"Artists Beware"

Thought I'd share my two cents as they are relevant; I'd commissioned a lot of artists over the years, and indeed have had the very frustrating experience of waiting a full year/nearly a full year for artwork. Because I thought it was so absurd, ever since then I would tell artists from the get-go that I don't want to wait a ridiculous amount of time because of my past experiences. So then usually we agree on an amount of time in advance. Though I can see how someone might agree to that and then still never deliver.

Also, when I commission something I'm usually very specific about what I want in the image (I wouldn't go out of my way to request something if it already existed somewhere or if it wasn't something I really wanted to see). So I usually tell the artist way in advance all the details of the image I want and they send me multiple preview images with revisions, etc. While I realize this can be a pain for the artist, I think that if you're going to pay money for an image (and some artists are expensive), then it should be what you want and not having to settle for something else. I also make it clear from the get-go that what I want is very specific and detailed. In that case I'd never had someone just send me a headshot instead of an upper body, for example.