I am trying to improve in this area. I am just nervous.

*hugs you*

I have a hard time doing smutt and so I don't make money on here because I would have to comprimise my integrity. I'm going to go into books and fine art my self.

That's a lot of my problem too. I make a lot more money with clean art outside the fandom, so I'm gonna start focusing more there.

I make top dollar on dnd art

Oh sweet! That's something I always wanted to tackle, myself! Glad you are able to get what you deserve.

I'm just going to post here for my fans and sell off my art on eatsy

I undersell myself. I get probably $5 an hour or so, sometimes around $7 if I'm faster. I know it's only contributing to the cycle, and maybe it's silly of me. but I'd rather not make as much money than get no sales at all. I got around $700 last year in art sales. I've made enough this year to fully pay for a visit to see my boyfriend who lives in another state, and also buy a lot of commissions and all the Christmas gifts for my family. If I charged more yes, I'd get more money. But I'd get less sales because it's the sales and low prices that draw people in.

I'm sad it's damaging the market. Maybe I should be thinking of it as a whole and taking one for the team. But I am fine, because this isn't my profession, underselling and making a few bucks here and there to pay for things and get to do something I enjoy (mostly), is a good thing to me. I'm sad people expect this of more seasoned artists, ones whose skills are up there on illustrator levels. I think it's because there are so many young people on art sites like FA and DA who want to buy art but obviously don't have the money. People cater to them, and thus prices remain, often times, low.

I understand that, but the thing is those young people are growing up with the idea that art is cheap and they should be able to get it on their week's allowance or whatever. I feel it should be like anything else they really want, where they save up for it instead of getting instant gratification. But they don't have to, so they turn into adults who think that an artist is a "snob" if they try getting paid the value of their work.

I'm no pro either, so my time and work is NOT as valuable as a professional artist; but I've still been working at this for years and I put not just my sweat but my heart into everything I make, even if it's "just" a badge. I'm sure you're the same. We deserve more than minimum wage, and more than that we deserve a little respect. It's sad when the primary motivator for art is the dollar sign. It's like people on black Friday, shoving as many things into their cart as they can because it's on sale. Who cares if it's not something they would even normally consider buying, or whatever, right? Cause it's cheap, might as well get it. It's that attitude. I would like to see it go from that to "Hey, that is beautiful (cool, interesting, whatever), I really like that. It might cost more than a fast food combo meal but I can enjoy it a lot longer." (Okay, I am stretching the limits of believability for what you can honestly expect a person to think, but you get the idea)

It's just the culture the world lives in, especially here in the US. You are told that you don't have to pay a lot for anything, especially since we get so much from China where people are underpaid, and undervalued. It's sad that we value prices being low more than we value quality. Yet, at the same time I am often the same way. I will forgo expensive things to pick out something cheaper, even if I don't like it as much. I do this for food, clothing, and indeed, art that I buy. If I can't afford someone, I often don't save up. I will see a journal or an artist opening and selling cheaper ones that I can afford, and spring for that. Most people are like that.

They spring on deals. That is how sales work. You trick the mind into only thinking in the short term. And it works. Humans are not good at thinking in terms of money or long term. Biologically, we never needed to. It was a one day at the time, what you see is what you get thing. And though we've grown as a species and are not run by our instincts and emotions as much as other animals, we still are animals. You make it seem so good they act on it and buy it on impulse because all they think is "wow look how much I am saving/what I am getting for the price." And then they have spent it. By the time they manage to think about it, they've already purchased it and it's too late. So low prices and the constant sales of the media make us attuned to that. We want low prices, we are hooked on deals. We don't want to save up for things, we don't want to be told things are worth more than we can afford at the time.

I agree with you. I shouldn't work for minimum wage. I shouldn't undersell myself. But I don't make NEARLY the sales I do at a higher price. I could make $200 in fewer pieces in a year for people who are willing to pay that much, but I could make $700 selling my art for cheaper and doing more. The way I see it, I can make more and so I'm willing to work for under what I'm worth. I may be contributing to the spoiled entitled commissioners, and I feel bad for that. I am hurting the market, and I feel bad for that. But I want money. I want money, even if it's not as much as I deserve. $500 is better than $200 is the way I see it. It's a shame I need to undersell, and that it affects and distorts peoples' perceptions. It's a hard thing to decide, that is for sure.

Yeah, I can hardly sell a full blown piece for $5 or sketches for $1. Hell sometimes I have trouble getting people interested in free lol. Hate the business. :/

Yeah that's just really... ugh. See my above response to nameless imp.

Yeah, it messes me up really bad too. I totally feel your pain.
I don't make anything EVEN CLOSE to what I was making 5 or 10 years ago.
I'm gonna start focusing more on selling my art outside of the fandom.

In my line of work with comics and games, I see hundreds, if not thousands of works of art every day. Furry artists frequently don't seem to be aware of just how good their material is. There's often talk amidst school-taught artists about that fine line between "professional" and hobbyist" artists. And while there is indeed a fine line, I often feel that many of the hobbyists in the fandom don't realise just how professional their material is, compared to actual industry professionals in the comic book and games business.

I'll just use something that came up today as a quick example: Batman #15 comes out tomorrow, and there's a 1 in 100 incentive cover drawn by Greg Capullo going at market rate for anywhere as low as $50, up to $180. This is a cover that will be printed, at least, hundreds of times. A quick search on ebay pulls up about a dozen, and it isn't even out until tomorrow. Greg Capullo is over here on deviantART: http://thegregcapullo.deviantart.com/

Now, while Capullo may in fact be my second favourite inker in the biz, he doesn't work cheap. That $100 inking that comes out tomorrow, signed, is going to fetch at least double that at a convention. Here, in the fandom, where you have artists who are JUST if not MORE talented than guys like this, you'll find the same quality at cons for less than half the price.

The flip side to that is the fact that the community on the whole IS very small, and relatively tight-knit. The fact that I can go to a con, say hello to a random artist who's work I adore, and then not only get stuff signed by them, but also talk and make nice? That's completely unheard of in the big-leagues of conventions like Dragon Con or Megaplex - which by the way, while awesome, are super lacking in the ability for the fans of the community to be able to get to know the artists they love.

The furry fandom has a great opportunity with the way it operates. Sure we don't charge a lot, and we TOTALLY COULD IF WE WANTED TO. But we're a small group, with a small target audience, and there are a LOT of geeks out there. So until you as a furry artist are ready to take the leap (and talent wise, I say a LOT of you are) into the big leagues of drawing for Marvel, Image, DC, Fantasy Flight, Wizards, or any of the other myriad of companies that WILL PAY YOU WELL for your already amazing talent that you'll only get better at - I don't want to hear complaints that people are charging too little. Because you're charging what you believe your current audience is willing to pay. Don't like it? Expand your audience.

No really! Please! Because nothing makes me happier than seeing a furry artist like our beloved Stan Sakai being revered by the comics industry as "one of the greats." I want to be able to go to work, and walk to 'normal' geeks, point to the wall and say, "See that bestseller there? That's one of ours, from the furry community."

Like I said, it's one thing to choose to charge very little, and another to essentially be forced to do it because you can't make sales any other way, because the buyers aren't willing to pay more. Because they don't see it as being particularly valuable.

I'm not asking to be paid like a pro, nor do I WANT to be a pro and be able to charge that much. I'd just like to be able to make a little more than minimum wage for work that certainly requires more skill and effort than working a cash register or flipping a burger. There's a reason the term "starving artist" is more true than stereotype. Yeah it's great we have a small, close community, but is it really that much to ask for that community to actually support the artists in it instead of basically taking advantage of them? They might not know they're doing it, but that's part of the issue (that I went more in depth with in one of my above replies).