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Don't Believe the Hype!
14 years ago
I try to keep my rants and raves out of here, but if you read the same thing over and over and you know it's wrong, sometimes you have to speak out.
So, attention furry artists... the phrase “The only way you can make money in the fandom is to draw porn” is utter bull. I bought a Cintiq with a week's earnings a month ago and had my paypal as full as it had been before the purchase a week later. And you folks have seen my art, I don't even draw bulges under clothing or nipples on men or women.
Would you like to know how it's done?
FIRST... you need to be distinctive in some manner. Someone needs to associate something with you, be it a certain theme of art, a certain method, a really unique style, or something else. Most people think of Little Tales when they think of me. My webcomic helped make my mark in the fandom.
SECOND.... climb out of that ivory tower. Some artists won't interact with fans at all or snark about the “stupid furries”. Why should anyone give you money when they don't know you, or you don't show them the slightest bit of respect? If you treat your fans like crap and never give them the time of day, or just constantly snark or don't say anything to your fanbase at all, then don;t be surprised if they move on to a more accessible and friendly artist.
THIRD.... routine routine routine. Post art regularly, livestream on a schedule, do something so that people know that when they want to see something from you, they can catch it at a certain time every week or month or so. People are creatures of habit and if they know they can rely on you to stay with a schedule, they'll stick with you for a long time.
FOURTH.... freebies. People remark about how they hate it when people ask for trades or free art and you can't just throw all your hard work out the window, but know when to reward a good customer. It doesn't have to be anything big either. Maybe draw on the envelope you use to send your product out with or include a button or some stickers, whatever you have. Customers like to know they're appreciated.
FIFTH... Share the wealth. I have several artists that I share info on their stream times with here. Don't look at it as giving your business away. Every artist has a monopoly to their own style and a customer isn't going to go anywhere else to get art that looks like yours. All you're doing in sharing is making contacts and links amongst your fellow artists and networking. Sharing customers simply lets new people know about you as your loyal clients mingle with someone else's. Your clients get something new, and your friend's clients might decide to check you out sometime too.
Ultimately success is determined by how hard you're willing to work for it. Success does not happen overnight though and if you stop for too long you'll start to lose people. It's a machine that you're going to have to keep shoveling fuel into if you ever want it to go anywhere.
And that's the secret.
So, attention furry artists... the phrase “The only way you can make money in the fandom is to draw porn” is utter bull. I bought a Cintiq with a week's earnings a month ago and had my paypal as full as it had been before the purchase a week later. And you folks have seen my art, I don't even draw bulges under clothing or nipples on men or women.
Would you like to know how it's done?
FIRST... you need to be distinctive in some manner. Someone needs to associate something with you, be it a certain theme of art, a certain method, a really unique style, or something else. Most people think of Little Tales when they think of me. My webcomic helped make my mark in the fandom.
SECOND.... climb out of that ivory tower. Some artists won't interact with fans at all or snark about the “stupid furries”. Why should anyone give you money when they don't know you, or you don't show them the slightest bit of respect? If you treat your fans like crap and never give them the time of day, or just constantly snark or don't say anything to your fanbase at all, then don;t be surprised if they move on to a more accessible and friendly artist.
THIRD.... routine routine routine. Post art regularly, livestream on a schedule, do something so that people know that when they want to see something from you, they can catch it at a certain time every week or month or so. People are creatures of habit and if they know they can rely on you to stay with a schedule, they'll stick with you for a long time.
FOURTH.... freebies. People remark about how they hate it when people ask for trades or free art and you can't just throw all your hard work out the window, but know when to reward a good customer. It doesn't have to be anything big either. Maybe draw on the envelope you use to send your product out with or include a button or some stickers, whatever you have. Customers like to know they're appreciated.
FIFTH... Share the wealth. I have several artists that I share info on their stream times with here. Don't look at it as giving your business away. Every artist has a monopoly to their own style and a customer isn't going to go anywhere else to get art that looks like yours. All you're doing in sharing is making contacts and links amongst your fellow artists and networking. Sharing customers simply lets new people know about you as your loyal clients mingle with someone else's. Your clients get something new, and your friend's clients might decide to check you out sometime too.
Ultimately success is determined by how hard you're willing to work for it. Success does not happen overnight though and if you stop for too long you'll start to lose people. It's a machine that you're going to have to keep shoveling fuel into if you ever want it to go anywhere.
And that's the secret.
1. Quit typing PORN into the search bar.
2. Turn the Mature Filter on.
And I don't draw porn. Closest thing to "porn" I draw is a fully inactive sheath. I don't even draw nipples.
I love you!
That said, as somebody who doesn't do adult stuff, I agree with everything you've said here. :)
-The Gneech
Mind you, I've nothing against the people who make a living drawing porn. My issue is with the people who think it's the only way you can make money or blame their lack of sales on the porn artists. If sales are bad, then a person needs to find out what's wrong with THEIR method instead of blaming other people.
No, no, no... Easier, more seductive.
;)
And your rats are cute.
I can't keep a timeframe to save my life (which is the case it appears X3;)
If you want to make money doing art, be available. - There a few people I know who complain that you can't make any money in art. Yet in the years I've been aware of them I've never seen these people open for commissions outside of when they go to cons. Most of the people can't afford to fly 1/2 way across the country and attend NamebrandconX and the problem get worse for artists who only attend smaller, regional cons.
If you take commissions, do them. - Nothing makes people not want to bother commissioning an artist like seeing them with delivery times that can be measuring in seasons. Multiple seasons. Yes, high quality/detailed work takes time. We understand this....to a point. There are a number of artists who in the past I've considered saving up the money to pay them what they're worth and commission them. But when I see them with delivery times in the range of 6-9 months it hardly seems worth it. When those same people constantly come out with posts about how they're so busy/sick/sad that REALLY turns people off. Things happen, again we understand. But if you can set your watch to them then perhaps art isn't for your calling.
You excel in all these areas Gen. The only reason I haven't got a card yet is with the possible job change/move I put most all elective spending on hold but as affordable as your stuff is I think I might just allocate the funds.
What? No, i've never sold a commission. Must be because I don't draw porn.
I'm in two mind to post it into mah scraps just so you can see how bad it is, with links to a good image of her (a friend
Just because a character or art of a character is more "popular" (pageviews) than your character or art of your character because their art/character is adult in nature. Don't treat it like it's a personal offense directed squarely at you by the person or the fandom at large.
Very well said indeed! ::nod nods::
I whole heartily agree with you here. I didn't come to this site simply to look at furry porn. I came here to meet other furs and make some friends in the fandom. I don't know why people think being a furry has (near)everything to do with furry porn, but I've been able to come across some amazingly talented artists on this site, like Genesis, who not only refuse to draw porn but also have been exceptionally successful as artists within the fandom.
The only way you can make money in the fandom is utter SKILL. Subject matter is a distant second-place.
Artists who can't make money in the fandom are either no-talent hacks, lazy about promoting their work, or are so utterly unpleasant to deal with that nobody will touch them with a ten-foot check. NO EXCEPTIONS.
My two cents.
There has never been a five-figure porn piece sold at a furry art show. There are bloody few four-figure pieces, in fact, but by now there are well hundreds of general audience pieces that have sold for more than a thousand dollars. There has never been a furry art show in which the adult section brought in more than the general art section on either an absolute or average-per-panel basis.
In fact, the ONLY areas in which adult furry art is dominant is comic books, ten-dollar color prints at dealers' tables, and non-icon web commissions. That's it. Sketchbooks, non-commissioned web art, high-end art, and the huge "center of the bell shaped curve" of art pieces that sell for 40 to 100 dollars at shows are dominated by non-explicit art. Always have been.* Anyone who has ever attended a furry convention and paid objective attention to the art shows, the art auctions, the dealer's room and artist alleys (and isn't deliberately cherry-picking for porn), or fact-checked what's on Furaffinity or VCL or Deviant Art** by, y'know, counting will see where the numbers are.
I would go so far as to say that when an artist specifically whines about the boogeyman of porn as to why their art isn't selling, it is for one or more of exactly three reasons: the artist is unskilled, the artist produces nothing that the viewer can relate too, and the artist is a stuck-up entitlement-generation prima dona that is such a misery to deal with that nobody in their right mind would want to reward their behavior with sales. Any artist who draws well but can't sell needs to up their game and become a decent human being. No artist is entitled to sales or praise.
"Furry is all porn" is a long-since disproven fallacy. Myth busted. Those who continue to spread it are just plain liars, and they know it. But people say what they want to say, and see what they really really really want to see *snort drool*, truth and objectivity be damned. Anti-porn crusaders in my experience have a much harder time with concepts like "truth" and "honesty" than the crowd that buys Kleenex by the crate. The only anti-porn "truth" that holds water is that furry folks have made the mistake of welcoming some forms of porn which are truly extreme and disturbing (and often illegal), and are discovering to their shock and amazement that when you welcome a pig into your home you get covered with mud too. Outsider extreme fetishists have exploited the near-deafening chant of "tolerate"; they know that if they slap a tail on it that some furry crusader will give them a high-traffic website and a market. They're not here for the "furry" aspect. They're here for the fetish, and are plenty happy that when the hammer comes down it does so on the label "furry", not "guro", "pedo", "scatological", "infantalist" etc. Furries are being used, and they're too stupid and too blinded by escapist fantasies and "you're not the boss of me" resentment-fueled absolutist "philosophy" to realize it.
Note: The only axe I have to grind here is the one related to truth, as anyone who has made it this far should realize. I am the last person around to be anti-porn (for those forms which aren't off the deep end of "fucked up"). I likes me some quality naughty bits doing quality naughty things, hurr hurr. But saying that "furry is only porn" is like saying "the buffet has only desserts". Furry fandom doesn't need to rid itself of porn. It just needs to not be a haven for outsiders who think that slapping a tail on something makes it unassailable regardless of what that something is.
And if you still don't like the porn/non-porn ratio, get you ass out there and draw, write, support and buy. Because if you're not participating in the selection/creation process beyond flapping your impotent freeloading blog-lips, you do not get a vote and have an opinion that is worthless.
* First-hand knowledge, 27 years' experience.
** I do not accept the "but DA doesn't allow porn" argument. It does; just the soft-core stuff. I've seen plenty. You want your maracas shaken, DA will shake 'em.
Smiles are more attractive than leers.
Good show, sentient alcoholic drink!
I am in the Furry Fandom for the Fun, NOT the Fetish.
Or something like that. :D
Another thing.... If someone sees my relatively low prices for my art, will they think I'm insecure and be less likely to commission me? Should I hike my prices to make me look more confident, or keep on the low side, the idea being that if my art doesn't cost as much, maybe I'll get more business? What is your advice on this subject?