So, every time you have to ask someone to help you do something you end up being at the whim of that other person. Be they a writer or an artist, a chef or a teacher, having other people involved sometimes makes things difficult. For the most part this is why as the author of the grydscaen series I do my own cover art, draw my own manga and well – edit, draft, format, write, proofread and illustrate.

But sometimes you have to rely on other people. Take for instance this latest project. The new book grydscaen: insurrection needed a mecha drawn for the interior. I had some concept art that I drew of the mecha but it was by no means good enough or rendered well enough to be used in the book. So what did I do? I hired an artist.

This artist, like most artists that freelance with you unless you go through a third party site wanted payment up front. So I sent the payment and we started working. I saw some of the interim work of this artist as we were going along and it was coming along nicely. The artist said they were going to deliver the final work a few times but when that day came the final never came. I paid this artist for two works. Now, the communication stopped as well. So I have paid an artist a lot of money to deliver two works but what do I have to show for it? Nothing at all, just a few non final works in progress. Now I want to give the artist the benefit of the doubt since there could be some extenuating circumstances. And I am not ready to totally give up on the artist at this point. But it has been about a month now with no contact what so ever. So it looks like I am out my money. I did try to contact the artist over the past month on 4 different occasions and even said, hey take your time, I can wait just let me know when you can deliver. The artist themselves said that they had some stuff come up, but no contact at all bothers me. In the end I am out some money with no drawings, which I paid for two.

Now, again. I do grydscaen on my own, no Patreon, no Kickstarter or GoFundMe accounts to try to raise money. Everything from printing graphic novels and manga I drew to funding marketing, all this I do on my own. This will probably teach me to think twice about hiring artists over comic book forums. Now I have an out, I can use a third party site like we are doing with the grydscaen animation and I know that I will get a final product out of that. If I shell out some more money I might be able to get my mecha done then I can still hold out for my artist if he feels like delivering later. Sure life comes up and things get in the way from delivering but when you take someone’s money and then don’t do the work, I would have to call that stealing. At least if the artist told me what was going on then I could be sympathetic.

Now, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and I don’t want to give up on this artist just yet. We had a good rapport in the beginning and the artist said there was stuff going on so I can be patient some more I guess. But I am getting irritated at the moment since I don’t have what I need. The drawing was supposed to go in grydscaen: insurrection but I had to give that up since the book deadline was looming and it was holding up the book’s production. In the end the drawing is not in the book. There is a later book that has an opportunity to have the drawing in it if it gets delivered but we are a few years off from that volume.

So what to do? I want to have faith in the artist and let whatever needs to be worked out to work itself out so that something can be delivered. This is another reason I do all this grydscaen stuff myself. If I draw the manga and design the cover then the only thing stopping me is my ability to execute. I still like to foster talent and support other artists but when they blow me off and take my money and don’t deliver work, I start to lose faith in people.

So sure, I learned my lesson. Don’t take the initial good rapport for granted. Someone might just be ripping you off it seems. For now there is no mecha drawing to date. Sure I saw some works in progress and there were some discussions but I guess I am going to have to use a third party site or do it myself. And if I want to do it myself I need to practice my rendering big time. Drawing a mecha is no small task mind you. But we might just have to forgo the mecha for something else. I am not willing to give up on my artist just yet. I will give the artist the benefit of the doubt for now. Otherwise I am just out money.

Fooled you once, shame on you. Fooled you twice, shame on me.