It’s funny how some people (usually family and friends) think they can just ask an artist, “draw/paint this for me” and get it for free.

What would you do if you spent hours drawing a portrait only for someone to complain about the price?

In this case, an artist made a commissioned work, but the client (a friend of a friend) kept asking for discount upon discount.

Now she’s wondering if she should’ve handled the situation differently.

Let’s read the whole story and see what happened.

AITAH for refusing to give a portrait to a client after she changed the payment terms?

This happened a while ago but I never really got closure and still think about it sometimes.

I’m a local artist and occasionally take commissions. A girl I barely knew (a mutual friend of my close friend) asked me to draw a portrait of Emma Watson.

We agreed on the paper size, timeline, and price.

She immediately asked for a discount.

That was a red flag, but she didn’t know that at the time.

Even though I already charge very low rates, I gave her the same price I offer to close friends and family just to be kind.

Still, she pushed for more.

I struggle with setting boundaries, and I feel like she took advantage of that. Eventually we agreed she’d pay only 70% of the original price.

I finished the portrait and gave it to her in person.

She was really happy with it, showed it off to her friends, and complimented my work.

Happy customer, right? But the seller wasn’t happy.

Then, she told me she would only pay 50% of the already discounted price.

I was shocked.

She claimed that giving me a “social media shoutout” and “sending her friends” to me as clients would make up for the rest.

The nerve. She wasn’t having it.

But I wasn’t even using social media at the time, and I never agreed to that kind of trade.

I explained (as calmly as I could, I hate confrontation) that this wasn’t what we agreed on, and that I had put in many hours of work.

I reminded her that I’m already charging far below standard rates.

But she resorted to other tactics. It was the final straw.

She didn’t care. Instead, she said things like I’m “not even that talented” and I should just treat this as “practice.”

At that point, I’d had enough.

I didn’t argue. I just quietly took the portrait back and left.

It had repercussions.

After that she twisted the story and told our mutual friends that I was the one gaslighting her, which was honestly ironic, because looking back she was the one trying to manipulate the situation from the start.

Sadly, some of our mutual friends believed her and cut me off.

That really hurt, especially since I usually avoid drama and just try to keep the peace.

I still have the portrait. I might post it here, but I’ll blur out my signature since it would reveal my identity.

AITA?

She did the right thing, and the people who cut her off without listening to her side of the story were never her friends.

Let’s see if Reddit has any insights to share about the situation.

This commenter kept it short.

Exactly.

Sound advice.

This reader shares their thoughts.

Another reader chimes in.

This person sums it up.

Selling art is as much of a business as any other business.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.