Has anyone ever been solicited by an artist?

[ButterflyEmpress]

Feel free to call me dumb and naïve, or mean here for this scenario here.

A few weeks ago someone messaged me on reddit. I usually don't respond to strangers in my DMs, especially from newer accounts but I decided to be friendly this time. At 1st I thought they were interested in making artists friends, but ultimately wanted me to commission them, although worded very strangely. They kept saying they had new ideas they wanted to try with my OCs, making it seem like a collab or art trade.

Their art wasn't bad, it was clear that they were still learning, but had a strength in fantasy characters. I wouldn't seek this person out on my own, but I wanted to be supportive so I paid them to draw one of my fantasy characters. The drawing came out ok for their skill level, but I had to keep reminding them of details that were missing off my character. Hell, they didn't even try or offer any new ideas. And I now just realized that the BG was just a used asset and not hand drawn. Which definitely should've been disclosed.

Right when it was finished, they kept begging me to buy another drawing (Please don't do that). They never sent me the full sized drawing like they said, only the preview. I can't even ask because their account got suspended!

So yeah, weird story. Definitely don't beg clients to keep buying! I'm guessing they got suspended for soliciting. This probably wasn't their 1st rodeo since they did ask for my email(non personal) in case they weren't available on reddit, implying they knew they'd get suspended.

[RedLenai]

These have become common lately.
These individuals are either:

A. Very amateur, novice, lacking in etiquette artists, whose gut rumble don't allow them to have common decency or boundaries

B. Bots, tracers, fake accounts, scammers that are trying desperately to get people to """"Hire""""" them when in fact they are probably not even able to lift a pen.
Like, you rather check their behavior just in case to identify them, is quite easy to be honest:

Spammy sus, obsessive and urgent behavior

Then by checking their art, is not only few, style is not consistent, you can identify assets, brushes or even when its AI, stolen, traced and stuff.

What you dealt with was indeed a scammer, they don't provide any good quality, are always on the run, are pushy and dense. To be honest, I happened to go around some of these individuals.

I usually ask them from where they got the idea I would be interested in their art if I didn't ask to see nor hire them? Why would I pay for art I can do myself? I'm not going to buy something I didn't ask for nor I showed interest in the first place.

And just so you know, I'm calling you dumb and naïve

And always make sure to check their activity in the social where you found them, or if other people has tagged or replied to them, usually you'll have these people also hijacking users who are interested in commissioning..... other, actual artists.

[ButterflyEmpress]

I definitely should've asked them why I was a potential customer lol. I don't know if paypal can do anything since it was a digital product

[abigaillmartin]

Just got visited by a loser webtoon “promotion” account

Look out for this guy all of you. Tapas creators, webtoon creators, all the creators.

“Really kind” like yeah… I’m going to believe that. I’m reading between the lines here!

No proper grammar, looks unprofessional. I’m not buying it dude! Blocked the account.

Bruh the dude didn’t even caption what they were promoting. Pretty phony and sus I would say.

They’re probably looking to make NSFW content of people’s work and sell it or something. (Jk jk) No thank you! Goodbye! lol

[abigaillmartin]

Also this just makes me laugh so hard

Yeah I’ll totally believe you! Lol!

As I always say “In a world full of Margerys, be Harry Houdini.”

[RedLenai]

Depends, if you paid by

Family & Friends, can't do a refund

If it was Goods & Services or an Invoice, then you may have a chance to make a refund.
Either for fraudulent work, plagarism, extortion, manipulation, but honestly I never had to make those so I don't know the process or what things do work as a refund.

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@abigaillmartin, UUUUUGHHH promoters are honestly the worst thing ever. They are so annoying, I also say the same as to the artists

Did I make a plea for your services?
Did I ask you specifically?
Did I complain about low engagement?

I basically scold and nag them as if they were little children, got one some time ago that not only bothered me via private but also self-promoted his services on my page.
I told them how disrespectful, out of line, unprofessional they were.

Got a "I'm so sorry, sir. I deleted the comment sir, I won't bother you anymore", motherfrusker even assumed my gender KJADHSHJADKSSDHJKA

But to be honest, promoters are so damn stupid like. They steal images of growth from other creators to make it look as if they """"""helped them""""""" grow.
The thing is, no one wants to hire services of ""promotion"" because it is not actual promotion, since they likely use bots, bots are a big no no on Tapas and Webtoon, on Webtoon there has been creators who got nuked for fraudulent use to buff their views just to get Ad Revenue.

Besides, bots do not provide engagement, just views or maybe likes based on how you set them up.

And since I'm at it

Left is stolen from Purrfect Crush, Webtoon France's Original series.

Middle is stolen from Third Shift Society, another Webtoon's Original series.

Not sure where the right one is from, but definetly also from Webtoon, judging by the lettering of the explosion effect.

Considering they do have more than 1K followers and a person I know do followes them, its probably one of those people that screwed up and a hacker took over. Happens quite often, but I see these problems more on Discord than on Instagram

LOL, called them out and noticed another one did as well.

I also confirmed in case if it was a stolen account, it isn't. Most followers they have are also bots.

[abigaillmartin]

Tell me about it. I ain’t complaining about low engagement. What is the deal with this guy?

[Rai_Muffin]

Don't know how you can't trust them.
I mean they "do connect tapa's creators with company"!

I am not sure what tapa (lowercase t, very important) is or what company they "do work with",
but personally, I can't stop trusting this guy.

[RedLenai]

In the most argentinian way I can explain this

A shovel represents work, generally honest work, you tell people to pick a shovel when you see they are lazy, want easy money, or are a complete scam (And not a succesful scam, but the ones that fail miserably)

[Wolsal]

Oh wow- no can’t say I ever have but I’d highly recommend to not ever buy art from someone who markets like this as they almost definitely are not a professional! No professional artist would ever market like this (this is mainly a message for anyone reading). So sorry you had to manage this dude, hope this doesn’t happen again. I’d recommend reporting them to Reddit for scamming (if possible). Either way, so sorry.