Terms of Service

Thank you for your interest in commissioning Crazdude!

Please take the time to read the Terms of Service below.
Also note: These rules apply to all past and future commissioners.

By commissioning me, you are agreeing to the following terms:

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Working with Crazdude:

This is my full-time job and my passion. If you agree to my terms, you follow my rules. Any other Terms of Service related to commissioning an artist are null and void upon agreeing to my Terms of Service.

I will treat you with respect, so please do the same for me.

  • I am a real person with real life obligations; events and emergencies come up from time to time. Keep in mind that delays are never my goal but may happen!
  • Nasty attitudes will not be tolerated – Your commission will be canceled, your money refunded, and you will be blacklisted.
  • I will always try to complete your commission as quickly as possible and in order of purchase. I plan to let you know when I’m busier than expected.

I want to make you happy and I want to learn:

  • I am determined to make you happy while learning something new; if the subject matter is new to me, I will work with you from concept to completion to make your commission perfect!

Work Schedule:

It’s important to remember that managing my business takes up a significant amount of my time. I don’t get to work on artwork as often as many people may think because I have to manage my social media accounts, order merchandise and supplies, travel to conventions, apply to sell in dealers dens, and less glamorous activities like website updates, inventory checks, and taxes.

I will often take commissions online and in person at conventions but always do my best work in my studio at home. My turnaround time is negotiable only at the beginning of the commission process. Otherwise, my turnaround time varies based on commission type but is usually 8-12 weeks for commissions that don’t involve design services.

Standard days off:

Because tendinitis has been an issue that I’ve dealt with in the past few years, I make sure that I have time away from commissions and business work so that I can rest and recover (instead of working to the point I’m forced to rest for multiple months.) This includes actions such as working on commissions, managing social media on phone or computer, answering messages, and shipping merchandise or commissions. The following are days that I try to set aside for rest, personal care, and health appointments.

  • Personal Health Days – Second and Fourth Wednesdays of every month
  • Weekends – All Saturdays and Sundays
  • Mondays-Wednesdays after a convention – Driving from conventions is exhausting and can sometimes take a full day (or two full days of driving if they’re 10-16 hours drive away.) Since the convention happens during the weekend (a time which I would normally take off, this recovery period allows me to catch up on sleep and good eating habits after an exhausting 7 days of work without a break.

Keeping you in the loop:

I typically post status updates (updates about my work schedule, my personal health days, upcoming events, sales, and health issues that keep me from working) to my Telegram Channel and Twitter. Other social media accounts are listed on my About page.

Subject matter:

YES, I will/can draw:

  • All animals and hybrids with appropriate references
  • Scary and cute things
  • Plants, trees, flowers, and herbs
  • Vore
  • Candy gore, plushie gore, actual gore
  • Latex, balloons, goo and melting effects
  • Family-friendly (i.e. feral, Disney-nude anthro) and some mature (i.e. pin-ups.)
NO, I will not:
  • Copy someone else’s style.
  • Copyrighted characters/species.
  • Color someone else’s line-art without the line-art artist’s permission.
  • Draw porn or genitalia.
    • Draw explicit hyper/inflation.
    • Draw glandular/sexual excretions.
  • Draw hateful artwork; racism, sexism, homophobia, or other harmful/offensive political or social propaganda.

Art styles:

Drawing/Painting:
  • Cartoons, semi-realism, and realism
  • Digital – Photoshop/iPad painting, Vector cartoons, Pixel art
  • Traditional – Watercolor paintings, Prismacolor Marker illustrations, Colored Pencil illustrations, Posca marker paintings, Mixed media

Payments:

  • No work will be done without payment – After coming to an agreement on the contents/features/add-ons of your commission, payment should be sent to reserve your spot in the commission queue and initiate the commission. 
  • Reserving a spot in the queue – Your commission will be added to the commission queue only if a downpayment is made. I will not hold a spot for your commission when there are customers making full payments upfront.
  • Customer Inactivity – if you make a payment (whether full or partial), I will start to work on your piece. If after starting your piece, I reach out to you repeatedly about questions but receive no response, this hinders my forward progress. Your commission will remain in the queue but will lose your projected due date. After a year of inactivity, your commission will be archived and you will need to be re-quoted for a new commission.
  • It is the responsibility of the customer to monitor their own finances before commissioning me. As a professional artist, I am not a piggy bank for commissioners to deposit money until they need it for a future purpose. I will not refund commissioners who want to back out due to their own poor financial planning.
  • Logos – I require at least 50% of quoted fees upfront before work begins. The rest must be paid at the time of approval or can be done by the hour.
  • Paypal E-checks – I will accept E-checks but work will not begin until the transfer is complete.
  • Snail Mail – I will accept US Post mailed cash. However, it must be well hidden in a card so that it is protected from theft during the postal process. I will not refund money that is lost in the mail; commissioner sends at their own risk.
  • Three edits rule – Three edits are permitted to any commission after the sketching process. Beginning with the fourth significant edit, the commission is entered into the design payment process. Additional edits will be charged by the hour.
  • “No reference sheet” fee – With the exception of reference sheet commissions: for any character that isn’t described simply in a sentence (i.e. multiple piercings, odd coloration, detailed markings, hybrids or imaginary species), $20 extra is required upfront to cover the time needed to bring this character up to the expectation of the commissioner. Commissions without ref sheets will also take longer due to the fact that I need to conceptualize your character from scratch or from various inconsistent reference images.
  • Two shipment attempts – My objective is to create art as my full-time job and part of that is meeting and exceeding expectations. If the commission fails to arrive at the address specified, I will pay for a second delivery attempt. If the package bounces back again at no fault of my own, commissioner will pay 3x the shipping cost to cover inconvenience, packaging, and postage costs of a third attempt.
  • TIPS – “To insure prompt service” – Tips are always appreciated. If you tip at the start of a commission, your commission will get a little extra care and I will expedite your commission in the queue.

Convention pick-up Coupon code:

For purchases (merchandise, originals, and commissions) that you want to pick up at a convention, you can use coupon code: ConPickup. Before you do, please follow these steps:

  1. Check my Facebook Events for upcoming cons that I will be attending.
  2. Once you’re sure we will both be attending the same convention, start shopping!
  3. At check out, enter ConPickup into the coupon code box on the Cart page.
  4. Specify the name of the convention in your order notes so I bring your purchase to the correct convention.
  5. At the convention, see me at my dealer table. Please bring proof of purchase/identity.

NOTE: DO NOT use this code to try to avoid shipping costs for mailed purchases. This coupon means no shipping costs will be applied AND your order will be brought to the convention specified; it will not be shipped. If you entered the code by mistake or either of us is unable to attend the con for whatever reason, I will charge for shipping to get your purchase delivered to you.

Terminating the commission:

I reserve the right to refuse a commission up front for any reason and without explanation.

I reserve the right to issue a refund for a commission. This can be done if the terms of service are violated or if I am unable to fulfill the assignment due to other obligations. I will issue refunds but only if no work has been done. Once work is started, partial refunds based on time spent will be issued.

No refunds for completed work. My goal is to work with you to make the existing artwork better until you are satisfied.

What I will need from you:

As the commissioner, you must supply to me:

  • Relevant reference images for your pet or character up front when the project is paid for.
  • Whether this commission is meant to be a secret
  • Any other information I need to know (especially character changes if the reference sheet is not up to date.)

I will not be held accountable for information that the commissioner neglects to convey before beginning the commission. As much as I want to make things perfect, I do not have psychic abilities.

If the piece is meant to be a surprise gift, the customer must request upfront for me to keep the progress images secret in order to avoid ruining the surprise.

Any changes to the previously established commission specifications — i.e. change to the subject matter, content, or quantity of commission purchases — will not be granted after work has begun without additional charge.

Progress pictures:

Sharing progress pictures is my primary way of working with you as I complete your commission. I start just about every commission with a rough sketch. For most commission offerings, I send images at the sketching stage, inking stage, and coloring stage for customer approval before finalizing or shipping. I will often inquire about colors if working traditionally with a digital reference sheet. I will also check for preferences of pose or expression if these are not noted at the planning stage prior to payment.

Progress pictures are often posted to my commission queue on Trello. In order to keep surprises secret, I can send progress pictures directly via email, private message, or Telegram.

Logos will be shown in various stages of completion until a final design is approved.

Review and Critique:

Traditional: Most digital artwork and traditional artwork begin with a sketch that will be very rough and may not include markings in that stage if the markings are a lighter color that won’t be inked or if they are too complex to see the anatomy and expression clearly in the sketch phase. Critiques for traditional art are extremely important.

My traditional art process:

  • Gather information to begin sketching
  • Critique and approval of sketch
  • Small edits and digitized sketch approval – Small edits in Photoshop (whether to add a name in a neater font or a smooth border, adjust proportions/symmetry, etc). Past this point, inking and traditional coloring are final which is why critique of my sketch and a clear reference sheet (or instruction) from you are crucial to success.
  • Inking and line-work approval – Print sketch to the appropriate size for a badge and use my light box to effectively trace the artwork cleanly with ink on to the final paper.
  • Coloring and coloring approval
  • Scanning, laminating, and finishing.
  • Final approval and delivery

Digital: Sketches for digital pieces may be incomplete in some ways – just for a reference for me for pose and basic marking placement. It is not meant to be a perfect or accurate sketch as it will be completely redrawn in Adobe Illustrator. See an example of this process with a flat color vector illustration below.

Notes about reviewing and approving a sketch for digital work:

  • YES: critiques to general body shape, pose, angle of view, and expression.

    Also if you want clothes to be added, that will be something I want to include in the sketch so I can render the details of the fabric. These aspects are necessary for the final piece and therefore critical for the sketch that the final piece relies upon. I require critique or approval on these aspects since they are significantly harder to change or cannot be changed when I digitally redraw.

    Sketch is for planning general appearance. Subtle changes like proportion (length and width of limbs) and details (like markings or small accessories) will be changed for consistency (for a series like Telegram stickers) and aesthetic purposes in the digital process.

    The sketch above was approved for pose, expression, and general shape of her body.

  • OK: bringing to my attention any accessories or markings to add in the digital process or small elements to remove.

    Detail notes about your character are fine. Keep in mind that most of the sketches I do will exclude markings and small accessories in the initial sketch just so it is a little easier to see anatomy and expression.

    Additionally I may include things to help evoke a mood/theme (accessories, props, or accents) that you may want me to exclude. I will typically consider this an approved sketch and generally won’t edit the sketch traditionally to remove these unwanted elements since they are easy for me to exclude when I redraw digitally.

    In the example above: notice how size, shape and placement of the spots and flowers changed from the sketch to the digital portion. Also proportions were adjusted and more hair added at her lower back. Her necklace was lengthened.

  • UNNECESSARY: bringing to my attention color, shading, line work, background.

    This sketch is my guide for when I digitally redraw. All of these elements will change or be added.

Delivery of Tangible goods:

  • For shipping of tangible commission orders (traditional artwork and printed digital badges), I require a full, real, human name and address. Otherwise I cannot guarantee the order will be delivered successfully.
  • I ship tangible commissions in a bubble mailer via United States Postal Service (USPS).
  • For applicable purchases, a USPS tracking number will be provided and can be checked at USPS website.
  • Delivery days of the week are Mondays and Fridays. After purchase, allow one day for packing (example: if an order is placed Friday, the item will be shipped Monday.)
  • After being notified of shipment, postal transit may take 3-5 days within the US, 7-10 for international.
  • Sometimes I will be available for convention pick-up. Case by case basis will determine where, when, and how to contact me (phone, Telegram, or email.)

Digital File Delivery:  

Digital designs and artwork that are approved will be sent in relevant formats (.jpg, .png, .pdf, and .eps) to the email address provided (Paypal email) unless otherwise specified.

Printable files will be sent in CMYK (they are not meant to be viewed on RGB-based devices like computer or phone screens.) Files to be used online, as wallpapers, icons, etc will be sent in RGB. Read more about these color spaces and what it means for your artwork here.

Posting WIPs and the final image:

When requesting a commission, keep in mind that my commissions are my way of advertising. If for any reason you will require that I NEVER POST the commission work, you will have to pay a “Privacy Fee” of $15+ depending on the commission. A plan can be made on a case by case basis.

The final piece and any WIPs may be submitted to one or all of the following of my accounts:

Sharing your commission:

As the artist, I have the right to create derivative works from commissions for our purposes of advertising. This includes but is not limited to: avatars, banners, and printed documents. Any canceled commission is forfeited by the commissioner to be used by the artist.

The “Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License” applies to the artwork created for this commission.

  • YES: You may use the resulting commissioned artwork for personal use (i.e. you may print it out to post on your wall, use as an icon or badge, site ID, etc.)
  • YES: You can share this work on your personal website, but please link back to one of my galleries so that proper credit is given – that way people can commission me for similar works and helps to dissuade people from attacking you for “stealing.” 🙂
  • NO: Derivative works (i.e. alter/trace/copy, repost, and claim as your work)
  • NO: Commercial reproductions (i.e. exchanging, printing, or otherwise selling my art for your personal gain on a mass scale.)

Regarding Logo Commissions: 

  • You will have ownership of the final logo design for use in any media application that is beneficial to your business.
  • I retain the right to use the final logo, or any versions of the logo created in the process, within printed and on-line portfolios, including promotional materials such as newsletters and advertisements.
  • By commissioning me for a logo, you give permission to use your full name, business address, and/or website address, for testimonial purposes on her website, or other business related media.