*sighs*
today I got a message from an account that asked for a commission. I get questions like these all the time but this was the first time someone ACTUALLY MESSAGED me about it. This account was misspelling everything, and their grammar wasn’t very good. Usually people like this are scammers or people who don’t appreciate art and are trying to obtain art as cheaply and quickly as possible. So I messaged him back telling him I don’t do commissions and that he should read my bio.
Then he messaged back saying he read my bio, saw I was an artist, and nothing else. They went on to say I wouldn’t say I was an artist unless I was a “fake” artist.
Now, there are 2 things wrong here;
1, he didn’t read my ENTIRE bio, only the start where I said I was an artist. If you don’t know this already, there’s a little arrow on some account’s bios where you can continue reading it. Clearly, this person doesn’t care enough or can’t read. I did get a person saying that they didn’t know I didn’t do commissions because they can’t read, but I think that might be bull shit. If you can’t read then how were you able to type a well written comment asking me about commissions? And I think this person might’ve pulled a similar stunt if I pushed harder.
2, if an artist says in their bio that they are an artist but don’t specify if they do commissions or not, don’t assume they do. Ask them privately and politely about commissions, and maybe use some proper grammar. I get some really nice people sometimes who ask for commissions, but are really polite and send links of their other socials for me to message them. And these people USUALLY leave a compliment, not that you have to, but it’s just nice for the artist to know that you’re ACTUALLY into their artwork. And if the artist says they don’t do commissions, don’t call them a fake artist. This is honestly just a sign that they don’t CARE about your work and just want cheap labor.
I really hate how this happened to me, and I hope none you small artists never get called a fake artist because you don’t do commissions. This is just a bad experience with an account I had today, and I hope more people are politer in the future. I know I’m a small artist with only 16 followers at the time I’m writing and posting this, but please share this around. 🙏 I want people to be politer to small artists, not to just see them as pathetic nobodies willing to pick up any job they can find.
Keep in mind these people are often scammers who won’t pay you for your work, or different scammers who want to run your work through AI and claim it’s their own.
If you do accept commissions, and so happen to accept one from one of these shady accounts, remember not to under price your services, always watermark your sketches, and if you don’t feel safe or comfortable, just block them, and move on with your life.
thanks for reading this, and stay safe out there. ❤️🩹
