A reminder -- commissioning is a two-way street...

[pseudomanitou.livejournal.com]

The main complaints I heard over and over at Anthrocon 2009 as I talked with other artists?
poor character references; old character references; no references

And now that Anthrocon is over and most artists are at home trying to round up their commissions before they travel or go back to work/college -- the complaints I hear the most are very similar:
poor character references; old character references; no references; they won't respond to my e-mail requests for more information

...Those of you out there who have purchased commissions have as much responsibility to make sure the artwork comes out correctly as the artists do.

Also: just about every artist I met that was at Anthrocon has only a limited window of time before their other responsibilities force them to put commissions on the back-burner. If you do not move FAST on these artists' requests for more details, you could receive an improperly done image, or be put on hold for a very long time. (And then you risk making a fool of yourself by complaining to this journal about a project that you, in fact, dropped the ball on.)

Get back to work.

Comments

[shinigamigirl.livejournal.com]

Amen. A reoccurring issue I have with some commissioners is their inability to give prompt responses. I know they don't all spend their days online, but chances are they should be able to bother checking their email at least once every 2 days. As you mentioned, I am on a tight schedule and it pisses me off to have to wait a week for a reply on a question about their commission, no matter how nice the client otherwise is.

Giving poor or incorrect references multiplies the times I have to pose these questions.

[sekhmet.livejournal.com]

My biggest pet peeve about commissions.

[shinigamigirl.livejournal.com]

It's funny, I got a guy doing this to me right after you had that one commissioner do it to you. XD (and he keeps doing it, argh!)

[sekhmet.livejournal.com]

oh man.The end of last month(because of slow commissioners) and the beginning of this one since I moved has been slow production time. I cannot stand it when things dont get done XD

All I can say is theyd better not complain about it taking long to get done :D I try to work on a few commissions at the same time and rotate them/work back and forth as replies get in. I prefer focusing on 1 so its always pleasent when someone gives prompt replies. I can understand that not everyone is glued to the computer but man.

[lainmokoto.livejournal.com]

I agree with both things you are saying. I've waited a year to hear back from a client once, and now it seems to be happening again but this time it's only been two week, they seem nice enough though.:/