Sponty (NSFW OC Commission)
Added 2021-07-04 21:11:44 +0000 UTCWoo~I'm finally done with this commission !
Three months of back-and-forth and multiples delays later, it is complete. I liked working on it, the client was very nice and I liked this character but... Three months, wow.
I'll admit I contemplated the idea of giving up and refunding them multiple times. But again, the client was nice and probably had their reasons, plus they were last on my queue so, I can understand.
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Now that *all* the commissions are done, I wonder; Would it be rude for an artist to "blacklist" some of their previous clients ?
Because in the last batch of commission, on one side I got amazingly reactive and generous people, who were understanding, patient, but also knew what they wanted and almost always answered in a timely manner.
BUT- on the other side, I also got :
- People disappearing for a month before giving me any feedback/approval and then coming back to me two days later, asking if I'm finished.
- People asking me to pay less or delay payment repeatedly to the point where two months after, I still didn't get paid.
- People literally asking me to color something red and ask me why I didn't make it blue (and I insist on "literally")
- People trying to redraw some parts of the drawing because they thought they'd do a better job.
- And let's just say, people combining multiple of these "traits".
So yeah. With all due respect for them, would it be legitimate for me to express a disinterest in working with these people, ever again ?
Comments
Well, thank you ! The thing is, I can understand going through some things and not having as much time to dedicate to art. I could think of a hundred things more important than art or (in my case) pin-ups, and I'm a pin-up illustrator, I love this stuff ! I don't expect people to answer me right away or even the day after, I don't mind if it takes a week for them to come with a response. I know I personally take quite some time to craft my answers in the best way I can (since English isn't my native language, it can be tough to convey what I want to effectively.) What really rubbed me the wrong way is when I asked for a simple "yes or no", and almost a month later when they finally said yes, they got back to me two days later asking if I'm finished like I was slowing things down. What can one even say to that ?
Grand Sage
2021-07-05 13:13:31 +0000 UTCThank you very much for your input, I appreciate it. I will probably go for a slightly less abrupt process with a "Cool Down List", where people would have to wait another commission batch for me to work with them again, because I still think that just blacklisting can be a little harsh... I'm ready to believe most of them just "didn't know" and are probably used to work like that with some artists. But yeah, there are also a few of them who just didn't give a damn about the whole commissioning process for some reason, and I'll try not to spend too much time on those in the future. (I mean if they didn't care before, why would they *now* and why should I ?)
Grand Sage
2021-07-05 12:58:38 +0000 UTCThanks, yeah I'll probably start by defining more terms beforehand anyway, to avoid misunderstandings or even just as a clear warning. But honestly even with all that, most of the commissions went along really well so I can't really complain. I just wanted to make sure that adding some "tougher rules" wouldn't be uncalled for. So thanks for your feedback !
Grand Sage
2021-07-05 12:36:50 +0000 UTCHaving been a client for 100s of commissions, me waiting longer then 24 hours to respond to an artist is Not ok, let alone 24 days. So don’t feel bad about black listing. I think the worst I’ve done is wait 6 days. Life can take a bad turn sometimes, but even with being hospitalized, it only takes a few seconds to respond to an email.
Antonio B.
2021-07-05 12:16:58 +0000 UTCIt is absolutely okay to not work with clients you don't want to work with. If people rub you the wrong way or make you dislike working for them, then you don't work for them. By continuing to work with people like that, you're only doing a disservice to yourself. You don't gotta put up with that crap - especially because having worked with you multiple times I know you are an absolute professional. You've always treated me with the utmost respect and you absolutely deserve to receive similar from your clients. The only people who will think ill of you for blacklisting clients is the people you are blacklisting, and their opinion is quite clearly the one that matters the least on the matter.
Colettuce
2021-07-05 01:32:02 +0000 UTCI think that sounds completely reasonable. I would definitely look to add more terms to a list some where just to prevent future situations like that. A cool down list works but if those new terms aren't added then they or someone else might do that again. Sorry to hear that though. Issues like those would be rough to deal with for sure!
NuFlash
2021-07-04 22:33:13 +0000 UTCYou're fine. I'm glad my feedback was helpful. Commissions are transactions so there'll come times when you'll have to place stricter rules so that there's no misunderstandings or hang ups.
Fervor
2021-07-04 22:03:38 +0000 UTCAh, a "Cool Down" for commissions, that's a great idea ! That would be a lot less abrupt and more reasonable... I didn't think of that, thanks ! I did think of adding more "terms and conditions" to my next Commission Sheet however (I just don't know when I'll open them again, but I'll work on that.) I really hope I didn't sound rude asking this here, because while I do not want to name anyone (for good or bad reasons) I'd like to point out that none of the Patron's Commissions I got here fell under these "problematic traits". Every problem I mentioned happened for commissions I accepted to take from Twitter, even though I initially wanted to keep this batch Patreon-exclusive... (And the fact I managed to get 3~4 of these behaviors from one single person made me feel a need to toughen some rules up.)
Grand Sage
2021-07-04 21:51:32 +0000 UTCHm? You're definitely entitled to have a blacklist for both the sake of your profession and sanity. I've seen some artists express in their commission sheet reasons as to what can get a person on their blacklist as forewarning. If you feel strongly about it then it's fine to do so but as a suggestion if not a blacklist maybe a "commission cool down list" where if a person's added they have to wait to commission you again.
Fervor
2021-07-04 21:27:02 +0000 UTC
