Fuocofuu

Greetings!  
Welcome to Part II of this little informative series on commissions. The last one was nicely received, and some had some good points that they wished would be brought up.  Some of those questions and points will be mentioned in this specific article (or hopefully so).  
To recap, last time I covered some very general points on how to get started in taking commissions.  Building on that, this article covers how an artist should protect him or herself from those who would take advantage of your good nature or your inexperience, and sometimes both.  And sometimes some folks are straight up thieves in disguise.  By the end of this article, you should be in a position that will protect yourself from those who are unscrupulous, while at the same time saving you from appearing standoffish or worse, a sneak.  
What do I mean by being a sneak?  Well, imagine a car salesman, all smiles and such, offering

Greetings everyone.  I was asked to make a news article at one point about how should one go about taking commissions, and I decided to do one better.  I'm going to make a short series of them, broken up into several parts.  I state for the record, that I am not an expert by any means, nor that what I tell you is absolutely, positively, 100% the correct way to do things.  These articles are guides that will hopefully help you get started and beyond as you find your way.
Part I, this article, deals with an artist who is starting out to take commissions.  Future articles will cover what to expect from their clients, what the clients should expect from you, how to protect yourself, how a client should protect themselves, and anything else that people suggest.  I know not everyone will agree with these articles, but please, if you don't agree, make suggestions so that others can see some alternatives.
Without further adieu, let's