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I honestly don't know if art as a profession has any future.
5 days ago
One cannot work a week on an art piece and get 100 euros from it.
Accountants charge that for an hour's work + 25.5% VAT
A barber as well: I get charged 35 euros for a 15min haircut here in this small town.
At the store you spend easily over 100 euros in a week to food for 2 people.
Electricity costs 300 - 600 euros per month in the winter due to heating, even when we use firewood as well.
It sucks so bad living from hand to mouth.
People complain about you making and posting too many YCHs but then they are not ready to pay for a unique piece.
Then you read comments like
"I wish more artists made free templates, that you could color your character in, I could even pay 5-10 dollars for it, just cos its so nice"
- You'd then need 100 people to pay that 5 dollars for the base with clean lines, shading, etc so you could then maybe get the hours back in worth of money you spend on the base.
You also wouldn't go up to a barber and say, after they finish cutting and styling someones hair for an hour, "I'd pay 40 cents for that work you just did 😀" when they actually probably charge 140 euros minimum. I would be more thoughtful when commenting to an artist about the worth of their work, especially if they are generous enough to share it for free.
"Great art only comes from suffering"
This mindset that you should suffer to make beautiful art exists solely for artists and writers: No one tells doctors to work for exposure, nor engineers that their passion should be the reward for their work. We take art for granted: people love to consume different forms of art daily, but not to pay for it. Being creative is essential for our well being and we all benefit from the entertainment and change it brings to our cultures.
I don't know what profession truly is the future? It seems only those make money that exploit others. We have just new faster and dumber ways of doing it with cryptocurrency, NFTs etc. It says a lot about us as a species that one of the biggest economic bubbles invested in lately is AI.
AI is making the future of art very unsure. It is a way to steal the work of creative people and use their content to milk out money.
And people are so willing to consume the slop it spits out. AI should be a helpful tool to be used in creation, not the sole creator that replaces actual artists and learning new skills.
Times are tough and its not only the artists who will lose to AI:
So many people are losing basic office work as well, as big companies do their everything to replace actual people.
The government here actually recommends small businesses to replace work with AI as much as possible too "learn to move on with the times".
The world has been upside down for long time: where hard manual labor doesn't pay anything, while sitting on your ass deciding things does: A farmer makes a huge loss after a year of hard work but the big stores are making record profits selling the food farmers produced.
Meanwhile a meeting bonus for politicians can be thousands of euros a day, just for sitting in place for someone in a chair, or even in reserve online, not deciding anything, just being there cos the bureaucracy demands that there are people present when they hold a speech to themselves about how important they are.
"You should be grateful, without politicians we'd live in complete anarchy"
It is true but we don't want fascism either.
If those who hold power and decide everything are corrupt and use their power only for their own gain, they should be held accountable.
There is enough resources on this planet for everyone to have a good life, but we as a species choose to keep the wealth and power for only a few and artificially make things scares and ruin the planet by burning it, when there are much better alternatives for energy.
Capitalism fails when it throws away tons of food, when there are hungry people who'd need it right next to it. It also fails when it allows millionaires to start writing all our laws by lobbying.
Communism doesn't work cos it will be misused by those in power (same problem as in a capitalistic society).
Communism works in an ant nest but not in a human society.
It might also work in a small commune where people love each other, until one of them becomes a cult leader and starts a religion.
Socialism however is far from communism, it is balanced and it can work with the right leadership.
I happily pay taxes when it goes to the education of future generations, healthcare, to take care of the less fortunate. But not when it goes to building fancy castles for decision makers or pay for their taxi fees or flying around the world.
It is not wrong to want more for yourself, but it is wrong to want bad/less for others. You should wish things to be good for you as for others.
Most of us feel powerless to change things in this mad artificial world we have build around us, truly we can only affect the things near us, in our town and the people close to us.
Big companies shift the blame to the consumer about recycling plastics, when the company itself does not pay anything towards building a system for the recycling of the plastics.
Yet everything is covered in plastic.
We see the same issue with the food industry: "it is the consumers responsibility to eat healthy" but then they make sugary shit cheap and real food more expensive. And they make more profit as poor people get sick from addictive sugary foods.
We live in a world lead by greed and corruption. Education is the only thing that can help us navigate it and our only hope we learn to differentiate biased lies from the truth.
But AI is negatively affecting our ability to learn, focus and check for credibility.
The world should not be "every man for themselves", but how can we work together to improve all our lives and live on in harmony with ourselves and other species on this planet.
I just don't know when will we ever evolve out of greed, when it is written in our DNA. We can start by checking our consumerism and actually voting the right emphatic people into decision making.
Accountants charge that for an hour's work + 25.5% VAT
A barber as well: I get charged 35 euros for a 15min haircut here in this small town.
At the store you spend easily over 100 euros in a week to food for 2 people.
Electricity costs 300 - 600 euros per month in the winter due to heating, even when we use firewood as well.
It sucks so bad living from hand to mouth.
People complain about you making and posting too many YCHs but then they are not ready to pay for a unique piece.
Then you read comments like
"I wish more artists made free templates, that you could color your character in, I could even pay 5-10 dollars for it, just cos its so nice"
- You'd then need 100 people to pay that 5 dollars for the base with clean lines, shading, etc so you could then maybe get the hours back in worth of money you spend on the base.
You also wouldn't go up to a barber and say, after they finish cutting and styling someones hair for an hour, "I'd pay 40 cents for that work you just did 😀" when they actually probably charge 140 euros minimum. I would be more thoughtful when commenting to an artist about the worth of their work, especially if they are generous enough to share it for free.
"Great art only comes from suffering"
This mindset that you should suffer to make beautiful art exists solely for artists and writers: No one tells doctors to work for exposure, nor engineers that their passion should be the reward for their work. We take art for granted: people love to consume different forms of art daily, but not to pay for it. Being creative is essential for our well being and we all benefit from the entertainment and change it brings to our cultures.
I don't know what profession truly is the future? It seems only those make money that exploit others. We have just new faster and dumber ways of doing it with cryptocurrency, NFTs etc. It says a lot about us as a species that one of the biggest economic bubbles invested in lately is AI.
AI is making the future of art very unsure. It is a way to steal the work of creative people and use their content to milk out money.
And people are so willing to consume the slop it spits out. AI should be a helpful tool to be used in creation, not the sole creator that replaces actual artists and learning new skills.
Times are tough and its not only the artists who will lose to AI:
So many people are losing basic office work as well, as big companies do their everything to replace actual people.
The government here actually recommends small businesses to replace work with AI as much as possible too "learn to move on with the times".
The world has been upside down for long time: where hard manual labor doesn't pay anything, while sitting on your ass deciding things does: A farmer makes a huge loss after a year of hard work but the big stores are making record profits selling the food farmers produced.
Meanwhile a meeting bonus for politicians can be thousands of euros a day, just for sitting in place for someone in a chair, or even in reserve online, not deciding anything, just being there cos the bureaucracy demands that there are people present when they hold a speech to themselves about how important they are.
"You should be grateful, without politicians we'd live in complete anarchy"
It is true but we don't want fascism either.
If those who hold power and decide everything are corrupt and use their power only for their own gain, they should be held accountable.
There is enough resources on this planet for everyone to have a good life, but we as a species choose to keep the wealth and power for only a few and artificially make things scares and ruin the planet by burning it, when there are much better alternatives for energy.
Capitalism fails when it throws away tons of food, when there are hungry people who'd need it right next to it. It also fails when it allows millionaires to start writing all our laws by lobbying.
Communism doesn't work cos it will be misused by those in power (same problem as in a capitalistic society).
Communism works in an ant nest but not in a human society.
It might also work in a small commune where people love each other, until one of them becomes a cult leader and starts a religion.
Socialism however is far from communism, it is balanced and it can work with the right leadership.
I happily pay taxes when it goes to the education of future generations, healthcare, to take care of the less fortunate. But not when it goes to building fancy castles for decision makers or pay for their taxi fees or flying around the world.
It is not wrong to want more for yourself, but it is wrong to want bad/less for others. You should wish things to be good for you as for others.
Most of us feel powerless to change things in this mad artificial world we have build around us, truly we can only affect the things near us, in our town and the people close to us.
Big companies shift the blame to the consumer about recycling plastics, when the company itself does not pay anything towards building a system for the recycling of the plastics.
Yet everything is covered in plastic.
We see the same issue with the food industry: "it is the consumers responsibility to eat healthy" but then they make sugary shit cheap and real food more expensive. And they make more profit as poor people get sick from addictive sugary foods.
We live in a world lead by greed and corruption. Education is the only thing that can help us navigate it and our only hope we learn to differentiate biased lies from the truth.
But AI is negatively affecting our ability to learn, focus and check for credibility.
The world should not be "every man for themselves", but how can we work together to improve all our lives and live on in harmony with ourselves and other species on this planet.
I just don't know when will we ever evolve out of greed, when it is written in our DNA. We can start by checking our consumerism and actually voting the right emphatic people into decision making.
I know it's not easy to be positive about it in such situation. But don't give up on that, because people like you really make this world better despite all
All we can do now is do the best we can and hope to make it in our artistic endeavors.
They know they are guilty of falling for Ai, it will ruin the art industry for the fandom.
They force it on us to take it as a hobby, and not look at it as a profession or career.
The only ones who make it is if the person has an art following before Ai came in,
fans who will still buy art from the artist who still has a fanbase.
But the moment you mention money, they will ghost you and wait to see if you are going to
fall for it and post it publically for free or rant that its a paywall and make a stink about it, just like on e621.
The 20 year olds, new furries, they dont see art commissions worth their money any more, and if they can get it free, they wont need us.
There are lora's (models) for AI that has artists style. Usually of the AAA artists. They dont have my style lol, im no AAA but i do
find a lot of artists of trained model loras of peoples styles. Its sad and yes indeed it gets abused. Its one thing that its for fun, i see it as fun or a resource for
references but others use it to replace commissions so they dont have to spend a penny. There could be a serious emergency, and the person will never
get to earn his or her way to earn the money for something serious.
A job is the only answer, indeed it is normal to have one, but some of us want to draw for a living, and because furries are making it worse
for the fandom, its only a matter of time where only the most influenced artists will still be able to sell and make a profit off of commissions.
They would say if you were to ask if anyone would want to buy a commission, they would say, "Why when i can find it else where for free?" and its that
attitude and selfishness, and dishonesty that ruins the artist industry in the fandom.
When i see people like that, its gross, and selfish to steal peoples art styles in replacement so they dont need to pay for it. I call them the Free Pigeons. Like this scenario that came to mind when i first heard about people like this
-Toss out a free request like its bread, and the bird goes, free free?
You say, yes, free, pigeon goes, O_O and screams out, FREE FREE FREE!!! and all of the other pigeons fight and destroy each other to get it for free till the last one survives. Then he picks up his piece, says, free, and flies away. The artist stares in horror, and says, WTF?
This scenario was based off of when i did free sketch day raffle, and one guy demanded he wanted the drawing or he wont go into the stream. I said, dont go if you think you are entitled and expected something for free. It wouldnt be fair, and he wouldnt have appreciated it but only to take it because it was free.
Its much more harder now to sell art these days. As long as they turn a blind eye and ghost artists quietly and follow Ai furry porn, they have no need
to buy art anymore. I do believe once in a blue moon someone would buy but its not enough to live off of.
Art is a field in turmoil and AI will only develop onward from here.
And you see so many people sell out and use it as a short cut.
Like here this book has all its art made in AI:
https://saunaanimals.com/en/product.....c42wG_H8lCmGQ6
And you then start to question if the text has AI in it too?
Why would anyone spend money on something generated or partially generated?
Also there was an actual graphic designer hired to make the pictures and they used the AI to do it. Why are they then needed at all? If the AI can do their job?
Why are there artists on patreon that have AI generated content, why would anyone sign up for that? If they can just generate themselves.
Generative AI seems like a capitalist's wet dream, as it can output tirelessly and rob our attention with no labor cost. Advertisements could be tailored to individual consumers and fed to us in slop-filled feeds carefully curated to keep us scrolling or mindlessly watching. With so much of our creative works having been vacuumed into these enormous models, and companies burning enormous amounts of money to go all-in on it, it seems that they want to make this transition seem inevitable and immutable. Yet, there's the unmistakable characteristic of a bubble nature in this trend, like other capital derived tends before it. Whether this bubble will pop in the near future or later when enough people discover how emptying and hollow a rampantly artifice-filled life is, or some other upheaval, remains to be seen. For now, the 'easy money' nature of Generative AI is too irresistible for so many in the capital class to keep dumping more money and rosy speculations in it.
You're right that so many essential jobs are underpaid and underappreciated. Unfortunately, that is a core aspect of capitalism. The worker gets paid only the lowest possible amount in order to meet administrative requirements, if any, so that the value that the worker provides can be passed up the chain to shareholders or those in higher echelons in the corporation or business. What we are seeing is capitalism's long-term affects on people and societies where extraction and consumption have taken hold, and the negative effects are getting harder to not recognize. Indeed, there is plenty in the world now to sustain everyone with a decent level and quality of living. The problem is that too many in powerful and wealthy circles recognize that such a world would mean their lavish living circumstances would be eliminated. That is why they do all they can to denigrate or mock people or movements who threaten those circumstances. That's another point of pressure.
A third point of pressure, or maybe just an extension of the second point, at least for many in so-called 'developed' nations, is discretionary buying power having been reduced over the decades. It is a multi-faceted problem with multiple causes, but the very brief, and probably over-simplified version, is that we don't have the financial flexibility that previous generations have/had. While the cost of many goods had gone down, costs like transportation, insurance, and shelter have been taking larger and larger portions of our earnings, leaving less for savings, for helping others, or for fun things like art and entertainment. One can see this symptom in the community by how many artists are struggling to get clients, even ones who usually get their slots filled fast.
As for what profession is future-proof? I don't know if a singular profession could ever be considered future-proof, but there are many, at least for now, that would at least be future and AI resistant. Most of them would be physical jobs that require in-person interaction or labor. Those range from nursing or care-giving, to being in a trade like a plumber or electrician. Robotics and automation have taken a lot of manufacturing and processing jobs away, but there still remain some jobs for maintaining and repairing those systems as they haven't figured a way to automate maintenance of those systems. I think it be a long time before robotics advances enough to where physical and skilled jobs would be widely substituted by robotics or machines, and I think there would be a lot of protest against robotic care-giving or nursing.
I don't know if it's an option in your circumstance, but perhaps a ko-fi page could be a way for those who want to support you and can't afford a commission or commit to a Patreon subscription? It's sad and frustrating to see so many good people struggle in times like these and having limited means to help. All I can say is that you're not alone in your struggle and that you can feel free to reach out.
Your art is wonderful and I'm deeply grateful every piece you've drawn for me. I do hope to commission you again sometime soon, whether it be one of your fun YCH pieces or a custom one.
Take care.
The job options are not great here atm, we would have to move somewhere else, near a city, but then I would have to work at 2 jobs to get enough money to pay the rent etc. I would not have time for art nor hobbies like gym.
I could go to school and educate myself to a new profession. But that is a long investment and means having to take a debt. Tho I would be interested in learning physiotherapy and personal training, but that market is so full of extroverted people and I am very much and introvert, so I dont know how well I would do.
I still enjoy my work and the freedom that comes from being selfemployed. I have time to do chores, make us real food daily, see friends every month. Work on travel.
Im not sure how I would get Kofi donations into my accounting, thats the issue, it would suck to have 20 people donate 5 euros and then having to make 20 different accounting settlements, its a lot of paper work. Patreon money comes from Patreon Inc, so I can say its the company paying me.
Thank you very much for the kind words ❤️ always a pleasure working and talking with you.
or maybe giant corporations are vacuuming up all the resources and we need to return to a localized economy.
and support farms, factories etc that can hire people to work with their hands.
But it feels like they are doing the opposite here in Finland.
We were told more nurses are needed to take care of elderly and sick people but at the same time majority of hospitals are being shut down and nurses fired. Also a lot of nurses are taken in from abroad with contracts that are like slavery, finnish nurses could never live on those. Nor should the immigrants, they deserve much better.