Dear Art Shop Customers...

[Emotionless]

I don't know how many times this has happened to my sister. She was making art for other,and people just kept wanting more. She slowly left CS,because she was getting upset. Some customers were yelling at her because the art she was working on for them had taken more than a day. Thank you so much for the important message!

[ya like jazz]

Say you ordered from an artshop, with not many costumers so not long of a wait for art, and you submit a form and send your trade (pets), but they never accept/deny your form, accept/cancel your trade, or make your art and give it to you? And you've waited for a few days/weeks for them to finish, but they never have?
Also, they're online almost every day, and ignore your posts & PMs??
What do you do?

[Dreamfall]

Say you ordered from an artshop, with not many costumers so not long of a wait for art, and you submit a form and send your trade (pets), but they never accept/deny your form, accept/cancel your trade, or make your art and give it to you? And you've waited for a few days/weeks for them to finish, but they never have?
Also, they're online almost every day, and ignore your posts & PMs??
What do you do?

I'd say, try to remember them per pm one more time, and if they still don't reply, cancel the trade and best forget about it D:
I tend to forget to finish an order from time to time, but usually I remember as soon as people send me a pm (of course it's sad though that they even need to do that, but oh well, we all have hard times now and then. x__x)

well, this thread is really helpful, I read it the first time today, unfortunately. I should've linked to this in my shop when it was open for customs. When people decided to just cancel their orders because I had a lot of stress. THOUGH I already started, they didn't even ask per pm or something. This disappointed me pretty much. I kinda understand when people get tired of waiting for their art, I don't like to wait for ages either, but everyone should know that life isn't a straight line, it has many ups and downs, and sometimes the downs take for some longer, especially if it comes to health and family problems. That's the reason why I closed my customs forever. I just don't see why I should spend my time on start drawing pictures for people when they suddenly decide to cancel their trades and their order. wth.

[StarHorse]

I agree to all this. I have an art shop in real life, outside Oekaki. People keep expecting me to do things that... Just... Well... I can't get done that soon, or they don't specify what thy want, so of I end up giving them a baby hippo sitting in water and they wanted one drinking something, and all they put on the order form "baby hippo" then how was I supposed to know? And then thu act like its all my fault. They know I just search for refs on Google Images. People.

[WitchSoul0123]

I've recently opened up a charecter design and breeding shop. I respect the people who made this thread!

[survira]

I've been thinking about something recently, and I feel it needs to be called to the attention of the CS community. There is a proper way to treat a person with an art shop, and a lot of people here don't seem to know what that way is. And because of the rudeness, incomprehensible language, and general disrespect a lot of you show to artists here, many of the truly talented individuals who may once have considered doing art for you no longer feel that they can keep up when they are shown nothing but foul manners and general stupidity.

Be polite. Being rude will not get a thing done for you with an artist in the real world. I don't care how many pets you gave them, I don't care if you "need" your request done by a specific date, and I don't care that you couldn't be bothered to read the entire rule section because the shop had just opened and you wanted to get a spot before it closed. Artists are people, and people appreciate good manners. Which brings me to my next point.

Artists are people, not machines. Now, some people spend five minutes on MS Paint scribbles, then wonder why no one will pay for their art. Others spend days on requests, and charge next to nothing, considering the time it takes. And still others feel forced to shut down their shops for good because their customers can't learn to keep their mouths shut and stop pestering. We all have real lives: you, me, everyone. When you think of bothering an artist, please try to take a walk in their shoes first. Would you want someone pestering you when you are honestly doing the best you can to get their work done? Art is a fickle thing. The talent seems to come and go. Sometimes, artists go through blocks and have a tough time getting their thoughts onto paper. Sometimes, requests seem to just draw themselves. But as a customer, the polite, decent, and respectful thing to do is to mind your own business and be patient.

Speak intelligently. Probably the biggest cause of customer outrage because of a wrongly-drawn design, chatspeak is also a pet peeve of many of our more literate members. It makes you sound stupid, immature, and irresponsible. If you think you're cool by omitting basic punctuation and capitalization and shortening words, you are most certainly not. Now, how does chatspeak cause a misinterpretation of a design? Well, if the artist can't understand what you're saying, then how do you expect them to do your request?

Wait your turn. Look through Bouquetblu's Jelly Baby thread. Seriously, just look. How many forms do you see that were submitted when her shop title read "Closed" or when the slots were already filled? Probably many more than were actually taken. It's just plain sad when a private art shop thread needs mini-moderators to keep things in check, but curiously enough, that was exactly what happened with Blu's. If you're not entirely new to CS you may also recall a certain WonderWolfess' art shop. Now, WonderWolfess is extremely talented, definitely one of the best canine artists I have ever seen on CS, and it was very charitable of her to create an art shop to begin with, considering that on her DeviantART account she charges real money for her art. Blu and Wolfie have very different styles, but there is one thing they have in common: very, very high demand. So high, in fact, that people can't seem to wait their turn. Blu frequents the Artist Rant thread, and I know she has her fair share of horror stories about how impatient and rude people can be. Wolfie no longer has an art shop because for her, the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back came in the form of someone who had the nerve to post their form and even change her title so it said "Open" in their reply. That scenario is not just rude, it is incredibly demeaning to the artist. Did this person honestly think Wolfie was stupid enough not to notice a simple title change? Apparently this is the case, or the person wouldn't have tried it to begin with.

This next one was added by Wendigo, and I think she makes an excellent point, so this is going here, too:

Commission =/= Friendship: Never assume that the artist you are commissioning wants to be your friend simply because you pay them. Some artists would rather keep contact with you strictly professional and business related. They're not interested in you contacting them to chat about your day or you sending them a link to a Youtube video you found funny. Most artists really don't care to get to know you deeper other than what you're paying. It sounds cold, but a business relationship is much different than a friendly relationship.

And for the love of God, don't contact an artist and ask for their offsite personal contact information (e-mail, instant message, etc) so you can chat with them. You have absolutely no reason to require that information.

This point was suggested by Liongirl Mew. Thank you very much!
Don't minimod unless asked. Some customers seem to think the artist will appreciate them more if they act as vigilantes on the thread. This is not the case. If it isn't your thread and the artist hasn't specifically asked you to patrol it for them, it's not a good idea to do so. You are not the artist, so you do not know specifically what the artist is looking for in forms, or whether another customer has asked a legitimate question or has a legitimate complaint. If you feel that someone is being excessively rude on an artist's thread, the right thing to do is report the post so a moderator can handle it. It is not your responsibility to uphold the artist's rules. Many times a well-meaning customer will enforce rules incorrectly, which only leads to confusion for the other customers and more work for the artist, as they have to go back and correct any misinformation. The best thing you can do if you see someone breaking an artist's rules on a thread is to PM the artist and notify them, or, again, report the post and let a moderator handle it.

This suggestion was added by Mella~No! I can't believe I forgot it in my initial writing; it's important!
Pay properly. I don't know how many times I've seen cases of improper payment -- in friends' art shops, the Artist Rant Thread, and even in my own shop. If an artist asks for wishlist pets only in exchange for their art, it is your responsibility to offer only what they prefer. Unless an artist has something in their thread (which I have seen fairly often) about working out an alternate payment if their art is too expensive to afford, the artist only wants the payment they have listed on their thread, and nothing else will work. Posting a form anyway with improper payment will get you nowhere but (possibly) the artist's blacklist as it is spammy and annoying.
In addition, if you have posted correct payment and your order is accepted, it is your responsibility to carry through with the payment. Some customers place art payments in a specific pet group so they will not lose track of the pets they've promised. If you have a hard time remembering what you've offered to each artist, you can name your pets specifically for the artist (i.e. "Art Payment for Tris") or place them in groups. Many artists require payment only after the art has been completed. In this way, payment works based on an honor system--the customer's responsibility is to pay the artist what is owed to them after having received their art. Unfortunately, I have seen these artists taken advantage of many a time by a customer who refuses to pay. Taking, copying, saving, or redistributing unpaid artwork is ART THEFT! Even if a customer gets away with not paying an artist once, it is likely another artist will not be tricked in the same way--artists communicate actively and pay attention to each others' blacklists. If one artist has had trouble with a given customer, the others will be wary.

More helpful info added by Wendigo. :3

Posting up a form and saying "this is for when you're open!" or asking "can you make this when you're open?" defeats the purpose of closing a shop. wth.

Frequent commissioner =/= extra benefits: Again, unless clearly stated, don't make up exceptions for yourself. It doesn't matter if you've ordered 1 picture, 5 pictures, or even 500 pictures, if the artist says one request at a time or no pre-orders, don't pretend you can break those rules because you've ordered frequently at that shop and then act shocked when the artist says no. This goes hand-in-hand with Commission =/= Friendship.

I hope at least a few of you took the time to read all this, because some people here really need to learn to be more decent toward artists. They are doing you a favor by investing their time into drawing for you and they deserve your full respect. Time and time again, I've seen amazingly talented people set foot into these forums armed with rules, examples, and all manner of art shop paraphernalia, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and ready to do their best for the community, only to be chased away by idiots who can't manage to follow rules and treat others kindly.

Now, I am not trying to persecute any particular individuals; the one case I did cite was to provide an example. I just hope that maybe someone, somewhere, will get something from this and treat artists a little more fairly in the future.

EDIT: Wow, stickeyed! o_O I'm so honored that this thread is important enough for that.

Also, a wonderful stamp, by SkySmoke:

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[img]http://i885.photobucket.com/albums/ac51/SkySmokeHowrse/ArtStamp.jpg[/img]

Another stamp, this one by jet. Thank you!


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[img]http://i45.tinypic.com/2pslsgy.gif[/img]

A button, by me, using this button maker.

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[url=http://www.chickensmoothie.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=131409][IMG]http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab87/trisomee/respectartists.png[/IMG][/url]

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[IMG]http://i852.photobucket.com/albums/ab87/trisomee/respectartists.png[/IMG]

Put these in your signature to show your support!

This belongs in your trading rules.

[Spotty]

This belongs in your trading rules.

No, it's fine here. It isn't about trading, it's a guide to how to behave when visiting an art shop. Apperantly the CS staff agrees since it's been stickied at the top of this forum for two years.

[pocketfox]

I need help, perferally a moderators help on this one I went to this guys shop and he has that you could pay in summer items, summer pets, and pets he wanted but it didnt say you could exchange for the area he had so i asked him and he noted me saying fill a forum out to get a price. He would discuss it with me later.

Well he though when i filled the forum i wanted art, He went ahead and did the art sending me a trade demanding i send him pets. I only filled it out to get a price now hes saying i am a art theft and everything else.

What do i do?

-note

I am not even using his art, nor have I taken it I just got on today to this o3o

[firedance101]

I can really appreciate seeing a post like this, people do need to see that artist are real people with lives, I'm kinda new to the art shop thing on here and have so far no had any run ins with rude people thank goodness, but I have had issues in the past with people on other websites chasing me down and screaming like babies for art, and it's crazy! And so rude... It's like ok of I were getting paid actual money for my art I could see where people would get upset with me, but as far as pets an art trades... Really? I try to keep my turn around times as fast as I can manage working a full time job also working on a farm and going to school.. I enjoy doing art for people but I do wish they could understand people have lives and sometimes things can happen. Thanks for the amazing post

[Randy.]

Oh my gosh.... THANK YOU. I agree, artists are not factories!