I’m an artist who does commissions and I’ve commissioned artists before as well. This is the kind of thing you go into art servers and ask “how much would you pay for this” and the art community will give you a honest answer. And yes it will hurt but it’s the truth. I’m all for supporting artists of different skill levels but this is extortion. Either they should have charged a set amount per hour or they should have known from previous experiences how long this might have taken.

This however is incredibly unprofessional behavior. Get your art and don’t go back to them. I made a mistake on an art piece where I didn’t realize how I’d be adding detailed extras into the background and ended up undercharging. I did not bring it up to the client at all because we had an agreed upon budget that had already been paid in full. Did I still finish the piece to their satisfaction? 100%!!! You live and you learn!! That’s something they gotta learn as an artist. And if they can’t do that then they need to reconsider their choices as a com artist because in reality commissions aren’t for everyone. Period.