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We need to talk (about art)
5 months ago
Hey guys,
I keep noticing a severe downfall in favorites comparing to other artists with the same amount of watchers that I do and to what I used to receive before. What do you want to see more of from me?
I really thought that fan art and more explicit stuff I'm genuinely getting more and more interested in creating should improve the situation, but my account here is growing as slowly as it has been growing before and it's just frustrating me. I spend so much time every day analyzing other artists' galleries and trying to understand why they're growing faster than I do and what am I doing wrong that it does no longer feel healthy anymore.
I can't draw my fursona in an explicit way because I'm not comfortable with that atm, nsfw fanart doesn't work on twitter or bluesky at all, getting 50 likes, an artwork with an interesting angle and lighting doesn't seem to impress anyone new, I don't know what to do.
I keep looking at other artists who started at the same time as I did or even later and start feeling bad about my art gallery all together. I see a tendency to simplified techniques in art but I can't just break myself into that at once and just put less effort because I've been improving (for example) my lineart cleanliness for years and am happy with it now, I don't want to throw it into a trash bin because sketchy lines are more popular now.
I wished I could consult with an nsfw furry artist manager or just a more popular artist or something, but have no idea where to get a good one without getting scammed and popular artists won't even look my way. So right now I just need to hear from someone who's been watching me for a while that they like what I'm doing. Because I do like what I'm doing. But I'm doing it not only for myself, you know?
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56327791/
And it is still my favourite. I love the lines, the pose, the shading and background too (because i also struggling with that).
I'm new here, so i don't know how exactly people on fa thinks, but for me i saw so many too good polished art, so different styles or something more rough or whatever feels more interesting (just for me).
Maybe try something different just a little bit and make analysis what people like more. Maybe post something half done to see the reaction.
I like your art, so i want you to gain more watchers. I'd like to help and give u some ideas (if you want it of course) So, don't give up. There are so many people, so i believe you find your fanbase in the future
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/61129433/
Thanks for the comment, it gave me some good food for thought♡
As far as advice/wishes, I’d love to see more pieces with intricate backgrounds. It’s hard to hit fav on just a character, the background gives the piece a story and a world. In my opinion your gallery gets much better about half way through page two.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
This shit was always hard, living on art alone. They didn't come up with the joke of the starving artist out of no where sadly :"D. It's truly expert level difficulty. Living on art is not suggested right now and tying something like art to money means your art becomes your value. Two things that cannot sustain each other in a healthy way because naturally there will be times where your worth won't be reflected in the response you get back. If your numbers drop, your self worth drops. Even when it's entirely not your fault or in your power to change. Your art is good. People want cheap right now not because you, but because people just don't have the same pocket change to spend they did before.
This brings me to point two. The internet is in a downward tick across the board for everyone. Since 2017 roughly I've heard TECHBROS frustrated their services across platforms have fallen. Youtube, twitch, spotify etc. Youtubers right now with 4 million subscribers have seen THEIR numbers drastically fall (again since roughly 2017) with - all - interaction including just clicking "subscribe". Which is entirely free and less than 3 seconds of effort. I think now less than 1% of people will interact/hit like or even follow someone they might genuinely routinely seek out. What we're seeing is a fragmenting of the internet to smaller places and it's mostly thanks to capitalism and the way the internet has been infected :"D. Places like telegram and discord now host people more actively from my understanding. Micro communities and forum esque interactions are taking precedence over other content and social media types we've been use to since roughly 2010. None of this is your fault and you could be a literal multi million dollar artist and you'd still see this slow down in your reactions. ALl this paired with the fact FA is a poorly cared for site, usually struggles with basic features, and by proxy the audience here is TINY compared to other places. Including deviantart strangely. So the struggle with interaction will be even more felt here.
THEN on top of the dead internet theory, bots, and AI making botting that much easier, you now also have a destroyed economy. One currently rivaling the depression, just with more safeguards keeping people from being on the very bottom. Most AMERICANS (I can't speak for anyone else) have no savings account and live paycheck to paycheck on 3 incomes or more. THis means less time for the internet overall, and more time just spent surviving. Even demiceour {furry artist here} in 2015 ish talked about this and they had a HUGE following. Less than 1% of an audience would support you even before 3 housing market crashes, a 5 year pandemic, and a fully in swing tariff driven recession. I can't stress enough it's not your fault.
You aren't the problem. You are enough. Your art is fucking stellar. Everyone is struggling and that's not intended to mean "shut up and deal with it", but more suppose to mean, "you're not alone and it's not you and your art is good".
I know this isn't fixing the issue sadly, I can't fix the systems in place that are failing. I imagine once the economy resumes being more sustainable you'll slide right back into success. Sadly until then it's just "pushing rope" as the saying goes. A bit of a struggle fuck. I would suggest a manager to buffer dealing with the bullshit, but I don't think it'll help much. Aside from being on a site with an algorithm (like bluesky) and then abusing it with a TON of reposts, and by ton I mean every two hours is the optimum to work the digital system I don't know what else would even begin to help the numbers. :__:.
Still rooting for you, hope you keep making art and from one artist bro to another, this bullshit is temporary , but your art will be there even despite the bullshittery.
I hope this helps, it's meant to but I know it's not a solution or answer, just perspective and a bunch of dank factoids.
I always heard one thing about art from literally everybody I knew growing up: It's a whole lot of skill, but also a whole lot of luck.
I think of the YouTubers I watch regularly, a lot of them were just extremely lucky to catch a specific wave at a specific time, or even multiple, and rode them to such high successes. And the same is true for any artistic field. The most famous authors in existence wrote a story at the right place, at the right time. Stephen King's Carrie is a good example.
Point is, I think a lot of artists are going to grow pretty slowly. Some will find the luck to grow really fast. I promise you, you have the skill. Best I can say is advertise? Though I see from another comment you aren't hurting for commissions, so your advertisement would have to be asking for follows... Say reposting some works on BlueSky and Twitter occasionally, and not just when you have something new?
Don't give up on it, you seem passionate about the stuff you're doing and you'll likely find faster footing someday.
About advertising and reposting, I'm doing it all :D I advertise myself here on FA since the late 2023. I even overdid it a bit with reposts but once I started to care less and just post and disappear for 3 days rather than check every 15 minutes how many likes did the artwork get both the growth speed and my mental health have improved lol. But it's still not fast enough
I keep seeing the same mental trap again and again, and in the worst cases it leads to frustration or even full-on creative burnout:
"How can I be better than the competition?"
That way of thinking makes you dependent on others – instead of listening to yourself.
You, me, and everyone else has a mind – the part of the brain that is rational, analytical, and capable of learning. And even if everyone agrees with you, your own reasoned judgment should always matter more.
You said yourself that some NSFW ideas make you uncomfortable – especially involving your own fursona. If you force yourself to go down that road just because it might perform better, you're risking the long-term joy you have in creating art in the first place.
The most successful artists aren’t the ones who copy trends.
They’re the ones who create something no one else has – something only they can create.
I constantly see the same kind of NSFW images – same characters, same poses, whether they’re OCs or pop culture icons. Sure, people celebrate it. But at some point, it starts to feel like a franchise: predictable, interchangeable, eventually hollow.
And yet many keep doing it – because the wheel keeps spinning.
Until they end up hating that wheel.
So here’s the real question:
Who are you doing this for?
For others? For some likes or retweets?
Let me tell you something: Every great work – whether it’s an artwork, a game, or a video – starts with a single idea, born in the mind of one individual.
It becomes meaningful when someone dares to bring it to life their way.
Whether it’s:
Nintendo with Zelda: Ocarina of Time, often called the best game ever by critics
Larian Studios with Baldur’s Gate 3, the best game ever according to players
an overlooked gem like Singularity by Raven Software
or the forgotten, dark masterpiece Clive Barker’s Jericho by MercurySteam and Clive Barker
The origin is always the same:
Someone had an idea.
And that idea was brought to life – by an individual or a team of people who voluntarily put their talents together –
because someone had the courage to be creative.
And believe me: The best followers aren’t the loudest ones.
They’re the quiet, loyal supporters – the ones who see in your art the same thing you love about it.
The ones who don’t just hit like – but also support you (financially even),
because they believe in you – not just the trend.
I'm not forcing myself to do anything I'm not comfortable with so no need to worry about it. I'm excited anout the NSFW art that I'm currently making even if some ideas are copying the ones that the others do because I haven't drawn them yet and it seems fun to me to broaden my art horizons trying new poses and ideas and seeing how they turn out in my artstyle. I do really enjoy stretching my artstyle's muscles like this.
I have explained in the end of the journal that I like what I'm doing and I'm doing it for myself, but if I work ONLY for myself, there won't be any growth cause let's face it every modern artist needs to know how to sell themselves and a thing or two about marketing. And if I don't have a marketing teacher or a manager, I don't see other option rather than asking my followers about their opinion, because my current knowledge doesn't seem to cover some crucial points of what people want to see nowadays and I don't seem to comprehend it by myself.
If I didn't need to earn money, I could experiment all I want, but as I mentioned in other comment replies I'm planning to change my country of living in the future and I wanna do it as fast as possible, so I'd prefer going the way every popular artist has gone through and draw the popular characters I like in the poses I like even if they're a little bit of a mainstream rather than wasting time and effort trying to make something unique up.
I’ve read through your journal and skimmed the other comments as well, but I wanted to form my own impression and respond with my own thoughts.
If your main goal right now is to change the country you're living in, then fair enough – I can respect that. Honestly, I’d be willing to support that financially in the future. That’s one of the reasons I follow artists: because I like their style and I enjoy collaborating or helping them grow.
But at the moment, my top priority is getting my driver’s license – I’ve already started the process, and that means I have to save money pretty strictly right now.
When it comes to marketing, I believe it boils down to two core ideas:
1) You don’t need to shout – just be present and close.
2) People don’t want a refrigerator – they want cold food.
That’s how I see it. And once you understand that, you can ask: how do I offer that?
You wrote: “If I work ONLY for myself, there won’t be any growth – every modern artist needs to know how to sell themselves.”
I would have agreed with that in the past. But today? Not so much.
I often compare artists to craftsmen.
Craftsmen have deep skills and knowledge that they offer others. In your case, it's about how to bring a character to life through pen and paper (or digitally). In my case, it's working with metal.
Both of us offer value through our skills – and expect value in return. Most of the time that's money. Sometimes it’s a box of beer 😄
The idea of “diving a bit into the mainstream, doing popular poses or characters” – that’s about making compromises. But the real question is:
How many compromises are good? And when do they become dangerous?
What if you make those compromises, gain followers – but still get fewer favorites than others?
What if you do the same idea others are doing, and I (as a viewer) say: “Why should I care about your version when I already follow someone who does the same, and I’m emotionally more attached to their work?”
Experimenting often doesn’t bring more followers right away. Sometimes even none.
But that doesn’t mean no one will enjoy it.
Sometimes it takes time before a niche becomes a trend. And sometimes that new idea hits a nerve right now.
Living 100% without compromise may be impossible – but I do believe we should be more uncompromising and willing to take risks.
That said – I respect your priorities. If moving to another country is your top goal right now, then so be it.
In my case, it's the driver’s license first. But once I’ve reached that point and things settle a bit, I’d be happy to support your move financially if I can.