reason for alarm?

[isteillia.livejournal.com]

in about august, I was commissioned by aztec jaguaress for a single piece of her char. I was having a sale due to financial diffiulty, and was only charging 15 for a colored piece. i did the sketch for her and she was pleased, so i went ahead and inked it, but told her that I wouldn't start coloring it until I received payment. She said she was going to pay via money order, which was no problem, and that she would email me once she sent out payment or if anything came up. it's been a month and I can't get in contact with her. I know it's only been a month, but I am a little concerned on whether or not she is committed to buying the piece, or whether or not she herself is okay. My emails go unanswered, and I haven't heard anything from her.

Does anyone know of her and if so, does anyone know if she is okay or just a forgetful person with limited access to the net?

Comments

[skanrashke.livejournal.com]

Hm. *rubs chin thoughtfully, arcing a brow* Sounds to me like you've got an issue. I've had this kinda shit happen before- the possibility exists that when you showed her the inked piece, she copy/pasted it into a file on her computer; saved that, and will colour it herself without paying you. This' a good example of why you should never 'show' any art until you've recieved at least partial payment, or if you do 'show' it, ensure that its' in a format that cannot be copied, and delete it shortly thereafter.

[shinerai.livejournal.com]

That's brilliant. What formats can this be?

[kitsuken.livejournal.com]

IIRC, acrobat files are pretty difficult to copy (I think printscreen key is the only way) If you download Open Office (freeware program) you can paste your image into a text file and save as an acrobat file and send them that

[shinerai.livejournal.com]

Oh hey that's nifty information. Thanks <3

[amarafox.livejournal.com]

Send a low res file. An acrobat file can be opened in illustrator, photoshop, imported into indesign and you have options for the resolution you want to open it at, too.

The lower the rez the possible, and if you think the person is going to be a problem, watermark it.

Incorrect.

[wolfwings.livejournal.com]

The PDF file format stores images internally as either uncompressed bitmaps (which end up compressed with the entire file later using ZIP/Deflate compression) or as JPEGs (which usually don't get compressed any further by ZIP/Deflate) internally.

There are tools specifically to extract all the images from PDF files readilly available with a quick search of "PDF image extract" on Google, and most major non-Windows platforms that include PDF support (ESPECIALLY Linux) include a tool called pdfimages. Which does nothing but extract images from a PDF file.

The only 'safe' bet is to send low-res images with a couple of 'up close' detail shots to show fur-shading style or the like. Encapsulating the preview images in some obtuse file-format is a less and less valid protection today.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

It's possible that this was an impulse buy and that she's now regretting it, and doesn't want to pay. That kind of behaviour is why I've now got a policy that I won't do a stitch of work on something until I at least have a downpayment. Which sometimes gets silly, when somebody's ordering ears, and I'm all "You can pay the whole $20 up front, or you can give me $5 now for a downpayment," I mean... it's just five bucks, I really shouldn't bother, but it does weed out people who are really flaky and will never actually pay. And I don't know how many times I've gotten somebody who's all "Sure! The downpayment will be in the mail tomorrow!" and a month later it's not there still, so I contact them and they're all "Er... changed my mind, sorry, not getting it." Happens ALL THE TIME.

[dinogrrl.livejournal.com]

I agree with what the others say.

Situations like this are why I have a policy that at least the down payment money must be postmarked to me within one week of someone entering a commission agreement with me, unless they have money issues that we've discussed and I have proof that they will get the payment to me. I personally don't have time to sit around and wait months for money to arrive, that's a perfectly good commission slot I could have given to someone else who's interested.
And also that I don't start any work on it until I get at least half the payment, which is non-refundable in the case that the person decides to up and disappear after getting the first (very low-quality) sketch scan.

I have had a commissioner go almost a month without contacting me before, but after getting that cleared up she was great to work with. I say maybe email her one more time saying that she is at risk of forfeiting her commission, then give her a week and if she doesn't reply, email her again saying you're sorry but you'll have to cancel the commission, if she wants in again she'll be put at the end of your queue, etc. Sometimes I get the impression that commissioners don't take this stuff as a real business transaction, which it is, and theye feel it's all right to be total jerks and totally forgeteful and whatnot. Which in the real world would get you reprimanded or fired, easily.

Anyway, I ramble.

[mazz.livejournal.com]

I say keep trying for a bit longer before cutting your losses. She may have changed her mind or gotten really busy and forgot.
I'd say try replying to her LJ since she did post on it yesterday.

[dirtylittlelie.livejournal.com]

I have her on my MSN contacts, but, as I haven't been on myself lately (still no internet we just moved), I haven't seen her online and haven't talked to her myself.

I just wanted to mention that she commissioned me a little while back, and she's really good to work with. She paid me on time, I think she might have even paid before I finished, I don't remember, but she won't stiff you. I think she's much better than that from what I know of her. (:
Not that you were accusing her, of course, I just thought I should mention that. Good luck!

[aztec-jaguaress.livejournal.com]

Sorry about that, I've been at work with no internet, I do have the money for the commish, I just need to get it sent to you >_>

Also, I haven't received any e-mails from you either, I just checked my hotmail, gmail and yahoo mail, and there was nothing from you there o.O

I'll e-mail you now with an alternate way to contact me since I'm leaving back for work until Wed.

Once again, I'm soo extremely sorry about it -.-

[isteillia.livejournal.com]

don't worry about it- i wasn't mad- just worried- also now I am confused as to why my emails didn't go through. I had heard good things about you and when there was a streak of no communication I was worried that something had happened. Thanks for letting me know!