#literal NDA violating stuff im not going to get sued over a drama blog lo

[lulzyfarm]

sent in:

im an artist who sells on pfq and prices are a complicated topic.. i used to do icons that took me hours to animate for 100zc slowly upping to 300zc. i used to do full painted illustrations for art contests just to loose and not be compensated or place in the top 3 and get the compensation of about 1$ in pfq items. used to do paintings for 100zc. but i also tried upping prices just to see that no one was interested. i think theres only so much we can blame artists for.  prices were a shit show topic on twitter this summer and it always boils down to theres a limited amount of customers. you have to stand out and/or be already popular to afford high prices. theres some overpriced to death artists on the site simply bevause theyve been around for forever and are popular so they can afford it. theyre also ultra rich and can afford loosing out on sales. another problem is that generally people don't treat art as a luxury item nor as real skilled labor.  think back to being highschool and people begging for free art when they find out you can draw. i dont think its a problem Just on pfq its like that everywhere. non artists dont see the work we put into this and they dont care. why should they? they can always just go and find a cheaper artist. were stuck in a shitty capitalism cycle and idk how to end it and i doubt i have the power to. i still dont sell my art for minimum wage cause if i did it wouldnt sell it barely sells at 

my current prices. selling art for something i view as expensive is stressful as well i feel like i have to properly compensate that people willing to pay me this much. if you commission just try to give big tips. it boosts confidence and might help artists to get to a point where they can raise their prices comfortably. other than that idk. same guy from the 4 part art asks forgot to mention, selling your art higher and watching no one ordering it is such a confidence killer it hurts really bad. so we cant blame artists for not putting themselves into such vulnerable positions. selling art on pfq loosing contests actually killed my confidence so bad i had entire breakdowns over it cause i measured my worth as a person with what people think my arts worth. im getting better but it still sucks and i dont wish this on other artists.

adding in the keep reading because the submission is way more important: 

i mean, yeah. being an artist irl and online is brutal. it’s all about commodification and not practice or labour, because at the end of the day, your work is a product. 

i’m sure there are also a lot of people, however, that are buying work on PF and really, immensely grateful for it. the silverlining, albeit, so minor, is that people who may not be able to afford commissioned work w/irl currency are able to commission and also support an artist they like. 

i don’t at all think that artists are the ones that should face the pressure of their worth or be blamed for the current system in place. but, fighting what art devaluation internalises and benefits off of is so valuable early on, it’s so difficult to unlearn that mentality later. imposter syndrome is a byproduct of late capitalism, and internalising art as a hobby and not a career, or other ridiculous rhetoric that says you’re not worth a grit, is what’s going to keep that system going. 

contests are always going to be shitty and humbling though unless you win. i feel that pain. i remember entering deviantart contests all the time and spending hours of work to lose. hard. and you basically feel obligated to sign off the rights to your work even when you lose. but that’s just the point of contests to an extent. 

thank you for sending this in!!