Dear Art Shop Customers...

[zet137]

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.

Okay, yeah. I've always had a problem with this quote here and I'd like to address why.

Yeah, I totally want my customer's money/pets/whathaveyou, why wouldn't I?
But I actually love chatting with them, a lot of my customers are very friendly and some of them have even become my friends.

I would always let any fan or customer of my work talk to me if they wanted to. Want to know why?
Not only does it give me something to do, it forms a bond with the customers.

Think about it this way.
You have two artists of relative skill level and prices.
One is cold-hearted, and never chats with their customers, and comes off as rude at times.
The other one can be seen as a friend, or a fellow acquaintance by most, always trying their best to be friendly and always willing to listen to fans/customers.
If you wanted art, who would you choose? Guess what, it's not going to be the former.

This stance that artists and customers cannot be friends really bothers me. Please, don't put that up as a 'guideline' for all customers to follow, because it is not the case. I don't know of any other artists who do this, mainly because I'm in my own little circle, but I just wish we could all be nicer and treat our customers like acquaintances or friends, rather than money machines.

Customers shouldn't be scared to talk to artists - if you're an artist who treats their customers as nothing, or are rude to them, then I wonder how you even get orders. I would personally never order from someone who acted like that, because it's just downright annoying that we have all been brainwashed to not associate with our customers.

Feel free to make your opinions, but these are mine.

[eden .]

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.

Okay, yeah. I've always had a problem with this quote here and I'd like to address why.

Yeah, I totally want my customer's money/pets/whathaveyou, why wouldn't I?
But I actually love chatting with them, a lot of my customers are very friendly and some of them have even become my friends.

I would always let any fan or customer of my work talk to me if they wanted to. Want to know why?
Not only does it give me something to do, it forms a bond with the customers.

Think about it this way.
You have two artists of relative skill level and prices.
One is cold-hearted, and never chats with their customers, and comes off as rude at times.
The other one can be seen as a friend, or a fellow acquaintance by most, always trying their best to be friendly and always willing to listen to fans/customers.
If you wanted art, who would you choose? Guess what, it's not going to be the former.

This stance that artists and customers cannot be friends really bothers me. Please, don't put that up as a 'guideline' for all customers to follow, because it is not the case. I don't know of any other artists who do this, mainly because I'm in my own little circle, but I just wish we could all be nicer and treat our customers like acquaintances or friends, rather than money machines.

Customers shouldn't be scared to talk to artists - if you're an artist who treats their customers as nothing, or are rude to them, then I wonder how you even get orders. I would personally never order from someone who acted like that, because it's just downright annoying that we have all been brainwashed to not associate with our customers.

Feel free to make your opinions, but these are mine.

I think what's meant here is that you shouldn't automatically assume that the artist is going to be your biffle. If you want to chat with them, then I don't see why you can't do it through PMs on CS, for one thing. The reason, I think, that's it's asked that you don't ask for outside contact information is that it's a formal business relationship, where the artist and the customer discuss prices and quality and things like that before they're off onto their separate paths after the order is finished.

Now, I don't think this rule means that customers shouldn't be friendly to the artists, but I do think that it means that you shouldn't presume that you have the right to suddenly ask all of these questions about the artist. Just because they're friendly doesn't mean that you have permission to ask "what's your skype username" or "do you have a tumblr" or something similar. Being friendly is usually a common courtesy or etiquette. And frankly, an artist who's rude is just digging their own grave since, as you said, no one is going to want to order from them.

However, just because they're being nice doesn't mean they want to be anymore closer than "customer" and "artist". And I also think that you're interpreting somewhat extremely. The guideline, if you analyze the tone, doesn't seem to say "your artist will most definitely never want to talk to you ever" to me. It just is a warning that says "hey, don't expect your artist to engage in casual, non-professional talk with you". That doesn't mean that it won't happen, but it does mean that you shouldn't expect it to happen, and you shouldn't try and force it to happen.

Anyways, those are my interpretations.

[❤Panda&Bear❤]

I not good at drawing not even a bit

[survira]

I not good at drawing not even a bit

Don't worry about that. Everybody has some kind of very unique talent, and I bet you have a very very special one.

[sapiosexual]

Haha, I love how this merges with Rainbow Dash's. xD

[ozzi9816]

maybe this should be a sticky? or at least copypasted into some type of rules

Pff. I wish. P: If only people would learn to pay attention to stuff.

Wish granted.

[sammmy]

Hi I read this before ever going on one of these threads and I am a custumer and thanks for putting this up because I think it's very important for people to read.

[Achromatic]

Wow, I'm summarized this needs to be said, I haven't shopped for art (I'm just looking around) but are some costumers really that bad?

[woofdogz]

THX for posting this! I don't have an art forum set up, but i'm hoping to. First I need to get the flash-thingy to load so I can draw art!

[Mini Niall]

Woukd we be allowed to take a picture of a drawing we drew on actual paper, and sell it on here for pets?