Has Anyone seen Moldred?

[mel-the-hybrid.livejournal.com]

Last year he won a four page sketch comic from an auction I was hosting. It had taken me a while to actually get to his commission, but I had sent the first page to his comic to get it approved by him before I continued on.

No response.

I sent him another e-mail, wondering if he was still there. No response. x_X; I'm...not sure what I should do here. This is like the second time I've had a commissioner not respond to me after they've sent me the money for an extended period of time (The first issue was resolved after he had told me he was getting a new house so he was unavailable for almost two months).

Anyway..yeah..uhm. Should I just send him his money back or keep pestering?

Comments

[martes.livejournal.com]

Keep pestering. This is not the first time Moldred has vanished for an extended period.

[mel-the-hybrid.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I just got done reading the tags of him on A_B. Holy crap, didn't know he had a record like that. x_x

I'll keep on pestering then for the time being.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

Moldred has a history of vanishing constantly. Just view the tag for him. He seems to get around to it all eventually, but lets be real do you really want this over your head as you have to wait weeks and weeks for something? Anything from this guy? I don't really care how great of a commissioner he is.

A comic is a harder beast than just a illustration (imho) so to me you would be better off cutting your losses and refunding him with an apology.

[kalika-tybera.livejournal.com]

Keep poking him periodically. He's sort of known for communication lapses, but he does generally answer eventually. I did a commission for him about a year ago and he was fine with responding to me, I was lucky.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

He's not a bad guy, but yeah, he drops off the face of the planet regularly. He says he has eye problems and that he can't spend too long looking at a monitor, but he always seems to find time to bid on auctions. *shrug*

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

I -think- I worked for this person before. It could be someone different but he acted the same as the other bewares about him.

Personally, I would refund and wash my hands of it. It was frustrating and stressful for me to sit on money and not be able to finish work for months on end, as I show progress shots and need approval. I'm also a fast artist, so this was even worse for me compared to others. In the end, the art was so old that it was pretty hard for me to work on since it looked so bad compared to my current art, and feel like you're giving bad art, even though this is what they commissioned at the time.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

I agree with this.

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

I checked the tag and there are no bewares on him, only lost contact posts.

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's what I meant. I just kinda call of them bewares due to the title of the group.

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

Okay I was just a little confused, because there's a difference between posts made to warn the community and those where someone's just being elusive, haha.

[aazhie.livejournal.com]

I only send him one approval. if you feel like going it all alone, wait to hear back about the first page and then bust it out, or refund the cost minus your current work and send the page to him. He's a perfectly nice guy, just not online much. I work slow, so I don't usually mind this kind of thing

[taasla.livejournal.com]

Howdy!

Moldred is a really great customer, but he does tend to drop off the face of the earth. One time it took him weeks to approve something. I think the last commission I did for him, I didn't give a prelim stage and just went to finishing. He was very happy with the final result.

[wolf-goat.livejournal.com]

Honestly I wouldn't refund, I'd just wait for him to get back to you and poke him occasionally. He apparently has several major health issues, but he is a really good commissioner, very easy to please, polite and grateful, and never gives any issues apart from communication lapses.

[mel-the-hybrid.livejournal.com]

He replied to me today after poking him again. I guess my page for his comic didn't go through. o_O Sent it to him again and now waiting for approval reply. At least I know he's still alive and kicking, I thought he had kicked the bucket or something. x_x

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

If I were in your shoes, I would have sent it again with a note about placing a firm deadline for communication (as in, "I need to hear back from you by X/X/2012.") It is EXTREMELY rude to just leave you hanging like that - he's wasting your professional business time.

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

Completely agreeing here.

If it's true he has major health issues, it'd be a good idea for him to warn artists before he commissions them. A fast artist like me would personally not want to be left hanging for months, while others would have no problem. Same as how it's nice to know ahead of time you'll be gone on vacation.

I've noticed people don't think the same of commissioners as they do artists. If an artist disappears, it's a horrible thing, but if a commissioner does it it's ok, especially if they're nice. Personally, I find it just as important for the commissioner to keep in communication as the artist is.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

Stop writing posts I agree with (no really keep it up;).

We ALL want that nice commissioner, its something we crave, right? Almost demand (nicely, of course). But nice only goes so far if whatever profit you'd get from the guy is basically depleted by playing the hunt and bother and wait game (Hunting him down, constant emails, waiting between steps, it all cuts into your productivity and whatever profit you might have gleaned from the offered money). :|

Its a sword I couldn't stand to have over my head. D:

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

Yes there is a different standard because unless the work is pay-on-completion, the artist has payment at least.

It's annoying but not the same as someone running off with your money (unless it is pay-on-completion).

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

It's not the same, no, but I don't feel like it should be treated all that differently. I'm not saying go on a rampage against commissioners like that either, but it's not "ok" to just disappear.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

You are correct, it's not good. Depending on your personality type, it can be pretty stressful to have an unfinished job hanging like that, I know it would be for me. But there's a pretty fundamental difference.

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

Same here. It was a horrible experience for me to wait so long for communication, and there's so many other things that get affected by it too. If someone is fine working that way, then aweseome! If Moldred just warned people, I'm sure majority would have no problem with it, especially since they'd be prepared before hand.

It is very different. But for example, I've seen it often where an artist gets scolded and bad mouthed if they disappear when they take payment after completion. So the commissioner isn't actually loosing out or has they're money held by an artist. Those situations are similar to a commissioner disappearing since commissioners aren't holding money, but it's treated differently because they aren't the artist. It's times like that I find it silly to condone the behaviour. But it's how things are unfortunately.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

As far as pay-on-completion artists getting scolded harder, I agree that is silly! Logically they are much the same, yes. I dunno if it's the same individuals scolding the artist and okaying the commissioner, though. If so, I hope they rethink things!

[sableantelope.livejournal.com]

I just want to add I agree with that.

I try to always let the person I'm commissioning know I'm terminally ill and sometimes tend to disappear due to being bed ridden or in hospital for large chunks of time. I always try to get them to accept payment up front too just in case I keel half way through and they are otherwise stuck.

I know most artists and commissioners don't want to hear about their customer/person their hiring's personal life but this one case where I think a simple: "I just wanted to let you know I am seriously ill so I'm so sorry if I disappear once and a while or am slow replying. Please let me know if you are okay with that." Is the right thing to do.

*edit for major typo, sorry! It was one letter but important. -_-

[ljmydayaway.livejournal.com]

Moldred seems to be the type of commissioner who doesn't mind if you just finish his commission up, assuming he's given you all the details and paid in full.

I don't recall ever having a problem with him.