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Advice for my future
2 months ago
Heya everyone
I got an important thing I wanted to discuss with you guys, so I really appreciate anyone who wants to stop by and lend a semi-serious ear
In regard to me making money off of my artistic hobbies, and advancing myself towards my future goal of game development, commissions immediately come to mind, I mean, plenty of people have asked and encouraged me already, and at this point in time all I'd have to do is draw a sheet to get some going.
However, I don't really want to do commissions. The idea of spending most of my drawing time on other people's ideas doesn't necessarily please me. While I absolutely love the idea of being introduced to other people's creations and being given the honor of putting my own spin on them, it's not something I want to subtract from my own personal development. I have my own stories I want to write and tell, a whole world of characters I need to populate and expand on.
I've been reading manga lately, and it's inspired me to attempt making a webcomic and make money off of that if I can. I was thinking of putting out a few chapters as a pilot to grab interest, and from then on I'd have a Patreon where subscribers can see new chapters a week early. But that's a much harder route, as I'd have to first attain interest from a large number of people before I can even suggest the concept of a Patreon subscription. While this will let me focus more on my own ideas and stories, it'll also set me in a poor position as 1) I barely draw my own OCs, and 2) I have yet to introduce the concepts of my fictional world to the broader public. I'd also have to get into the swing of writing often and greatly.
I think that making webcomics would be a good bridge into game development, as I'd be developing writing skills while also expanding my world, so I'd already have a sizable one to actually develop games off of. It does seem like a massive responsibly with little monetary payoff, though.
I had the idea of doing comms while making the pilot chapters of the webcomic simultaneously, but that poses the problem of abruptly ending comms after the webcomic gets off the ground, which might upset people and turn them away from being customers. So I don't know if I should drop the idea of comms altogether and power focus on the comic or what.
What do you all think of this idea, in general? This is for the sake of my future as a creative, so I really appreciate any meaningful input
I got an important thing I wanted to discuss with you guys, so I really appreciate anyone who wants to stop by and lend a semi-serious ear
In regard to me making money off of my artistic hobbies, and advancing myself towards my future goal of game development, commissions immediately come to mind, I mean, plenty of people have asked and encouraged me already, and at this point in time all I'd have to do is draw a sheet to get some going.
However, I don't really want to do commissions. The idea of spending most of my drawing time on other people's ideas doesn't necessarily please me. While I absolutely love the idea of being introduced to other people's creations and being given the honor of putting my own spin on them, it's not something I want to subtract from my own personal development. I have my own stories I want to write and tell, a whole world of characters I need to populate and expand on.
I've been reading manga lately, and it's inspired me to attempt making a webcomic and make money off of that if I can. I was thinking of putting out a few chapters as a pilot to grab interest, and from then on I'd have a Patreon where subscribers can see new chapters a week early. But that's a much harder route, as I'd have to first attain interest from a large number of people before I can even suggest the concept of a Patreon subscription. While this will let me focus more on my own ideas and stories, it'll also set me in a poor position as 1) I barely draw my own OCs, and 2) I have yet to introduce the concepts of my fictional world to the broader public. I'd also have to get into the swing of writing often and greatly.
I think that making webcomics would be a good bridge into game development, as I'd be developing writing skills while also expanding my world, so I'd already have a sizable one to actually develop games off of. It does seem like a massive responsibly with little monetary payoff, though.
I had the idea of doing comms while making the pilot chapters of the webcomic simultaneously, but that poses the problem of abruptly ending comms after the webcomic gets off the ground, which might upset people and turn them away from being customers. So I don't know if I should drop the idea of comms altogether and power focus on the comic or what.
What do you all think of this idea, in general? This is for the sake of my future as a creative, so I really appreciate any meaningful input
Also, go ahead and make what you want to- and make more than you need! That way you'll have a backlog for when you get popular and you can keep up with demand. :3
Regarding commissions alongside the webcomic, a middle ground you can do as a way to earn supplementary income while also not taking too much attention away from your personal projects, is by doing YCH stickers. Basically, draw a little silly featureless design of some kind, like a basic plushie looking thing or a drawover of a meme or some other silly goober thing, simple but effective and basic enough to be easily used as a base for drawing commissioners' OCs in that form. Since it's a relatively basic thing, you can set the price fairly low, like 5-10 USD depending on complexity, but since it would be that low, it'll garner a lot of attention once people start following you more, and as such, more people are privy to buy them. I know artist friends who've earned nearly 10x more money doing YCH stickers than doing full on original commissions. Just 10 stickers set at 10 bucks each gets you 100 bucks, and since for the most part it'd involve tweaking an existing design to match that of the commissioner's character, it won't take much time or effort away from the webcomic.
Hope that helps! :3