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art you don't like isn't a scam
6 years ago
Self Explanatory thanks for reading
okay but seriously, there's a lotta ppl on sites like this who keep asserting that stuff like adoptables and ychs n shit are scams? and most of the reasons that ppl give for these things being Suspiciously Scammy could easily be applied to general art commissions, which fsr nobody around here seems to think very lowly of, thinking face emoji. make u do a thunk dont it. there's an exception to this but let's put a pin in that for now
to be clear and provide some direction to this discussion, the definition of scam that i am using is when you take someone's money (or art, or service, or whatever else) in an exchange that's dishonest, wherein what you give back is not what you promised you'd give. there's an inherent Fuck You Got Mine deal going on with scams. if you provide someone with something that is of lesser quality then advertised, that's a scam. if you ditch ppl who've paid you without any product being given, that's a scam. if you worded something in a manipulative way or have created loopholes so you can abuse the exchange for your own personal gain, that's a scam.
adoptables aren't scams. the product being sold is the rights to a predesigned character and the rights to use the original art of that character, so if those things are provided then it was a normal transaction. ychs aren't scams, especially when it's made clear that multiple people may purchase a variant of the same image. closed species tend to have a lotta issues wrt the navigation of IP rights (this is a discussion for another day), but if you agree to the terms and get what it's been stated you will get, oh my god its not a fucking scam
most people calling these things scams, in my experience, are simply ppl who don't see the appeal to them. that's all well and good - there's plenty of shit out there in the art world that never has appealed to me and likely never willunless i can make bank offa it. you don't need to change your preferences. but that's all they are: your preferences. and most of the ways ppl describe their preferences about this sorta art are kinda silly and could easily be turned on regular commissions.
"why buy an adopt? just design a character yourself!" why commission someone to draw your oc? because you either lack drawing as a skill or you can't create art the same way they can. same deal here. character design is a skill not everyone has
"what's the point of ychs? it's just the same art with a different coat of paint!" why don't i see this being used against artists who sameface every commission or who don't try new poses? because people like their work regardless and are often more interested in their skill as an illustrator then they are in their originality
in fact, most art that gets called "scammy" is just art that's been premade or preprepared, which fsr makes ppl think it takes less time and effort then regular art. this is foolish becus most of the pay for these is being used to compensate time the artist spent creating it initially, so it's not like you're paying for 5 seconds of labor. the only thing that really makes art a valuable service that ppl deserve pay for, esp wrt digital stuff, is the fact that it takes time and effort. this isn't anything new.
let's pull that pin from before out and discuss the major exception to this Premade Art Is The Devil bullshit: thinking that someone is scamming other ppl becus they get paid a lot more then other artists for making admittedly often mediocre work. this pissed me off for years and it still bugs me sometimes, as it does with a lotta my artist friends, but there's a flaw in the logic, and that flaw is jealousy
artists get mad seeing others make like $50 a pop on sketches becus we wish it was us. how dare someone make more money then me doing )what i, in a fit of rage, always presume is) the same amount of, if not less, labor. whats wrong with the slathering masses who spent literally thousands a month on patreon furry porn while i eat ramen noodles and sit on $5 in my bank account and yadda yadda yadda. it's so, so easy to get bitter about it, and frankly that's fine. feel however you want. i'll never stop being a touch huffy about not having broken into the art i really wanna do yet while watching ppl become wealthy offa shit i find boring and poorly made
but here's the clincher: those ppl have simply cracked the da vinci code. even if their art is total shit, they're making more then you because they have a different skill, which is amassing a hoard of ppl who like their shit. marketing is just as important, if not moreso, then actual art skill. these bitches have just perfected it. they earned the right to price their sketches at $50 a pop by attracting attention to themselves in the right way from the right ppl. they have enough consistent customers and a vast enough fanbase to ask for that level of pay and see it happen. they are not "scammers", they are simply better then you at a different skill then art
this is all unorganized dribble becus unlike most of my journals addressing Art Shit i wrote this one on the fly and i'm not going to be editing it much before publishing. i just felt the need to externalize some revelations i've had about amateur art selling within the past few months. also i like making journals about art becus u ppl have good feedback most of the time. make of all this what you will and its back to drawing neopets for me lel
okay but seriously, there's a lotta ppl on sites like this who keep asserting that stuff like adoptables and ychs n shit are scams? and most of the reasons that ppl give for these things being Suspiciously Scammy could easily be applied to general art commissions, which fsr nobody around here seems to think very lowly of, thinking face emoji. make u do a thunk dont it. there's an exception to this but let's put a pin in that for now
to be clear and provide some direction to this discussion, the definition of scam that i am using is when you take someone's money (or art, or service, or whatever else) in an exchange that's dishonest, wherein what you give back is not what you promised you'd give. there's an inherent Fuck You Got Mine deal going on with scams. if you provide someone with something that is of lesser quality then advertised, that's a scam. if you ditch ppl who've paid you without any product being given, that's a scam. if you worded something in a manipulative way or have created loopholes so you can abuse the exchange for your own personal gain, that's a scam.
adoptables aren't scams. the product being sold is the rights to a predesigned character and the rights to use the original art of that character, so if those things are provided then it was a normal transaction. ychs aren't scams, especially when it's made clear that multiple people may purchase a variant of the same image. closed species tend to have a lotta issues wrt the navigation of IP rights (this is a discussion for another day), but if you agree to the terms and get what it's been stated you will get, oh my god its not a fucking scam
most people calling these things scams, in my experience, are simply ppl who don't see the appeal to them. that's all well and good - there's plenty of shit out there in the art world that never has appealed to me and likely never will
"why buy an adopt? just design a character yourself!" why commission someone to draw your oc? because you either lack drawing as a skill or you can't create art the same way they can. same deal here. character design is a skill not everyone has
"what's the point of ychs? it's just the same art with a different coat of paint!" why don't i see this being used against artists who sameface every commission or who don't try new poses? because people like their work regardless and are often more interested in their skill as an illustrator then they are in their originality
in fact, most art that gets called "scammy" is just art that's been premade or preprepared, which fsr makes ppl think it takes less time and effort then regular art. this is foolish becus most of the pay for these is being used to compensate time the artist spent creating it initially, so it's not like you're paying for 5 seconds of labor. the only thing that really makes art a valuable service that ppl deserve pay for, esp wrt digital stuff, is the fact that it takes time and effort. this isn't anything new.
let's pull that pin from before out and discuss the major exception to this Premade Art Is The Devil bullshit: thinking that someone is scamming other ppl becus they get paid a lot more then other artists for making admittedly often mediocre work. this pissed me off for years and it still bugs me sometimes, as it does with a lotta my artist friends, but there's a flaw in the logic, and that flaw is jealousy
artists get mad seeing others make like $50 a pop on sketches becus we wish it was us. how dare someone make more money then me doing )what i, in a fit of rage, always presume is) the same amount of, if not less, labor. whats wrong with the slathering masses who spent literally thousands a month on patreon furry porn while i eat ramen noodles and sit on $5 in my bank account and yadda yadda yadda. it's so, so easy to get bitter about it, and frankly that's fine. feel however you want. i'll never stop being a touch huffy about not having broken into the art i really wanna do yet while watching ppl become wealthy offa shit i find boring and poorly made
but here's the clincher: those ppl have simply cracked the da vinci code. even if their art is total shit, they're making more then you because they have a different skill, which is amassing a hoard of ppl who like their shit. marketing is just as important, if not moreso, then actual art skill. these bitches have just perfected it. they earned the right to price their sketches at $50 a pop by attracting attention to themselves in the right way from the right ppl. they have enough consistent customers and a vast enough fanbase to ask for that level of pay and see it happen. they are not "scammers", they are simply better then you at a different skill then art
this is all unorganized dribble becus unlike most of my journals addressing Art Shit i wrote this one on the fly and i'm not going to be editing it much before publishing. i just felt the need to externalize some revelations i've had about amateur art selling within the past few months. also i like making journals about art becus u ppl have good feedback most of the time. make of all this what you will and its back to drawing neopets for me lel
(YCHs will be my way of creating themes I love and allowing myself some artistic exploration. They are also a tool at finding likeminded clients, who like similar subjects.)