Terms of Service

A comprehensive guide to Lapres’s Terms of Service Agreement.

First Steps

Pricing

Prices are liable to change, however any work invoiced for will retain the original defined price The price list is a minimum price guide and is not the final cost as each illustration is unique and may require extra work not limited to items such as Armor, backgrounds and style of art (ie. painted or cell shaded.)

The cost of each commission will be detailed to the commissioner and will be displayed on the invoice that you will receive. The price in the invoice is final and is not open for negotiation.

Expressing Interest

The commissioner should be aware that any communication between the commissioner and the artist may be saved in a location other than the way it was originally communicated. This includes but is not limited to, the electronic device that the artist uses to communicate with commissioners, online storage systems, online document systems, printouts of the information and any other medium for accessing/viewing the communication. Your details are never made public and are only utilised to fulfil your commission.

Being Accepted As A Commissioner

The artist reserves the right to choose who can apply for work to be commissioned. If the artist does not wish to work with the commissioner, the artist is not required to inform the commissioner as to why their commission request has not been accepted.

Artwork References

Unless explicitly stated by the artist in writing, a form of reference will be required before undertaking any commission. The artist will not be required to research the commissioner’s requirements in advance and may decline working with the commissioner if there is not enough references to be able to undertake the commission properly. The references can be provided in one of two forms, either a “reference sheet” or a “text reference”; requirements for both of these forms are listed below in sections A and B below.

A . Reference Sheet

If providing a reference sheet, a file must be provided to the artist attached via e-mail. SFW and NSFW reference sheets are accepted.

B. Text References

The artist understands that not all commissioners may have access to a reference sheet, to enable these commissioners to commission the artist a text reference may be provided. If a text reference is used the commissioner may be requested to provide images to depict what the commissioner imagines. The artist will not copy any examples and retains the right to reject the commission request if the artist feels that the referenced work will be too similar to copyrighted materials or another artists illustration. In the event that the character(s) are highly detailed, the commissioner may be subject to additional charges, but this will be listed on the invoice openly.

Invoicing, Payment & Contracts

The commissioner will be required to pay for their commission through PayPal invoicing system for their specific commission; no other payment methods will be accepted. If the commissioner sends payment directly to the artist without paying to an invoice, the artist reserves the right to reject the payment and reject the commission. The artist will not be responsible for any costs that the commissioner incurs through this.

Payment must be made in full; the artist will not accept payment in more than one transaction.
Work will not begin on a commission until payment has been received in full.
If the commissioner is unable to make payment within 24 hours the artist holds the right to cancel the invoice and will reject the commission; unless agreed in writing before the invoice is issued.

All invoices will be issued in GBP (Great British Pound), the currency of the United Kingdom. It is not the responsibility of the artist to quote currency conversions.

With PayPal there are fees due for handling the transaction. The artist will be responsible for the processing fee for receiving the payment providing the payment is received in GBP; the commissioner will only be required to pay the value of the invoice. The artist is not responsible for any costs incurred by the commissioner when paying the invoice, these costs include but are not limited to, currency conversion, bank charges, money order costs. For an example, if the commissioner is billed £25 and operates out of USD, the charge for the conversion from USD to GBP will be not be paid by the artist. Upon receipt of example £25, the fee that PayPal charges for receiving payment will be paid for by the artist out of the £25, this will not be displayed or charged to the commissioner.

A legally binding contract will be formed once an invoice has been paid by the commissioner. This will have all applicable UK laws applied to it. The artist resides inside the United Kingdom; as such the laws of the UK are applied to all contracts.

These laws include the Distance Selling Regulations (DSR) that applies to products not sold directly in person. This regulation enables the commissioner to cancel within 7 working days of making the payment, or until the time that work commences on the commission, whichever is sooner. Any cancellation request must be made in writing. If the time between payment and start of work by the artist on the commission is greater than 7 working days, it is the discretion of the artist on whether to issue a refund. In line with the DSR, once work has begun on the commission a refund will not be issued.
With all refunds, the artist is required by law to issue a refund within 30 days; however the artist will attempt to make any refunds as soon as possible.

The artist also works under the UK Governments Laws for personalisation. Once any created item has been personalised, refunds are not given. Those who purchase tangible items returns will only be accepted if the item is defective, but note that all items are quality checked before leaving the premises.

Once Paid

Working on the Commission

The commissioner should be aware that the artist may broadcast the work of the commission online through a service such as, but not limited to streaming services, social media and to Patreon.com/LapresOfficial. The decision to broadcast the work on the commission is retained by the artist. The artist will accept requests for a specific commission not to be broadcast; however the decision to honour these requests remains with the artist. A commissioner may not dictate when their commission is worked on; it remains the right of the artist when to perform the work on the commission.

Artistic Freedom

The artist retains the artistic freedom rights to a commission and it is the responsibility of the commissioner to be aware of the general art style that the artist creates.

Once a commission has been completed there will be no requirement on the artist to make any changes of any sort, with the exception that if there is a minor adjustment to be made due to fault of the artist, however minor at the digression of the artist. The cost of any changes made to a completed picture will be borne by the commissioner in a separate invoice. No changes to the existing illustration as requested by the commissioner will be made until both parties agree and invoiced cost has been paid in full.

The commissioner is able to make requests to the artist for changes; however any changes accepted will be at the discretion of the artist. There will be no requirement on the artist to accept any changes or refund for work that has already been started as time and cost to the artist has already incurred.

With this artistic freedom the artist cannot guarantee that the commission will match the commissioner’s colours exactly; this may be liable to change if the artist deems that another shade would create a better effect or if there are shadows/shading or lighting used in the picture as these will cause the colours to change. Monitors and screens of various types will also display image colours differently, but the artist will be as close as possible.

The artist retains the freedom to dictate the pose of a character (if applicable) and the freedom to dictate the placement of objects (if applicable); if the commissioner is watching the broadcast of their commission they may make suggestions to the artist. However the artist retains the right to decide which suggestions to accept and which to reject. The commissioner may request to the artist a specific situation/pose before the commission is invoiced; for example requesting that the character is sitting in a bath.

Order of Work

When the artist declares that they are accepting new commissions, they will be completed in the order that they are paid, not the order that the request was initially received. For example, if three commissioners A, B and C, request a commission and are invoiced; but B pays, then A, then C, the work order will be B, A then C. This order will not be open to negotiation.

Availability to Commission The Artist

The artist retains the right over when to make themselves available for new commissions. Based off previous declarations for new work, the artist will open between 5 and 10 slots at any given time. It is the responsibility of the commissioner to contact the artist when slots are available; there is no requirement on the artist to accept work out of the declared time, however the artist retains the right to accept other work if they deem so.

Commission Processing Time / Average Wait Time

The artist works at a variable rate due to the various complexities of the commissions. As such a guaranteed processing time cannot be provided to the commissioner. On average a commissioner will receive their commission within 30 working days. You can view the current queue at https://trello.com/b/uGdgw63U/lapps-list-of-things-to-do.

Commission Content

The artist retains the right to decide what is and is not acceptable to be commissioned.

What the artist will not accept as a commission:

The artist is SFW – Content should be for everyone regardless of age, gender, nationality, religion, and/or sexual preference. Art brings people together. You will not be shamed by the artist for asking, however the artist will respectfully decline.

What the artist may accept as a commission:

The artist is open to being commissioned for a vast array of different pieces of work and is comfortable drawing feral, humans, avian creatures, aquatic creatures, fantasy and animals with human characteristics. This is not a definitive list; the commissioner may contact the artist with requests for commissions which include content that is outside of the previous sentence. The artist reserves the right to choose what to accept, if the artist does not wish to accept a commission with specific content there will be no requirement on the artist to provide reason as to why.

Commission Usage

All commissions for the original commissioner are labelled as “for personal use only” unless explicitly agreed to before invoicing; in the event that a commission will be used in a commercial situation this will be listed in the invoice and prices adjusted.

Personal use artwork is NOT to be turned into merchandise, stickers, or any other sort of tangible mediums, as well as not to be used for anything else that includes but is not limited to financial gain, fundraising or marketing of any sort.

As the artist, if you would like merchandise with your character featuring my artwork, you may only go through me unless discussed and agreed to before the illustration has started.

The artist does NOT release artistic license of any image, else it is deemed as commercial usage.

The artist retains the copyright on the overall image; however the commissioner retains the copyright of their characters. The artist will ensure that the commissioner’s details are listed with the image when it is made available to others online if social media handles are known. The artist requires the commissioner to ensure that the artist’s details are listed with the image when it is displayed online.

As the artist retains copyright on the overall image the artist may use the image in a commercial situation, including but not limited to, promotional media, selling physical prints of the commission, art books and other decorated items. The artist will not be required to inform the commissioner of this commercial usage.

All commissions undertaken for commercial use or will have a different terms of service applicable to them; this will be detailed on the invoice.