Of OC's and owner transfers

[AyGee]

I've got a little situation on my hands, and this seemed like the most appropriate place to post this.  I originally wanted to put this up in Rants & Raves, but that's a little shit-post'y and I'm looking for something more along the lines of an actual resolution.  I'm gonna try to be vague and not name names, though some of it may be obvious if you go looking around.  If any of you decide to do some sleuthing of you own, I urge you NOT to bother any of the persons involved; let's keep it here and keep it civil.

This is a bit of a long-winded explanation, so I hope you're all comfy.

For the longest time, I've followed a particular artist on FA.  I like her work, and I like her style.  I've even gone as far as drawing a some 'fan-art' of a couple of her OC's.  This wasn't stuff I was doing under the radar or behind her back; I've let her know and asked her permission before going ahead with any of said pictures.  But this artist is rather skittish around the whole furry community, and has finally decided to up and leave (again, but that's aside from what I'm getting at), and sold off two of her OC's that I had already drawn.  I tried to participate in the bidding.  I don't know if I was unclear in my bid, or if the artist was made an offer that let mine sit unreplied to, but in the end I don't get any word back until I hear that the OC's had already been sold off.  Since I do commissions, and I wanted more opportunities to draw one of the OC's in question, I contacted this person, congratulated them on winning the bid, and offered to do more drawings if they wanted.

And this is where things get a little hairy.  Said person thanked me, and then informed me that they would not like pictures of this OC floating around (IE: the ones I drew while this character was under its original creator).  They suggested I edit the older pictures to be of a character of my own (one I admittedly based largely on the OC in question), which wouldn't be -too- much of a hassle with one exception.  It turns out I have one picture featuring both this OC and my own character in the same scene, and I couldn't very well have two of the same character in the shot.  I asked to let this one slide, since this would be awkward to work around.  Their response was... inflexible:

"No"

They've been generally polite, and they did respond afterwards to say they were in a rush when they sent the message, but it still stung a little.  It's also something I can't figure out; they don't seem to be developing a publication, they've made it abundantly clear they don't (and don't want to) RP, and while they have a small gallery of one of the previous characters, they aren't nearly as prolific commissioners as, say, Pumzie or Icee who have to deal with people frequently yanking references from the work they paid for.  And personally, I would ordinarily be stoked to know an OC I bought already has art out there (barring it being completely weird/lewd).

So how do I resolve this?  The request this person has made was to basically palette-swap any instances of the OC to my own character, and going for a different palette-swap in the more troublesome picture with my own character already in it and calling it a new character.  I can see some opportunity in that, but I'm also miffed at having to edit something I've already submitted that's become reasonably popular, and working up edits for older works when I've got plenty of new stuff I want to work on.  What's a good, civil approach to this that can leave both this other person and myself satisfied?

TL;DR - New owner of OC I drew before wants them edited out.  What do?  Also, no hunty-down people to harass them: -10 cool points on people who do that.  Not looking to cause a scene.

[Enigma]

Have you offered to purchase the characters from the new owner? Or maybe offer to draw him a new OC in exchange for the characters you want?

[AyGee]

7 minutes ago, Enigma said:

Have you offered to purchase the characters from the new owner? Or maybe offer to draw him a new OC in exchange for the characters you want?

I haven't considered that.  But, also considering that the starting bid for the character in question was set at $100 and is supposed to come with a pic of the bought character by its creator, I wouldn't be surprised if the price ends up being quite high, if the new owner would consider selling the OC at all.

[Enigma]

Well if he refuses to budge on the issue, you could always make a minor or distinct change on the character. If this is a RP character you could make it that something happened. A pallet swap is a lot more time consuming, compared to maybe a scar or markings. 

[Endless/Nameless]

They have no right to change what occurred prior to their purchase.

 

They don't like it?

Then they forgot "buyer beware". 

[Jerry]

You probably have an acquired right. While the new owner can prevent you from drawing new material, there's nothing they can do about what you drew under the permission of the original owner.