is a troll.

Yeah. I hear a lot of "But ADHD!" and mental health issues and I'm not unsympathetic because I also have mental health issues that means it's hard to do creative work sometimes. But I don't take peoples' money and then blow past deadlines and ghost them because I know this about myself.

I don't think being ND is a good excuse for doing that. An artist might not intend to scam people, but either you deliver the product or you issue a full refund. Keeping the money, refusing to respond to the client and not actually fulfilling the commission is not okay.

Lol imagine if everyone else did that. "Sorry I didn't go to work today because social phobia kicked in" not gonna say I don't wanna do that EVERY DAY but because I am a pro I do not and I hope pro artists are the same.

I mean, needing a mental health day now and then seems fair and reasonable. But if you're going over the deadline, blowing off multiple projects, AND ghosting the people who paid you money, then that's just not reasonable. Either do the work like you promised, or apologize and give people their money back.

As an artist myself and someone who has been following artist_beware since LJ, I'm still surprised how many artists own art from one or two years while opening new commissions that get done in one week or two. Yes, people have burn outs or what the secret says and that's normal, but if you have an IOU list and you don't work on that before to open new commissions, makes me wonder if they think the commissioner would have forgotten the commission or they think they're so famous that people will forgive them or etc. That's not how you make yourself a trusty artist at all.

So yes, I agree with the secret but I also wouldn't commission any artist that is in A_B for the same reason.

No idea what is artist_beware but agreed that some people are crappy professionals

Artist_Beware is a community where artist and customers can post their shitty interaction with some artist/customer. Is mostly used for furry artists/customers but yeah, there are many crappy professionals in any art brand.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2023-03-14 00:21 (UTC) - Expand

Ooof I feel old.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2023-03-14 15:33 (UTC) - Expand

I don't care if commissioned art will take longer than first expected. Things happen. That's fine. But at least tell me and manage my expectations. I don't need to know why it's going to be late (that's the artist's business) but no contact or heads-up is not acceptable when you've paid for something. Even a short "I'm going to need an extra month" with no explanation is enough.

THIS. I once had a commission take several months longer than expected because the artist ran into some RL issues, but that's just it-- they communicated with me and told me what was up and kept me in the loop. And that was just fine! It wasn't like I needed the art right away or anything. I was happy to wait as long as it took for them to sort things out because they were very transparent with me about what was going on, so I never felt like they WEREN'T going to give me what I'd paid for.

Ugh, this happened to me with an artist some year ago - I was really stoked about the commission and it wasn't cheap either. And then the artist completely ghosted everyone while still opening new commission spots -I never saw her finish a single of those commissions. She was suffering from mental health stuff and was quite vocal about it so I was super reluctant to ask at first because I kept thinking "what if I pressure her too much" but after about two years of nothing (and also barely any word from her, especially not without prompting) I had enough and asked for my money back. At least that worked but it was so weird to see everyone still kissing her ass even after she basically scammed countless people.

Wait, but are you saying that you tried to contact her and no word from her and it wasn't just a matter of like "life issues" or "sorry I accidentally pressed the delete button on my sales excel file and now am lost" or w/e?

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2023-03-14 00:16 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2023-03-14 00:25 (UTC) - Expand

I agree with the base sentiment like other comments said, but your interactions with artists have been mostly positive, then it's negative one time, and boom, "AI art it is", lmao.

Is this a hot take? A secret? Why a secret?

As someone who's both bought and sold comissioned art before I fail to see that this isn't common sense

SA - Oh got it. The AI part is the secret.

Well fuck you for that. Everything else is common sense and you know it

There was a twitter thread going around recently discussing 'why artists ghost' that got some traction (the OP later had to clarify that this wasn't meant as a list of good excuses and please don't ghost your clients) and I suspect this secret is in response to that.

I absolutely hate seeing ND and mental health being used as an excuse for shitty behaviour because it makes life that much harder for everyone else dealing with those things. Stigmas are already so bad and now there are tons of artists and craftspeople who take on commissions they can’t do and blame their diagnoses for it. While still accepting more work! Gtfoh with that bullshit. That’s scamming people no matter how you look at it.

I could never earn a living doing any of my craft skills because I cannot work to someone else’s taste or time. I’ve hurt friendships over it and that’s fine by me because I don’t want anything to do with anyone who doesn’t respect the boundaries I set. I KNOW I can’t take commissions. I don’t talk myself into it and won’t let anyone else. I sure as hell wouldn’t “try” knowing I’d fail and then just ghost the person and keep their money.

agreed 100% as someone with adhd. i'm so sick and tired of people using it as an excuse to try to dodge responsibility for things because then people like me get treated suspiciously even though i bust my ass to make sure i always fulfill my obligations on time. if i take a translation commission and promise it by a certain date then it's going to be done by that date even if it means i have to stay up all night the night before to get it done because that's what i owe to the person who paid me money for it.

yes, i have adhd. i still get my shit done on time because when someone pays you to do something for them, you get it done.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2023-03-14 00:38 (UTC) - Expand

This. And I commissioned people back when I needed the money but, more than anything, what made me realize that I can't is not that I wouldn't fulfill the deadlines (of course I would) but my work would be inconsistent based on my mood and such so I quit. Never got any negative feedbacks or anything, but pretty sure some people weren't super happy (because the samples I made on my free time were better than what they got - but I wasn't the best at pricing either so no one complained probably in a "I got what I paid for" way) so yeah.

One thing is struggling with mental health issues, another is using it as an excuse for doing things in a sloppy unprofessional way really.

Yep. And if you can't hold down a day job because of your disability and take commissions for money...guess what, that *is* now your job. If things get bad, which I know they can do, give a refund. Yes, disability benefits suck in nearly all countries that have them, if you can even get them, but scamming people even though you had good intentions is not okay.

(I have an in-demand craft skill but doing a fandom-based craft swap was high enough stress for me, I'm not going to start doing it for pay.)

I'm not diagnosed with anything, but more because of executive dysfunction and because I'm afraid to rip off the metaphorical bandaid and find metaphorical maggots than because I'm neurotypical.

I have a full time job that I can mostly do okay, and understanding coworkers when I have issues.

I also have a bunch of creative hobbies and my current boss has figured out she can get more work out of me if I get to indulge in them on the clock.

It's like pulling teeth, and is making it harder to enjoy doing these things outside of work.

My boss has also learned not to set firm deadlines, so I set them myself and then get frustrated that I have to do the rest of my job and can't just hunker down and hyperfocus, and that my pace slows dramatically when I fall out of hyperfocus and have to work on it anyway.

Every time someone suggests I should turn my hobbies into an actual job or side hustle, I think of all the ruined/wasted supplies and times I've given up on projects or procrastinated for years, and the times where I only finished something last minute by working beyond exhaustion on one hour's sleep every day for a week and collapsed afterwards.

No, I will not sell my cosplay/plants/writing/cooking; my customers would be baffled and/or justifiably angry, possibly disappointed, and probably mostly owed refunds.

I would suck at communicating the whole time and also procrastinate about it and issuing refunds, and then panic when people got mad and ignore them harder.

Why the fuck would I do that to random strangers or myself?

Honestly I think we need a happy medium between 'artists are human too and shit happens so maybe cut them some slack if they're taking a little longer than advertised' and 'artists are uwu small beans whose mental issues mean it's super okay if they don't finish the thing they are being paid to do bc mental health.' Emergencies happen and as long as you keep your clients up on it that's fine, but ghosting is never okay and makes you a scammer. People commission artists because they are paying money for a service, not because they're making a charity donation to the [Artist]'s Bills Fund, so you either need to deliver the product or refund.

I was with you until you mentioned AI.

Hope you like your soulless, six-fingered, weird-ass looking art I guess. Or, actually, I don't, I hope it's creepy and disappointing.

I was fine with it initially on Twitter because there are some clients out there that are needlessly pushy asking for updates every day and then there are some artists who won't work on a due commission for years. Then when people were outright admitting that they took on commissions that they were overdue on, please feel sorry for them, I felt my blood boil. Personally, I feel as though I'm the most laid back client ever and it's gotten me in trouble before with people taking advantage of it in hopes I'll never bring it up. Which is why I am going anon with the comment: I don't want scammers to find me and trick me ha.

The conversation did bring up several solutions to major problems that I hope people familiarize themselves with. Issuing a refund and re-sending it over Paypal to reset the refund period every few days. Using sites like Fiverr where there's deadlines that must be met. Things like that.

As for the AI bit, have you considered F2U/P2U bases instead? They're practically like old school doll makers where you piece together what you want and with bold lines, it makes it easy to flat color them. There's a lot of P2U bases that are dirt cheap for personal use and of course, F2U are free to use. Artists have been putting them up on places like ko-fi where you can pay for the download directly without any wait. It's not the same as a commissioned piece of art, but it's generally better looking than AI generated content.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only