want to be commercial artist
>do 'good' work. work that has elements of subtlety, aspires to be technically proficient, displays skillful use of art foundation principles, tries to avoid mainstream elements, tries to bring some tastefulness to usually cliche and overdone subject matters
make about 2k a year working my absolute ass off, sending millions of emails, replying to thousands of job posts, contacting hundreds of people (ad's amongst those)
>do commercial garbage type work and very low effort porn. treat it like a business making very coldly calculated decisions and moves, completely detaching my ego and person from the work and hiding behind an alias. not caring too much about how i treat fans/clients, treating them and the work as very disposable. doing quantity over quality (to an extreme degree)
Make about 900$ a month CONTINOUSLY without working too hard (6 days a week, 9 hours per day. this is not-too-hard by artist standards, not by real-job standards). popularity snowballs rapidly, can increase comission prices regularly, clients incredibly grateful for me taking their comission, incredibly patient with me when i take about 2 months to finish it, never ask for revisions, always reply like 'wow amazing thank you WOW I LOVE IT' even when it's total trash.
What do i have to do in order to keep the fire burning /ic/ ? I'm so freaking close to jumping into commercial garbage as a full time career. It's incredibly depressing to see high aspirations so utterly unrewarded.
i now got a dayjob in which i make around 1300$ working 3 shifts per week. i have the freedom to do what i want with my remaining time. i either make MORE money, and snowball my commercial-garbage business further, or i keep working on/studying for my more upscale/serious/respectable work but by this point that feels like a waste of time.
fuck this is depressing. it's like you want to be the next kurosawa but people throw money at you the moment you start shooting amateur gonzo porn
well, similar situation here.
painting and illustrations did not cut it for me. Never found inhouse jobs and freelance is shit.
Went full media graphic design. Easy tasks (from an illustrators standpoint) The only really challange thing is comming up with good ideas at times. It pays well and I have somewhat fun doing it.
I paint in my freetime... but not that much anymore really.
>>2306677
I just wanna draw porn, traps comics and anime.
I'm good.
>>2306677
>fuck this is depressing. it's like you want to be the next kurosawa but people throw money at you the moment you start shooting amateur gonzo porn
I know what you mean. Got serious about getting good around 4 years ago, watching Feng and Gnomon tutorials, doing pleb-tier ebin scifi and fantasy. Now this generic commercial stuff makes me incredibly bored and depressed. I haven't even made any money off of it, it just killed my enjoyment of the genre and my enjoyment of painting. Been focusing on figurative fine art instead, and just felt a calm wash over me doing it, but at the same time knowing I won't get any money doing that either.
>>2306700
>>2306708
Interesting I went through the same things.
When I started out years back I thought I'd be an amazing landscape painter. Its what I liked the most back then. Until I realized how hard proper scenery painting is.
Shifted to sci-fi commercial standards with warrior dudes and you name it.
I did land some comissions and worked for a browser game company for a short while from home. But I felt the same after a while
Its incredibly dull and boring. Something I would have never guessed when I started out.
Now that I work with graphic design I pretty much paint portraits and figures or other form of life trees and animals exclusively. It has just so much more value once you saw every possible field.
Screw all you guys, at least you had the chance to experience it. I'll never get even a stupid entry level job.
>>2306727
porn is an UNBELIEVABLY ACCESSIBLE market anon. i cannot stress the caps enough.
>>2306755
I'm already doing porn. That's not what I want to do. That's not why I poured over my art for hours. I don't mind drawing it but I wanted to be more than that. I wanted a job I could show my family. I wanted my friends to respect me. I want a career. All I have hope for now is mere survival, and thanks to the health problems I've been having, maybe not even that. I hate. My fucking. Life.
>>2306757
I could be your friend, you can show me your porn draws and I will respect you :^)
>>2306757
Take less smut work from now on. Pick yourself back up and soldier on. Btw how did you get your pr0n career going?
>>2306762
I wouldn't say I've made a career of the smut shit, but I see the potential to, I only started it up last year and demand went up pretty fast. I've been resisting to try and keep focusing on building something with my normal art, plus like I mentioned I have some health problems that've been keeping me from working. I can't really take on less of it than I have because I have bills and now medical bills, so I need to take on more because nothing's happening with my other art. To start it up all I did was make a tumblr, dA and HF page, and Furaffinity, but I don't end up doing a lot of furry stuff strangely. Anyway I just posted there semi regularly and did some requests on different boards around here and took commissions. I'm by no means making bank but that's just because I'm not devoting time to it. Guess I might as well dive headfirst into it though since I have no chance elsewhere.
>>2306767
Thanks for replying. I wish you the best of luck.
>tfw drawing furry porn for money is actually a personal aspiration
One day I'm gonna make it
>>2306757
Mabye pick a real job, faget.
I always wanted to be a rockstar, but im not. So i went to school, learned a fucking job and finally got it. Shitty pay but im aleady going up the career ladder.
Art is a hobby. Nothing that pays the bills. Welcome to the real world, kid.
>>2306812
I'm not a kid, I'm probably 5 years older than you, and I've worked all the bullshit non art jobs I'm going to in my lifetime. It's this or nothing.
>>2306812
sounds like you never even attempted an art career and so have no grounds to speak on them.
>>2306812
>i never tried to pursue my dreams or failed and never tried again
Seriously though there's a ton of artists out there gunning for the same job so they can be disposable at those dream-like jobs. It'll take a long time anon but you gotta keep trying. No reason to not make some money and practice in the meantime while trying to reach out.
>>2306812
>Art is a hobby. Nothing that pays the bills
Except for, you know, the thousands upon thousands of professional artists who do pay their bills with art and make more money with it than you ever will with your shit tier job.
>>2306700
post your portfolio, maybe we can find out why you don't get inhouse jobs
>>2306700
I really feel like if you're good, REALLY GOOD, opportunities will come. There are so many people out there who are delusional about their work though, even people who are okish and think they're good enough to work for the big bois it's ridiculous.
>>2306812
>Get a salary job
>Work networking
>Become lead supervisor
>All I do now is create software for routers and help write instruction manuals for said router while making sure everyone is doing their job
>Easy ass job
>See someone working under my group not doing well
>He spends more time drawing than working
>Was told by the higher ups to fire the guy, but I became really good friends with him once I spoke to him about his drawing hobby.
>Before firing him I asked why he didn't take the drawing thing further
>He said it wouldn't pay the bills
>I told him that in the long run, that won't matter.
>Didn't fire him. Instead I quit on the spot
>Get into drawing
>Now working a job where I delivery cookies min wage + tip
Some people say it was a retarded move, others will say that it's a rather inspiring story. Thing is, anon, you gotta do what you want to do in life. Yea sure, go to school, get that salary job, blah blah blah. Problem is, you kinda start feeling "empty" inside. I did save enough money to where it's currently not an issue for me, but it won't last long. In the mean time, I'm basically the guy taking all these online courses and posting them here.
But in the end, you gotta do something you'd like to do with the rest of your life. If you REALLY want to be a rockstar, go for it. What do you have to lose? Hate to sound like an old man, but enjoy yourself while you can. Don't follow routine for the sake of it. Trust me, there's nothing at the end of that tunnel you're trying to reach. Literally, nothing.
>>2306677
6 days a week times 9 hours per day for $900/mo is working WAAAAY too hard. You're making $3.90/hour you silly billy.
I work 1.3h per day and make about $700/mo. I have like 5 clients.
Don't worry, I'm not even good. I'm really slow, too. You just need to take time to build up regular clientele. Try to meet people for realz, not on the internet. Those are always the best clients.
Try getting into editorial illustration, book illustration or similar. Or is that considered 'commercial garbage'? Just don't do fuckin comics. I love comics, but boy does it pay shit.
With your work ethic, you should be able to make thousands with ease. Perhaps your art is not as good as you think?
>>2306677
OR, maybe keep doing porn, but apply all that stuff you're good at (hypothetically) and make porn masterpieces.
Of course, as I mentioned, you're already working too hard, and turing the stuff you're doing into masterpieces will quadruple the effort. Perhaps just charge more, you know, for your soul or whatever. You should be paying yourself at least $20 per hour by the sounds of it.
Show us your art maybe?
>>2306889
>Didn't fire him. Instead I quit on the spot
And then your replacement fired him anyway.
>>2306903
How and where do you meet these people, i'm socially awkward so it really doesn't help me
>>2306940
Basically. Not sure what happened, but I have no doubt my replacement fired him. It was stupid on my mind, not the fired part, but I should have gave him my contact info so we could be drawing buddies. Oh well.
>Warehouse job
>aspiring comic artist
depressed, etc, etc
>>2306952
Get some booze and some Bukowski
>>2306943
I met a couple at art fairs and comic expos, where I go to sell some of my stuff. I met a couple through work; I work at an art supply store. I do have a few clients I just work with via email. I met one of those through a Kickstarter campaign, another through mail/email correspondence, sending samples, etc
I find when I work for legit companies/publications, I get more work, but it pays shitty. When I work for random people who need art done, I get less consistent work, but it pays better.
>>2306943
Also, in terms of being socially awkward, I mean, I'm not, but I socialize about as much as someone who is. If I were a highly social person I might actually get enough to be able to quit my dayjob. I'm just... so very lazy and complacent.
If you feel that's something holding you back, you should probably work on it. Or, you know, it could be your skill, your marketability, bad luck, etc... who knows.
I'd say stick with your part time job, live modestly, and start only accepting work that pays a reasonable rate andor charge more and scare off your cheap clients.
>>2306677
>do 'good' work. work that has elements of subtlety
>aspires to be technically proficient
If you do good work that has elements of subtelty you're already technically proficient. Three statements in and there are already inconsistencies in your story.
>tries to avoid mainstream elements
So you want to be a commercial artist. But you don't want to do commercial things that actually sells because you're a hipster.
I really can't fathom why you can only make money with porn anon.
>>2307005
That sounds like redundancy, not inconsistency.
Though I too am dubious about the supposed quality of op's work.
