Artist that owes me a $400 commission for a year and a half now
There's a certain artist that still owes me a big commission after a year and half. I'm at the point where I feel my art is decent enough that I don't even need his commission anymore either. 
I don't even want to use it because he has been such a headache to deal with. Do I even want to promote a person like this?
Guy keeps fucking off for months/weeks without working on it. Keeps popping back up when I confront him about it and says that he got depressed again and can't work on anything. Don't know how this guy even lives or hopes to make a living off art if he can't get anything done. He can't even work on the shit he keeps piling on from other clients. I feel at this point, he's better off filing disability from his depression if his country even offers it. He seems to be well enough to keep playing Overwatch and Minecraft though instead of working, since I have him added on Discord.
This is extremely frustrating and he's actually so close to getting it done. But he shades like 1 pixel and then shows me the "progress". Since he barely shades anything, of course it's taking so long. If he just shades the damn thing and adds the background I requested, then he would be done. He definitely doesn't want to work on it anymore but he keeps insisting he wants to finish it to "add to his portfolio". I think he has his work ethic to worry about more than his portfolio at this point.
Some of these guys have no issue taking money and spending it then never finishing the work they owe. This isn't the first artist that does this to me either but certainly the worst one so far. With the others, at least I have been able to get my money back or they finish just right before the buyer protection runs out. Of course I don't commission them ever again after.
This is actually one of the reasons I started to do my own art now. I'm tired of dealing with people like this. I already had the foundation to get started because I've been drawing most of my life. I just need to refine my skills at lot.
If you're wondering why I have even let it get to this point and you're thinking I'm retarded, then you are correct! I absolutely can't justify not putting my foot down on this. I won't let something like this occur again for sure. I'm too forgiving sometimes and it bites me in the ass.
Hell, I struggle with completing art too but the difference is I'm not getting paid for it and it's not my full time job either. This is why I won't ever do commissions and my inability to work on it is due to physical health issues, too. I know depression is also crippling but then I feel the guy shouldn't be handling money at this point.
I feel my patience is at its limit but I'm in a shitty situation where the commission is SO CLOSE to done and asking for a refund feels pointless after this much work is done. It's a very lovely commission of my OCs! 
I'd rather just have it, honestly.
b e a r d
Artist that owes me a $400 commission for a year and a half now
@veru really? That's been my experience with every artist, large or small commission. Half before, half after. It keeps both sides honest. It's different with stuff like etsy where you have a certain layer of protection and can publicly give poor reviews. But direct transactions I always do half before half after.
The only person I haven't done that with is a guy who made most of the art for my game, because after so much art was done we both trusted each other to deliver. There are times where I pay him everything up front or times where I ask him for some art and he whips it up knowing I'll pay him.
Artist that owes me a $400 commission for a year and a half now
@beardalaxy I mostly get artists off Twitter and most will not do it this way because both sides can have bad people, like commissioners who don't pay the remaining balance after the commission is done. Plenty of threads warning people about that and also those who also ask for sketches and cut off all communication and run away with them to bring to another artist, which is just bizarre to me personally. lol
That is probably my issue: Getting artists off a site that doesn't have the most stable people using it. I also ran into an issue with an artist on Minds, too.
Unfortunately for me and my characters, it's harder to find people who will draw them without sifting through a bunch of NSFW and why I tend to stick to 1-3 known artists I know since years ago. I'm prone to addiction, so I have cut off most NSFW content entirely and was also a reason why I had to get off Baraag, though I'm doing better and have more control now so I may be able to return someday just to post art on there. Trying to find an artist who draws shota or femboys who isn't primarily doing porn is like a needle in a haystack imo. My best solution was really to just do it myself at this point. I don't have issues with people who make that type of content but I know myself and I really should try to limit my exposure to it.
After being burned so many times, I really started to question why I was paying other people if I actually really like my own drawing style and should work on it instead.
Artist that owes me a $400 commission for a year and a half now
@beardalaxy Also an artist who does that type of artwork, takes commissions, and SPEAKS ENGLISH LOL
Because I follow a good bunch of SFW shota and otokonoko artists from Japan but the Western ones are all primarily doing coom content. The language barrier is too brutal to commission the JP artists.
Artist that owes me a $400 commission for a year and a half now
@veru well, our resident artist here is matana, if you like her art style and she's willing to do some work for you perhaps you could ask her! She did some artwork for my game and I'm very pleased with how it turned out!
Artist that owes me a $400 commission for a year and a half now
@beardalaxy I personally don't know any artists that do half payments like this but I feel people should just not undertake work they can't complete regardless of the payment plan.
I have already dealt with 4 artists unable to finish work and that is just too damn much in the span of 1 year! And this isn't exclusively to drawing artists, as I had a cosplay artist last year also try to prolong the horns and tail I needed for my doll past the Buyer Protection of Paypal. They already had negative reviews on their page from orders being late and it looks like they were just cramming orders. That along with abysmal communication and finally only replying once I started a dispute. To this day, he still doesn't have proper horns or the tail and I got annoyed enough that I don't want to deal with trying to get another person plus these two pieces will run me over 1k USD at most cosplay places. Don't have funds like this currently. 😅
The guy's art is really good imo so I felt the price was justified since the outfits are detailed and it also includes two small animal pets. Plus I ain't gonna lie but my OC's horns and tails are a nightmare to draw and something even I still have trouble with. But I think most people would feel $400 is indeed too much for art. I had gotten past commissions and the last two have gone really bad with him struggling to complete them unless I keep poking him. It's like dealing with a child. I haven't found an artist with a similar style to his that does commissions and excels at drawing cute males.