Okay, here's a hot take:

If you are an artist that does not accept payment up front for a commission before you begin working on it, that doesn't absolve you of your commitment to actually work with your client.

You still have to COMMUNICATE w/ your client, even before payment.

If you don't take money until after you've started creating the piece, that's your prerogative. If you accept work on a commission from a client, you MUST keep an open line of communication with them; money is not what obligates you to talking to them or working on the piece.

Furthermore, if you don't have any new work to show between the last time you updated your client and the present moment, that's almost always absolutely okay. Communicate with them and just be candid. I've waited three years for work before because of the open communication.

If it turns out that the client doesn't like your answer or lack of progress thereof, then that is up to you on how to proceed from there; I've seen the horror stories of unreasonable clients. This thread isn't intended to address all of the one off "what ifs".

For the love of god do NOT ghost your client, EVEN IF you haven't taken any payment for the piece yet. If you said you would do the work, they are anticipating paying you for it and they need to know when to anticipate financially budgeting for that. Your WORD is your BOND.

I've had people ghost me for months before responding to me, and if i'm not getting updates, I space my check-ins relative to the expected turnaround time. I've waited months between check-ins, just to be ignored.

It's almost quite literally the rudest thing you can possibly do.

Sometimes you have an off day and you can't bring yourself to answer for a few days to a week even. Anxiety is a real thing, and real life brings many unexpected surprises. I get that, most people do. But you have to respond EVENTUALLY.

Please, just communicate!!!