Just looking at your price sheet, I'd say your prices could maybe stand an increase based on your quality of work. Doing a mix of things isn't a bad idea, either, so long as you think you can provide value across all platforms (keep up with your commissions, but do enough patreon-centric work to keep people there as well). Gonna come down to your time management, and posting often enough to grow your base and keep people interested and wanting more!

Thanks for the input! I agree that time is the all-important factor. The only trouble is I can't know for sure how well I'll be able to manage it until I try, which puts me in a rather precarious situation. I want to take the leap, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about it. 😬

You could probably make a rough guesstimate based on how much time your current commission stuff roughly takes you to complete (like is it a couple hours added up across a week because you don't spend much time on it?). Would at least give you maybe an idea of how much time you need to spend drawing in a week and help you figure out how much you need to make per commission to make it all kinda worth it. It's alright to be nervous tho!

That's a good idea, I should time myself and figure out what kind of rates I'd have to charge to see if it's feasible / worth it. I'll take some time to think it over. I'm not starting tomorrow at any rate, lol

> Patreon-exclusive content , YCH sales, and upping my commission prices

All of these sound like good ideas, and as the other user said, you'd just have to make sure you have time for everything.

As for patreon content there's stuff like monthy votes, and tier-exclusive perks like a sketch/lined picture to everyone in a specific tier, etc.

Thanks for the encouragement and ideas! I think I could manage it, but it's tough to know how it'd all go down in a hypothetical. Maybe it'd work out and maybe not, but them's the breaks. I feel like I'd regret not at least trying though.

I think your commission prices are perfect as-is with your quality of work. You could expand your portfolio a bit; add some comic and animation options. Creating a Patreon or the like for exclusive content to increase your monthly revenue would be appropriate, as long as your don't put a paywall in front of your public content and release exclusive content for free viewing after a period of time.

Good luck :)

Thank you for the reply! Your suggestions on accepting other work is interesting. As for the paywalls and stuff, I would love to release all my work everywhere for everyone, but the thing about paywalls is they *work*. It's kinda shitty and I wouldn't enjoy doing it, but the truth is that artists can't live off donations. I've made maybe $100 over two years from tips and donos, and while it's a nice thought, I would need to make a livable wage if I went full-time, and paywalls help accomplish that.

I'm not disagreeing with a paywall, definitely do it. Just release the paid content after a month or two for free viewing - that's standard practice.

Animation. But to make it easier on ya, just have the mouths stay open when the characters talk. You could also make it comic-like so as to avoid the hell that is...frame-by-frame which NO ONE should start out by doing!

Ha yeah I hear that! I've put out a few animations and they take forever. Depending on how my schedule goes I might be able to do more animation, or I might be so busy it's out of the question. Guess we'll just have to see.

Indeed. Where might we see your animations and I have 1 more suggestion: Renamon artwork~? ;3

I whipped up these two a year or so ago (NSFW):
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/34690233/ https://www.furaffinity.net/view/34452395/

And believe me, I'll be doing more Renamon in the future 👀

Not bad for "lazy loops" and yay~!

Personally, I've always been an advocate against Patreon-exclusive content. To some people it feels like being alienated. A better approach tends to be "temporary" exclusivity. Like, people who subscribe can see things maybe a few weeks or a month before you do a public release. Then it provides incentive without some people feeling coerced into purchasing a membership. Regarding what kind of Patreon perks you could do, certain perks could include:

* Early-access
* Commission discounts
* Guaranteed commission slots
* Extra votes on polls
* Physical and/or signed prints
* Special roles in a Discord server
* Entries into free commission drawings

Beyond Patreon, other things you could do to generate some revenue could be, like you suggested, YCH pieces, also adoptables are a really good one. It's like making a ref sheet, but not needing outside direction, you just churn it out and open bidding! You could definitely increase your prices a smidge and still be priced competitively and within reason. Maybe have a "frequent buyer" perk where someone that's already gotten a com before gets a cheaper one next time. Incentivizes repeat customers and firmly establishes a clientele.

To assist with exposure, you could try to branch out and do some collab pieces with other artists out there that've already made a name for themselves to sorta give you a springboard to work with. You've got a lot of talent that has yet to see a lot of eyes, I feel once you get enough exposure, a fan base should come natural, it's just about finding the channels to get that word out. You could look into sites with a lot of traffic like Reddit so you can post your art to more niche subreddits that relevant pieces fit into and link to your pages in the comments to drive up traffic that way. If you have the patience, you could also try to see areas/niches that other artists aren't paying attention to and establish a dominating presence there. Don't be afraid to experiment!

You might also look into something called a "PWYW" stream. (Pay what you want). Basically, someone tosses you a donation, and you make a piece putting in effort and detail proportional to what you feel like the price paid should get. And on the topic of streams, it never hurts to do something not even art related, maybe just stream a game that you can play with your viewers/fanbase. Interract with them, show the folks what they mean to you with a bit of attention!

I'm happy to chat with you on some of these points if you need some further info, like I could get you in contact with some decently successful artists I already know, as well as good posting avenues to assist with spreading your stuff around!

Thanks for the suggestions! I think if I do end up going through with this I'll definitely make a Patreon and consider what you've said. Lots of peoples' fans seem to dislike gated content, which doesn't come as a surprise, but I have seen a number of artists use it effectively. It's something I'll have to think about more.

Your thoughts on streaming and stuff are cool, and I'll definitely consider them going forward - the streaming I've been doing lately is a nice change of pace sometimes, but I don't know if I do my best work while watched. Maybe I'm just not used to it though.

I'd love to hear your ideas on publicity and artist connections! I feel like that's a category I'm not well versed in and would appreciate another point of view on.

Thanks for the detailed reply! It's been helpful and given me a lot to think about.