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10 Things I Don't Do That I Probably Should. :-P
3 years ago
So, there are a lot of things when doing my art thing that I probably could or should be doing, but don't. A lot of this comes from my own personal decisions and opinions, and I don't know, I just feel like sharing them here. I guess this is half a rant post, and half an explanation for the weird inner psyche of Fus. :-P
10 Things I Don't Do That I Probably Should
1. Leaving shouts on other people's pages when they watch or favorite one of my submissions.
This is one strategy that very much annoys the crap out of me and is probably what 95% of all shouts on the FA site are used for. I find it pretty annoying. However, as much as I dislike it, it is an effective strategy, as it puts your name out there more for other people to potentially spot your name and makes it far more likely for that person to return to look at your profile page and the rest of your gallery. Still, I just can't get myself to be that desperate. Instead, I just use shouts as one of my tools of anarchy to pester
Kiliq and some members of the Hawt Horse Herd. :-P
2. Have set commission prices
I don't actually have set commission prices. I have this sort of weird mental policy that if I am earning less than $35 for an art piece, then it's not worth the time effort, despite the usual effort it takes me to complete something is like 10 hours, so that's only $3.50 an hour. I also struggle to really put a price range on my work. The other thing is that I am constantly learning, and I test out different things nearly every commission I do. Therefore, I typically try do nowadays is to negotiate an estimated price based off the commissioner's budget and go from there. Many people state I undercharge for my work, and it's probably true, but at the same time, I want my commissioners to feel like they are getting the proper "bang for their buck." I also do not art as a career. I do digital art as a hobby that coincidently people can dangle money in front of me as an extra incentive to complete it. If I didn't have that, I probably would have burnt out and stopped years ago.
3. Ask for payment before starting on a piece
Pretty much all my artist friends scream at me for doing the complete opposite, as I have a "pay when I finish" policy. The reason I do that relates somewhat to the explanation above, as I do that as an incentive to actually work on and complete the piece. Yes, I know, I'm one of those people that eats all the boring part of the cereal before the marshmallows. :-P It's also a backup for me in the case I decide in the middle of the piece I don't think it is worth it in the end. I can't "take the money and run" when I don't have the money. :-P Of course, that also requires me to have a lot of trust in the commissioner to pay me when I am finished, and well, fortunately that hasn't happened to me. Maybe I'm just lucky, but pretty much all the people that have commissioned me have already commissioned someone else before, so I never really had reasons to worry too much.
4. Create Commission Slots/Queues
I don't really advertise that I am open for commissions and make a drive to fill up a bunch of commission slots. The first thing is that I don't like having queues, as that would just put too much pressure on me to rush my work or fill me with dread that there are all these other people waiting on me. My workflow can be somewhat unpredictable, so sometimes I can knock out two pieces in a week, while other times it can take me over a month to complete one. This is why I typically prefer to do my artwork one at a time, at most I can juggle two projects simultaneously when I wait for the response from the other commissioner when I reach certain points. The problem is that I honestly don't advertise when my commissions are open, and often just depend on someone messaging me that they want a commission. This might also explain why I haven't really had issues of non-payment, though also there can be times where I don't receive commissions. Typically what I do in those times is to make a YCH. Relatively recently, I've had a somewhat consistent stream of commissions going now, which explains the somewhat lack of YCHs being offered from me this year.
5. Creating Adopts and Repeatable YCHs
Quite a few artists create adoptable characters, as there is an audience of people that like hoarding characters they find neat and unique. While I don't think I would mind creating characters, I feel like I would get tired of coloring the same base over and over, hoping to create the one that someone would want. I also like trying to make each of my pieces unique, and not reuse the same formula over and over again like some sort of factory. This is also why I only do one slot for each YCH. I strive to have it to be unique, and for the artwork to be the commissioners. If it's not unique, then, well, what's the point of it? I pride myself in trying to match the piece with the character, I like knowing about the character and to create a story out of it the art piece without any words. Okay, yeah, what I mostly draw is essentially porn, but there's still a story to it. :-P Therefore making duplicative artworks I feel makes the artwork less of being art, and the spirit of the piece is lost.
6. Create accounts on other sites to share my art there (i.e. Twitter, DA, Inkbunny, .ect)
The main reason is that I am lazy. The other thing is that each place has its own set of rules and regulations. Twitter in my opinion is a cut-throat cesspool, and since it is a site that essentially tries to serve the greater public than focused on just furry stuff, it's too easy for people to accidently stumble on something they don't want to see and be far cruder and more negative about it. And, well, I just don't need to worry about that over there. As much as I will complain about FA with the lack of search filters and blacklist, it is still a place where I can share my work relatively peacefully. While I do occasionally upload a piece that I'm proud of over to e621, I still probably don't do it enough.
7. Share WIPs.
Well, I do, just not on FA. :-P I save that mainly on my Discord server, where I can be the enlightened despot over what goes on there. :-P I try to have some resemblance of content there. Yes, it is relatively quiet, but that's fine, it's mainly a very chill server that I share with some other artists. Uh, shameless plug -> https://discord.gg/Ay58rfH
8. Draw more fetish/kinky stuff
Not that there is anything wrong with it, but I do try to limit it. Some of my most viewed pieces are transformation related ones, though I don't often post or advertise transformation stuff. The main issue I see with drawing stuff like that is that it becomes too easy to become trapped into drawing just that. There's a horrible trend of what I call "one-fetish" people that will only care on that one thing. If I get an audience that just demand just that one thing and I get tired of it, then I am out of luck. Therefore, I try to have about as general of an audience as possible. I would much rather have people here for the art, rather than the kink. Therefore, I tend to view fetish/kink themes great for short term gains but can be quite detrimental in the long run.
9. Draw "Rule 34" art
One major thing I do not draw is "Rule 34" art, or I guess more properly, I don't draw art of popular copyrighted characters. This unfortunately very much hurts me in getting exposure as these particular characters are essentially easily accessible keywords in nearly any search engine. I guess compared to most other furries these days, I wasn't drawn into this community through these copyrighted characters but rather preferred to see other people's unique characters instead. "Rule 34" art in general feels distasteful to me, as it is often taking the character outside of its intended context. I also seem to view it as a way to make your art relevant in the search engine, and thus "Rule 34" artwork has become its own self-consuming beast that hurts people making characters that are actually unique.
10. Offering Sketch, flat color, simple shading commission styles
Another thing that can hold me back somewhat is that I avoid offering "simplified" art options. Most artist do something where they have sketch, flat color, or simple shading commissions. For me, I prefer to always do my art at the top of my ability. I might be able to simplify on the background, but I do have a goal to be as focused as possible in trying to deliver the best of my ability in each of my art pieces. The thing I pride myself the most in is in the improvement of my own art, and I feel if I offered cheaper and simplified commissions, I wouldn't be actually pushing myself to improve my art ability sufficiently.
Anyway, yes, that is all for now. :-P But feel free to leave your thoughts on this below or ask me any other questions. I just felt like I needed to get some of this off my chest in a way and just wanted to explain some of my kind of weird logic. I know in many ways, by not doing these things I am holding back on having my art becoming more recognized and appreciated, but at the same time, l also have my reasons, even if it is laziness. :-P
I am planning on streaming not too long after posting this, so feel free to join me there over at: https://www.picarto.tv/Fusilier
Thanks again!
10 Things I Don't Do That I Probably Should
1. Leaving shouts on other people's pages when they watch or favorite one of my submissions.
This is one strategy that very much annoys the crap out of me and is probably what 95% of all shouts on the FA site are used for. I find it pretty annoying. However, as much as I dislike it, it is an effective strategy, as it puts your name out there more for other people to potentially spot your name and makes it far more likely for that person to return to look at your profile page and the rest of your gallery. Still, I just can't get myself to be that desperate. Instead, I just use shouts as one of my tools of anarchy to pester
Kiliq and some members of the Hawt Horse Herd. :-P2. Have set commission prices
I don't actually have set commission prices. I have this sort of weird mental policy that if I am earning less than $35 for an art piece, then it's not worth the time effort, despite the usual effort it takes me to complete something is like 10 hours, so that's only $3.50 an hour. I also struggle to really put a price range on my work. The other thing is that I am constantly learning, and I test out different things nearly every commission I do. Therefore, I typically try do nowadays is to negotiate an estimated price based off the commissioner's budget and go from there. Many people state I undercharge for my work, and it's probably true, but at the same time, I want my commissioners to feel like they are getting the proper "bang for their buck." I also do not art as a career. I do digital art as a hobby that coincidently people can dangle money in front of me as an extra incentive to complete it. If I didn't have that, I probably would have burnt out and stopped years ago.
3. Ask for payment before starting on a piece
Pretty much all my artist friends scream at me for doing the complete opposite, as I have a "pay when I finish" policy. The reason I do that relates somewhat to the explanation above, as I do that as an incentive to actually work on and complete the piece. Yes, I know, I'm one of those people that eats all the boring part of the cereal before the marshmallows. :-P It's also a backup for me in the case I decide in the middle of the piece I don't think it is worth it in the end. I can't "take the money and run" when I don't have the money. :-P Of course, that also requires me to have a lot of trust in the commissioner to pay me when I am finished, and well, fortunately that hasn't happened to me. Maybe I'm just lucky, but pretty much all the people that have commissioned me have already commissioned someone else before, so I never really had reasons to worry too much.
4. Create Commission Slots/Queues
I don't really advertise that I am open for commissions and make a drive to fill up a bunch of commission slots. The first thing is that I don't like having queues, as that would just put too much pressure on me to rush my work or fill me with dread that there are all these other people waiting on me. My workflow can be somewhat unpredictable, so sometimes I can knock out two pieces in a week, while other times it can take me over a month to complete one. This is why I typically prefer to do my artwork one at a time, at most I can juggle two projects simultaneously when I wait for the response from the other commissioner when I reach certain points. The problem is that I honestly don't advertise when my commissions are open, and often just depend on someone messaging me that they want a commission. This might also explain why I haven't really had issues of non-payment, though also there can be times where I don't receive commissions. Typically what I do in those times is to make a YCH. Relatively recently, I've had a somewhat consistent stream of commissions going now, which explains the somewhat lack of YCHs being offered from me this year.
5. Creating Adopts and Repeatable YCHs
Quite a few artists create adoptable characters, as there is an audience of people that like hoarding characters they find neat and unique. While I don't think I would mind creating characters, I feel like I would get tired of coloring the same base over and over, hoping to create the one that someone would want. I also like trying to make each of my pieces unique, and not reuse the same formula over and over again like some sort of factory. This is also why I only do one slot for each YCH. I strive to have it to be unique, and for the artwork to be the commissioners. If it's not unique, then, well, what's the point of it? I pride myself in trying to match the piece with the character, I like knowing about the character and to create a story out of it the art piece without any words. Okay, yeah, what I mostly draw is essentially porn, but there's still a story to it. :-P Therefore making duplicative artworks I feel makes the artwork less of being art, and the spirit of the piece is lost.
6. Create accounts on other sites to share my art there (i.e. Twitter, DA, Inkbunny, .ect)
The main reason is that I am lazy. The other thing is that each place has its own set of rules and regulations. Twitter in my opinion is a cut-throat cesspool, and since it is a site that essentially tries to serve the greater public than focused on just furry stuff, it's too easy for people to accidently stumble on something they don't want to see and be far cruder and more negative about it. And, well, I just don't need to worry about that over there. As much as I will complain about FA with the lack of search filters and blacklist, it is still a place where I can share my work relatively peacefully. While I do occasionally upload a piece that I'm proud of over to e621, I still probably don't do it enough.
7. Share WIPs.
Well, I do, just not on FA. :-P I save that mainly on my Discord server, where I can be the enlightened despot over what goes on there. :-P I try to have some resemblance of content there. Yes, it is relatively quiet, but that's fine, it's mainly a very chill server that I share with some other artists. Uh, shameless plug -> https://discord.gg/Ay58rfH
8. Draw more fetish/kinky stuff
Not that there is anything wrong with it, but I do try to limit it. Some of my most viewed pieces are transformation related ones, though I don't often post or advertise transformation stuff. The main issue I see with drawing stuff like that is that it becomes too easy to become trapped into drawing just that. There's a horrible trend of what I call "one-fetish" people that will only care on that one thing. If I get an audience that just demand just that one thing and I get tired of it, then I am out of luck. Therefore, I try to have about as general of an audience as possible. I would much rather have people here for the art, rather than the kink. Therefore, I tend to view fetish/kink themes great for short term gains but can be quite detrimental in the long run.
9. Draw "Rule 34" art
One major thing I do not draw is "Rule 34" art, or I guess more properly, I don't draw art of popular copyrighted characters. This unfortunately very much hurts me in getting exposure as these particular characters are essentially easily accessible keywords in nearly any search engine. I guess compared to most other furries these days, I wasn't drawn into this community through these copyrighted characters but rather preferred to see other people's unique characters instead. "Rule 34" art in general feels distasteful to me, as it is often taking the character outside of its intended context. I also seem to view it as a way to make your art relevant in the search engine, and thus "Rule 34" artwork has become its own self-consuming beast that hurts people making characters that are actually unique.
10. Offering Sketch, flat color, simple shading commission styles
Another thing that can hold me back somewhat is that I avoid offering "simplified" art options. Most artist do something where they have sketch, flat color, or simple shading commissions. For me, I prefer to always do my art at the top of my ability. I might be able to simplify on the background, but I do have a goal to be as focused as possible in trying to deliver the best of my ability in each of my art pieces. The thing I pride myself the most in is in the improvement of my own art, and I feel if I offered cheaper and simplified commissions, I wouldn't be actually pushing myself to improve my art ability sufficiently.
Anyway, yes, that is all for now. :-P But feel free to leave your thoughts on this below or ask me any other questions. I just felt like I needed to get some of this off my chest in a way and just wanted to explain some of my kind of weird logic. I know in many ways, by not doing these things I am holding back on having my art becoming more recognized and appreciated, but at the same time, l also have my reasons, even if it is laziness. :-P
I am planning on streaming not too long after posting this, so feel free to join me there over at: https://www.picarto.tv/Fusilier
Thanks again!
Temet Nosce
~temetnosce88
11. Draw more deer
~Fusilier~
~~fusilier~
OP
MORE DEER?! That would put the whole galaxy out of balance!
Temet Nosce
~temetnosce88
Horses drawing deer? What's next, deer drawing horses?!
