Terms of Service/Agreement for Sherwood Pet Portraits

By commissioning me, Mindy Sherwood/Sherwood Pet Portraits, you agree to these terms. They may be revised, edited, or changed without notice. If there are any questions about anything on this page, please contact me. Thank you!

Contact:
1) Contact between myself (the artist) and you (the client) will primarily be through email unless agreed upon otherwise. I will not take commission information over instant messengers, phone, text, physical letters, etc.
2) You may contact me at my business email, mindy@sherwoodpetportraits.com Personal message systems on websites such as Facebook is not a preferred contact method.
3) If the client cannot be contacted through the means they provided for over 3 months, their commission will be moved to the bottom of the artists' queue if they have already paid, or will be dropped if they have not paid. If the client does not reply after 6 months of no communication, the artist reserves the right to cancel the commission and offer a 25% refund of the original commission price or a credit of 75% of the commission price towards merchandise only. No communication from the client after one year (12 months) will result in the commission being dropped and payment void.
4) If the artwork (commission) is finished and the client cannot be reached, the finished digital files will be sent to the client anyway and the artwork will be posted as normal. For original work, if a shipping address was provided it will be shipped it to the address with or without confirmation after 2 months of no communication. If no address is provided, the artwork will be held for 6 months after finishing. After 6 months of no communication, the client forfeits their right to receive the artwork and the artist has the right to do whatever they see fit with the original artwork.

Payment:
1) All payments must be made in United States Dollars.
2) Credit Card payments will be sent by an invoice to the clients email via Square, a private and trusted payment system. I also accept physical checks sent in the mail HOWEVER am not responsible for lost or stolen mail so use at your own risk.
3) For commissions under $100, I will ask for full payment before I begin. For commissions over $100 I will ask for at least 25% down payment before starting. I will ask for the other 75% after I have showed you the sketch and you agree to let me continue with the piece. If you prefer to pay the entire cost of the commission up front no matter what the price is, that is fine.
4) I will not start any commission without receiving some sort of payment first.

Rush Orders and Fees:
1) If a commission request has a deadline of 30 days or less from initial contact email, a $50 rush fee may be applied at my discretion.
2) Rush orders with a deadline of 14 days or less are only accpted on a case-by-case basis and are subject to a non-negotiable 50% rush fee.

Refunds:
1) If the client decides to withdraw from the commission before it is started, I will refund 100% of money sent. If you cancel the commission after the sketch stage, I will keep 25% of the total price of the commission and refund the rest. No refunds will be given if the image is completed or close to being completed and you ask to withdraw from the commission.
2) I reserve the right to issue a partial or full refund (depending on the current stage of the artwork) due to rude behavior, lack of communication, or inability to communicate with the client.

Content:
1) I will not draw anything above a General rating. No pornographic, gore, or overly bloody material.
2) I will not draw anything I personally feel uncomfortable with or steps over legal or moral boundaries (drug use, murder, abuse, etc.). If you're not sure your idea will fall under these categories, I will gladly answer any questions.
3) Please be aware of subject matters that I do not draw well, including machinery, automobiles, robotics, and humans. These are subjects I may be willing to try if asked, but cannot guarantee my best work. Please just keep in mind I am exclusively a pet portrait artist and do not offer art with humans in them, even if it is of humans with their pets.

Revisions:

1) With the exception of Sketch portraits, I will always make a "mock-up" of your portrait using the photo/s provided to give a rough idea of how your pet portrait will be laid out. This is the best stage to ask for revisions or changes, as the mock-up is a running idea and a rough plan of where the pet portrait will go. Please see “Revisions: 3)” for more information on asking for revisions on the mock-up.
2) With the exception of Sketch Portraits, I may show the client a sketch before continuing on with the coloring. It is OK for the client to ask for revisions at this time, but please be aware that depending on the sketch and the medium it may be very difficult to erase some parts and it is not recommended.
3) For Full Illustration Commissions: After 10 separate revisions of the mock-up and/or 3 revisions of the actual sketch I may begin charging a fee for each extra revision.
For Sketch Portraits: After 2 minor revisions of the piece (minor being shifting some parts around or adding something extra) I may begin charging a fee for each extra revisions. Any major revision can be denied or charged for a whole extra sketch.
4) Once the commission is finished, I will only allow 1 minor revision requests before charging extra, depending on what it is. It is very hard to change a finished picture, especially in traditional media, so if I feel that the revision may not be possible or may ruin the piece I retain rights to deny the revision.

Rights:
1) As the artist, the rights to an image belong to me. I reserve the right to use any image I create how I see fit. This includes, but is not limited to, posting the image publicly on the internet on social media, using the piece in advertisements for my business, using the image in personal and promotional CDs/Portfolios, and making printed copies of the image.
2) If I sell the rights of your commission to you, I am selling any advertising and sharing the image for my business. Therefore, I reserve all rights to charge accordingly.
3) I retain the rights to display your image on my personal art galleries, pages, and websites. Images may be kept private (no public posting) with a 30% additional charge. If you don't mind the image to be posted publicly but would like to remain anonymous, there is no additional charge (just let me know beforehand that this is what you want).
4) If the artwork is a surprise or a gift, just let me know and I will withhold from posting it publicly until the event has passed (birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, etc.).
5) Clients are more than welcome to share their commission to their own social media pages as long as credit is given to me as the artist, and if they upload a high quality scan, it should be the version of the image that contains my watermark and signature (the image that I gave to you over email upon the finishing of the piece). Phone photos of the finished piece are perfectly fine and acceptable to share.
6) The client may not make profit from the commissioned artwork with the exception of reselling the original or artist-made print.

Originals and Shipping:
1) Ordering a pet portrait in traditional media means you will receive the original artwork. The price for shipping your original will be stated in our discussion. Depending on the size of the piece, the average price of shipping within the US is $15-$30. Upon the completion of your artwork I will send a watermarked scanned digital copy to you for approval and sharing. A high quality matte or gloss print of your commission can be added for a discounted price. Please notify me during the initial discussion of your commission if you'd like a print of the finished artwork.
2) I reserve the right to sell any original paintings/sketches/artwork that are not shipped to the client (ie artwork that the client has explicitly declined to receive the original artwork of).

Style:
1) By commissioning me you are commissioning me for my style of artwork. If you want a commission to look like a different artist, then by all means commission that artist and not me. Please peruse my gallery and my previous works to get a feel for my style and what my artwork looks like.

Commission Order:
1) I will try my best to work on commissions in the order of payment received, but cannot guarantee this order will be followed due to factors of communication with the client, availability of a particular medium, rush orders, etc.
2) Commissions with specific deadlines or due dates may be pushed to the top of the queue above other commissions to be able to finish in time.

Thank you very much for reading this. I hope it will help my clients feel more familiar with the way I work and how I do things.