General Advice Post: Declining a Commission and/or a Trade

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

Be it their reputation, their attitude or just the overall theme of what they want you to draw for them - we as artists and people have the right to say 'no' to offers placed upon our plates.

The question is, how does one say 'no' in such a way that it is purely professional and has that weight of finality to it that doesn't allow for weasel room. Lets figure out the best way to create a standard of etiquette for declining inquiries we don't want to handle!

I'm opening the floor to the community on this. Please feel free to advise or suggest ways to professionally bow out of offers for commissions or trades.

If you recall someone making a post or a comment regarding this in the past, and felt it was a big help to you; please link to it for everyone's reference!

Comments

[everainsley]

You can be honest without being unprofessional. "I'm sorry, I am uncomfortable with that particular subject matter, so I am afraid I will not be able to do it," is honest, leaves no room for argument, and isn't screaming "Oh God get it away!!!" at someone. If their feelings are hurt over that... You probably don't want to work with them anyway. I've used that for things from people asking for humans (which I want to get better at before I take more money for them) to explicit porn.

And if it's not the subject matter that you have a problem with, you're just bored or burnt out on it, it could be phrased more like "I'm taking a break from (x) for the time being."

Both can be followed up with something along the lines of "Would you like to discuss something else?" or reccomending an artist that may be more open to draw whatever if it's a commission. I wouldn't point someone to another artist unless I knew thay had trades open.

If the problem with a trade comes up, and you're concerned about level of quality you'd be getting, if the other artist will flake out on you, or if you just don't want to deal with a customer for any reason, just tell them no. Don't be a dick about it, obviously, but every artist has a right to turn someone down with just a "I cannot help you right now," if you're being blunt. Again, this can be dressed up to be more polite, just don't leave wiggle room for them to try and guilt you into something.

I wouldn't say to just ignore someone, that's not polite or professional. (And "polite" doesn't mean you are friends with the person.)

I'm probably forgetting things I wanted to say if this ever came up, but I'll just have to remember them after a nap.