Bad Artist

If you follow me regularly, then you know that I have commissioned A LOT of art over the years. I've worked with dozens of different artists from all over the world thanks to our friend Mr. Internet. There have been a lot of amazing artists that I've had the chance to work with (and continue to work with) and some that I never want to lay eyes on again.

As a professional artist myself - and someone who has worked in the realms of the advertising world for more years than I want to say - I feel I'm totally in my rights to stand on a soapbox and make my voice heard. There are two simple rules that every artist, including myself, should have to live by:

Rule #1: NEVER PISS OFF YOUR CLIENT!!!
Rule #2: If you don't agree with your client, see Rule #1.

I've recently had the misfortune of "working" with three of the most awful artists. I'll refrain from giving their names or blogs because A) it is completely tacky to name names and B) I'd hate to give them traffic/advertising of any sort.

The first "artist," kept me and my project dangling for over three weeks. I passed on working with a few other (more talented) people because I was already contracted with someone else. So, three weeks in, no peep and I finally email him only to discover that he has "decided to pass on the project in order to work on something else." WFT?!? And when exactly was I, his current client, going to be informed of this? Apparently never. I wrote a polite, but scolding, reply to which he responded that he felt I was "guilting him into doing it."

Artist number two wasn't much better. I chatted with him several times through his Livestream and, after being closed for a period, announced that he was finally opening slots for commission pieces again. I was so excited, he agreed to do my piece and he told me to email him the details. I took care of everything that very night and sent it along. And never heard from him until I saw he was streaming again a week later. I asked if he was still interested and he told me he was so busy he hadn't checked his email in a while. Understandable. He looked things over and even started working on it in that very stream. I was so excited to see him doing it live and then he made an error with my character (minor, but important) and I asked him to please change it. His response was to delete the entire piece and then ban me from the room.

The last is perhaps the worst. Due to his popularity, I understood that I would have to patiently wait my turn. Suddenly, just after I sent him all of the specs and reference pictures, he decided that he was only having a single slot open and that people would now have to "compete" for the chance to hire him. After frantically emailing him for over a month attempting to win a slot, I finally succeeded in nabbing one. Only to get an email 15 minutes after his original telling me that I didn't respond fast enough and he passed the slot to someone else on the list! Apologies, I didn't realize that I needed to sit patiently by my computer desperately hitting refresh waiting for a reply from you.

I spent a decent hour deleting every piece that I ever reblogged or favorited from any of them on any site that I could think of. It may sound petty, but why I should I give these horrible artists any support or free publicity. I didn't even know it was possible on some of the sites, but I found a way. Why would I support artists who don't appreciate their clients or fans. I try to be understanding of every situation. I know all too well that real life gets in the way of things and plans are forced to change.

These are three very extreme (albeit recent) cases. For every bad artist, there have been a dozen great ones that I loved working with. If you're interested in working with an artist you've never worked with before, get some feedback from their former commissioners. Ask them in advance about their work ethics and communication process. Do they give you any updates or progress reports, if not, can they? What is their process from payment to completion? And if anything doesn't jive with what you want, DO NOT HIRE THEM. Often times that nagging bit of doubt is telling you not to do something for good reason.