How do you respond when...

[zombiequeen]

Someone contacts you for a commission and includes a very graphic picture of their character doing...well...another of their characters?
I think I might be adding in a "reference pictures must be safe for work" thing in my commission requests.

[Seshat]

"I don't draw explicit images of sex or violence." (or whatever your personal preferences there are.)

If you want to be nice, you might provide contact details for artists who you know DO draw explicit images.

[zombiequeen]

It was for a stuffed animal though. A plush baby dragon to be specific.
I replied and told them I do not work with explicit images, and I do not make items for adult purposes.
I'll have to see how they reply.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Someone contacts you for a commission and includes a very graphic picture of their character doing...well...another of their characters?
I think I might be adding in a "reference pictures must be safe for work" thing in my commission requests.

If it doesn't repulse you, quote them quadruple your normal price, or higher. Payable in advance.

[zombiequeen]

Oh, I didn't even think of that. Too bad I refused it already.

Still not as bad as the person who asked if I could include a (size equal to a fleshlight) pocket/hole in the back of the dragon. They said it was for using it as a puppet...I know how puppets work, silly. Bonus for being in person, at a church craft show. Also a young guy. Yes, I know how big fleshlights are, I accidentally stumbled across one at a friend's house. The size, shape, and every other possible feature of it is burned into my memory FOREVER.

[spark]

*snerk* I'll say, as somebody who's been doing this for a while, that no matter what you do or say, you'll occasionally get those. Big, all-caps "NO ADULT REFS"? No matter. "I HATE PORN AND I WILL HATE YOU FOREVER" all over your front page? They'll ask for it anyway! People don't read, as we all know, and that includes things like that. I've started just laughing at people who send me porno refs

And just wait till you get your first freaky fetish one. Mine was "cock vore" (don't google unless you really want to know) and I just about died laughing, I gotta say. It was just so darn WEIRD!

[zombiequeen]

Spark, you realize I -Have- to google it now
...You are evil. I am SO showing hubby when he gets home! He get's all squeamish about that stuff!
I think I'll start a gallery of shame or something for porn refs. Not on my site, somewhere else. Or I'll reply to them with a picture of a crying kitten or something.

[spark]

That's a hilarious idea!

I will say that people who send me porn are very much in the minority (though nude refs with visible genitals are pretty common) and your gallery of shame probably will never be that big. But I'm sure you'll collect some reeeeeeeeeeeeeally bizarre stuff.

Although I have NO idea what goes through people's minds sometimes when they send refs. *sigh* Just today I got somebody who sent me this pic that was beautifully done, but it was an action scene, with dramatic flames lighting things up to the point where I had zero idea what color the character was. So... wtf. When I asked for a proper color ref, the customer had three of them to give me. I have no idea why on earth they'd choose to send the one picture that doesn't show what color the character is! And that kind of thing happens all the time! Weird poses that don't show everything, black and white art when I'm making a color item, even the one where I specifically asked for a ref that showed the hands, and they sent me a pic of the character sitting on them! Why the heck would you do that?

[zombiequeen]

"But it's my best picture! It really shows the soul of my character and I want to show it off!"
That's my best guess. It was the excuse I got for them sending me a picture of their dragon in mid-morph into human form. Beautiful picture, sure, but uh...how am I supposed to make your dragon when there's only tiny dragon details on a person?
Now I wish I had kept the email. I could have shared it with everybody and you would have seen it's MSpaint horror!

[Kanalah]

You guys have made me so happy that I don't make plush.

Of course now that I've said that, I'll get a commision for an x-rated quilt. *sigh*

[spark]

OMG I'm SURE there is somebody out there who wants one. *snickers madly*

[zombiequeen]

So, Kanalah, can you make me an x-rated quilt?
But yeah, I blocked the guy on my email, I reported it as spam/abuse as well because he responded by saying I work in the furry business so I must do porn stuff all the time (ORLY?) and then went on about making it so I never get any more business and his grandma makes better plushies than me and so on and so on.
I swear, it's like I'm working at the summer camp all over again but the "children" all have bad attitudes. The ones who act like adults are awesome though.

[spark]

O.o What a tardmonkey. There are TONS of furries who don't do porn, especially in plush and costuming, where porn-type stuff is very, very much in the minority.

[zombiequeen]

I figured the fact I have an entire line of child-friendly plushies would say I'm not interested in porn.
I have found more fursuit makers, plushie makers, and the like that are NOT interested in porn than are. Of course, I'm selective in my searches, but still, that's saying something.
Just something about baby dragon plushies =/= porn...it could be the fact that they are called BABY dragons.

[spark]

I love how he brings he grandma into it. I wonder if granny makes porno plush?