Mysterious Missing Mooncookie (of deviantart)

[livelaughlovep.livejournal.com]

So, around Febuary, she posted  an offer for commissions. I should have seen the huge neon warning signs, but I was seduced by her beautiful art and upbeat attitude.

OOPS.

I think I've learned my lesson that 25.00 for a 2 char peice with FULL background is not going to happen.

Anyway, she did great and rapidly got me a sketch in about a week. I was impressed! She kept in contact once per week letting me know how things were going, and got as far to show me a colored preview - a screenshot from Photoshop. Looked good. I asked her to change my nose color to black (people often do it brown)

And she.... Dissapeared.

My last "active" email from her is sometime in April. I started emailing her weekly after that to try to see if she was alive. Nothing, nada, not a thing. I doubt I"ll get art or money at this point as I have no other contact for her, so I just want to warn others to avoid her entirely. Nice art nice attitude but dissapearing is unforgivable.

Gah. Just wanted to say, yeah. I know it could be interpreted as my fault, since I didn't see the huge warning signs (Such as who the heck does a full background peice for 25!?)but.. yeah, the lack of communication from her side is dispicable. She could at least say "hey, I bit off way more than I can chew, have your money back!" but who would do that, it was taken in a situation where she needed the money: its spent. Lets face it.

Comments

[tsunami-ryuu.livejournal.com]

I'd wait a bit longer before calling it a complete loss. Judging by Mooncookie's dA page, she hasn't even been logged on or active since late April. It's always possible that something happened in her life that's keeping her away-- family crisis, work/school, loss of internet, etc.

Several months is a pretty long time sans communication, but it sounds bizzare that she'd go from keeping routine contact to nada.

[livelaughlovep.livejournal.com]

Yeah thats what I'm saying and what drove me to post here! I really do like her- she seems like a really big sweetie. I'm a mix of concerned & upset. Its like hey, wai a minut!

[pocketbat-inc.livejournal.com]

Disappearing, actually, can be forgiveable depending on the situation.

First of all, has there been other activity on her account that would lead you to believe she's just ignoring you? When noting her on DA, have you checked your sent messages to see if they have gone from the yellow unread status to the grey status indicating they have actually been read?

If not, what might be happening is something completely out of her control. For her to have more or less nearly finished the piece, as it seems by your post it was, makes me think that she may have lost internet connection or a personal emergency may have come up.

For example, I had made a hat commission from someone. They made the basics of the hats and showed me a preview of the progress, there wasn't too much left to do on them and I gave the go ahead, and then I didn't hear anything for -months-. Months of e-mails and notes, but I wanted to exhaust every single resource I could think of. I found the artist on myspace, sent a message, and finally got a response! It turned out that there were internet problems, totally unavoidable on the artist's end, and the hat commission was resumed.

Just saying, don't leap to conclusions unless you absolutely know what's going on. It doesn't make sense for an artist to spend their time on a picture for you, nearly finish, and then suddenly abandon it.

[zyleeth.livejournal.com]

I agree with the first poster. I've never known Mooncookie to be anything but completely professional, but she does tend to fall of the internet sometimes. Knowing her, its not unbelievable to say something might have come up especially since she is pretty good at responding to notes and such.

However, I would be frustrated too so I can't say I really blame you for being upset. I'd just say wait a little longer before counting it as a definite loss.

[livelaughlovep.livejournal.com]

oh good! Someone who knows her. She normally just goes *Poof*? Well then, that makes this much more forgivable. I hope she comes back soon. I'll keep up my weekly pokes then in hope she appears from the abyss. :P

[zyleeth.livejournal.com]

Not normally, but I have known her in the past to have disappeared during the loss of a family member or a break down in her computer. :P I haven't been able to get in touch with her either, so I think its highly unlikely she's ignoring you on purpose.

[livelaughlovep.livejournal.com]

Good to know. I hope its nothing too bad :(\

[blakcat71388.livejournal.com]

Wow I would draw that for less than 25.

But then again I'm a lot less talented [probably].

[tentaclejen.livejournal.com]

I have been waiting for nearly 3 years for a return of money to me for a commission that was never completed. I would probably just forget about it, except that it was a good deal of money and she used to be a friend.

[bellyofthewolf.livejournal.com]

yeah i don't think you should say that you should've expected it for $25. i've taken commissions for that much before for three characters and a full BG. sometimes artists just get in a bind and take cheap commissions. and if she is having trouble with something IRL it might explain her absences, but still. it's good you warned people. did anyone else take her up on that offer? you might try asking them if they've heard from her.

[starcharmer.livejournal.com]

Ooh, no no, I disagree! I recently did a two character piece with a minimal background (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/590278/) for $15 [needed money fast, badly]. My prices used to be lower a while ago, so I think...that a two character piece with a background was less than $25.

Then I raised my prices, and now two character pieces are $25, backgrounds are $10...so it's $35. I'm just saying. I used to do those for that price and so far, I haven't stiffed anyone. 8D

But yah, that sucks that she disappeared. Hope you find her.

[starcharmer.livejournal.com]

P.S. Let us know in a follow-up post if she does turn up and finish the commission! :O If not, don't worry about it, but it'd be cool to clear her name if it turned out to be something unavoidable. (:

[semisonicstar.livejournal.com]

I've talked to her before and she's always seemed reliable and fast to reply to questions regarding commissions, and from what I've seen, she's finished lots of $25 commissions for others. I'd say this seems more like that something came up preventing her from being online than her being flaky :S Maybe give it a few more months. 3 is a long time, yes, but not as long as others have waited. -Especially- considering how she was sending you constant previews and whatnot.

So I'd say to wait a while longer; it doesn't seem like she just "took the money and ran", so to speak!

[livelaughlovep.livejournal.com]

I'm happy I have several people saying they know her as relyable etc. Iwas unwilling to label her trouble, just, lost. LOL. I'm happy I did post here, you guys put me at quite a bit of ease! :)

[thaily.livejournal.com]

$25 -is- terribly cheap for art of that quality.

I will have to agree with the rest though, unless there's other on-line activity that you've seen she might have run into RL problems. Mind that still sucks for you but at least then there's a chance she'll finish your commission when she resolves her problems.

As a sidenote, I wish people would stop shamelessly whoring their own commissions in the comments. That's even worse than making unwarranted self-posts >_>

[ophidile.livejournal.com]

Dunno; I think it's relevant; people probably shouldn't go around thinking "I should never hire someone for cheap; it'll never get finished!", when there are plenty who would finish their commission for such.
Plus seeing what quality the people offering the commissions is useful in judging the "cheapness", etc...

[nambroth.livejournal.com]

I commissioned her too, during this period. I had commissioned her prior- in 2005, to do a piece as a Christmas gift. She delivered it Christmas day despite having a loss in her family and I was really impressed.
So, I commissioned her again when she posted in her DA page that she was needing money. This is usually a red flag, but I really appreciated the work she did before and she was very sweet. I paid her well above the $25 she was asking, of my own free will, because as an artist I know she was putting more than $25 worth of work into her stuff. Very high quality work, she does! Once she's done I plan on tipping her as well as I can afford. :}

She did a wonderful sketch and started painting my piece, sharing her work all along the way as she did. Then, as you said, she disappeared. She hasn't posted to her DA page, and I can only hope she's okay. I don't think she's ripping us off, unless I'm a total failure of judging her character. :}

Lets just hope she's all right and wait and see. 5 months isn't a terrible wait.

[nambroth.livejournal.com]

As an aside- perhaps it may be more approperiate for your title to read something like "Has anyone heard from Mooncookie from DeviantArt". Though I agree that it's wildly frustrating for an artist to fall out of contact, at this point no one knows what is going on with her and posting a "Beware of" may be a little harsh. Some people skim this community by title and though it'd be silly to try and commission her at this moment, since she's missing, I'm not sure it's fair to blacklist her either until we know more. :}

[livelaughlovep.livejournal.com]

*Waits for foolishly slow computer to move so she can change title* :)

[likeshine.livejournal.com]

i adored my full body, 2 character with background piece from Mooncookie. and i did get it for that price, yes.

so yes, i'd say it can happen! it doesn't seem like her to be unresponsive. I'd give her the benefit of the doubt in this case since she really doesn't seem like to poof and bolt kind of person.

hope this works out!

[livelaughlovep.livejournal.com]

I feel like I should edit my original post because I seem like an ass, yet, I feel if I do people will think I'm trying to cover somthing.

She really honestly does seem like a sweetie, I hope she comes out of hiding soon.

[likeshine.livejournal.com]

i want to believe in her :) i could not believe i got such an amazing painting for... well, probably pennies an hour ;_;

here's what i got:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/37404232/

[livelaughlovep.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she vastly undercharges herself! Amazing work. when I get my peice, I'm going to print it off as big as possible and hang it on the wall. :P

[litheauyer.livejournal.com]

I think I know what's going on with her, but I'd prefer not to post things around the public (since I kept in contact with her via e-mail...we're in the middle of an art trade).

[livelaughlovep.livejournal.com]

Could you email me? I'd like to know - I tend to be more concerned about people than art, especially if they randomly dissapear in an act of non-malice. :)