Commissioning Problem

[wendybirdx]

My dad is an orchestral conductor and he told me something fairly interesting about the music industry that I think can apply to artwork, as well. Often, musicians are paid for a certain amount of rehearsals and a final performance (usually between 1-3 rehearsals for a small amount of songs). He said that, if underpaid when offered three rehearsals (this was someone's wedding), they would only show up to the performance, maybe to one rehearsal at most. That they wouldn't warn you, or tell you, just show up for whatever they thought they were fairly paid for. Now, this isn't fair since they're accepting the money for all rehearsals nor is it honest, but it's the standard and it's unfortunately what you can expect (at least in my country). As you have probably noticed, this is very much true for artists, as well - without pay, it's easy for them to feel no obligation or true commitment to a project and simply leave. So yes, payment is an important factor.

However, I don't think you've been too wise about your payment system. Paying artists beforehand not only makes way for these sorts of situations but gives them little reason other than a moral obligation to continue working. Unfortunately, moral obligation tends to be very ineffective when compared to the promise of payment.

I'm very sorry about your situation, but I do think there is something to be done to prevent the situation from happening again. I would personally only offer the payment once the work is completed. To protect the artist, as well, they can send you proof of completion as a watermarked version of the piece, proceeded by your payment, proceeded by an unwatermarked version of the artwork being sent back to you. If the artist isn't comfortable with that system, you could propose a 50/50 split, where you send them the first half of the commission in the beginning (I'd require at least a sketch to prove they've started working on it) and the other half after they've finished the piece.

It's very kind of you to pay upfront, but unfortunately, online transactions leave a lot of space for fleeing and suddenly disappearing, as you've probably discovered.

If possible, I'd also check with previous commissioners. If you can find other commission pieces and who they were done for, it would be wise to ask the previous commissioners how the artist performed in terms of deadlines and respectfulness. And, agreeing with the rest, if an artist has disrespected you or taken your money, others should be notified publicly.