DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
adopt a chiber!
HTML https://adoptafreechibernow.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: General Discussion
*****************************************************
#Post#: 13--------------------------------------------------
Info for art shop owner and art shop costumers!
By: Lily Noma Date: April 25, 2013, 8:07 am
---------------------------------------------------------
This are completely copy from the info on Chickensmoothie.
Credit to the original writer.
To art shop owner:
Stay professional: You can goof around or be yourself anywhere
else on CS, but once you enter your art shop thread, you should
be nothing but professional. Address your customers politely,
respond to questions, try to alleviate as much stress and
concern as you can. That being said, here's how you stay
professional.
I. Keep your anger/irritability in check: Nothing scares off
customers faster than an angry artist. Snapping at your
customers is an absolute no-no. Imagine you walk in and you see
this...
User: omg MAKE ME N ARTZ PICTR!11!!1!
Artist: Jesus Christ you people are thick! Fill out the form and
speak English, dummy! Can't you read the freakin' rules?! Why do
I put up with this crap?!
Would that response make you go "I want their art!" No! That
would make you go "Good God if that's how they act with an
inquiring customer, how will they treat me when I enter a
business contract with them?" Your attitude in your thread can
make or break commissions. I know most people when looking for
art, will factor in attitude into the commission equation.
And no, a "bad mood" isn't an excuse. If you're having a bad day
and you just can't handle the stress of dealing with customers,
just don't do it until you cool down. Nobody will hold it
against you.
II. Keep spam to a minimum: You can chat with your fans, but
ideally your art thread should be just for ordering art or
addressing concerns with your art. The bigger the thread is, the
higher the chance of lockage. Plus spam is against the rules.
Moving on to different points.
All play and no work make you a broke artist:: Taking
commissions means you make a commitment. You have to make a
product, deliver product, and get your payment. That is your
commitment. Your commissioners DO NOT pay you to chat with your
fans and do absolutely zero work. Don't get me wrong, you can
chat with your fans, but budget your time and make sure you get
your commissioned art done as well.
Make yourself available: Many users are intimidated by artists
for some reason or another. Always have your PM box and thread
open for commissioners to ask questions, request changes,
inquire about other services, etc. Invite people to take
advantage of the fact they can contact you for any reason. Just
a note to commissioners; do not abuse that privilege.
Keep your posts tidy and easy to understand: If you have a
multi-post thread like I do, reserve the first post as an index
to the others so people can skip right to the rules, forms,
examples, etc. It's easy to navigate and people won't get lost
as opposed to a one post thread where everything is crammed
together and confusing to sort through.
SOAPBOX MOMENT- Codewords:: I'm calling this a soapbox moment
because this is just a personal pet peeve and several art shop
customers have expressed frustration with this system; codewords
in rules. It's fine to have a safeguard against people who blow
past rules like one rule that says "if you read this, put the
eye color of your character at the end of your form."
Codeword puzzles like this...
1. rule
2. Put orange as the codeword
3. rule
4. rule
5. Don't put orange, I'll ignore you. Put banana instead.
6. rule
7. Don't put banana, put apple pie but instead of apple put
cherry.
Are irritating and stop people from ordering because they don't
want to waste their time playing mind games to get a piece of
art.
Keep your customers in the loop.: Having an art block? Say so!
Moving or will not have internet access? Add a notice in your
shop! Keep your customers updated so they won't be in the dark
wondering what you're doing or if they will get their art. It
will give them piece of mind and save you the stream of "WHAT
ABOUT MY ARTZ" PMs.
Don't be afraid to say no or cancel a commission and refund if
you can't do it: If someone comes to you with an absurdly
complicated sparkledog, don't be afraid to say no if you don't
do complicated characters. Your art shop, your rules. Yes, they
are paying, but you have a right to say no to a request, just be
sure to be polite about it. At the same time, if you take on
more than you can chew and just don't want the stress or
something comes up in your life, it's okay to refund the
commissioner and explain why you can't do it.
Tris added these two suggestions. (Quotes is what Tris said.)
"Do not resort to begging if you art doesn't sell: "No "please
please order, I'm bored" in bump posts. Art on CS is a
competitive market, and most people don't seem to make it
through. :/ Art won't be popular if the buyer can tell you
didn't put any effort into it, or if it even looks like there's
no effort put in." Restrict bumping, I've seen people start
bumping their art topics every three minutes after posting.
Patience is a virtue.
Advertise wisely: "Do NOT send random people "special offers"
from your art shop, and do not mass-PM people asking for
business. That's not only a reportable offense, it's also super
annoying. In fact, I don't even think you should mention your
shop unless someone asks if you have art for sale first. I can't
count how many times I've just been having a friendly
conversation with someone, then suddenly: "OMG VISITS MAH SHOP
PLZ PLZ PLZ". =___=""
This also goes for art contests. Think of it this way; do you
like those e-mail spam advertisements clogging up your inbox?
All that work deleting 419 scams and drug ads when you could be
doing something productive? THAT'S how artists and customers
feel when you bomb them with PM spam advertisements. It won't
bring in the customers, it will drive them away.
But where do I advertise?: Your signature of course! Your
signature is a great place to put a link to your art shop! There
are some (now defunct) art shop directories you can post in too.
Consistent Above Good: Examples are wonderful. They show your
customer exactly what they're going to get in terms of quality.
Use plenty of examples with different poses, species, types of
medium, etc.
Just be careful with one common art shop pitfall; put up the
quality of art you feel you can deliver at a consistent rate.
Don't show your absolute best piece of art ever as an example
because when you do art requests and deliver a piece, your
customer will be disappointed when what they get is less in
quality than what was promised.
To art shop costumers:
I've been thinking about something recently, and I feel it needs
to be called to the attention of the CS community. There is a
proper way to treat a person with an art shop, and a lot of
people here don't seem to know what that way is. And because of
the rudeness, incomprehensible language, and general disrespect
a lot of you show to artists here, many of the truly talented
individuals who may once have considered doing art for you no
longer feel that they can keep up when they are shown nothing
but foul manners and general stupidity.
Be polite. Being rude will not get a thing done for you with an
artist in the real world. I don't care how many pets you gave
them, I don't care if you "need" your request done by a specific
date, and I don't care that you couldn't be bothered to read the
entire rule section because the shop had just opened and you
wanted to get a spot before it closed. Artists are people, and
people appreciate good manners. Which brings me to my next
point.
Artists are people, not machines. Now, some people spend five
minutes on MS Paint scribbles, then wonder why no one will pay
for their art. Others spend days on requests, and charge next to
nothing, considering the time it takes. And still others feel
forced to shut down their shops for good because their customers
can't learn to keep their mouths shut and stop pestering. We all
have real lives: you, me, everyone. When you think of bothering
an artist, please try to take a walk in their shoes first. Would
you want someone pestering you when you are honestly doing the
best you can to get their work done? Art is a fickle thing. The
talent seems to come and go. Sometimes, artists go through
blocks and have a tough time getting their thoughts onto paper.
Sometimes, requests seem to just draw themselves. But as a
customer, the polite, decent, and respectful thing to do is to
mind your own business and be patient.
Speak intelligently. Probably the biggest cause of customer
outrage because of a wrongly-drawn design, chatspeak is also a
pet peeve of many of our more literate members. It makes you
sound stupid, immature, and irresponsible. If you think you're
cool by omitting basic punctuation and capitalization and
shortening words, you are most certainly not. Now, how does
chatspeak cause a misinterpretation of a design? Well, if the
artist can't understand what you're saying, then how do you
expect them to do your request?
Wait your turn. Look through Bouquetblu's Jelly Baby thread.
Seriously, just look. How many forms do you see that were
submitted when her shop title read "Closed" or when the slots
were already filled? Probably many more than were actually
taken. It's just plain sad when a private art shop thread needs
mini-moderators to keep things in check, but curiously enough,
that was exactly what happened with Blu's. If you're not
entirely new to CS you may also recall a certain WonderWolfess'
art shop. Now, WonderWolfess is extremely talented, definitely
one of the best canine artists I have ever seen on CS, and it
was very charitable of her to create an art shop to begin with,
considering that on her DeviantART account she charges real
money for her art. Blu and Wolfie have very different styles,
but there is one thing they have in common: very, very high
demand. So high, in fact, that people can't seem to wait their
turn. Blu frequents the Artist Rant thread, and I know she has
her fair share of horror stories about how impatient and rude
people can be. Wolfie no longer has an art shop because for her,
the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back came in the
form of someone who had the nerve to post their form and even
change her title so it said "Open" in their reply. That scenario
is not just rude, it is incredibly demeaning to the artist. Did
this person honestly think Wolfie was stupid enough not to
notice a simple title change? Apparently this is the case, or
the person wouldn't have tried it to begin with.
This next one was added by Wendigo, and I think she makes an
excellent point, so this is going here, too:
Commission =/= Friendship: Never assume that the artist you are
commissioning wants to be your friend simply because you pay
them. Some artists would rather keep contact with you strictly
professional and business related. They're not interested in you
contacting them to chat about your day or you sending them a
link to a Youtube video you found funny. Most artists really
don't care to get to know you deeper other than what you're
paying. It sounds cold, but a business relationship is much
different than a friendly relationship.
And for the love of God, don't contact an artist and ask for
their offsite personal contact information (e-mail, instant
message, etc) so you can chat with them. You have absolutely no
reason to require that information.
This point was suggested by Liongirl Mew. Thank you very much!
Don't minimod unless asked. Some customers seem to think the
artist will appreciate them more if they act as vigilantes on
the thread. This is not the case. If it isn't your thread and
the artist hasn't specifically asked you to patrol it for them,
it's not a good idea to do so. You are not the artist, so you do
not know specifically what the artist is looking for in forms,
or whether another customer has asked a legitimate question or
has a legitimate complaint. If you feel that someone is being
excessively rude on an artist's thread, the right thing to do is
report the post so a moderator can handle it. It is not your
responsibility to uphold the artist's rules. Many times a
well-meaning customer will enforce rules incorrectly, which only
leads to confusion for the other customers and more work for the
artist, as they have to go back and correct any misinformation.
The best thing you can do if you see someone breaking an
artist's rules on a thread is to PM the artist and notify them,
or, again, report the post and let a moderator handle it.
This suggestion was added by Mella~No! I can't believe I forgot
it in my initial writing; it's important!
Pay properly. I don't know how many times I've seen cases of
improper payment -- in friends' art shops, the Artist Rant
Thread, and even in my own shop. If an artist asks for wishlist
pets only in exchange for their art, it is your responsibility
to offer only what they prefer. Unless an artist has something
in their thread (which I have seen fairly often) about working
out an alternate payment if their art is too expensive to
afford, the artist only wants the payment they have listed on
their thread, and nothing else will work. Posting a form anyway
with improper payment will get you nowhere but (possibly) the
artist's blacklist as it is spammy and annoying.
In addition, if you have posted correct payment and your order
is accepted, it is your responsibility to carry through with the
payment. Some customers place art payments in a specific pet
group so they will not lose track of the pets they've promised.
If you have a hard time remembering what you've offered to each
artist, you can name your pets specifically for the artist (i.e.
"Art Payment for Tris") or place them in groups. Many artists
require payment only after the art has been completed. In this
way, payment works based on an honor system--the customer's
responsibility is to pay the artist what is owed to them after
having received their art. Unfortunately, I have seen these
artists taken advantage of many a time by a customer who refuses
to pay. [B]Taking, copying, saving, or redistributing unpaid
artwork is ART THEFT! Even if a customer gets away with not
paying an artist once, it is likely another artist will not be
tricked in the same way--artists communicate actively and pay
attention to each others' blacklists. If one artist has had
trouble with a given customer, the others will be wary.[/B]
[quote]More helpful info added by Wendigo. :3
Posting up a form and saying "this is for when you're open!" or
asking "can you make this when you're open?" defeats the purpose
of closing a shop. wth.
Frequent commissioner =/= extra benefits: Again, unless clearly
stated, don't make up exceptions for yourself. It doesn't matter
if you've ordered 1 picture, 5 pictures, or even 500 pictures,
if the artist says one request at a time or no pre-orders, don't
pretend you can break those rules because you've ordered
frequently at that shop and then act shocked when the artist
says no. This goes hand-in-hand with Commission =/=
Friendship.[/quote]
I hope at least a few of you took the time to read all this,
because some people here really need to learn to be more decent
toward artists. They are doing you a favor by investing their
time into drawing for you and they deserve your full respect.
Time and time again, I've seen amazingly talented people set
foot into these forums armed with rules, examples, and all
manner of art shop paraphernalia, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed,
and ready to do their best for the community, only to be chased
away by idiots who can't manage to follow rules and treat others
kindly.
Now, I am not trying to persecute any particular individuals;
the one case I did cite was to provide an example. I just hope
that maybe someone, somewhere, will get something from this and
treat artists a little more fairly in the future.
I have no means in whats written and it not my personaly case.
All meanings are written by Rainbow Dash on
chickensmoothie.com(have written That to art shop owners) and
aphelion on chickensmoothie.com(have written that to art shop
costumers) and Wendigo on chickensmoothie.
*****************************************************