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Artists and Pay Sites: A rebuttal
14 years ago
General
Have you had your daily dose of brick to the face, today?
This is in response to a rant journal that someone I used to watch on here made about artists who use pay sites to get their art out or charge massive amounts of money for commissions. Just do a search if you want to find out who I'm talking about, I won't reveal it, here, to avoid a flame war.
My rebuttal: Grow the fuck up and shut your pie hole.
Now, please don't misunderstand, there are a few parts of his argument I understand and can generally agree on; some artists can be douches about art theft and their popufurity, and some furs do charge prices that would otherwise be extravagant. However, that's the exception to the rule, not the rule proper, and I feel he made a huge blanket statement with his rant that was unwarranted.
The truth of the matter is, the fandom has always been an institution with the potential for marketing and consumerism, and the more people get connected and the easier it is to get a hold of the tools for making artwork, the more likely consumerism will infect the fandom. Anyone remember when Antarctic Press and Radio Comix started producing the first Genus magazines? Or when Kaze: The Ghost Warrior was streamed and people were hoping it would be picked up as a full-fledged TV series? That was in the infancy of the fandom, when it was small, the community was more local than global and the artistic part of the fandom were more fanficcy and pet projects than anything. That was back when it wasn't possible for people to sell their artwork on their own, to publish it and get it out and actually make a living off of their talents. This is 2012, over a decade after the dot.com boom/bust, and it's been proven that not only is it possible to make a lucrative living off of one's artwork, but you can actually make a business out of it. We didn't have the kind of businesses like Bad Dragon or Rabbit Valley or even the option to make pay-for websites back in the day. This is just a natural progression of artist sensibilities in the growing age of technology, where anyone could make an app and make millions off of it. Who WOULDN'T want to get their hand into that?
Also, remember, it's gotten to the point now where a lot of these artists are LIVING OFF OF THEIR WORK, so naturally they'd have to raise the price of their artwork to make ends meet. Sure, you can argue that they could just make more artwork, but most artists aren't machines; they can't mass-produce pictures every day. Also, cost = quality + time, and most of the artists doing this have the time and the quality and talent to produce awesome work. You wouldn't pay Rembrandt or Picasso $50 for a custom painting, would you? Nor would you expect a talented and awesome furry artist like Cheetapaws or Todex that much for a fully-realized portrait. There's a reason why artists like Marc Leonhardt only charge $5-$10 for a quick livestream sketch; because of the time and effort they put into it; you would never, EVER demand that kind of price for a full-on color commission with fifty characters in it, like many people complain should happen.
The simple fact is that the artists aren't the ones tending to get greedy, it's the consumers; they are stuck in a cross-contamination of cultures where the reasons behind getting freebie art in the past collide with the free app/torrent age of today. The older furs remember how it was like in the past and want things to go back to how they were, while the new furs are so inundated by instant gratification shit that they don't know of anything else. It's actually sad, really. Granted, some artists DO let the fame and the money go to their heads, and as a result, they act like douches, but generally, from what I've found, they're willing to work with you if you're willing to work with them, and the only reason why they censor their artwork, pull it off the 'net and go apeshit over art theft is because you AREN'T willing to work with them. Does that mean you need to be stepped all over on by them? No, of course not; there's limits that even I don't dare cross when it comes to artists. But what I am saying is that you shouldn't condemn an artist for wanting to make a few extra bucks off of their work, because now is the time that they CAN do that, and if this fandom is going to thrive, such sacrifices have to be made to ensure it does.
My rebuttal: Grow the fuck up and shut your pie hole.
Now, please don't misunderstand, there are a few parts of his argument I understand and can generally agree on; some artists can be douches about art theft and their popufurity, and some furs do charge prices that would otherwise be extravagant. However, that's the exception to the rule, not the rule proper, and I feel he made a huge blanket statement with his rant that was unwarranted.
The truth of the matter is, the fandom has always been an institution with the potential for marketing and consumerism, and the more people get connected and the easier it is to get a hold of the tools for making artwork, the more likely consumerism will infect the fandom. Anyone remember when Antarctic Press and Radio Comix started producing the first Genus magazines? Or when Kaze: The Ghost Warrior was streamed and people were hoping it would be picked up as a full-fledged TV series? That was in the infancy of the fandom, when it was small, the community was more local than global and the artistic part of the fandom were more fanficcy and pet projects than anything. That was back when it wasn't possible for people to sell their artwork on their own, to publish it and get it out and actually make a living off of their talents. This is 2012, over a decade after the dot.com boom/bust, and it's been proven that not only is it possible to make a lucrative living off of one's artwork, but you can actually make a business out of it. We didn't have the kind of businesses like Bad Dragon or Rabbit Valley or even the option to make pay-for websites back in the day. This is just a natural progression of artist sensibilities in the growing age of technology, where anyone could make an app and make millions off of it. Who WOULDN'T want to get their hand into that?
Also, remember, it's gotten to the point now where a lot of these artists are LIVING OFF OF THEIR WORK, so naturally they'd have to raise the price of their artwork to make ends meet. Sure, you can argue that they could just make more artwork, but most artists aren't machines; they can't mass-produce pictures every day. Also, cost = quality + time, and most of the artists doing this have the time and the quality and talent to produce awesome work. You wouldn't pay Rembrandt or Picasso $50 for a custom painting, would you? Nor would you expect a talented and awesome furry artist like Cheetapaws or Todex that much for a fully-realized portrait. There's a reason why artists like Marc Leonhardt only charge $5-$10 for a quick livestream sketch; because of the time and effort they put into it; you would never, EVER demand that kind of price for a full-on color commission with fifty characters in it, like many people complain should happen.
The simple fact is that the artists aren't the ones tending to get greedy, it's the consumers; they are stuck in a cross-contamination of cultures where the reasons behind getting freebie art in the past collide with the free app/torrent age of today. The older furs remember how it was like in the past and want things to go back to how they were, while the new furs are so inundated by instant gratification shit that they don't know of anything else. It's actually sad, really. Granted, some artists DO let the fame and the money go to their heads, and as a result, they act like douches, but generally, from what I've found, they're willing to work with you if you're willing to work with them, and the only reason why they censor their artwork, pull it off the 'net and go apeshit over art theft is because you AREN'T willing to work with them. Does that mean you need to be stepped all over on by them? No, of course not; there's limits that even I don't dare cross when it comes to artists. But what I am saying is that you shouldn't condemn an artist for wanting to make a few extra bucks off of their work, because now is the time that they CAN do that, and if this fandom is going to thrive, such sacrifices have to be made to ensure it does.
