Sketch commission: How long is too long?

[crazy-sharklady.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I have recently commissioned an artist that opened up for sketch commissions about a month ago. I commissioned them March 22nd, after my boyfriend had gotten one from them.

Now normally I wouldn't be too worried, but there are a couple things that are bothering me.
1) When my boyfriend commissioned them (app. a few days before I did) he got his within a day. I'm nearly going on a month.
2) Constant Tumblr posts. I mean, constant. Like nearly every hour. They doodle for themselves and for others, which wouldn't bother me, but when I poked them around the 2 week mark asking for updates, they replied back to me with the general gist of sorry, classes are taking up most of my time.

I really don't want to ask for a refund, because I do want the art. Their style is very nice and it was only $10.

So I'm really asking, how long is too long to wait for a sketch commission?

Note: It's a full body two-tone sketch.

Comments

[laughsatthunder.livejournal.com]

Seeing all the points you've made + it's been a month, just send them a note asking nicely if they could get it done by, say, this weekend seeing that it's already been a month.

If they can't do so, a refund may be in order. Sounds sad but it's a colored sketch and if they can get a piece out in a day, a weekend should be more than enough time.

[crazy-sharklady.livejournal.com]

I had sent them an email a week ago just saying that if they haven't started my sketch then I'd just like to go ahead and have my money back, if they're too busy with classes and I really don't want to get in the way of that. I know classes are super important, I'm about to graduate myself. They responded stating that they had started and had free time on Friday to work on it. I still have had no response from them. Not even a WIP to show that they're working on it.

[leahtaur.livejournal.com]

Depends upon what their queue ahead of you is like. If you're at the top, I think asking for it to be done within a week from today would be reasonable. But if there's three people ahead of you, well, maybe not so much.

Could be that your boyfriend asked for his sketch when they didn't currently have homework and they now have tons? Maybe even exams or final projects at this time of year. Every artist is different but I always tell my customers that the turnaround is around six weeks, for example, even for sketches, so one month doesn't sound too long to me just yet. *shrug*

[crazy-sharklady.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately they do not have a public queue, but my boyfriend had submitted an anonymous ask on Tumblr asking about their queue and they mentioned they only had one project and possibly another, which I would assume meant me. I'm either first or second in their queue, but I don't know for sure.
It's possible that's what happened, but if that's the case then I would have felt a lot better and been a lot more lenient if they had sent me an email stating so, and I wouldn't be feeling left in the dark.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

I'm of the opinion that there is no "too long" when a deadline hasn't been mentioned. Artists are not mind readers, they're not going to know you're unhappy waiting if you don't tell them. I would suggest contacting the artist with something along the lines of "Hey, I'm looking forward to getting my art, I'd like to know how long it's likely to take, can you give me an estimate of when it will be finished?" or "I'd like to have it finished by X date, is that going to be possible?" and get at least a soft deadline that the artist can work with.

[crazy-sharklady.livejournal.com]

I usually don't give deadlines whenever the piece doesn't have a specific theme for it (for example, an anniversary piece I had commissioned back in January I gave the deadline for June 25th) but most artists I work with have the sketch done and ready within a week or two at most. If otherwise they would at least tell me that there would be a holdup with the reason why. I've heard nothing from the artist, all contact has been initiated by me.
I may just be being impatient, but it's really the lack of contact that's bothering me.

[teekchan.livejournal.com]

Never assume how fast an artist works, even if something else has been done in X amount of time. Sometimes a sketch can take me 5 minutes, and sometimes I just CANT get it out and it takes weeks.

Granted, contact them, as you have, and if they dont reply, do a chargeback. It's much easier to just resend them the money if they do finish it (and are ignoring you) then it is to miss the deadline and have them run off with it.

[crazy-sharklady.livejournal.com]

Yeah I should have given them a deadline with my last email so I could have a rough estimate. But currently they are in Florida with their grandparents (was not told personally, found out through Tumblr again) so I will wait until they come back.