Advice Needed: Unable to finish free art

[bluefantasyz.livejournal.com]

I need a bit of advice.  In the past couple of years, I had offered some free pre-posed sketches, and I believe another free art as well.  Due to several things involving life in general, I feel I am not ever going to finish these pictures.  To be fair, those who would be recieiving the art have not contacted me in any way, asking about the art or anything at all.  So, now that I've settled that I'm not going to be able to complete these, what should I do?  I have done other art since, that was paid for, so it did get priority.  Should I contact the people and apologize, offer something else?  Leave it be as they haven't contacted me?  I don't want to end up on A_B because I couldn't finish something, even if it wasn't paid for.

Comments

[slinkslowdown.livejournal.com]

If someone put you up here for not completing free art, I firmly believe they would be laughed out of town.

MTE

[lovegonnadrown.livejournal.com]

It was free, they haven't really lost anything and if they haven't contacted you about it chances are most of them have forgotten by now. I don't think anyone will hold it against you for not finishing something that was never an obligation in the first place.

If you're worried about it, you might as well politely message them with a "Sorry, but I can't finish your request" for closure's sake.

[teekchan.livejournal.com]

Honestly. Do nothing.

I have had a few people 'ruin' freebies I give (Yelling at me for not getting them done in a day, demanding higher quality than given, and so on) But, if they haven't contacted you I doubt this is the case. They likely figured something came up and you can't do it.

[neiramarina.livejournal.com]

I would contact the people directly and explain why I couldn't do it, without necessarily going into details. It seems like the polite thing to do so people aren't always hanging on to the hope of seeing their art. I would expect someone to take me at my word for even a freebie, though badgering for it would not be very nice. But responsibility wise, I would treat it as I do commissions. Mainly because when I hold raffles, it's in a way to get more exposure, and I'd feel like I was dishonest if I didn't provide the prizes.

Simply put, you not should feel bad, life happens, but it would be nice to contact the people or make a journal explaining and then you can just forget about it and stop stressing.

[kaelstra.livejournal.com]

If you post your art someplace that has blogs, I might make a blog post saying due to real life issues, you just don't feel you'll be able to provide any gift art at this time, and apologize.

Gift art or not, if people "won" it or asked for it, even if they're not saying anything, they probably remember, and they'll be really upset if they don't get it. A simple public post (I don't think I'd go out of my way to contact each person individually, unless it was just one person) would probably go a long way to smooth that over. Granted, I don't think anyone would post a BA about this, but they still might gripe to people and it's "negative press", as it were.

[kasune.livejournal.com]

If it was free work, you have every right to decide you no longer wish to do it. No compensation was offered and you weren't paid for the work, so I don't think it holds any legal binding.

However, it WOULD be best to let the recipient(s) know that you won't be doing the art. It would also be best to avoid offering free art in the future if you are short on time or have other things that prevent you from completing it. This is so you don't come off as dishonest. As Kaelstra said, it's "negative press" if you keep offering but not completing those offers.

Speaking from experience, I've offered free art and had to back out on it due to life figuratively punching me in the face. If you communicate with people and politely tell them you're unable to complete it and apologize, nine times out of ten they'll understand and let it go!

[aazhie.livejournal.com]

Post a journal, blog or whatever and apologize. That's all you need, especially if they haven't contacted you. I hate doing trades for the most part because either "You took too long I don't even care" is their response, which, they never did MY half anyways or I get a sketch done and no return. I usually just say if they want it to pm me or contact a specific email and we can figure things out. Most people have never responded.