# Is Selling Commissions Worth It If It Doesn't Sell?



## MikeTheBrownFox (Jun 15, 2019)

It's been about two weeks since I opened my commissions again after closing them for about a year. Since nobody was buying them, I thought it would be a smarter idea if I closed them for a while so I can give myself time to improve on my artworks and skills. I was starting to get pretty happy with how my art has been evolving overtime, so I thought about opening them again and seeing with what I can do with my commissions after gaining a bunch of followers as well as getting various things prepared.

Two weeks in, and not one commission has sold. I'm disappointed, but I'm not surprised.

Recent events have made me wonder if my art right now is worth anything. Shortly after I open my commissions, I received this comment on my DeviantArt profile page:



I looked their page to check on something, and from what I gathered I assumed that this person was a troll. It came to me a shock, but I brushed it off and blocked them immediately. Still, it left me wondering if my art was $30; I'm doing my best to price my art fairly without trying to undersell myself.

It didn't stop there, however. When I screen-capped that comment and posted to Twitter, this was one of the replies I got:


At this point I was confused. Where did they even come from when they said that they "don't even follow me"? How was my anatomy off? Don't just say that and not elaborate further. I got very annoyed when they said that my price should be lowered a bit, because even if I did lower my prices I still wouldn't get sales. I looked at their page to check some things, then I found out that same person literally made this tweet minutes after the previous one:


I didn't even say anything; they just ranted that out of the blue. At this point I feel like it's not worth it to respond to this person as well. It was difficult coping with these kinds of comments. Even one type of this comment is too many; the negative comments almost always speak the loudest.

About a week has passed since then, and I still wonder if my art's worth anything at all. The anxiety of waiting for someone to commission me and nobody buying any of them is painful, and I really hate this feeling. I did my absolute best to advertise them, including spreading them across different sites, bumping them constantly, asking my friends to share them with me, and yet... I still can't find anyone that's interested.

It could be because my art's still not good enough for people's eyes. Maybe it's because I'm still a small creator. I really appreciate all of my followers, but I wish I had a bigger follower count. I know everyone says that “follower counts don’t equate skill, and it’s not important“, but my bank account disagrees. More followers means I’m more likely to get commissions, and that’s all of my income. I’ve been stuck below 1,000 followers across all sites ever since I started my art career, and it gets discouraging when you’re trying to become more active, give followers incentive, and work hard to improve constantly and still can’t even break 1,000 followers. I don’t have the luxury of getting to go to cons to promote my work, and I honestly can’t afford any of it, or even afford making merchandise like I’d love to, but I try to be fast with commissions, and I try to improve my work every day I have the energy to draw.

I do love what I do, but sometimes it’s hard not to want to just give up. There are months where I get not even a single commission and it can hurt. I cheapen my art just to get by and it kills me when it still won't sell. I don’t want to be “that guy”, but it can be depressing seeing less skilled artists with super high follower counts. I’m not saying they don’t deserve the support they get, but it's discouraging for us who can’t even break 1,000+ no matter how hard we try.

So tell me... is my art really worth $30? Is my art "commission-worthy"?

I have provided two links to my commissions as well as a gallery of most of my artwork you can find on DeviantArt.
Commission Information::forums.furaffinity.net: Commission (Selling): - Commissions OPEN! (Icons and Full Bodies) [$10-$30+]
My artwork gallery(DeviantArt): MikeYokite's DeviantArt Gallery


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## Asher Grey (Jun 15, 2019)

I mean, you can price yourself however you think it's worth. But you have to consider that many artists charge a lot less even when their art is worth more because they know they won't sell otherwise.

Since buyers can find a lot of cheaper art of similar quality, it's only logical that they'll commission someone else. For me, $30 is about two weeks' worth of income, so no, I wouldn't be able to justify spending it on a fullbody.

You should look at it less from an angle of "does my art suck and is it worthless" and instead look at it from the perspective of "there's far more supply of poor artists than demand will ever meet, some of whom need money more desperately than others, which leads to widespread underpricing, and you can't blame consumers for treating Art like any other market, which means getting the best deals they can".


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## Anthrasmagoria (Jun 15, 2019)

I have seen prolific artists selling commissions for less than $30 so you'll be in competition with these people as well. A big part of getting the work is promotion and networking too. You often have to spend as much time advertising and exposure as you do working in the beginning, especially if you are not a fully skilled artist yet.

When I first started out as an artist, I took a brutally honest look at my work and asked myself if I'd buy it, and the answer at first was no. I knew the only way I'd ever make a living doing it was to improve dramatically.

But at the end of the day art is "worth" whatever someone is willing to pay for it. I know several artists of different skill levels that get regular work because of their networking. So it's difficult to advise for any particular situation... other than to say always work on becoming better, because that can never hurt. But here's something someone said to me that encouraged me back in the day. *A good artist is just a bad artist who never gave up. *It's true. Keep working on your skills and your networking and it will happen for you.


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## SLCMedia (Jun 15, 2019)

You're very correct in saying that even if you lower your prices, you won't get more sales, because this isn't a pricing issue. It's a marketing, advertising, promotion, and networking issue. Not only that, but lowering your prices would force you to do _more_ work to make the same amount of money, and that extra work is better put toward increasing your visibility and your potential market, in addition to continuing to build your skill.

Put it this way: All those "less skilled artists with super high follower counts?" What are they doing that you're not, or what are they doing a lot of that you aren't doing as much of? Match them in that respect and you might start seeing results.

Also, these people hitting you up on dA and Twitter? They were never gonna buy your art in the first place, at any price. Not worth listening to.


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## Skychickens (Jun 16, 2019)

Sometimes I go months without a commission. Use that time to improve and network. Advertise . Make connections. Find more venues to showcase. Keep at it.

If you feel your art is worth that much, charge it. Don’t bend. Bending will just make you miserable in the long run.

Personally a tried and true method for me is $10/hr average + any material cost. I get people on both sides of the gamut with it—some people who say it’s too much and some who say it’s too little. But it’s what I feel comfortable with and doesn’t make me miserable.

There’s an old seller’s rule called the 80/20 rule. 80% of your success is 20% of your effort. Make it count. If all your effort in making sales is low, so is your success.


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## stardust_and_plastic (Jun 17, 2019)

Hi. So, I looked at your art and you honestly don't have a strong grasp of anatomy quite yet. THAT'S OK. Because that's so fixable. You fix it by drawing from real bodies and real life. It's so easy and it happens so fast. You're really good at design though, you have good line structure, you know where to put things to keep things neat and interesting. So draw more. When people say things, don't get offended, listen, and draw more. Decide if you want to take the drawing that direction and draw more.


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## Scary (Jun 17, 2019)

I found some of it is skill, some of it is pricing, some of it is adaptability, and A LOT of it is luck.

Anatomy is hard, I struggle with it a little still as well, I actually ask my clients to look out for any errors I missed, critique and a second set of eyes are SO IMPORTANT. Life drawing is the best way to practice anatomy, my poses have gotten a million times better since I started it two years ago. If you can't attend a class pintrest has a lot of poses to practice from! Also, reference poses for your images, it's not cheating, professional artists do it as well. I have the app MagicPoser if i'm trying something specific! 
It took me a couple months to get my first commission and didn't get another one until he came back to me asking for more. He ended up recommending me to a friend of his, and another found me just by chance. Sometimes you just have no control over where you get your work from.

Advertising your business now  days is a shot into the void, but don't give up! Keep practicing! Keep advertising! You got this!


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## MikeTheBrownFox (Jun 17, 2019)

SLCMedia said:


> You're very correct in saying that even if you lower your prices, you won't get more sales, because this isn't a pricing issue. It's a marketing, advertising, promotion, and networking issue. Not only that, but lowering your prices would force you to do _more_ work to make the same amount of money, and that extra work is better put toward increasing your visibility and your potential market, in addition to continuing to build your skill.
> 
> Put it this way: All those "less skilled artists with super high follower counts?" What are they doing that you're not, or what are they doing a lot of that you aren't doing as much of? Match them in that respect and you might start seeing results.
> 
> Also, these people hitting you up on dA and Twitter? They were never gonna buy your art in the first place, at any price. Not worth listening to.


What are the best ways that I can advertise my commissions? All I have been doing is bumping them constantly across all websites I'm on, but that's about it. Anything else I can do?


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## MikeTheBrownFox (Jun 17, 2019)

stardust_and_plastic said:


> Hi. So, I looked at your art and you honestly don't have a strong grasp of anatomy quite yet. THAT'S OK. Because that's so fixable. You fix it by drawing from real bodies and real life. It's so easy and it happens so fast. You're really good at design though, you have good line structure, you know where to put things to keep things neat and interesting. So draw more. When people say things, don't get offended, listen, and draw more. Decide if you want to take the drawing that direction and draw more.


What are some parts of the anatomy that I can practice on? Do the way I draw arms and legs need practice or something else entirely?


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## MikeTheBrownFox (Jun 17, 2019)

Scary said:


> I found some of it is skill, some of it is pricing, some of it is adaptability, and A LOT of it is luck.
> 
> Anatomy is hard, I struggle with it a little still as well, I actually ask my clients to look out for any errors I missed, critique and a second set of eyes are SO IMPORTANT. Life drawing is the best way to practice anatomy, my poses have gotten a million times better since I started it two years ago. If you can't attend a class pintrest has a lot of poses to practice from! Also, reference poses for your images, it's not cheating, professional artists do it as well. I have the app MagicPoser if i'm trying something specific!
> It took me a couple months to get my first commission and didn't get another one until he came back to me asking for more. He ended up recommending me to a friend of his, and another found me just by chance. Sometimes you just have no control over where you get your work from.
> ...


I've been using apps similar to MagicPoser actually. It's helped me lately.
What are the ways I can advertise my commissions aside from bumping them constantly?


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## Scary (Jun 17, 2019)

MikeTheBrownFox said:


> I've been using apps similar to MagicPoser actually. It's helped me lately.
> What are the ways I can advertise my commissions aside from bumping them constantly?


Nice!!
Do you have a twitter account? Art promotion threads are a good way to connect with other people and many of them are people looking to commission. Also, maybe try some art trades and requests too! Taking poses and turning them into sketches of people’s characters might be good to practice and get your work known to more People!


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## MikeTheBrownFox (Jun 17, 2019)

Scary said:


> Nice!!
> Do you have a twitter account? Art promotion threads are a good way to connect with other people and many of them are people looking to commission. Also, maybe try some art trades and requests too! Taking poses and turning them into sketches of people’s characters might be good to practice and get your work known to more People!


I do! I have been using those art threads and they helped a lot. Honestly, if it wasn't for those art threads, I would have remained at 250+ followers and wouldn't rise or deplete.
Do you know artists that are open for art trades on Twitter?


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## Scary (Jun 17, 2019)

Not that I’m aware of in the furry community (I don’t have furry stuff beyond FA) but I’m sure it’s not too hard to find, even promote it in your tweets and promotions and on FA threads as well!


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## stardust_and_plastic (Jun 17, 2019)

MikeTheBrownFox said:


> What are some parts of the anatomy that I can practice on? Do the way I draw arms and legs need practice or something else entirely?


So your problem is that you don't have an understanding of space. When you have an eye for instance you don't understand what being in a 3/4 view does to that eye or why that tail shouldn't start quite there. You've missed out on how the basics of the body works in real life. I truly truly had this issue a lot until I started drawing from real life references and studied the bones and muscle structure of what I was drawing. Before you can cartoonize something you have to understand the original premise.


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## Scary (Jun 17, 2019)

stardust_and_plastic said:


> So your problem is that you don't have an understanding of space. When you have an eye for instance you don't understand what being in a 3/4 view does to that eye or why that tail shouldn't start quite there. You've missed out on how the basics of the body works in real life. I truly truly had this issue a lot until I started drawing from real life references and studied the bones and muscle structure of what I was drawing. Before you can cartoonize something you have to understand the original premise.


!!! So important!!!
Dude that was such a hard lesson to learn. You gotta learn the rules before you break them!


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## SLCMedia (Jun 17, 2019)

MikeTheBrownFox said:


> What are the best ways that I can advertise my commissions? All I have been doing is bumping them constantly across all websites I'm on, but that's about it. Anything else I can do?


I'd focus on growing your audience by interacting with not only the people who follow you now, but with other artists around your level, and seeing if you can do some trades and collaborations. That way, your art can be seen by other people's audiences, with the added effect of having the artist _they_ follow vouch for you by working with you in the first place. This is in addition to continuing to improve your skill and whatnot.

It's important to keep in mind, though, that this is a process and will take time and effort to get rolling.


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## MikeTheBrownFox (Jun 18, 2019)

stardust_and_plastic said:


> So your problem is that you don't have an understanding of space. When you have an eye for instance you don't understand what being in a 3/4 view does to that eye or why that tail shouldn't start quite there. You've missed out on how the basics of the body works in real life. I truly truly had this issue a lot until I started drawing from real life references and studied the bones and muscle structure of what I was drawing. Before you can cartoonize something you have to understand the original premise.


I'm confused. What exactly do you mean by my lack of understanding of space? What's wrong with it and how can I improve on it?


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## stardust_and_plastic (Jun 19, 2019)

MikeTheBrownFox said:


> I'm confused. What exactly do you mean by my lack of understanding of space? What's wrong with it and how can I improve on it?


Okay, do I have your permission to redline one of your pieces? basically show you what I mean?


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## MikeTheBrownFox (Jun 20, 2019)

stardust_and_plastic said:


> Okay, do I have your permission to redline one of your pieces? basically show you what I mean?


Of course. You have my permission.


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## stardust_and_plastic (Jun 20, 2019)

MikeTheBrownFox said:


> Of course. You have my permission.


www.furaffinity.net: a red line by stardust_and_plastic I'm hoping this helps sort of?


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## MikeTheBrownFox (Jun 20, 2019)

stardust_and_plastic said:


> www.furaffinity.net: a red line by stardust_and_plastic I'm hoping this helps sort of?


Saw it and saved it for reference. Thanks for your help~


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## Cheeto-Dorito (Jun 22, 2019)

What a lot of commission artists don’t understand is that they shouldn’t pay themselves by the hour but by the quality of their work. For example, think like a comic book artist. They get paid by the completed page, not by the hour. That is how a commission artist should think. People don’t care about how many hours you put into your work, they care about the final result. For example, a comic artist sometimes only gets paid as little as $50 per page when they spend 6 hours on a single page.

I feel like you may be charging too much for your art. I know you probably spent hours and hours but the quality isn’t worth $30 based on the result. I’m just being super honest. Your art isn’t shit though. I think that guy was just being an asshole.What I reccomend lowing your prices though to $25 and less and when you start getting commissions increase your prices.


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## Jaredthefox92 (Jun 22, 2019)

Cheeto-Dorito said:


> What a lot of commission artists don’t understand is that they shouldn’t pay themselves by the hour but by the quality of their work. For example, think like a comic book artist. They get paid by the completed page, not by the hour. That is how a commission artist should think. People don’t care about how many hours you put into your work, they care about the final result. For example, a comic artist sometimes only gets paid $50 per page when they spend 6 hours on a single page.
> 
> I feel like you may be charging too much for your art. I know you probably spent hours and hours but the quality isn’t worth $30 based on the result. I’m just being super honest. Your art isn’t shit though. I think that guy was just being an asshole.What I reccomend lowing your prices though to $25 and less and when you start getting commissions increase your prices.



This is seconded, it's all about supply and demand, or basically how valuable your work is to others vs how much they're willing to pay. Also, there's plenty of furry artists out there so competition can be pretty steep.


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## MikeTheBrownFox (Jun 23, 2019)

Cheeto-Dorito said:


> What a lot of commission artists don’t understand is that they shouldn’t pay themselves by the hour but by the quality of their work. For example, think like a comic book artist. They get paid by the completed page, not by the hour. That is how a commission artist should think. People don’t care about how many hours you put into your work, they care about the final result. For example, a comic artist sometimes only gets paid as little as $50 per page when they spend 6 hours on a single page.
> 
> I feel like you may be charging too much for your art. I know you probably spent hours and hours but the quality isn’t worth $30 based on the result. I’m just being super honest. Your art isn’t shit though. I think that guy was just being an asshole.What I recommend lowing your prices though to $25 and less and when you start getting commissions increase your prices.


Even if I lowered my prices, I still wouldn't get any sales. One of the commenters on this thread have said that it's more of a marketing, advertising, promotion, and networking issue.


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## MikeTheBrownFox (Jun 23, 2019)

Jaredthefox92 said:


> This is seconded, it's all about supply and demand, or basically how valuable your work is to others vs how much they're willing to pay. Also, there's plenty of furry artists out there so competition can be pretty steep.


Which is an issue because it can be discouraging for smaller artists that can't get a single commission no matter how hard they try. It can really feel like people are deliberately choosing who gets to make a living off of their art and who doesn't.


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## Jaredthefox92 (Jun 23, 2019)

MikeTheBrownFox said:


> Which is an issue because it can be discouraging for smaller artists that can't get a single commission no matter how hard they try. It can really feel like people are deliberately choosing who gets to make a living off of their art and who doesn't.



I found that I would settle for less to make art, you may not have the most lovely art, but if it's cheaper people will buy it. However, the problem is that there's so many artists out there that art isn't something like a commodity or rarity. Thus, you are going to find people who are looking elsewhere all the time.


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## Cheeto-Dorito (Jun 23, 2019)

MikeTheBrownFox said:


> Even if I lowered my prices, I still wouldn't get any sales. One of the commenters on this thread have said that it's more of a marketing, advertising, promotion, and networking issue.



Just because one person said something about advertising doesn’t mean you should disregard what I said or anybody else’s advice. I think my comment is equally as important as marketing and advertising with a case like yours. Please take in what I said and I hope I didn’t offended you. I say this because I was once a small artist that went through what you went through. Take it all in.


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## lapinou (Jun 24, 2019)

Hiya, please don't take this in the wrong way, but I think it would be in your best interest to improve your work first before you try and get commissions. 
I say this because your current skill level is what limits you from getting clients. Also, what you can draw may also be limited (e.g. backgrounds), so that limits your client base. Yes, marketing and networking factor into getting clients but honestly that will probably take you more time than just straight up improving. "Less skilled" artists with super high follower counts likely have a niche (drawing only fanart or doing funny comics) or a very appealing style (well-rendered anime chibis, for example). Unless you go for a niche, you probably won't grow that big without improving your art.
Those comments on your works, don't let them get to you, they're probably people who redirect their anger about their problems at others, that is not good or helpful criticism. 
If you post art, good quality art, daily I assure you you will grow over time. Heck if you get good enough you can charge into the hundreds and still have clients! 
Heres how it works:
Great art, people likely to share with others even if the subject doesn't interest them, more commissioners will see.
Good but not great art, people may share if the subject interests them (e.g. fanart) but less likely, less commissioners will see.

I hope you don't mind a bit of critique. A lot of your work comes across as flat and a bit lifeless because you do not yet understand perspective, gesture, or form, essential fundamentals to learn, and the anatomy seems off because occasionally limbs bend in strange ways they are not supposed to, or would naturally or comfortably. As an example, try doing the pose of this character as accurately as you can in a mirror: DeviantArt
I tried it myself, it's not a very comfortable or natural way to stand, and very stiff. 
Compare it to this work, which I think is your best by the way: www.deviantart.com: Raffle Prize: honggseok
Easily do it in the mirror, and a very believable/natural pose. If you pushed the gesture more by having her lean towards the viewer, tilting her head to relax it, and really having her hip push into her hand it'd look even more lively.
Study proportion, perspective, form, and gesture. Dedicate some time each week studying a different one. Read some books by Loomis. They are a great place to start. There are pdfs online. www.alexhays.com: Save Loomis!

Improve your work. It will pay for itself, I promise you. If you did six months of active regular study you will see significant improvement in your work, and be much happier. One day you may get so many comms you'll have to start refusing commissions and make a Patreon! Work smart, and hard.


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## MikeTheBrownFox (Jun 24, 2019)

lapinou said:


> Hiya, please don't take this in the wrong way, but I think it would be in your best interest to improve your work first before you try and get commissions.
> I say this because your current skill level is what limits you from getting clients. Also, what you can draw may also be limited (e.g. backgrounds), so that limits your client base. Yes, marketing and networking factor into getting clients but honestly that will probably take you more time than just straight up improving. "Less skilled" artists with super high follower counts likely have a niche (drawing only fanart or doing funny comics) or a very appealing style (well-rendered anime chibis, for example). Unless you go for a niche, you probably won't grow that big without improving your art.
> Those comments on your works, don't let them get to you, they're probably people who redirect their anger about their problems at others, that is not good or helpful criticism.
> If you post art, good quality art, daily I assure you you will grow over time. Heck if you get good enough you can charge into the hundreds and still have clients!
> ...


I have thought that my art right now was at least passable. I have been using posing apps and looking up references, I started getting happy with how my art has been looking so far. I'm very saddened that I still haven't gotten any commissions after significantly improving my art skills as well as dropping a drawing app on a gaming handheld in favor for an actual art program on a desktop computer.

I don't plan having a Patreon since the controversy regarding recent changes and I don't like the idea of paywalling my art.


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## lapinou (Jun 25, 2019)

MikeTheBrownFox said:


> I have thought that my art right now was at least passable. I have been using posing apps and looking up references, I started getting happy with how my art has been looking so far. I'm very saddened that I still haven't gotten any commissions after significantly improving my art skills as well as dropping a drawing app on a gaming handheld in favor for an actual art program on a desktop computer.
> 
> I don't plan having a Patreon since the controversy regarding recent changes and I don't like the idea of paywalling my art.



Don't aim for passable to start doing commissions! "Passable" doesn't sound like you're confident in your work, and if you're not confident in your artwork, how are clients supposed to be confident in you?
Aim for the best you can be. If you think this is the best you can do, then you will never improve, you will only repeat mistakes and your art will regress in progress.

I'm happy you've made progress, but if you want my opinion I still think you have a lot of room for improvement. As does everyone, by the way, me included. I know it is frustrating to hear, but you're likely not going to see a dramatic increase in more commissioners until you improve a lot more.  Give it a go, you'll make mistakes but when you do it means you're making progress! And by the way, if you don't like books, Proko on Youtube has video lessons that are easy to digest for people of all skill levels.

Also reference is good but you shouldn't need to rely on it for all of your pieces. It makes the process much more time consuming and limits you and your creativity if you restrict yourself to references.
What you should do is take a moment to visualize a pose in your head, draw the a gesture and construct the pose the best you can from imagination, THEN use reference for details that your brain missed. Heres an awesome guide that goes more in depth: www.deviantart.com: The BASICS : Using References
Heres another that teaches you how to draw stuff from imagination with the help of reference: www.deviantart.com: Tutorial: How to draw anything
References are there to guide you, but not to carry your piece. The books I linked will give you tools to improvement. No rules, just tools, as awesome drawing instructor Glen Vlippu once said. Use the tools to your advantage.
If you really cant draw from imagination, grind 30 second gestures so you can recognize patterns in how the human body moves and works. Build a visual library of poses by drawing several quick sketches over and over. Like try to do 20 a day, sounds like a lot but if they're only 30 seconds each it'll only take ten minutes out of your day.
The goal is to make more mistakes through these simple quick gestures so you can notice and avoid them when you do finished works.

If you choose to stay where you're at, then I must respect your decision. But unless you have awesome marketing, connections, and business skills, I am telling you now you gotta start focusing on your work and not the numbers.

Oh, and about Patreon --- it's not required to use as a paywall. I've seen it used as just a tip jar or for people to see works a day earlier than someone would normally post them, and also to see high res works and behind the scenes stuff. I understand the policies part though


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## MikeTheBrownFox (Jul 5, 2019)

Anthrasmagoria said:


> I have seen prolific artists selling commissions for less than $30 so you'll be in competition with these people as well. A big part of getting the work is promotion and networking too. You often have to spend as much time advertising and exposure as you do working in the beginning, especially if you are not a fully skilled artist yet.
> 
> When I first started out as an artist, I took a brutally honest look at my work and asked myself if I'd buy it, and the answer at first was no. I knew the only way I'd ever make a living doing it was to improve dramatically.
> 
> But at the end of the day art is "worth" whatever someone is willing to pay for it. I know several artists of different skill levels that get regular work because of their networking. So it's difficult to advise for any particular situation... other than to say always work on becoming better, because that can never hurt. But here's something someone said to me that encouraged me back in the day. *A good artist is just a bad artist who never gave up. *It's true. Keep working on your skills and your networking and it will happen for you.


It can be really difficult advertising my commissions. There are times where I promote my commissions constantly and nobody bats an eye. What would you say are the most effective ways of advertising?


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## Anthrasmagoria (Jul 5, 2019)

MikeTheBrownFox said:


> It can be really difficult advertising my commissions. There are times where I promote my commissions constantly and nobody bats an eye. What would you say are the most effective ways of advertising?


Twitter/tumbr/reddit/instagram probably. Post works on there and build up a following by following people and commenting on their work too. There's no real substitute for making friends and when those friends feel inclined to buy commissions they will often come back for more. The main reason nobody bats an eye is because they aren't "connected" through personal interaction to your work. The other reason might be that you aren't finding the best places where people are asking for artists to commission and mentioning yourself there. The "best places" though can depend very much on your art style and subject matter. But word of mouth and personal interaction is the absolute winner I find when it comes to selling my art. I could plug it on every site I could find but the returns would be 1% or less success to failure rate for the time put in if was just hoping a random stranger would come along and decide to buy.


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## XPI Sigma (Jul 5, 2019)

Criticism is something to take to heart for sure. But if something isn't selling, make it a bit cheaper. When people tell you "you're too cheap!" that is when you should go up. 

Source: I make a living doing commissions. PM me for any further questions!


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## MikeTheBrownFox (Jul 5, 2019)

XPI Sigma said:


> Criticism is something to take to heart for sure. But if something isn't selling, make it a bit cheaper. When people tell you "you're too cheap!" that is when you should go up.
> 
> Source: I make a living doing commissions. PM me for any further questions!


You don't understand. Even if I do lower my commission prices, they still won't sell. This is more of a marketing issue.


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## XPI Sigma (Jul 5, 2019)

MikeTheBrownFox said:


> You don't understand. Even if I do lower my commission prices, they still won't sell. This is more of a marketing issue.


Then work on bettering your art. It's easier to market things that people enjoy.


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## PercyD (Jul 5, 2019)

Well, first of all-

If you have to use several screencaps of social media to explain your case, the opposite conclusion is true.
_Don't deal with people who don't like your art. _Don't deal with people who don't want to pay for your art.

It is going to take several weeks to get started getting commissions again. Myself, I only get commissions from people who I already have a relationship with. Theres a lot of relationship building that has to happen for commissions.


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## PercyD (Jul 5, 2019)

Also, your style is more reminiscent of old animation, which isn't bad.
I'd explore more with a cartoony style and being expressive. Theres so much you can do with this sort of style, including animation.


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## Marius Merganser (Jul 5, 2019)

MikeTheBrownFox said:


> It can be really difficult advertising my commissions. There are times where I promote my commissions constantly and nobody bats an eye. What would you say are the most effective ways of advertising?



I've noticed Twitter raffles for a free piece seems to be very effective.  
When you announce the raffle include some samples of your work, the right hashtags, and the requirement to follow and retweet. You can tweet a few more samples while waiting for the deadline and then when you announce the winner, mention you're open for commissions.

You can also pin a tweet in your feed with information about commissions so anyone who looks at your profile will know you're open.

I've seen people with 50 followers jump to 1500 in a few hours as their name and artwork propagated.


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## Fallowfox (Jul 6, 2019)

Marius Merganser said:


> I've noticed Twitter raffles for a free piece seems to be very effective.
> When you announce the raffle include some samples of your work, the right hashtags, and the requirement to follow and retweet. You can tweet a few more samples while waiting for the deadline and then when you announce the winner, mention you're open for commissions.
> 
> You can also pin a tweet in your feed with information about commissions so anyone who looks at your profile will know you're open.
> ...



Should artists do this? When we do it we undercut other artists, because prospective commissioners can trawl the internet for artists prepared to work for free.


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## Marius Merganser (Jul 6, 2019)

Fallowfox said:


> Should artists do this? When we do it we undercut other artists, because prospective commissioners can trawl the internet for artists prepared to work for free.



I think exposure is still pretty limited when new artists do it, so I don't expect it will have any significant impact on open artists.  I doubt established artists have the incentive to do raffles and their pool would be too large to expect to win, anyway.  

If someone is serious about commissioning a piece, I doubt s/he will have the patience to wait for a win since a raffle could be open for weeks at a time.   I never expect to win when I enter them, and I limit how many I do because I don't want to spam my follower's timelines.  I've actually won twice but it hasn't stopped me from commissioning other people.

If your goal is to sell, you have to compete.

Alternatively, you could do some free art of a popular furry and tweet it to them.  If they like it, maybe a few hundred of the followers will see you and what you got.


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## MikeTheBrownFox (Jul 8, 2019)

Marius Merganser said:


> I've noticed Twitter raffles for a free piece seems to be very effective.
> When you announce the raffle include some samples of your work, the right hashtags, and the requirement to follow and retweet. You can tweet a few more samples while waiting for the deadline and then when you announce the winner, mention you're open for commissions.
> 
> You can also pin a tweet in your feed with information about commissions so anyone who looks at your profile will know you're open.
> ...


Yeah, I've done Twitter art raffles a couple of times now. Sadly I don't get as many new followers from them, perhaps it has something to do with my art. I'm still trying to figure out what it is.


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## Fallowfox (Jul 8, 2019)

Marius Merganser said:


> I think exposure is still pretty limited when new artists do it, so I don't expect it will have any significant impact on open artists.  I doubt established artists have the incentive to do raffles and their pool would be too large to expect to win, anyway.
> 
> If someone is serious about commissioning a piece, I doubt s/he will have the patience to wait for a win since a raffle could be open for weeks at a time.   I never expect to win when I enter them, and I limit how many I do because I don't want to spam my follower's timelines.  I've actually won twice but it hasn't stopped me from commissioning other people.
> 
> ...



The idea of doing this makes me feel so pathetic that I wonder whether making art is even something I want to do.


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## Bullslayer (Jul 8, 2019)

Customers always try to get the best for the lowest price, i spent 12 years learning how to model my wolf characters in blender 3d modeling and even still i run into issues with people stating that the quality isnt enough to validate a price. I don't do commissions, my stuff is usually game related but i've been hit with the  "your shits not good enough for <insert price>" hate speech as well. It's tough but when others sell high quality for cheap thats what happens to the market sadly.


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## Kopatropa (Jul 10, 2019)

stardust_and_plastic said:


> It's so easy and it happens so fast.


Excuse me, what???

Anatomy is a stupidly hard and emotionally taxing thing to master, a subset among other stupidly hard and emotionally taxing requirements. Learning the rules before breaking them is really damn difficult and takes way too long for most of us, not to mention painfully boring considering you're not allowed to draw what you want when doing so.

Not everyone is an optimist or has the willpower to spend years figuratively killing themselves just to improve at art before deciding it' not worth their time and quitting. Please don't underestimate art.



Scary said:


> !!! So important!!!
> Dude that was such a hard lesson to learn. You gotta learn the rules before you break them!


I wanna know, how long did it take you to learn these rules? Did you ever feel like giving up because of how tedious this process is? I got uber-depressed multiple times throughout the years before reaching my current level, so I'll be stunned if you didn't feel the same way.


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## Scary (Jul 11, 2019)

Kopatropa said:


> Excuse me, what???
> 
> Anatomy is a stupidly hard and emotionally taxing thing to master, a subset among other stupidly hard and emotionally taxing requirements. Learning the rules before breaking them is really damn difficult and takes way too long for most of us, not to mention painfully boring considering you're not allowed to draw what you want when doing so.
> 
> ...




It was eyeballing anatomy and poses for YEARS, and it got me nowhere. But when I got to school I had life drawing once a week for three hours, and 3 hour walk in sessions after class hours which I went to a lot. So i had well over 90+ hours of practice over the course of eight months. I also had professors pointing out issues that I would have to consciously fix in my work until it became an unconscious action soon enough. an important note is you can't stop doing it, your skills regress when you're not drawing.

I had a crappy year for mental health that year, so sometimes i would leave class for twenty minutes at a time bc you dont always have good days and you can get very discouraged and overwhelmed. Despite this my own personality of always finishing what I started kept me attending classes, and getting good friends that encourage you to get better REALLY helped when second semester came around.

I'm coming from a place of privilege here bc I gained my skills through my education but honestly I wouldn't have learned without it, back then I didn't have the motivation to learn outside of school. Now it's a different story, every now and then I go to pintrest and practice poses from the website to keep my skills up. Now I'm on my second year of life drawing on the regular and my anatomy is soooo much better. if you ever want some tips of examples anyone feel free to hit me up!! <3


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## Willow (Jul 11, 2019)

There's a pinned thread I think in the Art and Auctions subforum that has some helpful tips on how to get people interested in your art. Though if I'm being honest, I'd stop focusing on improving your art for the sake of selling it and improve your art because you enjoy doing it. If I'm being blunt I'm not entirely sure if your art is exactly at a level that I as a potential client would feel confident in spending $30 on. It's not bad, but it's pretty average and has a lot of anatomy mistakes that would also turn off clients who would otherwise really enjoy your art. And again, if you're only trying to get your art to a point where you can sell it, you're doing illustration and art for the wrong reasons. So spend more time improving and reevaluate why you're even doing art in the first place and maybe reconsider your path if your only goal is making money, because you'll burn yourself out a lot quicker when you don't get the kind of profit you want from your art. Same with doing raffles and fan art of other artists. Neither of these things are gateways to getting people to buy your art because people, especially people in the fandom, can tell when you're only doing fanart for others to get ahead and they'll be more likely to avoid you. 

It also helps talking to people. Ask them what they enjoy about your art and what you could improve on. Having critics and trolls can suck, but critics can offer valuable insight into why you're maybe not improving or progressing like you want to.


Bullslayer said:


> Customers always try to get the best for the lowest price


Not really. People who want cheap, good art will always try to get the best for the lowest price, but people who want good art will be willing to pay a fair price for good work. I see a lot of artists who get pretty consistent work and still sell art for $150+.


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## lapinou (Jul 12, 2019)

Kopatropa said:


> Excuse me, what???
> 
> Anatomy is a stupidly hard and emotionally taxing thing to master, a subset among other stupidly hard and emotionally taxing requirements. Learning the rules before breaking them is really damn difficult and takes way too long for most of us, not to mention painfully boring considering you're not allowed to draw what you want when doing so.
> 
> ...



Art is a hobby and, for some, career that requires much self discipline. It is different from something like watching TV where there is little to no emotional consequence to doing it. But not many successful people come from just watching TV everyday. Improving your work is emotionally taxing, yes, but oh my gosh when you start seeing results it is so worth it. 

This was my work while I knew the bare minimum fundamentals. I kinda understood anatomy, I kinda understood perspective, but... not much more than the average beginner.
Here is my work seven months later. I started studying five months ago, on average every other day for about 3 hours, doing creative art everyday for another 3 hours. And I studied with resources you can readily find for free.
Still not perfect, but hey, I'm not aiming for perfect. Just the best I can be. Btw, before I focused on actually studying, I stayed at more or less the same level since I started drawing at eleven years old. How much time passes doesn't matter, it's what you do with that time.

Also when you're studying, it is extremely important to draw from imagination in-between studies. Otherwise you never learn how to draw something thats not in front of you! And of course you burn out very easily. Study every day, but draw creatively every day too. And when you feel yourself burning out from studying, it is so important to sometimes just step away and do only creative work for a while until you're ready to start learning again.

One thing is about art, there is no rules!!! Literally zero. Nobody is forcing you to learn perspective, anatomy, values, absolutely nobody and you are free to draw your entire life not knowing a thing about those fundamentals if thats what makes you happy. Learning anatomy is a TOOL to use to your advantage, to make your work more appealing and believable. It's also a TOOL for you to twist and use as you like, thats why theres a lot of art that exaggerates anatomy and some art that abandons it all together!

The reason why it is encouraged to learn the fundamentals, is because they will be there to assist you in making art better. You don't even need to have a perfect understanding of them, and nobody should expect you to, but what I am saying is that if you truly wish to improve your work, you should at least have a basic understanding. Thats it! You don't *need* to know every muscle and detail, or how to do five point perspective, just the basics.
Like drawing a box in perspective without the need of a grid, or understanding the construction of a human body and gesture drawing without reference. You don't have to do these things perfectly, just well enough to know what you're doing.
And if you decide to study further on from the basics? You'll only get better.


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## MikeTheBrownFox (Jul 12, 2019)

By the way, I want to point out that I was able to sell some commissions in the past with my less-experienced artwork back in 2016, compared to how my artworks are right now.

Below is a Sta.sh link containing some of my older works in 2017 and 2016. This was before I started taking art seriously and wanted to improve on my anatomy, colors, poses, etc., and this was before having a much more proper art program.
sta.sh: Old Artwork

I was hoping the art skills I have now are commission-worthy to people, but I still have a long way to go I guess. How I'm not able to sell any commissions with my current art skills right now compared to the art skills I had back then baffles me.


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## Kite512 (Jul 13, 2019)

I'd recommend leaving the commission slots open and try not to think about the income too much. I know that's easier said than done, but at a stage as early as yours it's not likely you'll immediately blow up and earn enough to live off of it. Draw and post regularly, show you're improving. Network and advertise, there's groups on Telegram that are popular for artists to post their listings for instance. It's not an easy road and two weeks is a very short window. If you get discouraged this early on about it, then you're only going to affect yourself negatively.


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## Anthrasmagoria (Jul 13, 2019)

Maybe respond to ads that people put up wanting work doing and always have a select gallery to go with it, with work in it that shows skill and similarity to the poster's needs. You might have to do this for every job you want but that's how you get the jobs (in my experience). If the work doesn't come to you, you have to go after the work proactively. It's almost the same as my process for applying for a job IRL, always tailor the resume or tweak it so that unnecessary stuff is cut from it and good stuff is emphasized, same with a commission response and portfolio. Whatever you're doing at the moment, something needs changing in your approach, so try different things and see if you can't figure out what's missing.


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## MikeTheBrownFox (Jul 16, 2019)

Kite512 said:


> I'd recommend leaving the commission slots open and try not to think about the income too much. I know that's easier said than done, but at a stage as early as yours it's not likely you'll immediately blow up and earn enough to live off of it. Draw and post regularly, show you're improving. Network and advertise, there's groups on Telegram that are popular for artists to post their listings for instance. It's not an easy road and two weeks is a very short window. If you get discouraged this early on about it, then you're only going to affect yourself negatively.


Posting regularly is impossible for me because I take on average 6 hours to finish any drawing, as well as family events, being in a program taking away my drawing time.
By the way, it's been about one month since I opened my commissions and I still have no takers.


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## sushy (Jul 17, 2019)

I am sorry you received such nasty comments! You know it can really take a while until you get a commission. It is best to not undercharge, so do not decrease your rates!! Rates for commissions are too low already. And maybe your quality is not the best, but a commission is a part of an artist's time that they never can get back. That is worth something. No matter your skill. Also it is really tough to get commissions, I recommend getting a part time job for regular income and slowly build up a client base.


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## Rinibeanie (Jul 17, 2019)

There's a lot of solid advice here regarding improving your art.  I would honestly heed their advice.  If you're plugging away advertising your services in multiple venues and not getting bites, then it's time to work on your art.  Your gallery is good, but definitely needs some improvement in how you apply color, tones, depth/space, and composition.  Take the time to study real life people and objects to get a feel for how lighting and shadow work, learn human anatomy and and how to make more appealing character design.  Studying the fundamentals will amp up the quality of your art and will steadily drive more interest in people commissioning you.

It would also be helpful to evaluate what it is you specifically offer.  What are your strengths?  Something more specific than "I draw characters and need money".  For me, I really enjoy drawing expressions and dynamic poses, buff bodies and soft forms.  When you're passionate about a certain quality in your art, people will be drawn to it as well.

I know the grind is hard.  It's not easy!  Sometimes it's plain timing and luck!  I started seriously posting my anthro art a few years back and didn't get any offers until after, like, 8 months of posting and even then I only got maybe one or two commissions every few months.

I get the feeling you're looking for a quick solution, but there is no quick fix to your problem, unfortunately.  Yes, absolutely keep up the marketing and networking, but you also need to continue applying yourself in working on your art skills.  And don't let the haters get you down!  Some folks get a kick out of being callous, so it's best to ignore them and remain focused on your goals.


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## MikeTheBrownFox (Jul 17, 2019)

Rinibeanie said:


> There's a lot of solid advice here regarding improving your art.  I would honestly heed their advice.  If you're plugging away advertising your services in multiple venues and not getting bites, then it's time to work on your art.  Your gallery is good, but definitely needs some improvement in how you apply color, tones, depth/space, and composition.  Take the time to study real life people and objects to get a feel for how lighting and shadow work, learn human anatomy and and how to make more appealing character design.  Studying the fundamentals will amp up the quality of your art and will steadily drive more interest in people commissioning you.
> 
> It would also be helpful to evaluate what it is you specifically offer.  What are your strengths?  Something more specific than "I draw characters and need money".  For me, I really enjoy drawing expressions and dynamic poses, buff bodies and soft forms.  When you're passionate about a certain quality in your art, people will be drawn to it as well.
> 
> ...


I'm trying to improve my art but I feel that every time I try to work on improve on my art I feel like it's a waste of time. As I said, I was able to (somehow) sell a few commissions in the past before I had a PC and a proper art program, so how I'm not selling anything with my current art baffles me.


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## Willow (Jul 17, 2019)

MikeTheBrownFox said:


> Posting regularly is impossible for me because I take on average 6 hours to finish any drawing, as well as family events, being in a program taking away my drawing time.





MikeTheBrownFox said:


> I'm trying to improve my art but I feel that every time I try to work on improve on my art I feel like it's a waste of time. As I said, I was able to (somehow) sell a few commissions in the past before I had a PC and a proper art program, so how I'm not selling anything with my current art baffles me.


Honestly if this is your attitude about making art, you shouldn't be trying to sell it at all. It's a major turnoff to customers if you yourself feel that you don't have the time to commit to drawing and view drawing to improve your skills as a waste of time. Lot of people can pick up on things like that and if they sense that you have better things to do than draw, they're not going to work with you. It sends a message to the commissioner that you're not very organised and feel that drawing is a chore. Freelance artists who do this as a full-time job also have personal lives, but still have to make time to work on art and are constantly trying to improve their art. If you're not willing to put in even that level of commitment, selling your art is probably not what you should focus on right now. 

I think I mentioned earlier that you shouldn't work to improve your art so you can better sell it, but because you enjoy making art and want to share it with people.


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## rjbartrop (Jul 17, 2019)

This is why I'm a great believer in art for art's sake.   Do this stuff because you enjoy it, work to improve because it brings your personal vision a little closer.  Who knows, you may get to the point where other people get what you're doing, and even pay you to do it.  If not, then at least you've spent time doing something you love.

Some people are still labouring under the illusion that all you have to do is announce that you are open for commissions, and a torrent of money will pour into your lap.   Here's a little reality check on the state of the furry market:

If there ever was a time when anyone who could draw a halfway decent animal person was guaranteed furry ghodhood.  if was over long before you were born.  There's maybe half a million artists on FA alone, all competing for attention, and money.  If you don't build up a collection of watchers, and that takes time,  all anyone is going to know of you art if from the brief minute it appears on the front page before it's lost in the torrent.   Professional artists from outside the fandom are starting to realize that there's money to be made from furries,  and you've probably seen the new wave of classically trained furry artists from Russia who are frighteningly good, and they live in places where furry fandom money translates to a pretty good living.   If you're harbouring dreams of making it big in the furry art world,  you have your work cut out for you, because this is your competition.











And yes there are people looking to pounce on any since of weakness, because that is how they make themselves  feel better about their own miserable lives.

You have to decide for yourself if this is worth doing, and if you want to take this on,  I wish you luck.  However, it sounds a lot like you're asking for permission to quit, in which case, consider it given.


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## Inkstars (Jul 18, 2019)

I'm sure it's been mentioned, but references are your friend!  And OP, just fyi, I'm a fairly skilled artist, and it's very hard for me to get commissions. Be persistent, be patient, if you can afford it, have ads, and make sure you draw a lot <3 Don't just draw in hopes you'll get commissions (I've learned that the hard way). Try to be as consistent as you can, but sometimes it just doesn't pan out, so just do your best. It's a VERY saturated market, so you really have to offer something fairly unique. I do a lot of flats and cel-shading because that's less common than the extremely rendered shading that's the major style on FA and in the fandom. Try to build yourself a unique style.


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## Anthrasmagoria (Jul 18, 2019)

You could try to stick to adoptables and stuff like that. They don't go for as much money but from what I see the skill level doesn't have to be god-like to profit from it. It's not my sort of thing or I'd be doing it and building a network there. My game is more like what rjbartrop posted there and you have to be able to compete with artists of this caliber, it's true. If your heart's not in learning the craft with a burning desire to be brilliant and putting in the time - don't try to make a career out of it, or box yourself into it as a full time job - it will probably make you unhappy if you do. Take it from me, been there! I live and breathe art for my living and trust me, if you don't really love it, you _can_ end up hating it.

I understand your frustration and trying to understand why your skill level isn't netting you the jobs. But you must be doing something wrong if your appraisal is right. If you have noticed a drop-off of jobs when you had more before, was it where you were plying your trade? Are you putting enough time into marketing and networking? Are you advertising in the right places? Are your asking prices appealing? You have to figure this one out. I consider myself a fairly decent artist and I too can have trouble netting jobs and that's mainly due to the fact the networking side of things is almost as important as the rest of it if you live on commissions. One of my priorities is to diversify from just commissions because I know it can be an unreliable / unpredictable source of work. To do that I have to expand the sort of stuff I do and my skillset. It's you that needs to be flexible to survive as an artist, unless you are lucky enough to become famous.

I do get a fairly regular number of people emailing me asking for commissions, but I network and market every single day, and it's still not enough to exist on, I have to sell sculptures and apply for commission /contract jobs as well. I don't want to discourage you, but you really have to chase the work in every way you can if you want to keep it coming.


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## Rinibeanie (Jul 19, 2019)

MikeTheBrownFox said:


> I'm trying to improve my art but I feel that every time I try to work on improve on my art I feel like it's a waste of time. As I said, I was able to (somehow) sell a few commissions in the past before I had a PC and a proper art program, so how I'm not selling anything with my current art baffles me.



Freelance/commission work is feast or famine.  You have times when you get a lot of work then months upon months of nothing.  Instead of trying to figure out why you were able to sell a few commissions years ago (it could've been people were drawn to an older style, whatever subject matter you were drawing, plain luck of the draw, etc), like everyone else has said, focus on your ART.  It's fine if you want to make art just to make money (we've all gotta hustle), but if that's your only drive, then you're going to stagnate.  Continue studying, even if it feels like a waste.  It's not.  You're honing your craft which will only increase your chances of attracting an audience and securing future work.

Find what makes YOU excited to draw.  Keep up with current trends in the furry fandom and gauge what kind of art draws in interest and see if YOU enjoy drawing that and implement it into your work.  Keep networking and sound EXCITED about helping people bring their characters to life!  You may even need to evaluate how you present yourself online if you're throwing out hooks but not reeling anyone in.  Are you open, friendly, and approachable?  Or do you respond to every hiring thread with the same o' copy n' paste drab message?

It's frustrating that there's no hard n' fast answer as to why your art isn't selling.  But, whatever it is, upping your art skills is never a waste!


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## MikeTheBrownFox (Jul 29, 2019)

DemonCleaner said:


> Hey, Mike. This man's right, you know. I had to create an account because I hear so many budding artists wailing about this over and over like a prayer wheel, it's so painful and miserable to look at. Moreso that you particularly don't learn anything. Have you considered that your art really is just not good enough?
> You have to get serious about making good art, about learning how to make good art, about learning what makes art good, about looking at, loving, and trying to replicate good art. If you don't want to take the pressure, then just forget about it.
> 
> Home - Art Renewal Center
> ...


From what I have seen, your art doesn't have to look "realistic" in order to be successful. I have plenty of friends and followers with cartoony or anime art styles and they're able to make a living off of them. Yes, I still have to improve on my art despite being happy with it so far, and drawing realistic is necessary for studies and such, but the mentality of having to draw "realistic" as the only way to be good at art does not feel right to me.


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