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Thoughts about art/website
3 years ago
Nobody here would know it but I have had a website since before I made this account. My site has been oriented partly for most physical artwork I make and partly for personal use (game stuff). As a result it has a completely different theme from stuff I do here and because the focus is on the non-furry side of me and my art, I have deliberately kept it separate from the vein of art here, in good part because there is very little overlap of interest.
Thing is, my website's been just about dead in the water for the last two years and has become a pit for no reason and is just neglected.
I haven't been able to produce physical art for those two years, largely for reasons outside of my control and I really haven't been able to do much about getting said art displayed physically, except for a couple of times, which has meant an inability to generate any new interest on the side of the physical works of art I would produce. I've just come to hate it and haven't done away with it because of thoughts like "what if (in the future)"; a load of crap thoughts that lead nowhere.
So, I was thinking about replacing the physical art website with something aligned with what I have here, basically something on the furry fandom side of things.
The main use for a renewed website at the moment would probably be as a "hub" and for having a static link to a commissions page with terms and pricing, instead of the commissions info gallery posts I make here, which end up being a bit messy and getting lost. Maybe very few people would be interested in an external website presence for me, though I'm thinking of it as a digital business card kind of thing; discussion, suggestions or ideas would be appreciated.
I'm not sure if I'd use the new site as a replacement for my gallery here in part because I'm not sure how I'd handle any age-related thresholds for mature content; for one thing I like the fact that FA requires an account for mature content and while I wouldn't have too much of an issue showing some more tame stuff on my own site anyway, truthfully I do like FA's gallery system quite a lot.
I just know that one way or another, I have to either kill off my site or make new use of it.
(This actually came first initially; art "bla bla" spoilered below instead.)
Since 2018, I've gradually come to realise a few things, one of those things being that there is little interest (especially monetary) in non-fetish art themes except under a few conditions. Things like, whether an artist is well known or not, how good the art is on a technical level (i.e. inherent "wow" factor), and what the theme of a piece is. In non-fetish art, portraits and fan-art typically seem to attract more interest. While I have made some fan-art stuff which had decent interest, I haven't really focused on it, while portraits have remained a distant interest for me, as I generally prefer to do local landscapes or ones which are familiar to me.
Simply put, sex does sell and because people do seem to have an inherent preference to spend money on something they get gratification or value from, fetish art tends to be far more appealing and interesting in general. And famous art of any kind, but mostly physical, also gets added value because it has a resale value and probably bragging rights attached to it.
NSFW/erotic art also does all the right things an artist wants a piece to do in a viewer, specifically one of those being to generate an emotional response, while another is for example the fact that the pieces can get a viewer to return to a piece very easily. I can think of many NSFW images I've found over the years that I have a particular liking for and which are well embedded into my visual memory so that recalling their detail isn't too difficult.
Incidentally, a reason I don't get NSFW art made by others myself is because because I can make it myself too and I can't really afford it anyway.
I should probably mention that I'm not really saying any of this in any sort of judging manner, this is me sort of thinking out loud about a "truth" that is likely well known by many people and which I'm sure I've brought up in journals and discussions. It's something which for me as an artist I have always had some issues with, because I've struggled to deal with art as a commodity since I first started making art. A denial of sorts about something that has been true even well before the contemporary fetish art scene. I've known it when learning about the history of art and watching documentaries and all those things, I just didn't really accept it and on some level still don't, because like with many things, I am probably an idealist when it comes to the "purpose" of art and is a large part of why I really like getting cheap random art from charity shops.
Posted using PostyBirb
Thing is, my website's been just about dead in the water for the last two years and has become a pit for no reason and is just neglected.
I haven't been able to produce physical art for those two years, largely for reasons outside of my control and I really haven't been able to do much about getting said art displayed physically, except for a couple of times, which has meant an inability to generate any new interest on the side of the physical works of art I would produce. I've just come to hate it and haven't done away with it because of thoughts like "what if (in the future)"; a load of crap thoughts that lead nowhere.
So, I was thinking about replacing the physical art website with something aligned with what I have here, basically something on the furry fandom side of things.
The main use for a renewed website at the moment would probably be as a "hub" and for having a static link to a commissions page with terms and pricing, instead of the commissions info gallery posts I make here, which end up being a bit messy and getting lost. Maybe very few people would be interested in an external website presence for me, though I'm thinking of it as a digital business card kind of thing; discussion, suggestions or ideas would be appreciated.
I'm not sure if I'd use the new site as a replacement for my gallery here in part because I'm not sure how I'd handle any age-related thresholds for mature content; for one thing I like the fact that FA requires an account for mature content and while I wouldn't have too much of an issue showing some more tame stuff on my own site anyway, truthfully I do like FA's gallery system quite a lot.
I just know that one way or another, I have to either kill off my site or make new use of it.
(This actually came first initially; art "bla bla" spoilered below instead.)
Since 2018, I've gradually come to realise a few things, one of those things being that there is little interest (especially monetary) in non-fetish art themes except under a few conditions. Things like, whether an artist is well known or not, how good the art is on a technical level (i.e. inherent "wow" factor), and what the theme of a piece is. In non-fetish art, portraits and fan-art typically seem to attract more interest. While I have made some fan-art stuff which had decent interest, I haven't really focused on it, while portraits have remained a distant interest for me, as I generally prefer to do local landscapes or ones which are familiar to me.
Simply put, sex does sell and because people do seem to have an inherent preference to spend money on something they get gratification or value from, fetish art tends to be far more appealing and interesting in general. And famous art of any kind, but mostly physical, also gets added value because it has a resale value and probably bragging rights attached to it.
NSFW/erotic art also does all the right things an artist wants a piece to do in a viewer, specifically one of those being to generate an emotional response, while another is for example the fact that the pieces can get a viewer to return to a piece very easily. I can think of many NSFW images I've found over the years that I have a particular liking for and which are well embedded into my visual memory so that recalling their detail isn't too difficult.
Incidentally, a reason I don't get NSFW art made by others myself is because because I can make it myself too and I can't really afford it anyway.
I should probably mention that I'm not really saying any of this in any sort of judging manner, this is me sort of thinking out loud about a "truth" that is likely well known by many people and which I'm sure I've brought up in journals and discussions. It's something which for me as an artist I have always had some issues with, because I've struggled to deal with art as a commodity since I first started making art. A denial of sorts about something that has been true even well before the contemporary fetish art scene. I've known it when learning about the history of art and watching documentaries and all those things, I just didn't really accept it and on some level still don't, because like with many things, I am probably an idealist when it comes to the "purpose" of art and is a large part of why I really like getting cheap random art from charity shops.
Posted using PostyBirb
In that sense, if you want to add an age barrier to your website, just do an age check behind a cookie.
On my existing site, any art purchase stuff is handled through guest checkouts and things like that. When I set it up, I wanted to make sure that no kind of registration was required for any website interaction and the same would remain true if I were to remake my site as I mention here.
I'll probably have a think about age check with a cookie.
Thanks for the feedback, appreciated.
At the moment, even the small Patreon support I have is significant enough in countering a small overhead like this, but I just don't like overheads if they can be avoided.
Anyway, I would definitely be making a journal post if I did end up making a new site.
Oh, the little face (good on you) reminds me of something, I'll note you about that!