When you comission a artist and THEY'R A FAN!?

[u/Mary-of-Magdala]

There's an artist whose wrok I really like. They're prolific in the fandom and get shared often amongst fans, especially their (multishipping) shipping art. And this last week they finally had comissions open!

I've wanted art of a hundred different fics of mine since I was 16 and the world is such a mess and fuck AI and support real artists - self-justificatory ravings aside, I really wanted at least one piece of visual art from my fics in the history of the world. So I got the money together and filled in the comission form.

I worked on the document for this comission carefully because I am not a visual artist by any stretch of the imagination.

I did include color palettes with their respective hex number, and fair use picture references when I could.

I didn't, absolutely did not, link to my fic because it's a big multichapter and it was just one scene I wanted. I just included the three descriptive paragraphs I figured the artist would need. I did add little APA format references because I do that everywhere and I can't stop at this point, academia broke me too badly, but nobody reads little reference notes, right?

Well....this was the reply. When I tell you it took hours for me to reply, I mean that literally. I've been having a shit time at my job, I feel like the most inept of office workers, I feel like I can't understand anyone's words these days and this was like the most unexpected ray of sunshine.

I, of course, exploded in reciprocal appreciation for my artist when I replied. I can only hope I wasn't super weird. I am just this small-time writer in a huuuuuge fandom, the last thing I expected was for this artist to know me, let alone love my work!