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Graduation, Art, and Continuing in the Fandom
7 years ago
MOVED ACCOUNTS! 
sorensystem 
sorensystemHello all,
As I'm coming to the end of my first round of fall commissions, I wanted to write down some thoughts I've had about my artwork moving forward. I post this publicly not only to communicate my plans for the future, but also so that others can offer their responses and input. You are more than welcome to comment if you have any suggestions, thoughts, advice, etc.!
First of all, welcome to all of my new watchers! For those who aren't familiar, I'm currently a senior in art college and graduating next June, and I feel like I've hit some pretty major milestones recently (500 watchers over the summer, and 600 just recently). So I'm excited to see what this means in terms of my work in the fandom in the future!
I only have a little over 7 months before June 1st, when I graduate and am expected to become financially independent. So, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my career, how art will be involved, and specifically how furry art will be involved.
Over the summer I did a professional, full-time internship in book design with a publishing company. At the same time, I took furry commissions in order to make some income (the internship was unpaid), and because it felt like otherwise my life was missing something. It would typically take me a weekend to complete a character commission and two weekends (1-2 weeks total) to complete a full illustration. I loved it, but it was easy to burn out working a 40-hour-per-week internship plus spending 10-20 hours a week on commissions. If I tried to work faster, I would start feel exhausted and take a week or two to get back to my normal self. And this was assuming I didn’t go out and do anything on the weekends (I was in a small town, so I didn’t have many furry meetups or anything). So while it was a good experience, it made me wonder about how I am going to stay active making furry art once I graduate.
I often feel frustrated because I seem to work slow. My teachers say 10-20+ hours to complete a fully detailed painting with scenery (7-12 hours for a piece of fullbody character art depending on how detailed the design is) isn’t slow. However, to me it seems WAY slower than many artists in the furry fandom, save for a few very experienced and sought-after ones, and slower than many of my peers at art college too.
I wouldn’t be super concerned about it except for that “time is money” is true in a sense too. Right now, I’m only making about $5-10 an hour on most commissions I do (depending on the type – ref sheets on the higher end, digital stuff in the middle, and traditional stuff on the lower end). That’s BEFORE taxes, and self-employment taxes are high. So in order for my commissions to be profitable, something I can actually support myself with when I don’t have parents paying for things and not be constantly burned out or behind on my queue, it won’t work how it is now. I’d need to do some combination of two things. One, just plain work faster. Two, raise my commission prices (and find ways to add quality to justify those higher prices, since my prices are already on the higher end for the fandom). I’ve been trying to find ways to speed up since I’ve arrived at college, but have mostly been frustrated with the results, and have a hard time making things not look rushed.
So, moving forward I might reconsider how I take commissions and where I get income from. I may do more YCHes to cut time spent on sketching, or only take commissions in slots on school breaks for now so I don’t feel so stressed about balancing them with classwork. I’ve already attempted Patreon, which has been up since March, using all the sketches and content OTHER than finished pieces that I’m constantly producing. The success of that has been mild at best. (If you’re interested in sketches and process work, and helping me keep furry art a part of my career going forward, you can check it out here!) I’d like to try livestreaming or something, but it’s hard to be brave enough to invest the time and money in a setup and a schedule when I’m not sure people would be interested in watching.
My main idea right now is my portfolio. If I can spend some time with self-directed projects, I can continue to practice in media I have but don’t take commissions in (yet), AND have art that would make decent prints to sell online and at conventions, and that would showcase my best illustration skills in my portfolio.
I’m nervous, because I’ve only ever sold 3 or 4 things on Redbubble in the time I’ve had my shop up (a year now, I think), and even if I start now it’s going to take a REALLY long time for me to get even close to making a profit on prints and merchandise. And, I’m only just now getting to the point where I can get commissions at least fairly consistently. I’m worried if I stop for a while or raise my prices again, I’m going to lose that momentum. Ultimately, it could be more profitable in the long run, since with merch I could have more passive income and more stock if I decide to get into doing Artist Alleys (which I’ve really liked in the past). I don’t know though.
Those are my unresolved thoughts for now. I have a couple of weeks to consider my options, since I have Furpocalypse and Animaine coming up (attending, not selling) and I’m not anticipating having a lot of time to work on more projects outside school until those are done. But if anyone has any business experience, art experience, ideas about opportunity cost, opinions, reassurance, criticism, whatever thoughts you may have… please let me know! Being so close to graduation, I’m at the point where it feels like anything I do could have a major impact. And yes, it's true that I don't have to be making money or selling stuff to count as an artist in the fandom. However, I enjoy furry art more than anything else I've tried that can make money, and making it at least part of my career is definitely a way to make sure it stays a significant part of my life after I graduate, not just something I can maybe find a couple hours for here and there.
If you read all of this, you have my endless appreciation. XD
As I'm coming to the end of my first round of fall commissions, I wanted to write down some thoughts I've had about my artwork moving forward. I post this publicly not only to communicate my plans for the future, but also so that others can offer their responses and input. You are more than welcome to comment if you have any suggestions, thoughts, advice, etc.!
First of all, welcome to all of my new watchers! For those who aren't familiar, I'm currently a senior in art college and graduating next June, and I feel like I've hit some pretty major milestones recently (500 watchers over the summer, and 600 just recently). So I'm excited to see what this means in terms of my work in the fandom in the future!
I only have a little over 7 months before June 1st, when I graduate and am expected to become financially independent. So, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my career, how art will be involved, and specifically how furry art will be involved.
Over the summer I did a professional, full-time internship in book design with a publishing company. At the same time, I took furry commissions in order to make some income (the internship was unpaid), and because it felt like otherwise my life was missing something. It would typically take me a weekend to complete a character commission and two weekends (1-2 weeks total) to complete a full illustration. I loved it, but it was easy to burn out working a 40-hour-per-week internship plus spending 10-20 hours a week on commissions. If I tried to work faster, I would start feel exhausted and take a week or two to get back to my normal self. And this was assuming I didn’t go out and do anything on the weekends (I was in a small town, so I didn’t have many furry meetups or anything). So while it was a good experience, it made me wonder about how I am going to stay active making furry art once I graduate.
I often feel frustrated because I seem to work slow. My teachers say 10-20+ hours to complete a fully detailed painting with scenery (7-12 hours for a piece of fullbody character art depending on how detailed the design is) isn’t slow. However, to me it seems WAY slower than many artists in the furry fandom, save for a few very experienced and sought-after ones, and slower than many of my peers at art college too.
I wouldn’t be super concerned about it except for that “time is money” is true in a sense too. Right now, I’m only making about $5-10 an hour on most commissions I do (depending on the type – ref sheets on the higher end, digital stuff in the middle, and traditional stuff on the lower end). That’s BEFORE taxes, and self-employment taxes are high. So in order for my commissions to be profitable, something I can actually support myself with when I don’t have parents paying for things and not be constantly burned out or behind on my queue, it won’t work how it is now. I’d need to do some combination of two things. One, just plain work faster. Two, raise my commission prices (and find ways to add quality to justify those higher prices, since my prices are already on the higher end for the fandom). I’ve been trying to find ways to speed up since I’ve arrived at college, but have mostly been frustrated with the results, and have a hard time making things not look rushed.
So, moving forward I might reconsider how I take commissions and where I get income from. I may do more YCHes to cut time spent on sketching, or only take commissions in slots on school breaks for now so I don’t feel so stressed about balancing them with classwork. I’ve already attempted Patreon, which has been up since March, using all the sketches and content OTHER than finished pieces that I’m constantly producing. The success of that has been mild at best. (If you’re interested in sketches and process work, and helping me keep furry art a part of my career going forward, you can check it out here!) I’d like to try livestreaming or something, but it’s hard to be brave enough to invest the time and money in a setup and a schedule when I’m not sure people would be interested in watching.
My main idea right now is my portfolio. If I can spend some time with self-directed projects, I can continue to practice in media I have but don’t take commissions in (yet), AND have art that would make decent prints to sell online and at conventions, and that would showcase my best illustration skills in my portfolio.
I’m nervous, because I’ve only ever sold 3 or 4 things on Redbubble in the time I’ve had my shop up (a year now, I think), and even if I start now it’s going to take a REALLY long time for me to get even close to making a profit on prints and merchandise. And, I’m only just now getting to the point where I can get commissions at least fairly consistently. I’m worried if I stop for a while or raise my prices again, I’m going to lose that momentum. Ultimately, it could be more profitable in the long run, since with merch I could have more passive income and more stock if I decide to get into doing Artist Alleys (which I’ve really liked in the past). I don’t know though.
Those are my unresolved thoughts for now. I have a couple of weeks to consider my options, since I have Furpocalypse and Animaine coming up (attending, not selling) and I’m not anticipating having a lot of time to work on more projects outside school until those are done. But if anyone has any business experience, art experience, ideas about opportunity cost, opinions, reassurance, criticism, whatever thoughts you may have… please let me know! Being so close to graduation, I’m at the point where it feels like anything I do could have a major impact. And yes, it's true that I don't have to be making money or selling stuff to count as an artist in the fandom. However, I enjoy furry art more than anything else I've tried that can make money, and making it at least part of my career is definitely a way to make sure it stays a significant part of my life after I graduate, not just something I can maybe find a couple hours for here and there.
If you read all of this, you have my endless appreciation. XD
I'm not exactly an expert or experienced in selling art by any means, but my best advice would say just roll with the flow till after graduation. Things can get crazy in the last few months before graduation are pretty much guaranteed to be crazy. Let things play out, get the feel for after-graduation life, and you never know. It might be easier than you think! If worse comes to worse and life gets super busy, you could always do art in smaller batches (an hour or two after work every day to unwind) or the like!
What I do know is that the more people think about and worry about things like this - they harder they make them. From personal experience, just going with the flow of things and letting it happen as it happens tends to go a lot easier, simpler, and more fun than trying to overthink and worry about things. Hang in there, have fun, and do your thing! :)
Point is, there are options. Just don't let yourself get intimidated, and keep your eyes open.