Blaque Tygriss warning warning warning. "Update" ;)

[grygon.livejournal.com]

Posting this cause I noticed some activity on her yahoogroup- namely that she has deleted it. So I suspect she is up to SOMETHING. Guess we'll see. Anyone have a furbuy and furbid account to see if she's accepting commissions when my plush has STILL not been fullfilled nor refunded (since 2004, people)?

Anywho, the story is long and boring but you should be warned in case my suspicions are true and she's accepting commissions and doing new artwork despite saying in a March 2009 post to her yahoogroup that she won't until all commissions are refunded or fullfilled.

So here are the past posts about her since there still isn't a tag for her:
8-6-2005
8-26-2005
9-23-2005
10-9-2005
12-11-2005
1-8-2006
2-19-2006
5-15-2006
8-27-2006

Can't believe it's been THAT long since I last posted to warn people. I meant to at least twice a year.

Anyhoo... one of her last posts in March 2009 to her yahoogroup right before it got deleted:

Posted by: "A. Gaillard" blaquetygriss@yahoo.com blaquetygriss
Sun Mar 1, 2009 7:33 pm (PST)
I hadn't been to this group since 2006 something honestly.

This is an announcement (an old one actually but new to any who hadn't heard) that as of 2007 I WILL NO LONGER ACCEPT COMMISSIONS OF ANY SORT FROM NOW ON. NO LONGER WILL THERE BE ANY ART AUCTION ON ANY AUCTION WEBSITE.

I WILL COMPLETE/REFUND COMMISSIONS THAT ARE UNDONE AND STUPIDLY (on my part) UNNECESSARILY WELL OVERDUE. ASIDE FROM THAT I AM /NOT/ TAKING ON NO MORE COMMISSIONS NEVER AGAIN.

I can either give you something that is already drawn/made, refund or complete the commission. Bare in mind refunds will take a bit as I am seriously tight on cash and commission completions will be completed
upon time they were received.

Only spare plushies I have already made is a werewolf, dragon and a host of near-done critters. Artwise it mainly consist of tons of sketch art of varying adult and tame situations.

I don't know WTF is wrong with me or my drive to draw, I feel insanely burnt out and can't even stand the sight of pen and paper. Never in my life have I drawn just one image every six or more months. It's gotten that bad. This shit has seriously pissed me off with myself because I never had this problem up til 2006 when all that bullcrap went on in my life.

This is NOT an excuse, this is an EXPLANATION because if it was me looking from the outside in I would want a explanation. Fuck the excuses, I am just burnt the f*ck out.

Unless wanting otherwise stated by members, in a week this Yahoo group will be deleted.

My email account is and always will be the one here on Yahoo. My web galleries that I visit every now and then are on Sheezyart, Deviantart and Furaffinity if needing to contact me.

Again I deeply apologize for the heartache, set backs and harm I have caused to any and everyone. It seriously was not my intention for things to turn out the way it did. People who commissioned me back in 2002-2003 can tell you I use to be fast, like 48hrs fast. Now? I just lost every and all drive to draw like I use to, much less thread a
needle to sew. I never thought would suffer burn out but did.

And more I think of it, it's pissing the FUCK out of me.
Sorry for the bad grammar and English.
-Blaquetygriss

And I should mention- I emailed her after that post about getting a refund and... no reply. Big shock.

I wonder if she's ever gonna start believing in karma? Seriously, if she straightened this mess out I bet her life would start to improve a lot. I don't feel sorry for the mess she's in and I never will. I say she deserves some of the shit she has had flung at her because of the shit she has flung at her clients.

Maybe that's harsh of me, and yes hindsight is 20/20 and I could have done a LOT to prevent getting ripped off by her ($400, for those who haven't read all those links) but there is no excuse for her. None. I don't have many regrets as I learn from my mistakes... but I will always regret BlaqueTygriss. Yes, I also learned from that mistake, but I also direly regret it.


(Posted edited for a minor html italics glitch that doesn't seem to want to go away... *pokes it*)

Comments

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

It's a shame some artists do things like this, it not only hurts them, it hurts us all by making clients less likely to hire us for big jobs.

A jaguarundi isn't all that big, to be honest, the price is still surprising based on the size of the plushie and some quick material calcuations. Unless someone is inordinately slow, 400 would work out to a -lot- more than minimum wage after the materials are subtracted.

[grygon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I realize that now. But back then... as I said, I was newb in a lot of areas despite being fairly active in the fur fandom since 1999.

[beetlecat.livejournal.com]

Dunno. When one considers what a good fursuit head costs - I really doubt I could make a large custom plush in much less time. IMO $400 equals about 3 days of work if one wants to make any kind of decent living. But perhaps someone with more experience than me can whip one up in less time.

[grygon.livejournal.com]

I'd say $400 for 3 days work is more than decent. $400 is my paycheck every two weeks as an educator before benefits and tax are deducted out.

[beetlecat.livejournal.com]

My baseline is about $1000 every too weeks. That is what a high skills job around here should pay or at the very least is what I could make with another 2 years of schooling and an apprenticeship. I'm talking like this is a career not just a way to make ends meet for now.

I'm sure you like your job, but I do not know how you can ever save money for retirement.

[grygon.livejournal.com]

I can't. I'm 28 and have to live at home cause $400 every 2 weeks is not nearly enough to pay for even a 1 room apt here.

Believe me I'm trying to get a better job, and I've tried making money off my art. I have a bachelors in art and I'm stuck working no where near my field, unless you count the Classroom Rules poster I made this year.

Some people just have it easier. At least I have a roof over my head. I'd rather an elitist artist paycheck everyweek.

[beetlecat.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's time to move somewhere there ARE jobs. Maybe take on a 2nd one. For a while I did summer work to earn a wage and then did art in the winter to hone my skills.

[grygon.livejournal.com]

well, supposedly there "are" jobs here. in the last few years my city has had a few new movie studios open here. but there's always someone more qualified. and whenever i apply for a job more my level i get bypassed as being "over qualified". can't find a nice level middle ground. so... unless i have a job waiting for me, moving to another city is not worth the risk.

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

Not to boast or anything, but 3 full days seems over long to me (if working consistently). To be honest, I would expect if pulling a full day shift on a plushie with understructure to be finished in a day and a half/two days if I worked consistently. But that's just me.

[beetlecat.livejournal.com]

*nod nod* That sounds accurate to me. I don't have any real experience in plushes as I find them quite difficult to want to work on XD

Though I DO know I've seen very detailed and realistic ones bring in $1000+ Outside of furry, the toy dog plush market (lifesized realistic maltese for example) are VERY popular. Something to look into maybe.

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

I suppose it just depends on how much time you can devote to one item, if you're spending hours on it, you should command a price worth that time. But if you're throwing it together in three evenings? That can be a lot less hours.

Might indeed be an idea, once I get an airbrush, I'll have to consider it.

moar chest thumping?

[grygon.livejournal.com]

Must be nice to not have a fulltime regular job.

Most of us have to rely on our day jobs for the most of our money. By the time I get home I do NOT have enough time to make a QUALITY plush (assuming I made them) before bedtime.

And if some artist said to me "great, it will be designed and finished and in the mail in less than 24 hours1" I would so get out faster than a bat in hell, cause I don't see how that can be a quality job. Plus, to me, it screams of quantity (not quality).

But go on, go "actually..." and chest thump some more.

Re: moar chest thumping?

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

No, it's not nice. You want to swap being ambulatory for a wheelchair, having a collagen defect so you have to put dislocated bones back in once an hour and a condition that fucks with your balance so it's like being on a rollercoast constantly and occasionally gets so bad that it's enough to force unconsciousness? Cos if you do? I'd be more than happy to give it all to you and make it so employers will want to hire me again instead of bolting the other way because I'm too disabled.

I was talking about it as a 9-5 job, ie spending eight hours daily working on it.

Also just because something is done quickly does not mean it's sloppy. I can make a table quicker than the average person, it'll still be better than the average person's effort. But then I know how to cut execution time down with good prep.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's an interesting comparison. I know I paid $300 for a head and it seems very reasonable.
BUT I think heads require a bit more sculpting and "skill"? By which I mean, heads are very "visually sensitive" beasts and if one thing is even a little off (say, the spacing of the eyes) it can make the whole thing look horrible, whereas I think plushies would usually be a bit more forgiving...

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

Depends actually, unless you're creating a human? You can get things wrong a lot when it comes to features on non-humans and most people will not notice. That's why the top two tests of rendering are free handing a perfect circle and drawing people.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

well yeah, human faces are less forgiving than anthro faces (because we are very familiar with what a human face is supposed to look like), but I'd still say any face is less forgiving than, say, ears and a tail, or even a plush with a face that is extremely simplified.

[grygon.livejournal.com]

An educated consumer would not buy a head, human OR animal or anthro that was not right. Plus, if the consumer is commissioning a specific animal head then you know that consumer knows how the head should look. Animal heads may be simplified but any artist who has bothered to research and use references with their artwork can tell you animal heads are not as simple as most people think.

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

I'd have to disagree, I don't know about anyone else but wall eyed or cross eyed critters look kind of bizarre to me but I've seen others overlook it and gush about how great a piece of art they got was when the character has eyes looking in two different directions, or even some pretty awkward anatomy.

Not that that is any excuse to produce poor work but it's a case of an artist as a customer notices these things, non-artists? Not so much.

[grygon.livejournal.com]

Big surprise you disagree. My sister was like you. When she was 14.

I wanna try something here, little experiment... Linenth, the sky is blue.

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

Of course it's blue looking, I'm not disagreeing for the sake of disagreement itself. (technically the sky isn't blue, it's colourless, the blue colour comes from the light being bounced and bent inside it)

I'm just saying that some people are faster than you'd expect with no loss of quality and that non-artist customers don't tend to focus on anatomy as much as artists do so don't tend to notice things that are off as much as an artist customer would. Spending a lot of time thinking about something or seeing something tends to make people hyper-sensitive to when it's done wrong.

I don't know what your problem is but I bet it's something long and hard to pronounce.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

Dude, I'm just talking about pricing of commissions and why $300 is pretty good for a fursuit head vs kinda steep for a plush (assume a plush of similar size to a head). I'm not saying animal heads are "less complicated" than human heads IRL - just that most humans are VERY SENSITIVE to faces of other humans. Faces of animals too, but I really don't think it's quite the same.
I'm an artist, I know animal heads are complicated :P I have a harder time drawing anything other than wolves or humans because that's what I've practiced a lot - going outside my species of familiarity takes a lot of work and reference photos.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

... of course the other thing is I'm sure the materials costs for a fursuit head are much higher. Foam + taxidermy bits (either purchased or made by the creator) + fur, etc, probably more than filler beans and fur.

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

Depends on what sort of plush imho, I've been pricing up the costs animatronic plush puppets lately and their base cost is about the same as for a fursuit head, also good quality stuffing and fur is always going to cost more than cheap foam and fun fur.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

Ah, but what about an anamatronic plush vs an /anamatronic fursuit head/ ?

(at this point I have no idea!!!)

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

Probably about the same if they're the same size. :P