calm down and breath.
Unless this is your livelihood you shouldn't bank on art paying your bills. this should be fun money or quick help money. on that note maybe try doing a YCH orgy/group pic. those always seem to bring in decent money. start it as a little below normal commission price and see who bites.

I want you to understand that you should never say this to anyone ever again. If someone is making their living off of drawing, don't tell them they shouldn't be doing that.

"Unless this is your livelihood..."
Read the who thing before you get all defensive. I draw for fun. I know i can't make a living wage doing this. I never bank of this paying my bills. But i understand that some people can. thus "Unless this is your livelihood..."
I was trying to help you out but now I'm mad that instead of commenting on the advice you jump down my throat over something you confused.

I thought it was pretty clear that this is my livelihood, considering I said no commissions = no money. I'm not really in a state of mind to be balanced and understanding right now, since I'm likely to be homeless in a month.

While the delivery was poor, the message is unfortunately true in the Furry Fandom. You're experiencing it right now.

 Pulsar had a magnificent discussion on this topic. http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4710998/

HOWEVER, a recent fad seems to be hitting big bucks, which is the grow-your-way donation drive.

Example: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13957880/
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13976351/

Alternatively, and fairly successful, is the YCH Auction
Example: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/14118008/

I've been where you're at financially. I know it's going to suck, but I had to do some things I didn't want to, and certainly wasn't proud of. I had to move back in with my family, I had to live with friends, I had to get by day to day until I got things straightened out and got back on my feet. But don't ever think you're out of options, because something, somehow, will always be there for you. You just have to look at all of your available resources and go with what you can. If I had the money for a commission right now, I'd buy one on good faith, but as I'm between pay checks I can't afford it either. All I can do is offer my best wishes and support.

I hope this isn't unwanted advice, I just thought I'd offer some help. Instead of always being open for commissions, try taking queues with so many slots (I usually do five, personally). That way you're in more demand, people want to grab the slots before they're all gone and that way they KNOW when you're open (just make sure to title your journals appropriately "commissions open, only five slots!"). Preposes/YCH are also a great way to make money. People who don't watch you will see them on the front page and the pose might be perfect for one of their characters so they just have to have it. It also helps to give people ideas, some people don't know what they want to ask an artist to draw so they never get around to commissioning them. Preposes are also good impulse buys, people are more likely to buy something they can see right in front of them than go through the bother of contacting you for a commission from scratch. You can also do an auction for one, those tend to be pretty popular. Some people also do these auctions with multiple characters where people bid on each character so that's a decent idea.

If you have time you can also make portfolios and sell them. http://www.e-junkie.com/ is a site that allows you to upload a file and people pay to download it. e-junkie also gives you the option to set your base price and people can pay extra if they choose to. I'm pretty sure e-junkie is a premium service, but there's alternatives like Gumroad and others out there. Ask your fellow artists for advice on that because I've never used any of them unfortunately.

Also as a side note, if you don't have one already, try joining sites like redbubble and society6, if you're good at making designs, those sites print them on all sorts of merch. I prefer society6 because they have more stuff, mugs, t-shirts, tote bags, clocks, rugs, pillows, even bed sheets (they also do promotions sem-frequently so I think people are more likely to buy from them)! It's a good way to make some spare cash. Tumblr is one of the best places for advertising your sales and junk because of the reblogging option but it's up to you whether or not you want to go down that road.

I hope that helps a little bit :c

I'll commission a piece to help out, even if it's just a little ;3;

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/14033277/

Hey I hear ya man I lost my job, Im -$329 in the bank and rents due in two weeks, if I dont pay it I get kicked to the curb.

How much was the check for?

I'd rather not go into specifics about it, but it was enough for several months rent.

I'm more than willing to buy more work usually if I know I can get it consistently, and I can get the content I'm looking for. Though honestly I've had some income cuts recently that kind of restrict me.

Unfortunately a lot of commission business on FA has to do with getting noticed =\ I think your work looks pretty substantial and I don't see why people wouldn't be more interested. As  mosa does this full time, the consistency with work is very hit or miss, even with a "perpetually open" status. I think when scarcity became a factor, people took more interest. It's a little more tangible to customers when they see lists?

PWYW or "You get what you pay" type streams are also fairly popular, and can bring in surprising sums of money if used properly. We noticed that maybe twice a month can bring a pretty good turnout, but every single week and interest can seemingly drop off entirely. Where PWYW is concerned, some people will be cheap, that's to be expected, but you make up for it with other peoples generosity. More often than not  mosa comes out ahead in terms of the cost of the work and the money earned.

It's a severe problem with the furry fandom, the catch 22 situation of no one getting art from you unless you are "famous" and being unable to get more well known without commissions.

Also for a very diverse open minded fandom people seem unwilling to take a risk on new or unheard of artists

Rapps above gives good advice, also doing not commissions, but folios of characters or ebooks seems like a better idea from what I have seen from other artists :)

The annoying thing is, two $15 sketches a day would be enough to cover my bills. Just barely enough, but enough.

I hear ya it's messed up, trying to get a few more people interested on my end!

Also, kind of a bad situation if you get regular job as it kinda kills any creative energy imho

Yeah. The last job I had just exhausted me too much to do more than one or two drawings a day.

exactly! know the feeling (used to write)

I'll do a signal boost for your commissions like Starpaw did - and I can fire you some dollars for a commission now, if that helps?

Anything helps.

OK I posted a journal!

Would you be willing to do a TF sequence of sketches - human girl to my sexdoll lioness form?

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5629233/

Say, 3 images?

Sure. Not me about it.

I don't know who'd assume that...

...But yeah, depending on art as a livelihood has the whole 'starving' part in it.

Where's your bucket I can put a few coins in?

Well, if you'd like a commission you can get them here: www.furaffinity.net/view/14033277/ or here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12956244/.

I also have a t-shirt store here: http://ceedeewai.spreadshirt.com/

how are you with transformation pictures?