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Tumblr has been plagued by art thief acccounts pretending to be artists and trying to scam you to commission them. Here's a list of things to watch out when a suspicious account is claiming to be a commission artist. Not to say that every "red flag" is an indication of fake artist, but if you see too many red flags at once, it's safe to assume the "artist" might be a scammer.

No digital footprint - Despite the quality of presented art and the supposed number of commissions they're getting, the account is fairly new and unknown, there is no trace of them ever existing before on tumblr or any other sites.

Varying styles and quality - Sometimes it's a full painted pieces, sometimes it's a sketchy drawing and sometimes it's a simple cellshaded chibi. There are artists who work in different styles but the things like quality of lines and consistency of shading don't usualy change overnight.

Bad quality uploads - Small and pixelated quality of uploaded artwork probably means they stole it from somewhere.

Eveything is a commission - Most artwork they upload is described as "commission from a client" to legitimize their commission scam. Also note the consistency of them calling their commissioners "clients" everytime. "Thanks for trusting me" is also a common phrase used by scammers.

No fandom tags - Even if the artwok is clearly a fanart, they never label the media or character, often claiming it's an oc.

Nameless OCs - When they claim the artwork depicts their own characters, you never learn their names or what they are from except "a story i'm writing" or sometihng like that.

Vague artistic descriptions - The scammers commonly use short artistic descriptions like "She represents balance warmth and cold, chaos and grace held together in one moment." instead of regular artist's comment about the art or character on it.

They are most likely to message you randomly whenever you post anything about wanting to commission an artist.

Of course things like AI claimed to be their own art or leftover signatures from original artists are a clear indication of art theft. If you are unsure you can always chek their images on google lens to see if there are any suspicious matches.

I uderstand this is not an exhausive guide and that yes, real artists are sometimes guilty of some of these too, we're just people. Just because an artist didn't tag their fanart or put a weird description doesn't automaticaly mean they are fake and trying to scam you. It's just general list of common red flags shared between confirmed scam accounts and might be useful when you're looking for commissions and want to verify if the artist is legit or a thief/scammer.

iam8bit

Limited Run

Strictly Limited

Super Rare

Red Art Games

Just For Games

Hard Copy

1print

Gamefairy

And more

All of these places produce smaller batches of (typically) Indie titles but also some big name games too. 8bit has a contract with select retailers as well (BestBuy and Gamestop for sure, but potentially others) to keep physical media alive, but ordering directly from them will always be better.

No shirt, no bra, completely bare torso, just like cis men are allowed to

It's about desexualizing breasts and "female presenting nipples" and not being criminalized for our bodies if we want to go topless because it's a million damn degrees out. This was a popular growing movement that was still widely known a decade ago!

Ask yourself, how does this piece make you feel? (No wrong answers)

Look for an artist statement nearby. What does it say about the artist and their relationship to their work? What does the artist say that they are trying to convey with their art? What contextual clues can you pick up from what they say about their background, or what they omit?

Look at the title of the piece. What is the artist saying about their work by naming it that, either explicitly or implicitly?

Look at the medium. Is there anything about the piece that stands out to you, knowing what it's made of?

Look at the year it was made. What cultural events might have been happening around this time? Was this piece part of a particular art movement? What was the purpose of that art movement, and what was it trying to say?

Twice in my youth (once in high school and once in college) I was in situations where I was asking someone out and I could tell they were calculating in their heads the risks of rejecting me, and both times I said, out loud, "you can say no, I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't prepared for either answer." And then they said no. This wasn't some spark of special wisdom I had - I knew to do it because feminist conversations among my age group brought it up regularly. This isn't happening nearly enough anymore.

More recently, I was really glad when we got to "rejection sensitive dysphoria" in my IOP program and it was one of those symptoms where the therapists really emphasized how it affects others. Because it does.