Client Beware: kitsunaluna(Tumblr)/cactusbasedcola(Discord)
Reasons for beware:
refusal to communicate
refusal to pay
ordering commissions while knowingly unable to pay
Sometime last year, kitsunaluna commissioned me to create a full reference sheet of one of her characters. For reasons outside my control I was not able to finish which I explained, and she accepted this and was willing to wait until I could finally finish. I was finally able to finish in April of this year, some time after a personal falling out in January that is neither relevant to this situation nor severe enough to warrant any kind of call-out on its own.
I sent her a watermarked version of the piece she commissioned on April 5 of this year, with no response. I messaged her again multiple times between June 4 and June 10, again hearing nothing back. On June 22 I finally threatened action in the form of setting a deadline for October 2023 and stating that I would be posting this very Client Beware if I did not receive payment for my work by then.
At this point she finally responded, saying that I had supposedly cancelled the commission. I had done no such thing and told her such, to which she said I had done so over voice chat. I know that was certainly not the case, as I have not spoken to her since mid-January. It also wasn't in my best interest to cancel a piece when A. I was in great need of the money I should have received, and B. I was rather far along and had put a lot of work into it up until I was rendered unable to finish.
Alas, I must admit that I don't have written proof of any of this in writing, as all of our discussion regarding her commission had occurred over voice chat(but even if I had, that evidence would be impossible to retrieve, as you will see in one of the below screenshots). I know it's easy to get burned when someone's source is "dude, just trust me", but further evidence should support my claims of her tying to lie to me.
Back when we still talked, she would often remark on how she wanted to commission artists but had no money to do so, or how she was stressed because she owed artists money for work they'd done for her even though she was struggling with bills.
I am aware of other artists she has commissioned, and have contacted them to ask about their experiences with her.
One artist has done work that went unpaid, and even refunded work that was partially paid for.
One artist was paid for a few pieces, then stopped being paid after a while. She continued to ask them for more commissions despite still owing them money.
One artist has not been paid, but was smart enough to not start yet.
One artist has done work that had been paid for, so credit where credit is due I suppose.
As of time of writing(July 13, 2023) I have received no further communications from her.
Here is proof of her purposefully ignoring my attempts to get in contact and trying to get out of paying me:
(Note the date of the screenshot I sent kitunaluna: January 14, 2023)
Here is proof that I was rather far along with the piece prior to my technical difficulties(this is a rather old message with no accompanying text, but I can assure that I would not have cancelled a commission this far in):
Here are testimonies from other artists she has commissioned/attempted to commission(with names, profiles, and avatars redacted + color coded for clarity):
(Note the mention of an entire channel in her Discord server being nuked; even if there was proof, I wouldn't be able to access it.)
In conclusion, I believe it is in the best interests of both any potential commissioner's and kitsunaluna herself that any artist denies any future commissions from her. She is evasive when confronted, has unhealthy spending practices, and has no respect for artists' time and work.
You're most likely to run into her if you're into Monster Hunter, Cookie Run Kingdom, or Don't Starve IIRC.
