That moment when an artist that you’ve saved money to pay for a commission claims she’s busy… Then she posts that she’s been going to conventions and doing personal art for herself -.-….
Glad my anniversary was an incredibly unimportant date that no one wanted art for whatsoever.
What did we learn? Don’t ask someone for a deadline if you had no intention of even doing the commission.
Going to a convention is a lot of work, especially if the artist is going to set up their own booth and prepare art to sell there. I had to help set up booths when I was interning at CNS and that was a lot of work! And we were just there for the booth-prepping and readying the stuffs for the other people actually going, but I do remember my supervisor being SWAMPED in the weeks before that – and she wasn’t even the one going to attend! An artist doing all that work by themselves, yeah, it’s going to be hectic for them to say the least. Even if they’re going just to attend, it’s still work with all the preparations and scheduling and getting things ready…
And personal art is personal art that a lot of people draw for themselves because it helps unwind and calm them down and relax. I don’t think it’s fair to make it sound like a negative thing. That artist may have needed a good dose of personal “me” art to help them loosen up before such a hectic day like going to a convention.
Also, your anniversary is an important date for you, but it may not be as important for someone else, especially if they have no personal relation to you or the going-ons of your life (family, close friend…).
Commission artists are people too and sometimes they drop the ball on things. Maybe they said they COULD do the commission at the mentioned deadline, but something else came up and since the payment wasn’t exchanged beforehand there wasn’t a lot of commitment felt towards it. Maybe the convention thing was a last minute deal that took precedence over commissions so they had to drop a few to plan the trip. Perhaps they could’ve told you sooner about it so you could prepare a “plan B” artist, but if it was a last, last minute thing, then yeah, it’s unfortunate that the commission didn’t work out in time for your anniversary (and grats on the anniversary, by the way!). I’m sure Nick would love something you drew personally just as much if not more!