Unwanted Giftart: Asking an artist to make substantial changes. Advice Wanted.

[amethystpie.livejournal.com]

Recently, an artist who I support and I'm somewhat friendly with drew me gift art. Unfortunately, it's a kink I'm really not in to at all ( cock vore, if you must know...) and it's left me really uncomfortable and upset.

I left a nice but stern comment, telling him while I appreciated the thought but I wasn't into the subject matter and asked that mention of me be removed from the Artists Comment ( he'd put a little " this is for ... " in it). He's since removed that, but the amount of people jacking off to it in the comments, especially as they seem to be rather gleeful that I'm the one in the submissive role, is very displeasing and I want to be distanced as much as possible from the artwork.

He seemed upset that I wasn't into his kink and mistook a joke I made about a gif he posted as an  " I really like cock vore" from me.

I am not sure if the woman in the picture is meant to be me, or just a random woman. I'm going with the former, as he rarely draws girl characters in these situations. I therefore want him to edit the picture ( he's already offered to send me an edit so it's just a pin up drawing) so the character has substantial changed such as skin colour, hair or they are changed to a guy instead of a girl.

Is this a reasonable request? I'm trying to be friendly with the guy, but he's awkward to work with and seems really annoyed that I didn't like his gift.


Will not name names or link to the image here. But if you stumble upon it, congrats to you. 

Comments

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

He's probably less annoyed and more embarrassed (but I can only speculate, of course).

A politely worded note of, 'This makes me really uncomfortable, could you edit the character to look less like mine?' is a reasonable request if it's fairly obviously your character. That said, if it's already been up a bit and gotten many comments, it sounds like the damage may have already been done.

[cat-flower.livejournal.com]

I had somebody do the same thing for me years ago when I was a newbie to FA. One of my followers had heard that I was having a really bad week, so to cheer me up they decided to draw my fursona (who is an extremely personal character of mine and synonymous with my online presence) spread eagle with a nose bleed wearing panties and a few fetish items. They also drew actual boobs on her, which is a huge no-no. When I asked them to take it down, they got really mad at me, unfollowed, and wrote a rant journal about it, but they did respect my wishes so that was all I cared about.

I do have to echo kayla_la on pretty much everything. All you can do is explain how you feel why you do, and hope that he takes it well and respects your wishes.

[whoop-zi.livejournal.com]

i think if i were in this position i probably just ask him to remove the submission. drawing adult/fetish art of someone without asking first is a big no-no in my book, and i don't think it would be unreasonable to ask him to take it down.

[houndofloki.livejournal.com]

This happened to me once. An artist I'd commissioned for clean art a couple times and was friendly with, decided to draw me some very pornographic giftart involving one of my characters and one of hers.

It was awkward. Really awkward. I went back and forth with myself on what to say but wound up asking the artist, as delicately as I could, to remove it. She did agree to do that and wasn't angry, but very embarrassed. I kept my distance after that, and we didn't talk again. Editing the character to look like someone else didn't occur to me, but it's a good idea.

If you're not okay with this drawing being up, you're going to have to bite the pill and address it with the artist. I'm afraid this is one of those situations that, no matter how you approach it, is just going to be awkward.

(Can I comment that giving someone unsolicited porn just isn't a good idea, unless you know for a fact they'd be down for every aspect of whatever you're drawing?)

[amethystpie.livejournal.com]

The thing is, I've asked him to remove stuff before. Years ago, he had artwork of my then gf's character with her ex bf. Sufficed to say, she was not happy and I asked for its removal. He said no " My art, my rules". So I opened a report and fortunately the staff sided with me and removed the work.

I'd like to be friends with the guy, because there's not really that many people who draw living machine stuff. But he kind of assumes everyone loves whatever kink he draws and he's very pushy with his comments.

With this it might be harder to get pulled, because it's a cartoon version of me and with my name being taken out of the artist's comment, it's even harder to prove to a mod.

( Funny story about my ex - turned out she was a sociopath and I've since made friends with her much nicer ex bf)

[celestinaketzia.livejournal.com]

I'd be pretty miffed if someone was forcing takedowns of my art because they broke up.

[spartanwerewolf.livejournal.com]

Wait, the art was commissioned?

If that's the case, y'all have no right to force an artist to take it down; they have every right to display their work in their portfolio. If the subjects of the commission broke up, that's got diddly-dick all to do with the artist.

[amethystpie.livejournal.com]

I guess I can't reply to several comments but I assume it'll alert others in this nest?

The artwork was porn, so of course my GF didn't want porn of her character with her ex. The ex had commissioned without her consent. Seems fair to me - I have removed art before where it was a commission but the relationship had broken down.

[spartanwerewolf.livejournal.com]

It's different if the art was commissioned without consent, yes. But as a rule, just because a relationship has broken down, it doesn't make an artist responsible for removing artwork commissioned for a couple. Just another way FA doesn't protect artists' rights.

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

Yeah no, I would refuse to remove anything regardless of who broke it off with who so that was not cool on your part. Also, keep the tone about your ex down... not very nice ya know? Just unnecessary.

[poizenkat.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have taken the art down either. a breakup is no reason to make an artist take art down and it's a completely different situation from the one you listed above.

[amethystpie.livejournal.com]

It is if the character is stolen and used in porn.

[poizenkat.livejournal.com]

usually when people get porn with their partners both sides are consensual. there's no way i could have gotten that it was not from what you said.

[armaina.livejournal.com]

Well intentioned or not, this is such a violation of your boundaries. Why was the assumption to draw you something sexual, specifically to their preferences, instead of drawing you something clean? You are absolutely allowed to say 'i don't want my character in this' .

I really hope they were just naive and that there wasn't some ulterior motive to it ):

[enn shaw (from livejournal.com)]

:/ I can kinda relate to the creepy person, except the subject I drew was a CHIBI, not gross porn. I just shrugged it off and assumed they threw it out.

If it is unwanted, this person essentially disrespected you. I would let them know that you're not comfortable with this and ask for it to be taken down. To be quite frank, I'd cut him off. That's disgusting.

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

Like above, trying to simply mention it makes you uncomfortable is probably the best way! I have been in similar situations and it's always awkward and nerve wracking to either ask for an edit, change, or to simply mention it's not something you are okay with.

Asking politely first about the changes is the best bet, hopefully things go smoothly.

[kazeno-taka.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's because I'm not much into adult furry art, but I'm always surprised when I hear about people making X-rated gift art for people, and it ending up being unwelcomed by the recipient. I'd think that unless you're 100% sure that person is into [erotic subject], you'd simply make it at most PG-13 rated.

I've heard of this happening surprisingly often. I'd say it's the artist's responsibility to remove the work if it offends the recipient. If it's a gift, it's their responsibility to...know the recipient well enough to know if the subject matter will be well-received or welcomed.

[fastbreak333.livejournal.com]

It's... kind of worrying that the comments show that this kind of thing happens a lot. It's like giving a dildo to your friend on his birthday without knowing what she does in her private time: it's inappropriate, all her friends saw it, and it makes her feel awkward trying to politely decline it. There's definitely a huge lack of social awareness in this situation.

Sadly, at this point, a lot of commenters have already seen your character in it, so it's already too late to reverse the damage. However, if you feel like changing or removing can still give you some piece of mind, go for it and brace yourself if things get heated.

[chaossal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, asking for it to be changed or taken down is the only thing you can do. x-x

[fawkatronic.livejournal.com]

Agreeing with most everyone else said, the only options are to either try and ignore it or buck-up and contact them to ask them to change it or remove it.

I will add a suggestion of my own as well that you put information on your profile/character references that dictates what kind of stuff would be acceptable gift art and what kinds of things you would prefer people not draw for you.