I feel your pain! Business has been very slow for me too lately!

Some pointers
* Make a visual price guide that is clean and easy to read. Make this your "featured submission" so people don't need to hunt for it. Visual guides are SOOO much better then journal ones.
* Be unique and stick to your own style, also draw only what you feel comfortable with subject/fetish wise for commissions.
* Try out communities like Teenycom on LJ and the FA forums. I have snagged some work off of those!
* Try an FA ad for one month. If you make an eye catching ad you can get 100+ watchers for that month plus work!

Art pointers
* Try experimenting more with backgrounds and perspective
* You can never go wrong with figure drawing and using references such as Posemaniacs
* Draw from life
* Try using different colors for shading, highlights, and line art :)

Hope this helps :)

Ahhh this is all great stuff because every one of those things you said was something I was thinking about doing. I found posemaniacs not too long ago and it's a great resource, I should use it more. Actually one of my weak points is that I don't use references at all, stepping back and doing some figure drawing is a great idea. I should do more BGs too, and you noticed my #1 weak spot, doing more perspective work. it scares me just thinking about it, lol. Thank you, that's all great input!

As one of my favorite artists I hope I can give you some helpful feedback. Sorry in advance if I ramble..

I do not think your work is generic, you have a unique style indeed and I hope to see you explore that style more. I think your best works are the cell shaded style. You have a real talent that I see in those, the crisp colors, great line work and fun poses (eg. the crux trio cell shades of myself, Crescent, and Battsaults).

I like many of your traditional pieces as well, The stuff that really stands out for me are the pieces where you utilize very thick, bold lines and colors and odd subject matter. It has an awesome flair to it and I'd love to see more that that such as http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8155728/ . You have a good knack for the odd/creepy/dark which I would love to see more of, like http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9830040/

The one part of your portfolio that I was never crazy about are your digital shaded ones such as http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7627180/ or http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8204472/ They're not bad concept or drawing wise but the color/shading just feels lackluster and bland. What is great however is that you have a variety of styles. You don't just do one thing which demonstrates your flexibility.

Keep up the good work, your art has come a long way and just keeps getting better. And for some perspective as a commissioner of your work I feel like you are the only artist I've gotten work from that actually took the time to capture the personality of the character I asked for. Many other pieces I've had done had my character but lacked the personality and I think it's great that you pay attention to that stuff. It really comes through in the post and facial expressions you do.

In conclusion :p looking back at your older work, you really have a unique style that I love in your traditional art. It utilizes a lot of funky colors and subjects such as http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4665240/ . I love your cell shaded digital art the most because I feel it gives that same vibe but in a more clean and modern style and I'd like to see more of both. That style is distinct and sets you apart from other artists.

Lemme know when you're open for commishes again ^3^

Actually a better example for that last example is: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5153298/

omg I am blown away that you took the time to go through and find examples of things you liked/didn't like, thank you so much! it's actually super helpful! I've been feeling the same way about my digital shading, but I'm not quite sure what to do to fix it. I could try using bolder colors to shade instead of the browns & earth tones I've been using, see how that goes. Maybe I should try a new way of doing it; look up some tutorials. That's most labor intensive style I do too so I gotta make sure it looks nice.
I wish I could make my digital work look like my traditional, it's almost like they're done by two different people. I think when I'm done with my queue I'll go back to doing a lot of inkwork since it's my favorite. I used to want to be a comic book artist when I was little so I think my traditional style is very influenced by that, but I just can't duplicate it digitally. The cell shaded stuff is super fun though so maybe I can try to focus a little more heavily on that, to be honest I don't really enjoy doing the full shaded pieces quite as much, maybe it's showing through in my work. Thank you so much for your input, that really was super helpful and gives me a lot to think about. I think I might actually change how I offer art in the future.

In some ways, if you aren't passionate about a piece, it will show through on the piece. That being said, I know if it's a medium I'm not comfortable with, I'm VERY prone to over-working the piece and making it look worse than if I hadn't tried shading/finishing it in the first place.

AH I do the same thing! lol this is why I can never paint! I just keep adding and adding layers until I've just got this 3" thick layer of brown color on the canvas. I'm not even kidding, I did this in art class once, I just kept trying to fix it so many times it just turned into this big smudge of paint that didn't even look like anything when it was fine before I tried to 'fix' it.

FA is about word-of-mouth. If you can get noticed by other artists, you'll, in turn, get noticed by their watchers. Sometimes, this works through trades. You can also advertise. But FA is very..high school mentality.

So, the best thing you can do is play into the following:

*Draw lots of what you love, find a niche. (You're all ready a super good artist with a unique style.)
*Do some trades with some more well-known artists
*Get featured
*Featured others
*Give a feature, get a feature

Also, you're a super good artist. There's nothing wrong with your style. It's perfect the way it is. Just keep drawing and exploring what you love! Try some vore!

Thanks Sun! <3 It's funny whenever I draw a new vore piece I probably get 50 new watchers, lol. Maybe someday I'll try doing an ad, perhaps in the summer. I'm super slow with art though so I don't know if I could handle any type of sudden influx. 5 or 6 commissions and I start feeling overwhelmed. I think when I get the time and I'm done w my queue I'm gonna go back to basics and do a lot of figure drawing and traditional stuff. I really need to practice human faces, though I probably won't be posting any of that here, lol.

sexy vanilla. crowd pleasers.
Look at most of the "Art divas" they go for cute clean colorful things.
sometimes you have to pick a demogarphic and go with it.

Yeah I've kinda noticed a lot of people watching me specifically when I post crux stuff. It's not a bad thing, just funny when people get labeled as a "this" or "that" artist. I don't expect to ever get super popular or anything since porn is a rarity in my gallery, the fact that I draw a lot of any specific genre is most just coincidence, or whatever I'm in the mood to draw, just so happens that most often is cruxes, lol.

i want to see lots of Cruxes, to expand and spread the interest.
Artwork, and fursuit appearances is the main way to do that.
As for art....... it goes both ways. I used to love pushing the envelope, no holds barred, no limitations. I wanted to be that cheap commission artist that draws anything, unlike those others.
However... i often had this feeling that some other artists in the fandom, or at conventions saw me as a bad influence, and often seemed to shy away or cringe when they met me. probably my imagination.

I measure the success of an art piece as how it's initial 3 day "wave" performs, and the overall Faves/view ratio. 1:10 is respectable. But some works, like those Bletch girls, clean pieces got like 1:3, which is.... in......ssssssane. ridiculous.

but stick with cute, stick with color. you GOT what it takes already.
The size of your "waves" and residuals are proportional to your number of Watchers.

Hahaha, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks about stuff like this!

Personally, I don't see one specific fine-tuned style from your work, but that's refreshing, honestly. There are those artists that people love because OMG amazing art.. and yes, they make beautiful work I agree. However, it means more when I get a commission from someone and there is a specific style put into the work; it tells me they thought about my character or were inspired by them, and a style came with the inspiration.

That being said, I do really like:
~ Your variety of style. You seem comfortable with cel shading, soft shading, chibi, or realistic, expressionist,
~ Your wide variety of poses and expressions. Seriously, your gallery has such a wide variety. I could show you artists that get commission after commission.. and the CHARACTERS ARE IN THE EXACT SAME POSE. It's madness, I say!


It would be awesome to see you give a try at:
~ Alternative lighting (odd angles or colors, or even glowing things)
~ A study or two with adventuring more with color, such as http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7685286/ and http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8729453/ where it appears to be shaded with colors rather than monochromes of the colors being shaded.
~ Some new species perhaps. I can't fault you for drawing so many hyenas or cruxes; you gotta draw what you get commissioned for, and honestly you're one of the best crux artists out there, in my opinion. However, it can be very freeing and very invigorating to try a weird species you've not tried before. Sometimes art block breaking too!

Thank you so much for all that! I'm hearing from a few places now that I should be shading with more vibrant colors so that's definitely something I'm going to b keeping in mind. I tend to take more risks on personal pieces and just stick with more of the same for paid work so doing a lot of experimental personal stuff is probably in order. It's funny you point out changing positions in my gallery because one time I read a thread where people were bashing some artist because in each piece their characters were facing the same way so I make a conscious effort to check the positions I've drawn recently & make sure I'm not repeating any, lol. When I get a commission, I like to go through the person's gallery/favorites and see what styles of art they like, and try to pick a style that fits with that. It's always bothered me though, having so many styles. I'm always afraid someone will commission me because they liked something I did, and then I'll draw them something completely different. @.@
I'm definitely gonna try some new species next time I get a chance too, have a few in mind I've been wanting to draw, maybe I'll do some adopts. Thank you so much for the input! I really appreciate the crits too, I was afraid nobody would say anything and I'm so glad people did, I really have things to work on now!

Glad to be of help! Honestly, I don't think the flexibility of styles is a bad thing. If you are concerned about someone not getting the style they wanted, you could make commission signups be a simple form where they point out their favorite piece(s) of your art, or the piece that best depicts the style they're after. For example, that Crux piece you did that I pointed at: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12206883/ When I have the funds and you're open for commissions, I will be sure to point that piece out as an example for my crux (that I will probably have to have someone other than myself design. I'm stuck). This one as well: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9979783/

I prefer the rounded lines of them, as opposed to the angular look in this piece: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11132257/ but the fur/detailing in this piece is interesting: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12294682/


I look forward to some of your personal art; personal art tends to really stretch boundaries and show so much more expression from the artist. (I understand the not wanting to experiment on commissions; I'd hate to disappoint a customer with my mangled mess of an attempt at something.)

That's my problem exactly, lol. I'm so afraid if I try something new it'll mess up something somebody paid for, & then I'll feel terrible! I may have to do something novel with how I offer commissions in the future, I'll have to think about it. Since I really only do it as a side hobby and each piece takes me forever I get overwhelmed quickly, it just takes 3-4 in my queue for me to feel stressed about it. In an ideal world I would just open for one at a time. Maybe that's what I'll do. I don't plan to open for a long time though unfortunately, not until summer at the earliest. I don't want obligations on here stressing me out while I'm trying to focus on school work you know? Speaking of which AHHH I'm running late for math!!!

Well, I'll have to watch for when you're open, to design my crux. :) I have... Colors... Maybe. And that's it.

Haha I could do that, I don't know how good I'd do at "rounding it out" though, lol. I tend to draw everything kind of angle-y by default, but I can try.

Nonsense! Your crux stuff so far has been good; far better than the majority out there drawing them. I did say I liked the more rounded ones, like disembodied crux parts, but I never intended to portray or express a dislike for the angular art! I like them both, just one more than the other. ^^ I prefer to see the artist's style shine through on commissions so it would be hard to disappoint me, honestly! (With exception maybe, to a commission an artist drew without putting any heart or inspiration into. I'd never want a forced piece as it's damaging to the end product!)

Ahh *blushblush* thank you <3 cruxes are like my favorite thing to draw so maybe it just shows that im having fun, lol. I think if there was ever something i was working on that i just did not want to draw or wasn't enjoying i would probably just offer a refund before submitting sub-par work. I would just feel terrible about making someone pay for something that wasnt the best it could be you know?