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We commissioned Rob Willis through his IG. Communication was good. He finished the piece in 26 days and sent a scan. There were about six months of excuses why he wasn't shipping, but I usually give an artist a year before I get angry. The art arrived with a hole cut out. A paper patch had been taped and white-out mortared in. To Rob, it was a better choice to cut out the face and redraw it more ferociously. To me I would have rather had a less fierce face and no patch. We asked him to redraw it. We asked to return it for a refund. We asked for some money back at the very least. If I pay $1000 for a commission, I don't want a face patch surprise. There is plenty of art in the sea, and I don't buy unpublished patched art. Rob dug in his heels and so did we. The piece as a whole looks great, so it makes support for me waiver over my objection to the patch. Maybe you aren't bothered and want to buy it?
If you commission him, best of luck to you. Maybe he's got the message now to not patch commissions. I have heard he is still packing flimsy and I've since seen two of his other customer's pieces arrived bent and creased.
Here’s the breakdown of when and why he couldn’t ship. Commissioned June 28th.
6-28: Paid half
8-2: Started work
10-2 Completed. Paid in Full + Shipping
10-13 Waiting on shipping supplies
11-17: Couldn’t ship because of kids
12-2: 40 pages to ship plus change orders
12-14: Heavy Metal deadlines
12-30: Sick
1-2: Stolen shipping supplies
1-14: Supply order returned to Sweden by USPS
1-28: Art supplies on back order
2-9: Waiting on shipping supplies
2-13: Order arrived, finishing project then will ship
2-23: Waiting on check from Heavy Metal
3-1: Finishing new work to get paid so he can ship
3-11: Shipped
