#other than fanart but art motivation is at an all time low so instead we explode together

[mirrored-lipstick-obituary]

gjoing fucking insane over mumbo's new video like goth mumbo and punk babe mumbo were funny of course but the work he's put into his town??? he has a lesbian couple!! jill and bill!!! the auction and the juggling and people on stairs and people having conversations !! the details and interactions !!! god his town is so beautiful and diverse and it's amazing to see him so happy with it because it is realky beautiful and full of life !! i'm so incredibly normal about this "small" build he's made (small relative to others) and i love the fact that he's branched off into narrative building because it plays into his strengths as a film maker !! it's beautiful and amazing and i'm here for it

[legionofpotatoes]

I love your art, it is very detailed in a neat way. Was wondering how you got started making it as a source of income? How did you get your first paid work, I'd love some advice on how to get started, if that's ok

Thank you. Of course it's okay, although I doubt I have enough work experience in art to really delve into this. I only went full freelance this year, and had been juggling art as a side hobby until then. If you're still interested in my somewhat narrow perspective, and are okay with my long-winded rambles, I'll give it a shot:

So to answer your question fully, I'll describe how I started and move into personal advice and learnings later on. As a disclaimer, I am a white cishet dude in my late twenties with a moderate cocktail of mental illnesses, but overall I can pass for a functioning adult so a lot I have to say may come laced with privilege I cannot fully identify.

So uhh I began drawing in around 2012? I think? Maybe halfway through 2011? And I mostly made fanart for things I enjoyed and tried to branch out in communities that felt nourishing to my style and interests (I caught a bug for alt posters and enjoyed mainstream movies so I spent a long time on posterspy early on). There were a handful of opportunities that came from there but I could only accept a couple because of primary workplace commitments. Still, it showed that networking in a focused community was definitely a good place to start; I myself have huge trouble committing to social networks and really staying socially active, but I knew it was an essential ingredient in succeeding so I tried to make myself be involved in challenges and art support trains etc. as much as I could.

In parallel to all that I also ran a few third party online stores (redbubble, teepublic) for disposable income and would sometimes, if rarely, hit around $100-150 a month from those sources combined. It is a sort of thing that requires helper accounts on other social media sites to promote it on, because the stores themselves have a huge volume of content that translates into low organic discoverability. Obviously it was never gonna be the way towards financial independence through art, and with community projects being few and far between, I opened private commissions in around uhhh 2017 I think, focusing on offering a few styles I knew I could do well, and sometimes operating in individual fandoms (it was mostly a bioware thing to be frank). But I had to close them back down after a year or so, again because of work-life conflict and how badly it was burning me out. The reason I kept trying to monetize this hobby is because I honestly hated what I did for my main job and wanted to see a way out in some shape or form in the future.

And then in 2020 I had to quit my main job altogether because of *gestures at pandemic* and deal with a mental breakdown from all the wonderful things it did to us and me specifically. I took a short break and decided to give art a shot full-time, and that was around May this year. I was planning on opening up commissions again (and I still am), but a few sudden opportunities that fell in my lap moved that timetable down and now I'm grateful to even be doing something I am getting adequately paid for.

So, with that somewhat limited perspective, here's what I've learned that I'd tell myself if I was just starting out:

1. Being a fan of something can be a shortcut towards effective networking kickoffs. Which are important evidently. If you love something and enjoy making content for it, join communities, settle into a combination of social media websites that feel right for those interests + your body of work + your inner rhythm, and try to play to content discovery as much as your mental health allows you to. Like I said, I know that I myself am incredibly bad at self-motivating to talk to people, so I found that synergizing common interests into fanart - which I enjoyed making anyway - could be a way to give myself a gentle nudge forward and build those bridges leading to community activities, which then net experience and coverage. Sometimes even freelance projects from official avenues. Again; picking the right spaces for what you're after is key. Companies roam twitter, concept art recruiters scour artstation or linkedin etc, instagram can land you private commissions and collab opportunities, so on and so forth. Find your niche and try to kick up dust. However...

2. I do not believe that any social profile can replace a good portfolio. The thing that made an immediate difference to me this year was building a coherent, simple website with my best work front and center and a contact form on top. Every single opportunity I got came from that form (maybe via twitter or instagram initially, but always sealing the decision after going through the website), so I firmly believe that showcasing your skills and portfolio in a visually arresting and user-friendly way is a big priority. I had some reservations about tackling that task but fortunately I had help from a savvy life partner and we slapped it together via wordpress in less than a day. Twitter/whatever social media is prevalent in your target groups is definitely important to get the right eyes on your shit, yes, but those eyes will then look for a second stop where your work and rates are more clear and concise. Simplicity is key imo, I cannot overstate this. So make a cute, simple portfolio!

3. Your skills and rates will grow and change as you do. Let them. Over the years I built several lasting professional relationships from my obsession over mass effect and kept getting opportunities both from bioware and their partner companies, some small and some a bit bigger. A one-off job earlier this year opened an unexpected door to another much larger commitment, and then the work I did there brought some attention from small businesses looking for commercial commissions. These were all incredibly different projects in terms of scope and budget, and I've been tackling them all on a case-by-case basis and slowly coming into my own irt my needs, rates, and SOW thresholds. It is still a work in progress (and a LOT of literal work as well), and very much a thing I struggle with in publicly marketing, which is why I felt a tad underqualified to answer your question in the first place (obviously I did not let that stop me). But what it means for me now is that I am rapidly developing into whatever my "version" of a functioning freelance artist is, and when the conditions for that guy are met, I need to be able to confidently plant myself and operate from that space despite past precedents. Do not let anyone bully you into downpricing what you yourself perceive as legitimate products of personal growth and development. Speaking of which...

4. The shitty challenge of turning envy into inspiration, and paddling outside your comfort zones in full riot gear. it is hard, but realizing that being a miserable, self-hating artist in my early days got me nothing but more misery back was the first real step I took and what truly blew the hinges off. I was just not pleasant to be around, I would badmouth my work all the time, and it all somehow made sense in my broken mind because the validation I sought was purely external and the way I sought it was through eliciting sympathy via self-victimization (even when I made something objectively nice). It all led fucking nowhere. Except perhaps to my own narcissism that I one day managed to identify and start managing. So I started looking at things that made me seethe with envy and calmly deconstruct and figure out their inner workings instead, do studies, and find nuggets of inspiration or discover new ways to approach rendering or building up specific elements. It was an application of analytical diligence to what I wanted to be a purely emotional, esoteric workflow, but that I deep down knew wasn't. Art is a discipline and a skill, and maybe it isn't a straight line, but you gotta find some line to thread nevertheless. Being self-hating was almost an identity I had to break out of, and despite it still being like, 4-5% there? I realize its cause and effect on me, my work, and those around me, so it is with a conscious choice that I gently set it aside when I work and especially when I learn. It won't always stay quiet, but the effort is the difference. Your doors towards accepting true growth and venturing into uncharted territories, art styles, and networking will really open from there. But there's a huge caveat...

5. Toolsets, accessibility, privilege, and all the good things that enable artistic expression and profitability are not given equal to all. you might do all the mental work I mentioned to be ready to rock and roll and learn and draw your way out of anything, but digital art is a fucking money pit that asks almost too much at times. I don't got a good case study here but identifying and ensuring accessibility to the tools you need to do your best work is, like, super important. The ergonomics can improve as you make money and settle into the job, but the basics have to be made available to you. And some of that might not even be under your direct control. That can be anything from pen tablets to software subscriptions to opportunities in hiring sullied by sexism or what have you. You gotta navigate all that through careful networking and money/time management. I don't do a good job of devoting specific slices of time to work/study, and my primary clutch is iPad software which went from a good deal to a nightmare scenario over the years. So all I can say here is do what I didn't; network, invest in a PC/tablet, and pick a software you'll learn that won't burn a hole in your pocket.

6. Be nice to work with? This one is hard to articulate and has landed my own ass in hot water in my early years because of how socially inept I am, but nothing is more worthwhile than being.. like. a good person to work with. That can be anything like meeting deadlines, or sometimes missing them but eloquently articulating why, being generous in early stages, being communicable and not too wordy in your emails, having a good grasp on abstract artistic concepts and how to describe them in simple terms, having a clear, laid out framework of your working rates in commercial and non-commercial projects and sticking to those guns with grace, understanding when you need to say no and saying it well, the works. Just being nice. Sometimes that might mean going headstrong with something you believe in, or simmering down and sucking up to the big man, all relative and adaptive. Part and parcel of the service provision dance that we all have to do in order to make bank. Know your lines here, obviously, and don't like. work for nazis. or uh.. *shudders* exposure. but be nice and empathetic and communicable and word will travel eventually. Skill may be in abundance these days, but good people are most certainly not, and capitalism has a way of bubbling up scarcity. Grim, but uh, them's the breaks.

I know I'm ultimately telling you to like. Have a body of work, make a portfolio, grow, and network. But that's really how I see it for now. And being nice can be a cherry on top that sets you apart, along with the inherent irreplaceable voice of your artwork. I think I rambled on enough, but if there is something specific you need my help with, even if you want to come off anon and talk in private, please feel free.

[wolfstar-in-color]

Personal account: How IDs help us and how our learning process has been

Today in Wolfstar in Color, we close our week that’s been focused on disabilities, ID’s and accessibility (check our Monday fic rec list, our Tuesday post ‘what are ID’s’, our resources Wednesday with links to pages that help in the task, our Thursday post ‘how to do ID’s) with sharing a bit about how it’s been our learning process of making image descriptions. We really hope we find some new blogs, both from artists and fans, including and adding descriptions to their visual content, so our fandom gets flooded with them.

This personal recount is going to be focused in my experience (Moth) since I’m newer at this practice, and so some of you might find it easier to relate with that! I had all the fears, all the questions, and I think I’ve made more than one mistake in my descriptions. If you ever have questions, want to yell into the void, or want to find some motivation to keep doing image descriptions, you can always leave us an ask. Honestly, it would be lovely just to know more people are doing this.

The rest of the post is under a cut, since it’s kinda long - but I also offer some advise at the end based on my own experience, so I really invite y’all to read!

How Image descriptions help me

Doing Images description has helped me realize how much I rely on them when I’m low in spoons, and how helpful they can be to learn about the meaning and intent of an image in the creator’s perspective. Sometimes, when I’m very exhausted, I can’t process some stimuli too well (particularly videos), and video and image descriptions allow me to engage while also not needing to use my whole brain to understand what the artist/creator is trying to convey, nor getting sensory overload with sound in videos in my case. So yeah, please bring more images description into the internet. They really, really help a lot of people to participate in fandom.

What I’ve learnt from doing Image descriptions

Learning how to do Images descriptions has been fun and important for me to also take perspective about how to work for a more accessible internet for everyone. Internet is important for a lot of us, including those who are disabled and immunosuppressed, since engaging with the same intensity as before with the outside world in the middle of a pandemic is not always an option. But honestly, I think the pandemic has shown how relationships and engagement in spaces like fandom might be important to build opinion, practice solidarity, learn about perspective taking, and build resource networks and friendships for everyone.

Writing Images descriptions is a skill, without a doubt. As such, is something you have to grow into. This is still a new skill I’m trying to master. Yes, it takes time to read a bit and get used to how to go about certain characteristics, with what information to start with, how not to ‘tear apart’ the artwork  (I particularly struggle with symbols and sometimes, because of the scope of this blog, how to convey ethnicity, especially when a creator doesn’t have an explicit identity/ethnicity/race description in their blog/image). I still tend to start with ‘image of’ or other context descriptors that are not really needed. I still get very unsure about how I’m doing, but at the end of the day, the learning process can only be done by trying. The positive feedback and gentle correction don’t hurt either!

I’ve also discovered in the process that doing image descriptions is incredible entertaining for me - and it’s honestly an activity I enjoy since it allows me to sort of ‘disconnect’ my brain and just submerge myself in the work of artists. I think it has helped me to hone my own writing skills too. It’s not too different to try to bring into life a description of a scene in a fic, only that it’s more of an inter-textual experience, since you are also trying to convey the intentions of the artist, bring their work to life for other people, and that makes me incredibly happy, and makes the activity really rewarding.

Some personal tips when doing IDs

- Don’t do them in mass, if you are low on spoons. The last ones are going to suck. Don’t overdo and burn out, because it’s hard to come back from there. Be honest with yourself if you can’t do more.

- Find a pal that might be able to read your IDs and rant with you when you are struggling (thanks Theo!!). But if you are on your own, that’s fine too!

- Contact the artist, if they are still on tumblr or other social media, if you got any doubt with a part of the image. Do so after you do your research in basic stuff (clothing, for example), but don’t back up from the task just because you are not sure about something in the image! Most artists are going to be thrilled to help you, and it might be a nice way to bring some awareness too of the need of using descriptions in videos, gifs and images.

- Do IDs for images/videos/gifsets you love. I know a lot of the tips we’ve handed are about ‘keeping it short’ but honestly, the goal is to give an experience, so if you are like me and need lots of words, then allow yourself to do that! If you are passionate and give a long, poetic description, worthy of its own fic, it’s likely people will appreciate it (and to be honest, if you get inspired to write something inspired in the image? it’s a win-win situation!)

- Make the ‘ID time’ an special, ‘me’ time - for me, is very close to meditating, to be honest. Put some fun music. Make a playlist that fit the artwork. Let yourself get loose in not having to think about anything but the beautiful artwork you are enjoying for a few good minutes.

- Use resources!! wolfstar-in-color has been posting things that help a lot in the process of writing ID! use the guide to write skin tones from writing in color! use the pose reference from Adorka stock (the poses usually have name in the stock!)! Go dig on @blindbeta‘s posts, use the guides to draw wheelchairs to learn how to describe the different parts. And if stuck, go ask in wonderful blogs the details you need to learn to do an effective and respectful description. There are more resources to come in the blog, but there are amazing blogs for trans and queer issues, ethnic and racial diversity, history, clothing and art, that you can look for yourself too!

- Something I’m trying to do more now: offer the artists you know the IDs you’ve done so they put them with the artwork, instead of adding an image description that likely, will only be reblogged half of the time. Who knows, it might end up with you two striking a collab mode of working!

So with that, here in Wolfstar in Color, we invite you to help us fill the fandom with image descriptions of the beautiful fanart, fanvids, gifsets and other visual content we have! If you don’t feel too confident, you can always submit the link to the image and your description, if you want us to post it for you, but we honestly invite you to give it a try, use the resources we are providing, and work with us to make this fandom more accessible!