Basically, I hired an artist here and we discussed everything for the art. I also explained as much as I can and told her that if she needs help, she can contact me anytime and I'd help her ASAP. We agreed upon it and she said she can't start without the downpayment which is very understandable so I paid her a downpayment.
A month passes with no response from her after I paid her despite me messaging her from everywhere (discord, reddit, email) so I got worried if I got scammed. She then responds to me apologizing because stuff happened in her personal life. I said it's okay to take a break but be sure to send me a message so I don't get worried. Anyway, she said she will send the draft a week later and she will send the full artwork after a month. I was happy and we agreed.
A month passes and she only sent her draft and apologized for not finishing on time and promises to finish it in a month. I said I understood but I told her I need the art already since I have a schedule planned and it has been severely delayed. I also have a down payment and waited this long already so I'm invested into her at this point. I also asked her to update me often because she vanishes. She said she would but she doesn't.
Another month passes and she sends 3 more drafts which are just line arts. She apologized saying she just got out of the hospital. I responded to her and I still have yet to receive a response back. I messaged her everywhere including her thread here in Lemma Soft. She logged on recently here but she hasn't responded to me.
She has good feedback from her past clients so I wasn't worried at the 1st two months thinking she just had personal issues like everyone else but I was starting to get impatient because I was hoping for this project to somehow at least help me in my financial struggles even for a little bit and I have a schedule all planned out in the next few months. I can't follow that now since the project has been delayed.
I did notice that the last customer who posted in the artist's thread said she hired LoiLoi and the customer waited for 5 months and hasn't heard from the artist again.
I'm not entirely sure what's the reason for the long delays. She said she just had family or personal issues but it could also be that she gets a lot of commissions.Arent wrote: ↑Thu Oct 26, 2017 5:59 am Ok, it's now 5 Months & I never heard anything from Loiloi again. I commissioned now another artist.
I do not like to do this, but since the replies by discriminate & several others on deviantart give the impression that they had similar experiences I have to caution everyone & advice you to demand a watermarked version of the final picture & not pay anything upfront.
I do not want to exclude the possibility that loiloi has stuff for school to do or simply has taken too many commissions for her to fullfill, but that would result in a similar caution.
I didn't want to do this but I've invested so much time waiting on the artist and trusting she would deliver so I just wanted some opinion and help as to how to handle this. This is the second time I got an artist to help me. The first time was with a friend whom we agreed that we would partner together and that he would do the art and I would do everything else like the coding but after a month passes, he never did the art and never replied.
For reference, this is her thread viewtopic.php?f=62&t=42601&start=30 Her DA is also there. Her art is really amazing and she has had positive feedback from her past customers. As of the time of this writing, it has been 4 months since I hired her.
Sorry for the long post. Thank you for all the help.