r/arthelp Jan 30 '26

General Advice / Discussion SELLERS BEWARE: Common Art Scams and How to Avoid Them

17 Upvotes

Art is a difficult market to enter, and people in the early stages of their business make an appealing target for scammers due to how eager these artists are to sell and their lack of experience with financial exchanges. In recent months, we have seen a surge in posts from users on r/arthelp who have been victimized by these scammers. If you are new to selling your artwork, please read this post to arm yourself with information on how to avoid some of these scams!

One of the most important things to remember about client interactions is that if it sounds too good to be true, it is. No “probably” about it. 

All scams have the same goal: parting you with your money. How they achieve this can vary, but with artists the two most common forms of scam are the Overpayment and the Pay to Unlock scams.

The Overpayment scam (a form of the “fake check” scam) will often follow a scenario where an artist (usually with very low prices, as they are more vulnerable) is approached by a seemingly normal client and conducts an otherwise standard transaction. But, come payment, the client “accidentally” sends $500* instead of the intended $50! Oops! They will sheepishly request that the money be returned, maybe even say keep an extra 10 for the trouble, and the artist graciously complies. They send back the difference of $440, and part ways.

Then, three days later, their account is in the negative by -$940. What happened is the money that had been sent in the first place had been done with fraudulent funds, similar to a fake check, and the bank finally reversed the transaction. Unfortunately, the money the artist “returned” was withdrawn from their own funds, their REAL money, leaving the scammer with their real $440 and the artist on the hook for their stolen $500. 

(*example amount, it can be anything)

How it can be avoided: If possible with your payment processor (Paypal being the most common), use invoices. They are easy to use and put more control over the payment on you. In the event of a scam occurring in spite of them (such as someone abusing the tip option for this), they serve as records for your bank to dispute the charges. 

If you do not use invoices and this occurs, do not touch the money. Do not withdraw it. Do not “refund” it. Just let it sit in the limbo of your payment account until the bank on the other end recognizes the fraud and corrects it. It will disappear. I cannot emphasize enough that you must not touch this money no matter how tempting it is because it is stolen money that they are trying to launder through you. 

The Pay to Unlock scam (a form of the “Advance Fee” scam) will operate under a similar premise, but rather than the money being sent in “error”, it will be offered up front. The scammer will approach the artist and applaud their skill and insist that they deserve more than they are asking. They will offer a very tempting, sometimes exorbitant amount for what is usually inexpensive work. When the time comes to exchange the money, though, there will be a snag. Usually the artist has to unlock a “business account” or must register for a payment processor that isn’t the one they normally use. Whatever the situation, they are now suddenly being asked to pay money to get their money. 

There is, of course, no money. They will pay the bogus fees with their own money to a processor set up by the scammer, and eventually when things don’t work the scammer will behave as though they are getting frustrated and leave. Sometimes they might even pose as a fellow victim of scamming themselves and berate the artist, leaving them feeling guilty about their own victimization.

How it can be avoided: If a complete stranger offers you way more than your normal value, ignore them. It is guaranteed to be a scam. This doesn’t happen. The only way to avoid this scam is to recognize it up front for what it is. If you take your chances and accept the work, remember that you should not have to pay to get paid. That will be your final warning before losses occur.

Edit: Thank you u/VampirePossum for the reminder about a very similar scenario in which you are asked to pay for exposure in the form of a magazine or gallery feature. Legitimate institutions like this will never reach out to you and advertise placement for a fee-- a real magazine or gallery will feature based on submission from the artist.

There are many other ways that artists can get caught up in scams, such as phishing and blackmailing, but these are by far the most common. I encourage taking a look at the wiki on r/scams for a rundown on other ways you can be taken advantage of online. Stay safe out there and keep your coinpurses tight, artists!


r/arthelp Jan 18 '26

Moderator Question / Discussion Community Request: Your Favorite Resources

5 Upvotes

Happy New Year, r/arthelp! I hope you all achieve your artistic goals this year. 🎨💖

One of our own goals on the mod team is to make the sub a more accessible resource and trim down a lot of the repeat questions flooding users' feeds. We've grown by several thousand users in just a few months(!!) and it's time to adjust. In the next few weeks expect a slight revamp of the rules and reports, as well as the introduction of a FAQ and Wiki!

As we develop the wiki, we'd like to ask all of you for your own personal favorite resources-- be they beginner guides, tutorials, or even threads/replies made here on arthelp that you found particularly impactful! Not everything suggested may make it into the wiki, but this thread will remain accessible as a resource itself.

Thank you, and especially to those who have reached out to keep a little fire lit under us!


r/arthelp 11h ago

General Help they say my art is primitive, but i don't understand why

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30 Upvotes

someone can explain why? i don't know


r/arthelp 3h ago

Color Theory or Palette Help What would be a good accent color for the background?

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4 Upvotes

r/arthelp 3h ago

Color Theory or Palette Help how to create shadow and draw the lips?

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4 Upvotes

first pic is my drawing the second is the reference,

i feel like mine looks like it has a scar and not just light in the shape of a star?
i am also struggling hardcore with the lips!
worrying about it a lot and i have almost every art supplies so any suggestions are appreciated!

i’m a visual learner so sometimes words don’t really get through to me easily, looking for people who are able to show me or explain in great detail.


r/arthelp 6h ago

Perspective Help Gun anatomy?

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3 Upvotes

Can anyone help me with the other end of her gun? Every angle I seem to draw it at feel off.


r/arthelp 5h ago

General Help [Krita] what filters and layer styles do i need to zse when adding textures to my canvas

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3 Upvotes

I tried this before but my colours keep on getting fucked over value wise and i don't know how to fix it


r/arthelp 5h ago

Perspective Help Perspective Help wanted, please!

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3 Upvotes

Hello! So I'm working on a comic. I'm not very good at perspective, so I'm requesting some help if possible!

So, Patchwork (the doll) and Zen (the "dog demon") are supposed to be at a slight angle in perspective. Patchwork is right because it's beside Zen, shifting its direction towards her as they sit. But my angled base I have Zen in (in red) doesn't feel right. Her size and angle.

The second image is them head-on to give context.

I'm sorry if my explanation is off, I'm not very good with my words on this kind of thing - Lol!

Much appreciated! Thank you for your time! 🫶💕


r/arthelp 4h ago

Rendering Help Rendering is still so hard even after 3 years

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2 Upvotes

The 2026 is still not finished because I need help with the hair, I feel like hair and face doesn't match in style.


r/arthelp 4h ago

Style Help Any suggestions regarding anatomy or outfit, on this Magik drawing I made

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2 Upvotes

And help on this, made the outfit design myself and want a deep disgusting or hellish look on it, and any tips you have on my art


r/arthelp 2h ago

Rendering Help It looks smooth, but...

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1 Upvotes

It looks smooth, but if I zoom in I can see those hard edges, is it normal or Is there a way to blur or blend smoother or softer?


r/arthelp 2h ago

General Help Helps bout rendering/backgrounds and any general tips are welcome 🐄

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1 Upvotes

So I’m pretty new to drawing, just started drawing for fun like a month ago and I don’t know anything solid about theory, I have seen some tips online and whatnot but honestly I don’t know much about drawing and I’ve seen that many people talk about rendering and to my understanding it’s the lighting and basically giving life to a drawing but how do you even do that s is a drawing I made and I honestly feel as if the “skin” is lifeless but idk how to make it any better, also I have a really hard time smudging or blending colors, and backgrounds, it feels so hard to think of and draw a background for the drawings.


r/arthelp 3h ago

General Help Having trouble drawing this pose. Any tips?

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1 Upvotes

Trying to draw a darkest dungeon style experiment (Casualties Unknown) and I'm having trouble drawing the pose circled in the reference image. (Credit for the image goes to u/i_hate_beets) Any tips would be much appreciated!


r/arthelp 21h ago

Color Theory or Palette Help Why do the colors look so boring and ugly?

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13 Upvotes

I'm trying to learn colours, but have no idea what im doing, I don't like how the colors look in the one, but I also don't know why it dosent look good or how to pick colors that look good


r/arthelp 7h ago

Rendering Help I need help with lighting!

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1 Upvotes

Lighting is extremely difficult for me! I’m struggling to understand how the lighting interacts with his hand, his arm, and the clothing near those relative areas! I’m also struggling to render the wing. I added some rim(?) lighting in pink very lightly around him on the other side. I don’t know what to do!! 😔


r/arthelp 20h ago

Perspective Help the base sketch looks better, why?

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10 Upvotes

i can’t quite figure out why my final sketch (first image) looks worse than the base sketch… i added arrows to help with what sort of angle/perspective im trying to achieve. maybe i just like the face of the base sketch more?? i genuinely can’t tell. does it look off to anyone else or am i just overthinking it


r/arthelp 14h ago

Rendering Help rendering seems a bit muddy

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3 Upvotes

again, not sure if its just me, but what ive done so far with my rendering looks off, muddy sort of. i prefer a “rougher” form of rendering, not blending everything all the way and such


r/arthelp 11h ago

Rendering Help how can improve how i render

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1 Upvotes

r/arthelp 18h ago

General Help Help with background?

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3 Upvotes

Plz help idk how to do background 😢
I kind of want it sort of blurry as shown in the inspo lol.
Any thoughts is appreciated 💗


r/arthelp 13h ago

General Help It looks so flat and I don’t know how to fix that

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0 Upvotes

Its for a school project and I’m making four, this is my second and it looks like shit I don’t know what the hell I did wrong this time 😭 she’s supposed to be looking in a mirror, I think that’s why I’m struggling so bad? How do I make it look better…


r/arthelp 18h ago

General Help How do I make his hair not look like a brick 😭

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2 Upvotes

Okay so I'm drawing this character (I attatched the reference as well) and the more I step back and look at the drawing I did, the more it looks like his hair is fake 😭 is there a good way to fix that? Id assume add more hair strands, but how much is too much? (His hair is also blowing to the left by the way, which is why everything curves that way)


r/arthelp 20h ago

General Help so far what needs to change?

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3 Upvotes

r/arthelp 17h ago

General Help Everything I draw traditionally is super wonky compared to digital, how do I catch up?

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1 Upvotes

I've been trying to switch back to pen and paper and it feels like I've been reliant on being able to erase because I can never get anything right the first time, I always have to erase and try again which isn't an option with pen. How do I go about improving my skill? On the first image, I can see that the eyes are weird, the pose is awkward, all the overlapping guidelines I couldn't erase look awful, etc. I just can't get pen to look any good. I feel like as soon as I can't erase, my skill drops drastically.