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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 (EDIT: I know it might not be a lot for some work. What I mean here - way higher than your asking price, 100 and 300 are standard rates they give). 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.
#art resources#artist help#artist advice#commission advice#scammers#instagram scam#please share with your fellow artists
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(via artmaker223)
#how to draw hands#art tips#art advice#tiktok#gordon ramsay#art appreciation#hands#how do you draw hands#art help#drawing advice#drawing tutorial#drawing tutorials#drawing help#art reference#art references#artist advice#advice for artists#art tutorial#how to draw
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I think every wanna-be artist should be required, by law, to read at least the first volume of Mob Psycho 100. Just so that they have hard, irrefutable proof that no, really, you don't have to be Perfect by any means to make art and have it be adored by many, many people. You don't even have to be able to consistently draw your own characters on-model.
This isn't a dig at ONE or his art, btw. I genuinely think he's the ideal role model for starting artists, both as an example of putting your art out there and telling your story even if your anatomy or consistency isn't perfect (or even that great), and also because you can visually track his improvement as an artist as you go through the series. Seriously, have you ever compared the art in chapter one to what he's doing by chapter ninety? Respect!!!
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#academia#chaotic academia#classic academia#dark academia#literature#aesthetic#english literature#uni#college#lit#calling all writers#writer#writers on tumblr#writerscommunity#writers and poets#artists on tumblr#artist advice#small artist#calling all artists#poets#writer advice#poet#sad poetry#poetsandwriters#poets on tumblr#poets corner#dead poets society#advice#life advice#advice for artists
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Re: Redbubble & Alternatives
Redbubble is doing some nonsense and I've deleted my account. I barely bothered with it anyway, was mostly there for people who've asked for specific images as posters.
Anyway in doing that I sacrificed the $4.35 that was still sitting in my earnings. They only let you cash out at $20, so rather than drum up sales and therefore make Redbubble more money, I'm gonna do what I feel is $4.35 in anti-publicity for them. 🥳
tl;dr there are new fees that hurt artist income at all sales levels. Redbubble is either looking to cut costs and raise profits for funsies, or is in serious financial trouble.
About the new fees:
Redbubble offers their services to artists by allowing artists to control their profit margin above a certain baseline manufacturing fee. This was pretty cool! There's now an additional fee that will be charged starting May 1, 2023. It is not an upfront fee that requires you to pay out of pocket, but it does directly cut your profit margin. How badly? Well...
By Redbubble's own example, if in one month you sell $300 in products that you had set at a 25% margin, you'd previously earn $75. Under the new structure, that earnings level means you pay a $28 fee, so you will now be paid $47. That $28 represents a 37% cut off what you were supposed to earn.
There's a full fee table in that link, but other highlights include a $1 fee if you earned $2 (aka 50%!) and big sellers who'd expect to take home $400 will now receive $320 (an $80 fee, 20%).
It also puts you in a weird spot that earning $1 more in a month may bump you to the next tier, causing you to actually take home less money. Make $1 more, end up losing $11. Make it make sense. 🤨
About the new tiers:
Each shop is evaluated and labeled Standard, Premium, or Pro. Premium and Pro shops are not subject to the new fees, but there's no clarity on how to move from one tier to another. Redbubble says it's under your control but it's clearly not. Many artists are reporting that they have accounts with next to no sales that have been labeled Pro, and accounts with thousands of annual sales that are labeled Standard.
Action items:
Look, I'm not gonna tell other artists that they have to close their shops, or tell buyers not to buy from Redbubble if your favorite artists have chosen to stay. What you do with the above info is up to you.
What I will say is that many artists are leaving because the new pay structure sucks. I encourage people who buy from Redbubble to expand their support to other sites.
Attrition is arguably their goal here—they know people will leave over this, and that'll probably lower their costs and lower competition for the remaining accounts. But goodwill is lost easily and they're playing a dangerous game on betting how many stay vs. leave. I'm out.
Feel free to leave your feedback on Redbubble's feedback form here, but it feels slightly like yelling into the void.
Alternatives:
tbh I don't have a good read on things. If you do know of any recommended (or unrecommended) print-on-demand sites, speak up!
I will say that as of now (April 2023), based on my research:
🟢 INPRNT sounds like a winner if your game is art prints and stickers. Does not have any wearable products like t-shirts.
🟡 Etsy + Printify/Printful might be viable? Etsy always had higher profit margins than POD marketplaces, but it's a bit more work and they also do weird things occasionally. Also has a listing fee so if you're the type to upload a ton of designs, pricey.
🔴 Teepublic is owned by Redbubble. Doesn't have the tier/new fee structure as of now but might be imminent. Have also heard their customer service sucks.
🔴 Society6 is going to charge artists shipping costs, and there's going to be a (mandatory?) subscription service launched in the fall, so that's not a winner anymore either.
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sold
this magnet was made during my ‘oh fuck I have a show coming up and no small/cheaper shit to sell’ period, when I made 33 bottle magnets in about three days lol. it was madness. I keep meaning to do that again but ugh it takes so much energy
tip to anyone who wants to sell art at markets and craft shows: always have small $5-$20 items available. these can make the difference between a bad show and a decent one (or more hopefully a decent show and a good one). lots of people like to support artists but not everyone wants/can afford to buy like, a print, or a plate.
magnets and pins and patches, you guys. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten pins at a market. also I tend to remember the booth/artist later if I got something from them.
I’ve also had a few people at shows buy a magnet (and get my business card with it) and contact me later to buy a plate. sometimes it’s just hard to carry around a piece of art that might get damaged when you’re at a show!
#rambling about markets#pottery#ceramic#sgraffito#carving#before and after#timelapse#video#crocodile skull#alligator skull#crocodilian#ceramic magnet#animal skull#skull#skulls#artist advice#claypigeon
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A guide to Glazing your art so that AI cannot take it without consent:
Now that tumblr is selling our works to midjourney, here's how to protect yourself. Quote:
Glaze is a system designed to protect human artists by disrupting style mimicry.
It was developed by the same team as Nightshade, a more extreme version that aims to poison datasets taken without consent.
Go to https://glaze.cs.uchicago.edu/ where the official program can be found under "Download Glaze".
Download the appropriate version
wherever your downloads are stored, go there and extract the .zip by right-clicking > extract all, or the button in the file explorer.
Important!! Inside the unzipped folder, check if any folders failed to unzip. This is a common error and glaze will give you an error if any folders remain unzipped!
Find Glaze.exe in your folder and double click to run it. (You can also pin it to start or your desktop for easy access. It doesn't appear in a list of recently installed programs because it's not an install.)
Their cute little UI will notify you that it's downloading resources for a few minutes.
Ready to go!
Select your image(s), settings and an output folder before you run it. (You can even select the same image multiple times if you want it to run a few times with different glazes.) Then Run Glaze.
(It will even kindly run on your graphics card if you have one.)
If any errors occur after clicking Glaze, the darker square will give you some python-related text saying what to do. This was extensively for the devs, do not be alarmed. Go back and check for unzipped folders inside the Glaze folder, that's usually the cause of every mistake.
Let it run for the estimated time. (don't close it before it's done, I've done that by accident lol). The image will just show up in your output folder when it's done.
Booyah! Art Glazed. Art from my art blog with no glaze, default glaze and high glaze:
It will look a bit like compression artifacts, but rather that than a huge watermark on my work.
addendum:
it takes a while to clear up its own cache. Just wait a bit before glazing again because it will take too much memory if you try again immediately.
#anti ai#fuck ai#artists on tumblr#artist advice#generative ai#signal boost#tumblr#fuck ai art#data selling#ai#tumblr ai#psa#midjourney#third party sharing#glaze#nightshade#glaze guide
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need advice from artists!!
what's the best way to watermark your art effectively that doesn't come across as like 'i'm one of those artists on twitter with 100k+ followers so i actually need to watermark my art to this extent'
bc i think it looks good but i'm not that confident but it would also be nice it wasn't easy for people to just easily crop out my watermarks or blur them out with like 1 stroke :c
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seeking an artist’s advice!
i’m very new to watercolor and i’m nervous about doing faces 🥺 do you think i should? this is already pretty small to begin with.
i’m gonna add more yellow and blue around the boys, and if i don’t do the faces i’ll still fill them with some shading.
this is my first time ever painting people with watercolor and i’m shocked it has even come out this okay so far tbh
(i’ll also gladly accept any other watercolor advice! i know it’s very loose and free-flowing so i’m not expecting perfection!)
#i’m so nervous for the faces pls give me advice#really not used to this medium but i wanna get better#byler#will byers#mike wheeler#stranger things#byler art#byler fanart#artist advice#watercolor
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Hey artists with pets how do you balance pet time and drawing time bc my puppy is very energetic and needs attention and I try my best to give it to her but I also want to find more time to make art which as we all know is a very long process that can sometimes take up the whole day so I just want some advice maybe? My sister is usually around to help but she's off on a vacation right now so it's just me and my mum but I'd feel bad if I just left all the puppy time to her
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im thinking about making one, since all social media is going to shit! back in my teens, forums were all the rage, and i often miss the community there. those were simpler times - content wasnt ran by algorithms, but instead people and the community. multiple social medias are going to shit, and while tumblr is still here, i dont know what the future holds for it - especially as we've seen changes aiming for algorithm use.
so, would you guys be interested in joining? it'd be just a general forum, dedicated to artists and writers and just cool folks.
if you do like the idea, please reblog so i can get a bigger poll sample! c:
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If it makes you happy, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.
#advice#support#tips#artist support#artist advice#artists on tumblr#art#artist#staff picks#for you#diy#mindfulness#empowerment#creative#truth#real talk#Michael Carini#carini arts
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Common perspective mistakes (proko)
#witchcraft!!!#art tips#art advice#tiktok#art appreciation#proko#how to draw#drawing advice#drawing tips#art help#drawing tutorial#drawing tutorials#drawing help#art reference#art references#artist advice#advice for artists#art tutorial#tiktok video#3d art#drawing mistakes#perspective#how to draw perspective
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ARTISTS, WRITERS, CREATORS IN GENERAL:
IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE PERFECT. IT JUST HAS TO BE
#writers block#writing motivation#fanfic writer#writer problems#writer tips#writing advice#writing encouragement#art advice#art motivation#artist advice
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Some advice for my fellow artists who are uncertain about doing commissions or monetizing/promoting their art in general:
Have equal parts respect for yourself and your client, and if you sense they do not respect you or your work, turn them down before any money is exchanged.
Mutual respect is so important in avoiding scams and people who will break your T&Cs, that's why I recommend turning down anyone who participates in supporting AI art and NFTs. These things have drawn crowds of people who actively have disdain for artists.
You may be asking "but Ziggy, why would someone hate artists? We just draw our blorbo's and help each other do that."
Damn right we do, but these people are jealous that we've found a way to still have fun in this dystopian hellscape we live in while their crypto keeps crashing.
A good mindset to have when learning to respect yourself and your craft if you struggle with that:
You've worked hard to gain the skills you have, it's admirable, there's people out there in awe that we can paint or draw even vaguely accurate things.
In this online space where everyone seems to be the next Da Vinci it can feel so demoralizing to be an artist, but think about it, before all this online BS you probably would have been one of the best artist's in your town!
(Actually, if you don't have crushing social anxiety like myself, consider doing art for local people, I did this once before and got paid very well, it was a traditional piece though, not sure if you'll get far doing digital art only like this but who knows! You might have local TTRPG groups who need some art.)
Finally, I'd like to say something about making your online experience better in general:
Have patience!
Social media thrives on people getting angry and afraid, sometimes rightfully so! But we gain so little (in fact I would say we lose more) by falling for fear mongering and dog whistles.
If you're just trying to run an art account, surround yourself with fellow artists, support each other, whether by boosting their art or sharing the occasional bit of advice.
I'm not a perfect person, but I try and be a force of positivity where I can, especially as my platform grows, sometimes this slips when I'm feeling the weight of the world but that's fine too, it happens.
In general, just make sure you have a support system that you can vent your frustrations to outside of twitter and tumblr.
We do need to speak out against things like AI and our unfair treatment by corporations and social issues that seem to get more and more frightening. But there's so many people out there who *want* you to be angry, and who profit from it and will use it against you.
So when you see something inflammatory, ask yourself why it's there and if you really want to directly interact with it and boost it to your followers.
Thank you if you read all of this! I hope it's helpful, but really I just felt like blabbering for a while x'D
#artist advice#advice no one asked for#advice#sorry if this comes off as me being holier than thou xD#tumblr makes me feel like being all concise and articulate#art thoughts#ai art#fuck ai art#anti ai
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I had a question about what gouache I use over on cohost, so I'm crossposting the answer here for anyone who's curious:
So I've tried a few different types of gouache, including the very affordable jelly gouache sets they have on aliexpress/amazon, and I've settled on forking over for the good stuff as the best way to get the results I want with minimum fuss. So here's the lineup of my collection of tubes right now!
The bulk of my paints are from Winsor & Newton - this was the brand we bought our starter kids from at art school, and if you notice any doubles in that lineup, it's because friends gave me their half-used tubes after graduation when they vowed to never gouache again. Some of those tubes are VERY old, but as long as they aren't fully solid, they're still good to go, so I keep them around. Also if they ARE fully solid, it's never a bad idea to try cutting the paint brick out of the tube and using it like a pan gouache. It usually works.
Through the pandemic tho I've been watching a lot of other gouache painters all over the world on youtube, and it did indeed get me hungry to try other brands! So the rest of my paints are from M. Graham (honey based gouache, dark colours aren't as opaque but holy heck they are pigmented) and from Holbein (really creamy consistency overall), including a bunch on the right there that I bought as one-offs from their fancy seasonal Irodori sets (some of my favourite pastels oh my gosh).
These are all traditional gouache, not acryl/acrylic gouache (though my partner @goshdarnheck has a solid collection of those), so these will rehydrate from dry - some faster, some slower, but it means I can often work with them dried out in pans instead of squeezing out fresh paint every time I sit down. This does take the sting off the price tag a bit - and makes plein air a lot less stressful and messy.
The other nice thing these days is that most art stores now sell online and ship worldwide (or nearly) and it's possible to track down some decently affordable paints that way. If you're also in or around Toronto, fyi, you can find W&N and Holbein gouache tubes at Gwartzman's art supplies for very good prices, and that's where I was able to get my single irodori paints as well. They do one day delivery in the city limits, it's amazing.
If you have any questions about my palettes, or particular colours, definitely drop them in the replies or my asks and I'll be happy to go into more depth!
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