Beware: Starfinder/Kannos

[utunu.livejournal.com]

WHO: Kannos, Starfinder, Astray, etc.

WHERE: https://www.weasyl.com/~kannos, https://inkbunny.net/Kannos, although this commission was not initiated in either of those places.

WHAT: An extensive traditional painting with full background of a tribal wolf character in a forest/jungle by a waterfall.

WHEN: July of 2005.  That is not a typo.  2005.  A brief timeline follows.

• Commission initiated in 2005.  Had found Starfinder's work online, really liked it, decided I'd commission her.  This was my first real commission attempt in the fandom, back when I was apparently a bit too trusting.  Agreed on large traditional piece, full background, agreed upon price of $900.


• Initial payment of $450 paid on July 15, 2005.


• Soon thereafter, Starfinder expressed concern that she had a car insurance expense.  Since, at that point, the commission had been going well, along with her stating that it would be done very soon (in a matter of a week or two), I decided to be kind and help out, giving her the remaining amount due of $450 in the assumption I would not have long to wait.  And I guess that was my mistake; now that she had her money, she had no reason to ever finish the piece.


• Image of the paypal (thanks to Starfinder, actually - she sent this to me because, in the AB post from May regarding the petition to get her back on FA I had finally come out and mentioned my commission experience with her, and she didn't care for me saying 'almost $1000' therein).  http://imgur.com/IuxYuPN


• Communication continued, for a while... I would ping her regularly on IM and email, she would respond with the 'really soon', or comment about the reasons she hadn't had chance yet.  It became harder and harder to get in touch with her over time, and eventually she stopped responding altogether.  I continued to ping, as the years went by, every 6 months or so.


• Now the AB post in May of 2013 came about (http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/679851.html).  Finally I decided to say something.  I hadn't posted before, because of the (foolish) hope that maybe she'd come round and my associated fear that if I posted something she'd take offense and I'd lose that 1% chance of ever getting my piece.  Please feel free to read that AB post and see my (much abridged) story there.  Any proof required of the existence and acknowledgement of this particular commission is contained within Starfinder's own responses there.


• Starfinder says she will make good on it.  Of course, it's not going to be what I originally wanted - she doesn't want to do traditional any more.  But at this point, I figured anything would be better than nothing.


• And then the Starfinder Past-Due Shout-Out (http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/679971.html).  Further acknowledgement, and she actually started doing preliminary sketches.  Perhaps something would finally come of this!


• And.... no.  I immediately offered feedback on said sketches, was communicating via email with her, and then... silence.  It seems to coincide with the failure of the petition to get her back on FA.  I have sent emails asking for just a response, but have gotten nothing.  The last email I received from her was Oct 5, 2013.  I have sent successive ones since, but nothing.

EXPLAIN: Most of it's up there in 'WHEN'.  All I can say is, this has caused me a LOT of grief and heartache over the years.  I would have been happier throwing that money in a fire, because then at least it was over and done with, rather than being strung along for so many years, coupled with the feeling of being scammed.  I have been completely polite and courteous throughout the ENTIRE situation, and bent over backwards to accommodate all her crises and excuses.  I'm thoroughly fed up.  This was my first commission attempt, and soured me on the whole thing for several years afterwards.  For those who know me and my character, I get a lot of art done these days, and usually from really awesome artists.  And I'm happy that I finally was able to make the attempt at commissioning again.  Thank you to ALL those other artists who made the commissioning process a wonderful one; you've made me a happier Utunu, and I made it so I did not completely lose my faith in the process. :)
Please feel free, in the comments, if any of you would like me to speak further on any aspects of this rather sordid tale. :) I'd be happy to answer.  Right now, what I really want?  I want a refund.  I wanted traditional, she doesn't want to do that.  And you know what?  Anything I did get, after almost 9 years, would feel tainted anyhow.  I had better sign off here, before I start ranting too much. :)
And mods, please let me know if you need anything further for this AB post.  I haven't done this before, so hopefully this is sufficient.

Comments

[ljmydayaway.livejournal.com]

Well, based on how Patreon works, as long as the payment is set to "per image" then she won't make that money until an image is posted. These aren't commissions, she's just paid each time she posts a new image.

I'm not sure how they could scam on that site using this system. It'd be different if she were using the "per month" setting for the donations, since she could feasibly make $X per month while not posting much of anything.

[jesidres.livejournal.com]

Knowing Starfinder, I can hazard several guesses, such as posting old work as 'new', counting subpar artwork, and using commission work (which she's already been paid for) to inflate her numbers. Honestly, it seems like it would be a lot easier to abuse the 'per image' policy for quick money, rather than the monthly system, since it gives people a month to get suspicious.

[skulldog.livejournal.com]

Check some of the 'rewards' for paying more, she's offering a raffle for a free commission, as well as percentage discounts on commissions. While I doubt the per image thing can be cheated, she CAN get away with telling people to pay more for things that may or may not be given, or given in a way that might not be as explained in the Patreon page.

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

wait...she has time to do a free commission even though she claims she's too busy doing current art to pay the bills so can't work on paid commissions owed from years back?

[silverwolf877.livejournal.com]

Apparently she has time to do an entire portfolio according to this Patreon thing. I'm all for allowing artists free time to work on their own projects - but she can't even show she's been working on the backlog these past few months. I'm no artist but if I were in her situation, I'd be using every spare moment of my free time to get this backlog sorted.

[skulldog.livejournal.com]

Heck, if she FINISHED her backlog and used it for her Patreon posting..he's being getting NEW money to finish her already paid backlog! I'm just...speechless she can say 'I have no free time for my already paid backlog' on that last LJ post while also saying 'please give me money, I'll give you discounts and commission raffles!' on her Patreon.

I'm pretty sad, I was one of the people that was super thrilled and supportive about her eagerness to change on that last LJ,so much I had started to plan a commission with her, but this post has killed any and all interest ever again..bleh.

[silverwolf877.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing she's left it so long now she has no interest in ever finishing it, yet she does not have the money to pay him back. That in itself could be worked around - she could set aside a small amount of money a day to give back. Hell, even $5 a day would get it paid off in around 6 months if my maths is right.

She's a good artist and I was going to commission her myself, but shes lost my business now. Even if she DOES finish her backlog, I wouldn't given her money. As I think Utunu said in an earlier comment, anything I'd get from her would feel tainted just knowing this info.

[mpd-84.livejournal.com]

She has a history of tracing other peoples drawings and photos and refusing to site sources. I believe it's part of why she was perma banned on FA.

[mpd-84.livejournal.com]

Bleh. Lj ate part of my comment. Anyway. She apparently only references stock photos now. Still can't look at her stuff without seeing her mountain of excuses and backlog though :c

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

Urgh! I do understand the artist trap of needing to constantly take on new work to get money and finding it hard to get old stuff done, but any shred of sympathy I had for her situation has now been destroyed. From this it seems she does have the time and is not being truthful about it.

[tylociraptor.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I consider it a scam just based on how much art/money she is already owing. She shouldn't even be taking on new commissions, at this point!

[thornwolf.livejournal.com]

The reward fulfillment is where she has real potential to disappoint. She has a notoriously terrible track record of completing fully paid commissions, in the..what..10+ years I've observed her doing business through the internet and with how many people she's scammed, nothing suggests that she'd actually complete a discounted one or any make-goods or freebies she's promising. Where's the motivation? It's Scooby Snack rules: Money now in the hopes that MAYBE she'll do something later? With a loose verbal contract and a terrible history? Sure she'll get paid per image, but the tiers people signed up for for their rewards are completely on the good will this person has not demonstrated unless it was under duress and extreme negative pressure from our artistic community.

This makes me genuinely upset. I just set up my Patreon the other day with a similar model and have encouraged other non-comic artists to do the same to share our head-worlds and ideas with our audiences without too much financial sacrifice (since most of my experience with it has just been comics), and so far it's been going pretty well and I'm genuinely excited to give back to my fans as thanks for buying me some freedom. But then I see a scam artist like this using it as just ANOTHER avenue to further shirk her responsibilities and potentially scam other people, and it just lessens the excitement knowing there's dishonest people using the same platform. I wish there was a more effective way to tell people they should check the tags here before they hand any money over to any artist in this community to know what they're getting into. Buyer beware!