With my wanting to get commissions started, i've been looking at popular artists to see what their prices are like, and so far they've been reasonably priced for the quality/time that made each piece up. I wont say who, but i just went to a really popular artists page (one i only heard of, never went to their page till today) and was very disappointed. I saw their art, and enjoyed it. i thought i could have them as one of the first commission i buy once i get some money, thought about watching them. but then i wanted to see their prices, took forever, was frustrating.
but that's not all, once i got some sort of info, it said they would draw a flat color bust for 150-200$ witch is absolutely ridiculous. Yea artists that decide to make art their carer need to be able to make enough money to live off of, but not one drawing a day. there was allot of drama about stuff i had now idea about, i could have nothing but a bad view of them because they hid half of the argument, and the actual price the drama started with. so i couldn't tell if they were being unfairly ridiculed, they just seamed like they were salty someone pointed out how unfair they were being.
if your not doing art that requires expensive supplies, or excessive time working on it, then it should never be over 100$. as for medias of art, its just dependent on the artist. for some people, digital art takes lots of time, hours of work, sometimes days. but for other people it can be easier because of layers and CTRL Z.
I find traditional art easier to make in a timely fashion with the quality i want, but the supplies are quite costly. digital depends, as of right now i have no art programs like gimp or paint tool sai, i just use mspaint, and only recently did i get a tablet, before a digital drawing with fluffy details and shading, would take me 9-10 hours, but they never turned out how i wanted. when i got the tablet, it took a while to get used to, but once i did it cut 3 hours off my drawing time, but because of how paint works, i still ended up using the mouse and curve too to do the actual lines, sketch and shading i do with the tablet, i havent tried gimp with the tablet, but i know i didn't like it when i had it for this drawing http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16892336/
it took me nearly 20 collective hours to finish it.
I do so many kinds of art, i paint (acrylic,oil,water), i draw (traditional, digital) and i do so much more (like make fursuits and sculpt with clay) and there's things i do with my family at times, like crochet or set up shadowboxes. so i know that all those forms of art are not that different, they all require skill, tools, inspiration, time, and effort. inspiration is a big thing too, people get mad and blow up when they spot similarities in 2 separate artists. but things that have been created, anything, and everything HAD/NEEDED inspiration from somewhere. like paper, it was first made by wasps to build their nests, the nests were used for things(not 100% sure/cant remember) and at some point someone realized if they did the same thing, they could make paper too.

EXAMPLES AND CLARIFICATION OF RANT

I have seen way too many people that have no idea how to price their art. And even more so, i've seen people who try to make a living off of their art, make it their carer, and have absolutely no knowledge of economics. i'm lucky enough to have grown up in Michigan, because economics is a required coarse here. supply and demand is ignored by most, so is knowing about wages. if you know about how long a drawing will take (lets say 3 hours) and how much per hour is a decent wage/income (based on your skill/how long you have been drawing art, let say you've been drawing for 10 years and your anatomy is decent, i say slightly above minimum wage, for me that would be about 10$ an hour) and then you'll get how much its worth (10$ an hour for 3 hours is 30$ perfectly reasonable!) now, lets say you have been drawing for only 5 years, but your art quality (knowledge of shading/color/anatomy/poses) is amaze balls, you could give your self more for your art, a Fully shaded, with background drawing could take you anywhere from 4-5 hours, depending on lighting and detail, and your skill grants you a better wage, of 20$ an hour, so the drawing could sell from 80$-100& still reasonable. but you cant do a job for 4 hours and finish work for the day, and get weekends off, and live off of those hours pay(in america specifically, were pretty fuked here) you need to almost treat it as a job, set your hours, break, and plan your days off, your a manager, an employee, a business, and your art is your product. sell it with knowledge of economy.
what about me? well, i've been drawing for 16 years, and have a basic understanding of anatomy, positioning, and shading/lighting, and a full body traditional, with shading and background, would take me about 2 hours, so it would go for about 30$ and no background would be about 10-15$ i haven't started commissions because i live with a family that demands my time, and repeatedly forget about thing i need that they promised me, only to use it to bribe/guilt trip me into doing things for them. and if i complain i'm laughed at, if i try to explain my mental problems, they are so confused, they get gad. so i'm just waiting until my mate moves in to help me get things done.

and when it comes to inspiration, its best to take from many than few, i see so many copy paste art styles its crazy. when i first started to develop my style, i got inspiration from many artists, i had knowledge of furries or the fandom, but i liked drawing animals, specifically wolves. i liked how one artists drew paws, so i did something similar, i liked how another drew eyes, so i did similar. and while my style has changed allot from then, but it still has the same building blocks. not sure if anyone noticed, but my current back legs were inspired by  jinglepawstudios and the way i started doing fluff for digital drawing is inspired by steven universe. you can take inspiration and you can do things similar, but don't just blatantly copy another artists style, if you are scared to be inspired by other artists, get inspired by life, the way i draw the bust/neck, is because i drew feral art first, i
also drew more realistically, and it felt weird putting an animal head on a small human neck, so my anthro drawings have a more animal like connection from head to body. if someone was inspired by my style, or characters, and weren't copying it, i would be very happy, my art/design was so great, someone wanted something similar for themselves. ART THEFT IS BAD, BE INSPIRED, DON'T COPY OR STEAL ART AND SAY IT IS YOURS!

I made this post because when i first started hearing about the fandom, i heard the community was very kind and like a big family, lots of people just willing to make friends, but the longer i'm in the fandom the less i've come to like it, i keep seeing more and more drama and hatred for the dumbest reasons, (i don't even want to get into the "nazi" drama, but its the dumbest one i've heard) but as of now, the much larger anime community, is more accepting than the furry community has been, there's tightly woven groups of people here, that are all friends, and if something vaguely unkind is said to one of those people, then a war breaks out. artists are not seeing their customers as people, but money. i go to an anime con, and there are people loving my half assed cosplay, and easily becoming friends. i go to a furry con and end up feeling unwanted, my suit being quietly judged, and any attempt to socialize outside the people you came with is met with awkward, almost annoyed faces. it is just unrealistic for me to be able to ever make friends with someone like majira, because for some reason, the second a person is "a fan" they can never be a friend, they are just some weird fan. but someone like malindachan, i had a half hour convo with her at youmicon just about how many yugioh cards i had (over 100 monster reborns alone) i told malindachan i was a fan of hers and she was happy and wanted to talk to me, i met majira at MCFC and did the same thing, couldn't tell if he was happy (duh) but after the hug and me saying i liked his videos, he turned around to continue quietly waiting in line for something, i guess i could have started a conversation but maybe because i was in suit he just assumed i was a child (i'm unfortunately short =_= )
i just want to be able to make friends in this community like i do in the anime community. i don't care what your views are, i don't care what other fandoms your in, i don't care what you d in your spare time, i don't care what religion you have, or if you do drugs. if your a good person i'll know, and that's all i care about, going to MCFC just has not been quite as fun as youmicon, not because there's less to do but because people seem so much less willing to interact with strangers. when you see a new suiter at a con, its a partial, weird neck, maybe hart to tell what species. but it is cute, and not badly made. do you confront them, ask if they made it their self, is it the first suit they've ever made? who knows, they might put penises in its mouth and i don't want to ask if they do that, and i don't want hug that, and they might be an ass or troll. NO, DON'T THINK LIKE THAT. just go up and say, i like your suit, did you make it? and if they wont talk in suit and their handler is away, you can stall by playing with the character. One fun thing happened when someone saw me in suit with my handler playing with a cat toy (i was wearing pop) and he joined in, and used his height to pull it out of my reach, i had fun reacting like the grumpy kitty would, it was great, and after we talked a bit.

i know i ramble this is getting long....sorry, these are things i feel need to be said, i want this community to be as great as people say it is.