#shitty art™

[uselessgaywhovian]

this is the year i go 'fuck it' and buy canvases and paint and make bad paintings.

they will probably mostly be of possums.

[arachnidsgrippysocks]

I don't think I've posted this Dovekat 8efore........

[moths-one-super-crazy-project]

“How does it feel to be God’s favorite?”

”Absolutely fucking horrible.”

~ hey guys im so normal about atyau, aka my own au <3 I’m sure Grian and Mumbo love being my favorite characters, especially since all my favorite characters go through The Horrors™ <3

ignore my shitty art skills I’ve been drawing for aboutttttt two weeks now maybe?

[synthshenanigans]

the Identity lacking knowledge of its identity

[fun alt repeating thing above & neat alt versions below]

[swoodledoodle]

[cookie-arts]

Elyssabeth Alcyone Glimmering Soiree SSR Card

This is for @starry-night-rose's event Glimmering Soiree!

I finally have an excuse to draw my girls in a gown lmao.... Although I haven't started on Mayari and Amber's yet.

Vignette (to be posted)

Voice lines:

Summoning: "A fairytale-like night dedicated to meeting other students from a different academy... Fufu, I hope this goes well."

Summon Line: Off to find my happily ever after... or not. But what happens on this night, I plan on enjoying it thoroughly.

Groooovy!: [Locked]

Set to Home Screen: Asking me to be your partner? Good choice.

Home Idle 1: Looks like the party is on full swing tonight.

Home Idle 2: Shall we dance?

Home Idle 3: Haa... I need a breather.

Home Idle - Login: Are we late? No? That's good, then.

Home Idle - Groovy: [Locked]

Home Tap 1: How do I look? ...Thank you. You look wonderful too.

Home Tap 2: Deuce, you look fine. Now stop fussing with your clothes.

Home Tap 3: Would you mind helping me with Grim tonight? Between assisting the Princes and stopping Grim's gluttonous urges, I have my hands full tonight. I would very much appreciate the help.

Home Tap 4: Unlike Idia, I can tolerate social events like these. Although I do need to take a few breathers to refresh myself.

Home Tap 5: Is there someone I want to dance with tonight? Well... there is someone. Curious about who it is? Heh, why don't you take a guess?

Home Tap - Groovy: [Locked]

Tag list: @officialdaydreamer00 @cloudcountry @identity-theft-101 @twst-beam

[leo-a-nb]

Please have this little fem!gaara piece with a shitty sofa because I can't draw furniture.

This page just started and is already turning into a fem!gaara space 😭😭😭.

@gaygaara I don't know if you still want me to tag you in my fem!gaara art because she's been my hyperfixation lately and I'm only drawing her 😭😭

[ricoka]

It really does something to me to see that several people over several fandoms, no matter their level or popularity have the same issues with fandoms as a whole, and that it's only getting worse.

I felt absolutely horrible when I voiced my complaints on a fandom server. I received some nice comments, but I also got absolutely unnecessarily savage replies from people, that I should create for myself and not look for validation, and that no one owes me feedback etc. It made me feel like shit because it felt like i was asking for the unthinkable - for people not to treat art and fanfic like content and to respect artists and writers and give feedback in one way or another if you enjoy something.

But I keep seeing people who say they receive unnecessarily hostile comments on AO3, if they receive any feedback at all. I see fanfics in my current fandom posted with thousands of hits, maybe a handful of kudos and little to no comments. I absolutely hate it.

Fan creations aren't content, artists and writers create and share their fanworks because they're passionate about it. You should do everything in your power to keep that passion alive instead of extinguishing it, thinking that AI can replace the creativity, love and passion people pour into their fanworks.

[almost-april]

HAHAHAHA this reminded me of one of our Holiday Reads last year 🤣🤣🤣 M'BOYYYYYYY

(this was the shitty art ™)

White hair magic whore boys are a protected species i think

[figueroths]

I want so badly to indulge in drawing again just so i can infect the masses with shitty little sketches of baby baby & baby

[countv0ncunt]

I can't settle on a single pfp nothing feels right

rly hope the mutuals aren't identifying me based on my icon

Anyway

...new icon

[moths-one-super-crazy-project]

hi guys!

this is a little side blog I’m making so I can yap about my series that I’m working on! I’ll probably just rant about what I’m working on, post snippets occasionally, maybe put some polls out when I can’t make a decision, ykyk. I’ve been granted access to a drawing device so maybe, just maybe, if I’m confident enough one day I’ll post some art of my own fic.

I’m predicting right now a solid zero followers, so really this is just for me to scream into the void and pretend people care enough to listen lmao.

little bit of background for the series! it is HEAVILY grumbo-centric, and it follows the same Grian and Mumbo, reincarnated again and again and again. They rarely get flashes of memory of their previous lives, but otherwise they have nothing.

despite their lack of memory, they gravitate towards one another again. and again. and again. no matter how horribly their story ends, they always find each other, and they always fall in love. Every universe is both strikingly different and haunting similar to the ones before it, so who knows what will happen? (me. muahaha)

here is the link to the series on the sub-zero chance anyone is interested! currently only one fic is posted, but that should (hopefully) change in the near future :]

tags under the cut!

woah! a tagging system?? in one of MY blogs?? Unheard of!

series tag-

#atyau (a thousand years au)

will be used for anything related to this au

fic “code” names/tags-

#atyau Royalty AU

#atyau Vampire AU

#atyau God AU

#atyau Hideaway AU

#atyau Moon Big AU

#atyau The Finale™

snippet tag: #atyau _____ snippet (example: # atyau Royalty AU snippet; #atyau God AU snippet; etc, etc)

yapping tag: #god moth won’t shut up

poll tag: #moth is indecisive

art tag: #moth makes some shitty art

[brick-van-dyke]

Me: I'm gonna write when I get home

Also me: I'm feeling A Bit Sad so I'm gonna play Sims instead

[jayskai]

kinda scared that my "experimental" era might just be another flop era lmao

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Hi Skyen, hope you're well! I'm seeking some advice and since you used to work doing mainly art commissions I figured asking you was worth a shot.

I'm a furry artist and I'm looking into doing commission work as a side gig while I finish animation college, and hopefully acquire enough experience/clients/notoriety to turn it into a full time job once I graduate.

Do you have any advice for someone literally just starting out with fresh accounts and zero following? Especially when it comes to reaching people and getting your first clients, and anything that one should take into account when working with NSFW specifically. Also advice for pricing your work is always useful 😅

No need to answer obvs but I'd appreciate your viewpoint if you want to share!

Got 2 asks on this exact subject so I'll write up what advice I can. One big caveat: I haven't worked as a commission artist for like half a decade at this point, and this job has a tendency to change fast, do not take anything I say as gospel. This is advice from a limited perspective, be critical of what I say and trust your peers and the people you are in community with before you trust me.

building audience

Step one is getting people to notice the artwork you create. Literally nothing else can happen until you have eyeballs on your work, and the most consistent and reliable way to make that happen is fanart. Ideally you'd want to produce fanart in a fandom you are personally engaged with and passionate about and familiar with, and which also has a sizeable community whose attention can help you build recognition and a base of followers.

This isn't always possible, and there's many a working artist who creates work for fandoms not out of deep personal connection, but because the fandom is large and relevant and a good way to capture the goodwill of algorithms and content feeds.

This approach has some downsides. For one, genuine fans can usually tell when someone's engagement with Their Thing is shallow, and for another it can be deeply creatively exhausting to chase the algorithm. I don't recommend this approach, but it is a valid means of building a business.

Another important consideration, especially when you are early in your career, is that volume tends to trump quality. Every artist will eventually learn that their shitty joke-doodle they sh*t out in ten minutes on a whim will get a billion reposts, and their complex personal work that took eight weeks to finish gets 2 likes from their closest mutuals and a comment from a bot saying "wow!"

In the age of the algorithm, what machines and for you pages value is a consistent, high-volume of output that generates user engagement. You will generally get further, faster, by producing a lot of work than you will producing great work. Again, this can be rough on your mental state, and a fast way to burn the fuck out, so please be careful and mind your health before all else.

The best way to build something that will last is to build your audience in communities and around fandoms and themes and ideas you genuinely care about and enjoy exploring and interacting with. Being your authentic self and creating work from your authentic interest is generally both healthier and long-term better for your career than trend-chasing. Treat trend-chasing and volume > quality output as tools in your toolbox, as creative and business decisions you can make to achieve a specific purpose, never ever EVER let them become the center of your praxis or your philosophy. Never ever EVER allow the Numbers™ to be your source of validation and accomplishment.

building business

Ok, so you've got eyes on your work. You've got some followers. How the hell do you get them to commission you?

Well, again, by demonstrating a capacity to create kinds of art for which there is demand. In the furry community, there's brisk trade in things like ref sheets and character design, for example. For most fandoms, ship art is a product which tends to be in demand. Being able to do really good expression sheets is a marketable skill. Being able to create compelling and clear emotes for streamers and creators is a marketable skill.

Showing the capacity to work in a wide range of styles is valuable. Showing the capacity to work in a wide range of genres is valuable. If you can do both comedy and romance your appeal expands. If you can do shonen-like action and angst as well, it expands again.

Equally, being incredibly good at a specific niche is valuable as well. Focusing hard on an under-served niche of work can give you a lot of opportunities to be the Go To person for that specific kind of thing.

Perhaps the hardest part of all of this is marketing yourself. Not only showing that you have the skills, but actively informing your audience that you are available, eager and willing to practise your skill for a fee. You have to sell yourself. It sucks, but you have to do it. You have to advertise what you can do, and you have to suffer the rejection and annoyance that comes along with doing that.

You have to ask people to commission you. You have to raise your hand and demand attention. It's not fun, but it's business.

Walking the line between self-promotion and being a person is hard. I can't help you that much with it, it's a very personal balance to find. Stay in touch with your soul, but kill the part that cringes at yourself.

Ultimately, you best marketing asset is your portfolio. Every time you do work, show it off. Repost it, retweet it, spread it around. If someone is happy with what you've made for them, do your best to make sure that other people see that happiness. Ask your clients (politely) to tag you when they share your work.

Oh, and for the love of god, sign everything you create, slap watermarks on anything that's likely to get reposted, and make it impossible for someone not to find your business email on your profile.

building network

If you're a commission artist, you are in community with other commission artists. You share interests, you share experiences, you share needs.

Practise solidarity. Absolutely seek out professional peers to help your business, but equally seek out opportunities to help them with theirs. If someone comes to you for art and you don't have commission slots open, point them at a colleague who you know can do the work too. Gas up your peers and spread their work.

Be a symbiote, not a parasite. Respect the craft of your peers, and don't chase celebrities and big names in the hope of coasting on their coattails. It will fail.

smut

If you're a working artist, at some point you have to reckon with smut and r34.

These genres are excellent sources of income, and fertile ground to build a business and network of customers. BUT. Do not ever make the mistake of thinking that they are "the easy way" or a shortcut. Do not ever make the mistake of thinking you can simply offer to draw tiddies and rake in the cash.

It's work and graft same as literally any other form of labor, it's challenging on both a technical and creative level, and the audience can sense if you're looking down on them. If you approach this from a position of shame, of "eugh, I'm debasing myself by doing this for rent money," it will not work, and you will lose standing and respect in the eyes of every peer whose support you need to succeed.

Just as in all other forms of creativity, if you treat the audience as morons who will slurp up whatever slop you serve them, then you will attract clientele that agrees with you, and you will deserve the misery they will inflict upon you.

If you are going to work in smut, establish your boundaries and enforce them. Know that good clients will feel safer and more comfortable with an artist who clearly states their red lines and earnest interests than they will with someone who tries to attract more clients by pretending to be open to work that they are actually uncomfortable with.

Never, ever, EVER let a client push you to create work you are not comfortable creating. It scars your soul in both the short and long term.

Also, when working with this kind of content, know the rules of payment processors and know how to hide the nature of your business from them. PayPal should never, EVER know the details of the content you sell with their service. Frankly, neither should your bank, most likely.

Look to your peers for advice and best practises about this. And be meticulous about your bookkeeping.

money

I want to tell you to charge at least minimum wage for your time. I want to tell you to charge substantially more than that, because your labor is specialized and highly skilled.

But the economic reality of commission work is that there is a crushing downwards pressure on the labor price of art, which has only been made more devastating by the rise of generative AI, and especially when you are a young artist just starting out, you're going to find yourself in a position where charging even minimum wage for your time will turn away a huge proportion of your potential customers.

Again, your portfolio will be the greatest argument for the value of your work, but you have to build that portfolio first, and very often that means doing a f*kton of work for not remotely enough pay until the pressure of demand finally works in your favor.

I don't condone or justify this state of affairs. It is horrid and I hate it, but I don't know how to fix it either.

Making a living from content creation of any kind requires you to get lucky, on top of working obscene hours and foregoing rest and vacations. It's not a safe or sensible plan for a career or paying your bills.

My sensible advice is to get a "normal" job you can survive doing, and do your creative work on the side, and resign yourself to the possibility that the creative work may never actually pay your bills.

And that is soul-crushing, but I cannot stomach pretending that hard work and gumption will guarantee anyone a decent living if they just try hard enough.

There are people who are better at every aspect of my work than I am, and they struggle harder and work for longer, and they will never see half the success I have, because I happened to get lucky, and they happened not to. It's wretched.

I'm not telling you not to chase your dreams. I'm telling you to do it with your eyes open, and with compassion for yourself first before all else.

All of this to say: I can't tell you what to charge for your work. It depends on everything from your competition to your niche to your genre to your community to your economic situation. You have to figure it out on your own.

All I can tell you is never forget that your work is worth more than the market will let you charge, and to raise your prices as soon and as much as you can. Try to reach at least minimum wage for your time as fast as possible.

in conclusion

Again, I haven't been a commission artist full time for a long time, please do not take any of this as gospel. Listen to your peers before you listen to me.

But trust me about the solidarity. It will save you when all else fails.

[olderthannetfic]

I think preferences in fiction does have some (keyword some) correlation to what your irl morals are though. If someone's favorite movie is Birth of the nation unironically it does say about them a lot of things. If someone enjoys a dark romance book between KKK member and a black woman where the black woman is not questioning the KKK members politics and is secretly enjoying being kidnapped by him (yes a book like this exists) it says something about that person.

There are conservative movies. Created and written by conservatives specifically that align with conservative values. If someone watches and thinks they are a pinnacle of art that does say something about the audience.

If fiction didn't have effect on reality there wouldn't be so many book bans and books about queer and POC experiences wouldn't be removed from libraries and schools.

I understand that a lot of this usually is aimed against women who enjoy things for their own escapism, but like we gotta have this conversation. And just saying "don't like don't read" really doesn't help.

--

"we gotta have this conversation"?

So I, a stranger, owe you a specific conversation I may have already had with people I know for decades?

I don't, buddy, and that's the root of most of the problems with this kind of discourse.

--

A lot of people like shitty or dark or immoral art for reasons other than finding it the pinnacle of art. The more the art in question is about lust or fear or disgust, the more likely it is that they like it for some lizard brain reason and know perfectly well that it's Bad™.

Yes, sometimes, media tastes do correlate to other things, just not in a simplistic way, and not in a way where I owe you a detailed account of my entire media diet and inner life.

Pro-censorship people believe that media will turn their kids gay or into devil worshippers or whatthefuckever. It does not matter whether they are correct. Their behavior is based on the assumption, not evidence. If you give them evidence, they will continue to operate on the assumption.

Book bans happen because someone feels uncomfortable and mistakes discomfort for morality. This is a separate question from the relationship between fiction and reality.

--

Me saying "Don't like, don't read" doesn't help you know my politics or sort out how you feel about anything, but it helps me not waste my day on sealions.

I consider that a win.