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Priorities in the artists I watch/commission
10 years ago
General
Okay, so 
jonas had a poll ( http://strawpoll.me/6865813 ) about what you look for in fandom artists and after typing up my thoughts about the poll, I thought I'd post a journal about them and see what people think.
Number one is probably communication and reliability as people have noted above me. That said, everything else on the list has its place on the rankings, too, so in order of appearance:
Quick turnaround: Hey, same day art is awesome. Asking someone about a commission and them getting on it right away? That's pretty neat, but it does tend to require they have the time to do that. Some folks have a long queue and you're going to end up waiting. Some folks work slowly so you're going to have to wait no matter what.
TL;DR: nice to have, but not required/feasible in all cases.
Low Prices: Alright, this one's one you'll see a lot of folks picking, and... sure, it's important to not charge 100 bucks for a sketch. Well, unless you're in so high demand that people are still lining up to get sketches at that price. Frankly, as much as my wallet prefers cheap art, I find I am willing to pay more for art that the artist can put time, effort, and care into. Also, art is (or can be) a business, so you sort of owe it to yourself to charge enough that it's better for you to do art than to go get a (second?) job flipping burgers. After all, if you can't justify the time and money spent on the art, you just might end up needing to hang up the artist hat in favor of getting a job that you presumably hate because it's that or be living on the street.
TL;DR: many people want dirt cheap art. Some people prefer affordable art. I prefer affordable art.
High Quality: I like high quality. I love it, even. It's expensive and consumes time though! Which, you know, is sort of the tradeoff. This one isn't the most important because I'm watching artists all across the spectrum. If you've got something that appeals to me in your art, that's all that needs to be said.
Communication: covered.
Creative ideas: Incredibly broad, so no ranking. In some contexts, creativity is awesome! Of course, it's possible to come up with ideas that just don't appeal to me, too. "I like creativity... as long as the ideas are still interesting" is a non-answer, so no ranking.
Consistent schedule: This one goes back into the communication and reliability. Specifically, if you've got a consistent schedule, it means you're easy to reach, and that you're reliable. Very highly ranked. Oh, also, consistent schedules mean you're probably doing something art-related a lot of the time, and getting to see artists grow their skills and try new things is a lot of fun.
Unique art style: Your style is your style. It'll change over time, generally, too. If it's similar to other people's art, well, that happens, that's fine! Impressionism was a movement, it wasn't just one person staking out a style as theirs and theirs alone.
Collectibility: I do tend to prefer original pieces over prints, but that's more of a convention thing than for figuring out who to watch. Put another way, I don't want (for example) Dark Natasha's art to brag about hacing her art, or for some monetary value it might have. I prize her art because it's jaw-droppingly awesome. No ranking.
Interesting commission incentives: discounts for commissions that are in a theme? Can take or leave them. File this under "creative ideas," as an interesting incentive might make me think about getting a piece, but a different incentive might completely fail to interest me.
Friendliness: Always a plus, never a minus. Not worth my top spot, though.
Flexibility: broad heading, no rating possible. Flexible on payments? Eh, can be nice, but also leaves you open to getting scammed. Flexible in terms of being willing to run with a piece if someone likes the sketch enough to want it colored? Sweet! Flexible in terms of tastes catered to? Not something I need from artists I like following. I'm actually quite happy with people who are SFW only or whatever. For my money, artists are supposed to enjoy their art, so if they have to restrict things to keep to their comfort zone, props to them for recognizing what they enjoy and having the backbone to not back down because someone's badgering them to do porn or whatever.
Exciting streams: Eh, another mixed bag. On the one hand: I'm quite happy with streams where there's nothing more intense going on than drawing, some music, and conversation as the mood strikes. On the other hand, I really do tend to get bored if a streamer is not responding to conversations. One of my cardinal sins in art streams is when the streamer has a skype/mumble/etc going on and is chatting along a mile a minute and mostly/completely ignoring those of us in chat. Same thing, and this is completely personal, I find it's actually rather stressful to try to pay attention to a stream if there are half a dozen people all talking in a Skype. Particularly when it also means lots of chatter and not much art is getting done.
Okay, so, yeah. Tell me what you think
jonas had a poll ( http://strawpoll.me/6865813 ) about what you look for in fandom artists and after typing up my thoughts about the poll, I thought I'd post a journal about them and see what people think. Number one is probably communication and reliability as people have noted above me. That said, everything else on the list has its place on the rankings, too, so in order of appearance:
Quick turnaround: Hey, same day art is awesome. Asking someone about a commission and them getting on it right away? That's pretty neat, but it does tend to require they have the time to do that. Some folks have a long queue and you're going to end up waiting. Some folks work slowly so you're going to have to wait no matter what.
TL;DR: nice to have, but not required/feasible in all cases.
Low Prices: Alright, this one's one you'll see a lot of folks picking, and... sure, it's important to not charge 100 bucks for a sketch. Well, unless you're in so high demand that people are still lining up to get sketches at that price. Frankly, as much as my wallet prefers cheap art, I find I am willing to pay more for art that the artist can put time, effort, and care into. Also, art is (or can be) a business, so you sort of owe it to yourself to charge enough that it's better for you to do art than to go get a (second?) job flipping burgers. After all, if you can't justify the time and money spent on the art, you just might end up needing to hang up the artist hat in favor of getting a job that you presumably hate because it's that or be living on the street.
TL;DR: many people want dirt cheap art. Some people prefer affordable art. I prefer affordable art.
High Quality: I like high quality. I love it, even. It's expensive and consumes time though! Which, you know, is sort of the tradeoff. This one isn't the most important because I'm watching artists all across the spectrum. If you've got something that appeals to me in your art, that's all that needs to be said.
Communication: covered.
Creative ideas: Incredibly broad, so no ranking. In some contexts, creativity is awesome! Of course, it's possible to come up with ideas that just don't appeal to me, too. "I like creativity... as long as the ideas are still interesting" is a non-answer, so no ranking.
Consistent schedule: This one goes back into the communication and reliability. Specifically, if you've got a consistent schedule, it means you're easy to reach, and that you're reliable. Very highly ranked. Oh, also, consistent schedules mean you're probably doing something art-related a lot of the time, and getting to see artists grow their skills and try new things is a lot of fun.
Unique art style: Your style is your style. It'll change over time, generally, too. If it's similar to other people's art, well, that happens, that's fine! Impressionism was a movement, it wasn't just one person staking out a style as theirs and theirs alone.
Collectibility: I do tend to prefer original pieces over prints, but that's more of a convention thing than for figuring out who to watch. Put another way, I don't want (for example) Dark Natasha's art to brag about hacing her art, or for some monetary value it might have. I prize her art because it's jaw-droppingly awesome. No ranking.
Interesting commission incentives: discounts for commissions that are in a theme? Can take or leave them. File this under "creative ideas," as an interesting incentive might make me think about getting a piece, but a different incentive might completely fail to interest me.
Friendliness: Always a plus, never a minus. Not worth my top spot, though.
Flexibility: broad heading, no rating possible. Flexible on payments? Eh, can be nice, but also leaves you open to getting scammed. Flexible in terms of being willing to run with a piece if someone likes the sketch enough to want it colored? Sweet! Flexible in terms of tastes catered to? Not something I need from artists I like following. I'm actually quite happy with people who are SFW only or whatever. For my money, artists are supposed to enjoy their art, so if they have to restrict things to keep to their comfort zone, props to them for recognizing what they enjoy and having the backbone to not back down because someone's badgering them to do porn or whatever.
Exciting streams: Eh, another mixed bag. On the one hand: I'm quite happy with streams where there's nothing more intense going on than drawing, some music, and conversation as the mood strikes. On the other hand, I really do tend to get bored if a streamer is not responding to conversations. One of my cardinal sins in art streams is when the streamer has a skype/mumble/etc going on and is chatting along a mile a minute and mostly/completely ignoring those of us in chat. Same thing, and this is completely personal, I find it's actually rather stressful to try to pay attention to a stream if there are half a dozen people all talking in a Skype. Particularly when it also means lots of chatter and not much art is getting done.
Okay, so, yeah. Tell me what you think
