Taking Commissions - Please Help!

I've been having a run of bad luck lately, and I was wondering if any of you could help me out. Let me explain.

For the past month, I've been working with a company called Limited Treasures, which sells collectibles via infomercials. I was employed to handle orders for the company's line of Barack Obama collectible coins and plates. Unfortunately, I wasn't selling as much of the items as they were wanting me to sell (which was extremely difficult, as many of our customers are on fixed incomes and were unable to spend enough to push me to meet my $100 average per night for sales) and I was recently emailed and informed that I was being laid off.

The next day, driving to my student teaching position, I blacked out behind the wheel of my car while in the driveway at the school, and rear-ended the car in front of me. While there was minimal impact damage to the car (at least to an initial examination of the car-- god knows what else is wrong with it), the airbags in my car deployed. Each of those cost more than a thousand dollars to deflate and close back up into their housings. The passenger-side airbag also shattered the windshield, which will cost another $500 or so to replace.

In addition to the damage... my fiancee and I also have healthcare costs. She's diagnosed with Fibromyalga disorder, which is a disorder of the soft tissue, leaving her in debilitating amounts of pain most of the time. Even when isn't in too much pain to even walk, it still hurts to do most basic, essential tasks. I also have hypogonadism, which essentially means that my body doesn't produce enough testosterone. I take a medicated testosterone gel to boost me back to average levels, but the medication may also be causing my blood sugar to drop, which may have caused the blackout which caused me to crash my car. I'm seeing my doctor about this, this week, and I'll likely have to modify my dosage, and may need to take some sort of supplement, or just make changes to my diet.

I have no income, and what little my fiancee makes isn't enough to cover our bills, pay for gas for my car, and get us the medication and medical attention we need. My parents are already overburdened financially, and already help me with my credit card debt, insurance and car payments - they can't help me any further than they already are. I'm searching for work in my area, but it's hard to find, due to the economic downturn, and my hours of availability (I student teach in the mornings, and am in a painting class on campus to finish my degree requirements.) We've gotten a lot of help from people both on DeviantArt and Livejournal who are friends of ours, and so I'm trying to see what else I can do.

So here's my offer: for $5, I will draw you a pen and ink drawing of anything you want. Anything-- I do just about every kind of vore, so whatever you can throw at me, I will draw. You can view my gallery at Eka's Portal, or check my work out at mukatkikaarn.deviantart.com for examples. I can promise you that the money will go to a good cause-- keeping my fiancee and I fed, mobile, and in good health. I understand that many people don't have much disposable income, but $5 would go a long way for us. So please consider helping us out-- I'll make sure your contribution is worth it.

Example:

Oh, no! That's terrible! I'd be glad to help! What kind of payment do you take? Paypal? Something else?

The Joker wrote:

Oh, no! That's terrible! I'd be glad to help! What kind of payment do you take? Paypal? Something else?

Oh! Duh, I take PayPal. Hang on, I'll put a button on my post. ^^;

I'd help, but... I don't use PayPal. Sorry. I don't have a bank account, and I'm extremely paranoid.

ZionAtriedes wrote:

I'd help, but... I don't use PayPal. Sorry. I don't have a bank account, and I'm extremely paranoid.

I understand completely. I could take something like a money order, if you just want to use cash, but it might be more trouble than it's worth for you. *shrugs* I appreciate the sentiment, though. ^^

I'll take you up on this when my funds transfer to my PayPal account. 'zat alright?

/Fish/ wrote:

I'll take you up on this when my funds transfer to my PayPal account. 'zat alright?

Sounds good to me. ^^

This is terrible to hear
I really hope you will manage to get out of this string of bad luck !!

Karbo wrote:

This is terrible to hear
I really hope you will manage to get out of this string of bad luck !!

So far, I've had pretty good luck scraping money together... several people have commissioned me on Eka's Portal, and I'm working on those. Then several people on DeviantArt and Livejournal donated money to the two of us. So, so far, we're doing okay with getting enough money to survive. I just need to find an actual part-time job. ^^; Unless I can put together enough money from commissions to make that much per month. (about... ah... $400 or so per month? Which seems like stretch.)

You're not stopping are you? I was going to order a couple.

Tuc135 wrote:

You're not stopping are you? I was going to order a couple.

Not at all! ^^ What would you like?

I've sent you five dollars. I'll PM you the description in just a moment.

Alright, commission paid for. I'll send you a note on dA with the description.

While I don't have the money to afford any commissions, I felt you might be interested in this bit of news right here.

In the chance you can remain above the competition, you're getting at least $1875 for coloring 25+ pages.

Worse comes to worse, you've still got the commissions here as well.

MukatKiKaarn? I just wanted to make sure that you're still there, and that my commission is in the queue.

Tuc135 wrote:

MukatKiKaarn? I just wanted to make sure that you're still there, and that my commission is in the queue.

I am, and it is in the queue. Sorry for the lack of news-- I spent much of this week catching up with student teaching paperwork, but I am getting back to commissions now. ^^ I'll be working on yours soon, so don't worry.

Malahite: Thanks for the tip, but they already picked a colorist before I could see this. Guess I need to check this forum more often. ^^; I really appreciate the help, though.

As an update, I am now getting to my commissions here, after finishing a batch that I had over at Eka's Portal. ^^ So those of you that have been waiting patiently for your art, it should be coming soon. Thank you for hanging on out there, and I hope you'll enjoy your work when it's finished!

Here's an example of a finished commission, for Tuc135. Just to provide you all with an update...



Everyone else, I am still working on yours, and they will be posted soon. ^^

And here is The Joker's commission. I don't normally do fanart, but I felt this was a reasonable enough request that was pretty well in-character for the Joker, so I made a little exception. Please don't normally ask me for fanart of commercial characters, though-- especially anime/manga characters. I will almost always turn down anime fanart commissions.

Without further ado, then, here is the finished picture! ^^

Wow, awesome picture, MuKatKiKaarn! I love it!

You're welcome! ^^ I'm glad you're happy with the result.

Also, to everyone else, I am still taking commissions, so if you like what you see here, feel free to talk to me!