Concerning Jace

[faithry.livejournal.com]

Ahh, my very first post here and, considering my surprisingly positive experience with a lot of furry artists, currently the only one.

Does anyone know what's going on with Jace? He's supposed to have cleaned up his act, at least, that's what I've been told, but I don't know how far that actually got.

Hmm, perhaps I should start at the very beginning.

Somewhere around.. oh, 1997-1998? I can't really remember. Anyways, around that time, Coldfire, Jace' mate at the time, set up a roleplaying game online (over IRC) involving dragon player characters. I'm sure you know the type: dice, character sheets, swords and magic spells.

Anyways, after the game started, Jace decided to give us players a good, cheap deal for pictures of our character in the game. I was quite eager and sent Jace eighty dollars for two color images of my character. That was way back when the game started.

...and then the game collapsed. Coldfire stopped showing up and we were having trouble organizing times for the game because of timezone issues. I had, by then, obtained a partial sketch of the first picture, which was quite promising.

Then silence.

I poked him by E-mail, and he explained he was having a hard time, he hit upon trouble, art didn't just drop out of his ass and he would work on it when he had time.

Time passed.

More E-mails. Again, working on it, etc-etc. 'I'll have it done by next monday.'.

Monday came and went, months passed, more E-mails, the same responses. I asked for my money back.

Time passed, more e-mails, but no more responses from him.

Then I started hearing other things about him. Commissions that were never completed, andsoforth. In one specific example, I heard from an individual who had an art-trade with him who never did recieve his end of the bargain. Rather, after much effort, he got a Part II (it said so clearly on the picture) of someone else's commission along with a lie that it had been made specifically for him!

Time passed, and I discovered that Jace was offering an art-trade to a fellow Dutchfur, Meanbean. I warned Meanbean that if he accepted the art-trade, he would either be pushed in front of people who were waiting a lot longer than him, or he would have to wait at the end of a long list of commissioners.

Jace apparently reacted to something Meanbean to him said in response to my warning, and sought contact with me, profusely apologetic and claiming he wanted to clear things up. Shortly after, he even produced a sketch of the second picture. Yay!

...and then nothing again.

After another long wait, I brought up the issue on a mailing list that both Coldfire and Jace were on. It quickly turned into a sort of discussion/flamewar hybrid which ended when it was announced that Jace had been given a new computer, and he would attempt to work off at least part of his commission list while also working on new commissions.

Then I met Dark Natasha during last year's Eurofurence. And lookie-loo, she had a portfolio for sale with some of Jace' work! I talked with her a bit about what her experiences were concerning Jace, and while I don't remember most of the details, I remember she had to go through quite some effort to finally get the art for the vore portfolio she was selling.

That brings us to now. The time it took him to complete the art in question is, unless I'm mistaken (and I must confess I'm very vague about when it all started) steadily approaching a decade.

I will ask him in E-mail how it's going sometime soon, but before I do, I'd like to know: Does anyone here have any signs that Jace did indeed turn over a new leaf?

--Faithry

Comments

[alaitallon.livejournal.com]

Wow . . . personally, after waiting ten years (though I wouldn't have waited nearly so long myself), I would say screw it and ask for my money back, perhaps minus the worth of the one sketch he DID produce. I've heard of people waiting a year or two for commissions, but a decade is way, way, WAY too long. Good luck in getting your money back or something out of him. :(

[faithry.livejournal.com]

I've actually gotten a total of two incomplete sketches (one for each of the color pieces), and I already asked about getting the money back previously.

Alas, it does indeed look like I'll just have to write it off as two expensive sketches if he hasn't cleaned up his act.

[leahtaur.livejournal.com]

I think you should keep trying though -- even if you've already written off the money in your mind, he shouldn't be allowed to keep it for work not completed. Part of the reason he's been able to get away with it more than once is because people get tired of having to pester him.

I dunno, I guess I see it as a matter of principal. Do keep trying!

[azuredoragon.livejournal.com]

I know 1 other person who spoke to me on yiffchat saying that jace owed them a picture that's 3 years or so late...

I say get your money back.

[acrothdragon.livejournal.com]

Personally after nearly ten years I would just write it off as a loss. I know its getting the shaft by an artist but theres very little you can do other than warn people to watch who they deal with. A good thing to ask potential artist is to ask them to give you some references from people that commissioned them, most of the time an artist agrees unless the commissioner wishes not to be known. Talk to them ask them how was it working with the artist.

[iridium-wolf.livejournal.com]

He has not cleaned up his act. Scan back through this community for several posts and warnings about him. Good luck with your future dealings with him.

[filthy-animal.livejournal.com]

Woah, ten years. That is awful on his part. I wish I had any advice. I hope he does your pictures.

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

Wow, and I thought I heard some of the worst cases ever, but ten years to do two pictures is just mindboggling. I've not heard a single thing about Jace cleaning up his act, if anything there have been more and more reports of people who are cheesed off with him.

[faithry.livejournal.com]

Well, I could be wrong. It could be only six-to-eight years but.. well, I suppose six years or ten years doesn't really matter. It's still monstrously late.

[ashendon.livejournal.com]

No, he has not turned over a new leaf, i've had to threaten him to get him to finish commissions 2 years overdue. He's still the same whiny, excuse-making artist he was when I first stumbled across his art. Only way he'll do art fast is if it involves vore, or gay sex, or a combination of the two.

[faithry.livejournal.com]

Bad luck for me, then, since it involves none of those things, and the character is female.

Any suggestions on how I can coax him into finishing it?

[faithry.livejournal.com]

You know.. I have a silly question:

Would it be rude to hire a different artist to finish one of Jace's unfinished sketches?

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

Depends on two things 1: The artist you wanted to hire, most wouldn't touch it with a barge pole, and 2: You run the risk of Jace hitting the roof over it even though he's been paid and hasn't completed the work.

To be honest, you'd be better of either using the sketches to get someone else to do a version of the work if you are really wanting a picture, or just straight out commissioning another artist.

I'd offer to put you in my request queue and redraw the pieces for you for nothing since I don't like seeing people ripped off but my computer has been playing up like mad lately so I'm not taking any more until it's completely repaired and I can actually do artwork.

[faithry.livejournal.com]

Somehow I doubt many people would disagree that having Jace hit the roof over it would matter much in the end. Who knows, it might actually coax him into doing something!

I would understand a lot of artists wouldn't like drawing from the beginning another artist made, though. So it might be best to just have it redrawn.

I thank you for your offer, but I think it wouldn't be fair of me to ask you to do something for free even if you could. Besides, if you extended such an offer to any poor soul that got stiffed by Jace, you'd never be finished!

[thaily.livejournal.com]

It would be illegal, sketch or not it's copyrighted to Jace and he holds all the rights still, which includes editing rights.

[faithry.livejournal.com]

It is? Hmm, that's inconvenient.

It looks like having it redrawn is the only option then. He can't hold copyright to -my- character after all.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

Does Jace hold all the copywrites? I thought in a commission the only time someone gets to keep copywrite is if they have it in writing on the agreement that they keep them. (commissioner, or commissionee)

[thaily.livejournal.com]

It's "copyrights", right of copying.

The rights of editing/redistributing/reproducing etc. are only transferred to the customer if the contract explicitly states that they are. Otherwise they remain with the artist and the customers pays only for the labor and the original piece of artwork when applicable.

[kimpers.livejournal.com]

My boyfriend commissioned him about 3 years ago and never even got so much as an email, though he paid for half up front.

[faithry.livejournal.com]

Your boyfriend is lucky. I paid the entire price up-front.

[baiji.livejournal.com]

Pure and simple, a Jace comission is a gamble weighed against the comissioner. Its been supported by examples time and time again here to the point that it amazes that the topic still remains debated. The whole thing is worn and needs to be put down.

And screw any emotions hurt by this post. People have been welched out of comissions/prints/etc and money they could have used on themselve rather than to fund a face unknown over the net, myself included. Excuses does not a dole out redemption of the deed, no matter the reason.

[duraji-synth.livejournal.com]

All evidence points to Jace being perhaps the most inexcusably flaky commission artist in the fandom. Even worse is how he continues to take huge amounts of money for pictures, yet still owes dozens of people artwork! I don't know how he can live with himself like that... I just think he's a con man.

[foxstar.livejournal.com]

Commissioning Jace is a bad, bad, bad, bad idea. And this is coming from someone who was close to him for a while and had to really run after him for his art.

To put it very bluntly and i'm sure this won't end well, Jace is what is he is because people are silly enough to keep paying him. Yes he can be a very good artist, but he's a lazy, lazy flake who believes he shouldn't have to work for anything and he's at worst got a 'fine' artist mindset about him. You might as well pull out the guns and go after him relentlessly till you get that art finished because otherwise he'll always have some reason for not doing your art. Always.

Be warned that Jace WILL badmouth you to his friends if you do force him to finish, I learned this from one of his close artist friends who is now a close friend and gave me a chance.