If Someones Undercharging For Commissions Dont Tell Them They Could Charge More Just Tip Them.. Some

Artists, let’s talk about Instagram commission scammers

There’s been a huge rise in commission scammers recently, mostly on Instagram. A lot of new artists don’t know what to look out for, so I figured this might help people.

How they begin

Usually the scammer will write to you asking about a commission. Something deceptively cute - mostly I encounter asks about pet portraits, with one or two photos sent. They’ll probably try to sell you a sweet little story, like “It’s for my son’s birthday”. They will insist that they love your artwork and style, even though they don’t follow you or never liked a single piece of your art.

What to look out for:

Their profiles will either be private, empty, or filled with very generic stuff, dating at most a few years back.

Their language will be very simple, rushed or downright bad. They might use weird emojis that nobody ever uses. They will probably send impatient “??” when you don’t answer immediately. They’re in a crunch - lots of people to scam, you know. 

They’ll give you absolutely no guidelines. No hints on style, contents aside from (usually) the pet and often a name written on the artwork, no theme. Anything you draw will be perfect. Full artistic freedom. In reality they don’t really care for this part.

They’ll offer you a ridiculous amount of money. Usually 100 or 300 USD. They’ll often put in a phrase like “I am willing to compensate you financially” and “I want the best you can draw”, peppered with vague praise. It will most likely sound way too good to be true. That’s because it is.

Where the scam actually happens

If you agree, they will ask you for a payment method. They’ll try to get to this part as soon as possible. 

Usually, they’ll insist on PayPal. And not just any PayPal. They’ll always insist on sending you a transfer immediately. None of that PayPal Invoice stuff (although some do have methods for that, too). They’ll really, REALLY want to get your PayPal email address and name for the transfer - that’s what they’re after. If you insist on any other method, they’ll just circle back to the transfer “for easiest method”. If you do provide them with the info, most likely you’ll soon get a scam email. It most likely be a message with a link that will ultimately lead to bleeding you dry. Never, and I mean NEVER click on any emails or links you get from them. It’s like with any other scam emails you can ever get.

A few things can happen here:

They overpay you and ask for the difference to be wired back. Usually it will go to a different account and you’ll never see that money again. 

They’ll overpay you “for shipping costs” and ask you to forward the difference to their shipping company. Just like before, you’ll never see that money again.

The actual owner of the account (yes, they most likely use stolen accounts to wire from) will realize there’s been something sketchy going on and request a refund via official channels. Your account will be charged with fees and/or you get in trouble for fraudulent transactions. 

You will transfer the money from your PayPal credit to your bank account and they will make a shitstorm when they want their money back, making your life a living hell. They will call you a scammer, a thief, make wild claims, wearing you down and forcing you into wiring money “back” - aka to their final destination account. 

Never, EVER wire money to anyone. This is not how it’s supposed to go. Use PayPal Invoice for secure exchanges where the client needs to provide you with their email, not the other way around.

You can find more info on that method HERE.

What to do when you encounter a scammer:

Ask the right questions: inquire about the style, which artwork of yours they like, as much details as you can. They won’t supply you with any good answers.

Don’t let the rush of the exchange, their praise and the promise of insanely good money to get to you. That’s how they operate, that’s how they make you lose vigilance. 

Don’t engage them. As soon as you realize it might be a scam, block them. The sense of urgency they create with their rushed exchange, and pressure they put on you will sooner or later get to you and you might do something that you’ll regret later.

Never wire money to anyone. Never give out your personal data. Never provide your email, name, address or credit card info. 

Don’t be deceived by receiving a payment, if you somehow agree to go along with it. Just because it’s there now doesn’t mean it can’t be withdrawn. 

Here is a very standard example of such an exchange. I realized it’s a scam pretty fast and went along with it, because I wanted good screenshots for you guys, so I tried going very “by the book” with it. 

Please share this post, make it reach as many artists as possible. Let young or inexperienced artists know that this is going on. So many people have no idea that this is a thing. Let’s help each other out. If you think I missed any relevant info, do add it as an rb!

Also, if you know other scam methods that you think should be shared, consider rb-ing this post with them below. Having a master post of scam protection would AWESOME to have in the art community.

pen testing

writers and artists will go "this isn't good enough." my brother in christ, you're creating something new out of nothing and expressing yourself creatively. your productivity and unrealistic standards of perfection do not define you or the worth of your art. you're doing great.

bcs secret santa gift for @/lachoyuri on twitter. she said nacho & kim were her favs, so here's them watching the mlp movie together in an AU based on the silly little skit rhea seehorn and michael mando did of nacho & kim meeting in the video rental store. this was meant to be platonic but feel free to read it otherwise

Okay reblog if you’re an artist who STRONGLY PREFERS reblogs with commentary

People are apparently under the impression that reblogging someone’s art and adding a comment is frowned upon and that can’t possibly be true, every artist I know of sees a reblog-comment as like the ultimate definitive reward for their hard work.

Obviously don’t feel bad for NOT adding a comment if you’re shy or just don’t know what to say, but if there’s something you would like to say about a drawing you’ve liked enough to reblog, I’m pretty sure most artists crave hearing it.

The only thing I need tumblr to do is to get like... cool with the idea you can hire people here to do commissions for you and to like.. consider monetary support for artists cuz one of the reasons and the biggest reason I moved to twitter in the first place is because people there buy my art. I make a living there doing art. And the vibe here is **we don't do that here** If you want artists to be here and do art you gotta be okay with the concept of artists trying to make money. I hate capitalism as much as the next person but I'm also 30 years old living with my fucking parents because I can't pay for a 1 bedroom apartment. Artists are not 'big business'. We're not Disney. We're just people trying to make a living or some money for groceries and shit.

finally making a proper commission post!! all info can be found in my carrd, which is linked in my bio. i'll also reblog this post with the direct link!!

reblogs are appreciated.

my spy x family self insert slash oc or whatever that's been in my mind for months but has now finally been brought to life. info under the cut!! find them on AF here

HOW THEY MET THE FORGERS

The Forgers usually got everything in the house under control. Both Yor and Loid do a good job of taking care of Anya, and Loid is the one who mainly helps her with her homework. Sometimes they’d even have Yuri over, and sometimes Loid could get Franky to watch over Anya if things get particularly busy for both him and Yor. But at the end of the day, Yuri and Franky are still busy people with their own jobs. Yor eventually brings up to Loid that maybe they should get a professional tutor for Anya. Even though Loid can manage pretty well, she says it wouldn’t hurt if they get some extra help and could even shoulder some of the expenses. Loid feels like it’s unnecessary, but he’s willing to listen to Yor’s advice. He’s only very skeptical about trusting just anyone into the Forger family home. Luckily, Yor just happens to already have someone in mind.

Sol has professionally worked with kids in both school settings and private one-on-one settings before, so Yor has faith in their capabilities. And it just so turns out that Yor’s known them since they were both kids. Loid thinks they can be trusted, and after seeing how quickly Anya warms up to them, ends up agreeing with hiring them as Anya’s private tutor.

And so it begins.

THEIR ROLE IN THE FORGER FAMILY DYNAMIC

Anya quickly takes a liking to Sol. They’re the kind of fun auncle that would let her get away with a few things that her parents (mostly Loid) wouldn’t allow her to, but never does anything that would let her get harmed. Eventually Anya gets too attached to them and doesn’t ever want them to leave. And as such, Sol becomes more than just Anya’s tutor — Yor and Loid also start ringing them up whenever they need a babysitter for Anya, and eventually they just become their go-to for any extra house help they need, especially when it comes to taking care of Anya. They kind of become the Forger Family’s go-to fixer and jack-of-all trades.

THEIR ROLE IN THE COMEDY

Sol doesn’t have a hidden agenda or secret double life. Instead, their unpredictability as a character makes them serve as an agent of chaos, throwing a wrench into everyone’s plans. Anya can read minds, but she doesn’t need to read Sol’s mind at all, because they’re quite the open book and say whatever they’re thinking, usually with no filter. If Anya would read their mind, sometimes there’s just really nothing going on there.

Loid isn’t completely convinced about this, though. To be honest, Sol kind of intimidates him a little, and he’s sometimes suspicious of them, leading to overanalyze a lot of what they say. It doesn’t help that one of their best skills is being great at disguises, technically speaking.

CHARACTER TRAITS

Genderweird (positive): Sol’s gender presentation depends on either whatever fits their mood or whatever’s the most convenient. They end up confusing a lot of people, including Yuri. Sometimes they do this unintentionally, other times they do this on purpose to mess with people. Their one goal in life is to make their gender as puzzling as possible.

Cosplay veteran: Sol is a passionate cosplayer. They’ve been cosplaying since they were a kid, and so they’ve had a lot of experience. They’re basically a shapeshifter and this is how they got really good at presenting themself however they want. They’re able to do their own makeup and sew their own clothes, but makeup is more of their strong suit, and they sometimes opt to commission other people for their outfits. They still work closely with designing everything they wear, though.

Weird wardrobe: They wear the same base dress almost every day. For every day of the year, they shift the hue of their dress ever so slightly. If you’ve been seeing them everyday, this isn’t something you’d notice right away until you think back to what color they were wearing last month. Aside from this, the patterns and theme of their outfit also changes depending on what they’re doing for the day. When they first started as Anya’s tutor, they’d dress up according to whatever subject they were going to teach Anya that day (hence the math variant of the outfit as proof of concept). Additionally, if they’re animated, the patterns on their outfit would move on their own (like in Chowder).

General disposition: They’re very upbeat and approachable, especially to kids since that’s their job, but also because they enjoy it. They say whatever they’re thinking, but this is less of a bluntness and more of a “thinking out loud” type of situation. Their movements are usually very exaggerated and they’re kind of loud sometimes. They’re nosy but will never gossip only because they couldn’t even remember what they heard in the first place. Their head is playing the Wii music theme on repeat at autopilot, and Anya knows this.

Character Inspirations:

Ms Frizzle

Mary Poppins

Amelia Bedelia

Thoma (Genshin Impact)

Osana Najimi

Chika Fujiwara

CHARACTER DESIGN NOTES

Bald: They shaved their head because it’s easier to put wigs on that way (according to them).

Tapered arms and legs: Their arms and legs are shaped like cones that are thicker at the top and tapers downwards.

Tiny hands and slender fingers: Pretty much what it says on the tin.

Silhouette: Blocky; it’s important that the area around their head has a lot of negative space compared to everywhere else (especially the highlight of their silhouette, which is their comically oversized trapezoid skirt).

EXTRA INFO

Base outfit is heavily referenced from this outfit from the Christian Lacroix Couture Fall/Winter 1988 lineup.

They usually carry a matching parasol around. Unlike their outfits which they change on purpose, their parasols change every time they’re seen because they always end up losing the previous one they had.

some trades / commissions i've finished (part 1/3)

i'm posting these late, my apologies...

for @chytag, @void-kissed, and @cj-furry-shipper

my takes on goldie & scrooge... i just took what i liked from multiple sources + some headcanons and put em together

i have an elaborate headcanon for goldie's hair where she was born naturally blonde, but after a while it starts greying. goldie doesn't like getting reminded that she's Getting Old, so she dyes it back to blonde. after the fountain episode, i think she's more comfortable with that now, so she lets it grey out again and doesn't dye it any more. hence the grey roots but blonde tips

height gap because i like the idea of goldie being taller and "christmas on the wheels" kinda did that already, i just leaned into it more