Advice: Being ignored??

[pokumii.livejournal.com]

On May 31st last month, i created a YCH comic and a user had autobuyed it the same night after bidding against other people. Seems all fine and dandy. They were pretty happy and excited to see their OC being in the comic and mentioned that they wanted to work close with me via contact to ensure that it looked perfect to them, along with changes made to it if it looks off. After the user sent responded to my Paypal invoice, I immediately started on it and worked with them. After drawing the first three panels, they mentioned that the third panel's hand looked off, the breasts were too large and the outline on the clothes looked off on their OC. Because i didn't wanna hop on FA everyday to respond to their messages, i decided to ask if they had a Skype. They did and i added them. They then told me the hand and breasts were off, they also said this on FA.

Granted, i never specified anything in my auction saying that the sketch won't be altered and I know i'm at fault for that and will add that for future reference. I never had to make changes on a body for a YCH until now. For the issues about the hand, clothes and breasts, the breasts were drawn to match with the sketch 100%, as always. The clothing outline they're talking about is probably them referring to the folds in the clothes. I can't draw folds that well but i do my best so they don't look flat. As for the hand, i drew it with some changes because it looked off in the sketch with some minor errors in my eyes that i didn't notice. In addition, i'm still getting the hang of drawings hands and fingers (I use my own as a reference and they're pretty small compared to the average hand). Here's the hand they were not too happy with, by the way. http://i.imgur.com/rGcmblW.jpg

Since then, i made changes to the body to match more closely with their OC. But, i haven't heard any response from this person after i told them this with a screenshot of the changes. Their Skype shows that they live in Australia and i know timezones can be an issue. What's really bothering me is the fact that they HAVE read my messages on FA after i sent the Skype message to them but they never responded.

Here's the message in question from FA, below it is a picture showing the message has been read.
http://i.imgur.com/XX7SU3p.png

And this is the conversation i had with them via Skype.
http://i.imgur.com/fIQS9CZ.png

Since then, I haven't heard a single word from this person. There are times i see them online when i'm going to bed and they never really reply to my messages. They seem to read them on FA with no problem, so why not respond?? I haven't attempted to finish this comic because if i do, I know there will be changes that have to be made and i need their approval first before i go on ahead.

I never had this situation before with anyone and this is really concerning me and messing up my flow since i do YCH's in the order it was purchased and it feels strange having to skip this to work on other ones before this one. But i have to ensure every customer i have is a happy customer.

Comments

[gatekat.livejournal.com]

The only advice I can give is to be ready for this one to cause a stink no matter what you do or don't do.

And be ready for a paypal chargeback/dispute over the cost "because you didn't do the work paid for."

If they hadn't paid it's obvious they want free work, but since they paid it's a lot less clear, but I wouldn't trust it's going to go well for you.

[pokumii.livejournal.com]

They paid me once i sent out the invoice for the YCH. It's really weird cause they're active on FA posting art that they've commissioned from other artists every week, but they don't have time to respond to my note or Skype message.

On top of that, i noticed two drawings they commissioned where the breasts DO NOT match with their OC ref image but the breasts i drew were too large apparently.

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't look at the other images in the gallery. It's quite possible those artists did not offer approvals, or didn't say yes to changes.

[celestinaketzia.livejournal.com]

Immediately what comes to mind is that they have more changes in mind but are gearing up to tell you. After just two days it's hard to say if you're being ignored or not, but after doing this for a while that would be my best guess.

[pokumii.livejournal.com]

I have seen them online numerous times on Skype before going to bed and i'm sure they have more then enough time to respond to me since they've have posted art on their FA during all of this.

The only thing i'm thinking of doing is just continue on with the comic while following their OC ref to a T and then just send them the final lineart before coloring. It's making me a bit anxious cause i don't want them pulling a "I don't like it, i want my money back!" type of situation. ._.;

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

This won't help your situation now but something to do for the future. Make it clear you need a response/approval, as some may not know you need it. Some artists send an image as an update to show, not for approval, so they may not think it needs a response.

On my own emails, I add "please let me know if I can start ___ now". (Inking, sketching, finishing it up, etc).

I also used to make it more clear, having a copy pasted: "Please let me know if any changes need to be done or if it's OK to continue. I cannot continue without an OK from you".

That helps a lot, means they know what you need and will more so respond in the future.

[jakkal.livejournal.com]

The next thing I would do is the following:

"I haven't heard from you in (however long it's been). If I do not hear back from you in (enter reasonable amount of time here), I will assume that you are satisfied with the sketch as is, and I will proceed with the commission from there. You will no longer be able to make changes at this point. So if you would like more changes to be made, please respond to me before (deadline here)."

They don't get to dick around with your time, but like others have said, watch out for chargebacks.

[leahtaur.livejournal.com]

Others have offered good advice about how to make it clear to the client that a response is required. My advice is take that advice and then to mark the client down in your queue as "Username: waiting for response" or similar and move on to the next. I know it feels weird, it always feels weird to me too, but there's no reason to lose working time on the next project just because someone can't be arsed to respond to you.

I have a repeat client who purchases the types of commissions that come with approval stages but then never responds to any of my messages past the ones where payment is handled. Just letting you know that this is not an uncommon situation.