I personally somewhat disagree. A fav artist of mine, KJukes, sadly has an AI bot trained on her Springtrap art on some AI website. Yet, I would never use AI for a "free" image. Maybe bc I am an artist myself, but I just would feel bad about that. Plus, it is never the same to generate something and having real interaction with a person. She takes 170 for a 2 chara comm with background and can have that price, hell some even autobuy her YCHs for 300. Because they value her art.

In the end, Art has always been a luxury. You do not need it to live, like an expensive watch. The artist sets the price. "Why would I pay you for 200$ for art?" Can be also be asked why someone pays 4000 bucks for a Rolex or an expensive car, when they can buy a normal watch for like 10 bucks instead or a cheaper non-luxury car.
I also can critize a commission being too expensive, but in the end it is up to the artist. You do not need luxury goods.

I agree on the fact it maybe be eye opening to someone having bad interaction with their customers and making them wait way too fucking long. I am a victim of this too.

Then those who just wanna wank to images of tits and ass, not giving a shit about the art background...and that artists are humans. What a computer generates in minutes, an artist may take 10 hours, spread out over some days.

However someone who understands and values art sees we are not robots and can't deliver as fast as a robot will still go for human artists. If I trust an artist, I can wait up to a year even.
Imo, if this AI shit ever dies out, those who mocked artists and what not should never be allowed to commission anyone or pay twice as much for asshole fee.

I see what you mean, as i mentioned, there will always be a market for live artists. That will never change, but its important to acknowledge the pace in which AI is advancing. Its not slowing down, and its not going away. The better it gets, the harder it will be to distinguish from art made by a human.

This is why i say it is important to be competitive. Its human nature to want the best results in the quickest timeframe for reasonable prices. So i still stand firm that if someone wants to do art as a living for the foreseeable future, they have to adapt and change with the times. In 10 maybe even 5 years I dont foresee many people paying $300 for 1 or 2 images and being okay with waiting upwards of a month or longer when there is another artist who can give you the same thing or something of similar quality for half or even 1/3 what others may be charging, in a shorter timeframe.

My average turnaround is roughly 2 to 3 days and i have had clients tell me that they are dropping other artists, who are vastly more skilled then i am, for me simply because of my speed. I have seen an uptick in my own business over roughly the last year and quite a few of my new clients have approached me because they heard i had a good turnaround time with reasonable prices.

Im just saying that there are people who will want to hire live artists but are also going to want faster quality service. So faster artists are going to be a great happy medium for them. They will have smaller wait times with quality art, and will still be able to support a real artist.

After artists ghosting me, the longest I will wait without it being mentioned in the ToS or beforehand is 6 months. Otherwise if it is an artist I worked with since years I do not mind waiting longer, as long as I see they also finish stuff. I am an artist myself and I know artblock, live, etc. can happen.

Imo, the waiting and excitement is part of enjoying art as a commissioner. I admit, sometimes my ADHD makes me impatient, but it is rare. I don't need a commission done in a week. But yes, the recent economy with living being expensive also me draw more for myself instead of commissioning bc shit is expensive. So I imagine for those who can't draw and fully rely on others for art have it harder. But you'd be surprised, I still see people bid that much under adopts and YCHs.
If I had more money I'd spend more too probably, but I'd still be rational.

For prices, I sometimes find someone with great art, but then gulp at the prices. Like 250 for a shaded character, no background. +200 for another, 30$ to add some cum. Like hell nah dude, I'd go to someone else too or draw it myself. Some prices I seen are ridiculous but then again, I CAN go to someone else. XD

Those who truly appreciate art will always prefer human artists. It is up to them what their priorites are. And again those just wanting tits and ass to wank to, they don't care about artists nor value art, they want it for free and will use AI.

Makes me glad I just do comms occasionally and don't depend on art for income tho.

On the other hand you have AI scammers who sloppily trace over AI and charge "depending on budget" lol.

I feel you. Thats all fair, im just saying times are changing and i would rather artists not feel blind sided. I noticed you mentioned art block. I can see that getting in the way of completing personal projects, but not commissions. For me, my inspiration isnt much of a factor when it comes to comms. Im paid for a job and given instructions and then i complete them.

I will never be able to wrap my head around artists taking weeks or months to complete a job after payment. I know artists who literally have backlogs spanning across calendar years, and they STILL continue to take payments for new comms on top of the ones in their back log. I could never do that. I start feeling bad is a job takes me more then 3 days, obviously depending on the project of course, but you know what i mean.

I think that is one of the biggest problems we have in the artist community these days. I really do think a lot, not all of course, but still a lot of artists who treat commissions like a hobby and not a job. They are far too lackadaisy about completing commissions. Im sure in many cases, its a matter of life and whatnot, as an artist i know all about it.

Artblock is you can't put anything down on the canvas, even when you have ideas or a commission to work with.

Well, your art is simple cel shade style. Someone who paints and softshades probably needs more time than you do. In the end, speed wise you can NOT beat AI. Even if I lock in to finish something in one day, without ADHD or artblock, that can still be 8 - 10 hours for one artwork from sketch, to lines, color, shades + background. Meaning no eating or doing anything else. Hence I span it out depending on how much it will take. Sometimes I do smaller comms before or on the side to focus better on big ones. Those who appreciate art tho know you are a human, not AI who does this in seconds and will still go to human artists.

Art is a luxury, so while you can obviously critize someone's prices or workflow, in the end you can commission someone else.
Difference is when someone lives off their art in a professional way, like you are a graphic designer whom gets "commissioned" by companies.

And yes, I sadly made the encounter with some of these, mainly ""emergency commissions"" for way too cheap, meaning horrendous backlog you are NOT informed of. 2 of them who took my money and then vanished off the internet, never even giving me wip. :/ And it angers me really bad when you notice the favoritsm too, like mine looks half assed and took way longer. Like, you should NOT have to threaten a refund for someone to get their ass up. It is why I now honestly stick my artist circle with commissions and made a list who to not commission.

And again it makes a difference if I know the artist a long time, then I trust them. Because I know 2 of them live in Venezula, the worst country you can be in where comms pay far more than a normal job. So for them I can see why they take longer bc they take many comms for a reason.