Communication is the big reason I’m marking this as a Neutral.
The short version: I felt like Beastcub would press for what she wanted to do with my commission, and ignore my requests that she didn’t want to do OR press me to do what she wants. If you don’t mind the communication issues below, I think you would be satisfied commissioning her. For me, I often felt like she wasn’t listening to me or that she didn’t really want me to push back on her ideas.
Overall, I know Beastcub has been doing this a long time and has a system that works for her, but from a commissioner perspective, it felt very hectic and disorganized, and I often felt unsure if what I was saying was being heard (since it often didn’t get acknowledge in replies). I never received any kind of invoice or written summary of what I was actually going to get, and it left me feeling very insecure and uncomfortable with how my commission would be handled.
Details:
I was originally drawn to the commission by the green and pink feathers, but after I paid, I was informed that she didn’t actually have enough of that fur to do mine and another costume that was going to use that feather fur. I even tried to find more of the fur on Facebook and elsewhere online. I like the color scheme that it ended up as, but it was a bit disappointing at the time considering that was the fur that drew me into the commission in the first place.
This was an artistic liberty costume, but Beastcub states in her postings that she gets commissioner approval for designs and features. In this case, I asked for an alebrije parrot, but I wanted all parrot anatomy (wings, parrot feet, parrot tail, etc.). I told her I would be fine with her adding ears if she wanted, or other features. After that though, she asked a few times if I would like a fox tail or hooves, etc. and I had to decline, though after getting asked again “Just to make sure” I started to feel a bit like I was being pressured.
The flowers and petals were added before I was asked. I like the look of them, but as I expressed, they are a durability issue. Along with telling me about the petals afterwards, I was asked if we should go ahead and add eyelashes since the character was coming out mostly pink and had flowers. I had asked for a male character, and since I’m FtM this all did not sit well with me. I put my foot down on eyelashes of course, but I do still have to correct people calling the character “she” a fair bit when I’m in costume.
The biggest communication issue was that we both got our wires crossed and she ended up under the impression that I was going to be at BLFC. This was partially my fault, as I didn’t know all my con acronyms and I thought that that was just another acronym for AC. Because she thought I was going to be there, she rushed to get my suit done (a little too much, I think) in time for the con so she could get a large portion of her alebrije suits into one photoshoot.
When we got it straightened out that I wasn’t going to BLFC, she asked if she could wear it for an hour at the con, or if a local friend could wear it, or if I could come out to the con on the other side of the US for me. Emails in links. It was very uncomfortable for me, as it was my feeling that I was being pressured to take delivery of a used fursuit when I’d paid for a brand new one, and also to wait 2 months to receive a finished suit.
I fully understand the disappointment, especially after rushing the suit, but I hadn’t ever been asked if that was what I wanted (I’d said I’d like it by June-ish so I could have it for AC, but whatever worked for her was fine), and I never asked for the suit to be rushed. I did feel really bad about the whole situation, and I did pay extra tip as sort of an apology (along with actually apologizing) and some minor compensation for rush work, but I did feel like it was just another thing I was being pressured to agree to.
