<_< F5 for new avvie I worked on instead of trying to get Christmas gifts done in time to send out with my dad before he leaves to visit his parents so I can relax about it this year... Not quite revealing who/what said character is.

Did have a bit of fun doing it though - especially making the eye shine. Might open slots for those where folks can request scenes reflected in the eyes (landscapes mind... >_> )

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-PSA-

It has come to my attention very recently with the posting of recent artwork as to the behavior of some users on this, and any, art site.

Where I sit on the matter is it's rather, if not exceedingly, rude to approach a random artist of any skill/experience/calibre and request free art.

I'm not talking about saying, "Hey! I really like your art, I was wondering if you possibly do any requests?"
That's perfectly fine. For one thing you're asking the artist if they do a request in the first place instead of expecting it. Chances are you'll either be ignored if the artist is too busy/never checks notes, politely told by the artist that no they don't do free art, and/or that hey they do take requests and here's where you can apply for them when slots come up.

What I'm talking about is the following scenario - "Here's my character ref (link). No rush on when you get it done!"

It just.. it grates wrong in so many mental and visceral ways the way a train meets a car, or two cheap cafeteria forks tangle tines when you try to pull one out. There are so many problems with the above statement that it's been difficult to sort out the main problem(s) once I came down from the sheer shock of such an approach.

-Let's start with the requester - chances are they don't know any better way to get free art. This puts them at a huge risk both emotionally and socially in my mind. The artist they poked could very easily be someone with a bad temperament, or just having a lousy day, and their response would be less-than-kind.
The resulting response could damage their view of artists of a certain skill-type and they wouldn't really learn ways to improve their communication from this encounter.

By reputation, if the requester is someone well known, they also run the risk of angering an artist to the point of public action that would affect both parties and cause more trouble than necessary. Sounds a bit familiar to the hardships this community in general deals with to begin with.

-On the flipside - There isn't much I can say really in regards to the stance other artists take on this matter, so what I say is more from my perspective - please keep that in mind.

When someone you hardly know approaches you in a manner that comes off as I-expect-you-to-drop-everything-and-do-this-for-me viibe, it's rather... well.. insulting to say the least. Not just to the artist, but to the commissioners waiting for art they've paid for from said artist.

Sometimes the artist can't even afford the time to do any free art, as all their income goes into home-and-food bills and the like.

I feel like I could say more, but I'd probably sound like a brat if I kept prattling on. Let's just say I was fortunate in my encounter with such a person in that they respected my reasons for not accepting their request and backed down politely.

Have any of you encountered similar scenarios? How did you resolve them if you refused the request?

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That aside, something has been troubling me a lot of late.

I'm a creature creator and designer at heart. It's always been a passion to make something /new/ that came from a different angle of creature combinations.

Twice however, this has landed me in trouble with other artists that felt threatened (at leas that's how it felt) by my designs from the happenstance of sharing one or two trait concepts. Both times I knew very little about the creatures (first incident), or not a single iota of awareness (second incident). Both times I was confronted for it not just by the artists, but also by the peers that followed them like a cult.

First time I was shaken, and able to brush it off with a little more awareness to how my combinations looked. Albeit my view on the artist and how they handled their approach of the situation was greatly diminished with their child-like tantrum.

Second time hit far closer to home as it was someone I considered an acquaintance. The design I had worked on shared at best two similarities with their creature (who's images were buried in a sketchdump that I never once looked at - they were all a mass of black lines to the point I couldn't tell what was what with the first one, so never bothered looking at any others). Those similarities were a long-bodied profile, and gliding wing arms.

Now, those two features are commonly seen on earth around us, both present and past. So one really wouldn't think much of two coincidental species sharing those traits right? It was enough to set off the artist's closest follower into an unprovoked attack, dragging the artist into it while they were recovering from con-crud. That in itself set off a really painful interaction between myself and the artist - where they were insistent on denying me my own creation.

Since that incident I've been incredibly hesitant showing more than a sketch here or there of any creature/species concept publicly, and it's frustrating to the point it hurts on a daily basis.

I want to design even just one successful creature adoptable to share with people. Seeing others become successful with designs that are easy-design in my eyes just adds to that gnawing frustration. Often it gets to the point I become physically ill seeing my inbox flooded with the latest popular dragonoid, avian, aquatic, floof critter, knowing that if I tried anything remotely similar, the attacks would come again.

I know the last statement is something many of you would view as 'silly'. But as the saying 'Twice Bitten - Twice Shy' goes.. I'm probably going to need a lot of help building my own confidence in my creations again. Many of my species, and even characters, sit unfinished because of these scars lurking in the corners of my subconscious.

Having people approach me requesting to make characters of my species is probably the most frustrating of all because I have to tell them they're not finished to the point I can publish them to the public eye.

I think I'm done with my vent now.. going to try to work on my fifth sculpture out of 13/14 to make for family this Christmas before bed. I'll get back to commissions as soon as they're done and shipped out.