hard lesson learned. negotiate your terms and payment first in a contract. make sure you both sign it.

Why not just get the money he was going to spend on the cigarettes?

Bummer...don't give it to him!

What

People don't value art unless u make them. They think it's magic and expect it for free...or in this case a pack of cigarettes. Your fault tho, you deserved it. I've been through this enough times myself to know. Live and learn. If you're a serious artist, educate your clients of that fact, discuss price, and if you have presentable work to show that demonstrates your ability, insist upon half the money up front because you should never work for free. Otherwise people think it's a joke and they either have all these artists do spec work for them and only pay for the one they like while they drive everyone else crazy and not pay them... or they offer to pay you a pack of cigarettes.

You should always be payed up front at least part of the pay for commissioned pieces. I hope you didn't give that crook your hard work.

Hey! I don't think it's your fault personnally, you couldn't know this friend wouldn't be honest (when you tell to someone you will pay them, it's not in cigarettes, or you just say "I'll pay you in cigarettes"), but well, we all make mistakes and we have to learn from them, I'm an artist too, and I hate talking about the prices of my work (and actually, I just hate doing comissions, people will buy the art I make, not the art they want me to do, but thats my opinion) So yeah, next time, talk about price before doing any work, that will prevent you from any other bad surprises, Hoping next time will be better! Good luck for your work!

I'm a professional freelance artist, so believe me when I say you must ALWAYS discuss payment up front. It can be awkward at first if you're not used to being paid for your art, but it's absolutely necessary. I prefer to be paid in advance, but even when a particular job doesn't allow for that(i.e. some sort of payment plan has been arranged, or I'm charging an hourly rate), I have clients sign a contract stating exactly how much I'll be paid and when, just in case they try to back out. Even a simple contract will minimize issues like this. If this is something you want to do in the future, have set prices in mind for your work so you can lay them out in the beginning if anyone asks for custom artwork. If you're having trouble with pricing, think about how many hours you're likely to put into the project and try not to go below what would work out to be minimum wage. Even if you don't feel your work is at a professional level, drawing is a specialized skill, so don't undersell yourself or let people take advantage of you!

This is a mistake a lot of new artists make. Always settle on a price before hand and if possible get half the payment upfront. And, if the client can't pay the whole amount at the end, they don't get the picture and forfeit their deposit. They're not just paying for the end product, they're paying for your time. You have to demand respect from clients, sadly, as many view art as something you're doing for "fun" so why pay you much if anything?

Could just sell the smokes