Tag: Anonymous

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(Got this ask before the post from today but didn’t get to respond to these the other day because I was streaming.)

My specific issue was that my income was cut by almost half for the past 10 months. (30% percent)

At the volume I usually did and needed to take to still cover my expenses, rent and provide refunds, THAT was a pretty big deal. (It was never meant to be a problem, but I slipped up.)

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But I do get what you mean about creating content that can continue to be bought waaaay after it’s been finished. (a decent foundation/something to fall back on, outside of commission work & patreon.)

That is my plan alongside uping the content quality and wanting to do my own stuff. (Hell i jokingly said i’d like to make a smolder butt mouse pad/shirt someday. But i kinda meant that.)

I wish to do mostly comics that I can put on the side. ($1 – $4 a completed comic or even an image pack of set characters.)

Though you may be overestimating the willingness of those that would ACTUALLY buy it or even like it enough to support. (Basically: just because X amount of people likes something, doesn’t mean the same amount of X people or even close to that amount will buy the content.)

I don’t know yet how well these things will do when they are done. 
Considering I have yet to / hardly finished any to completion or even test those waters. (The closest things would be the recent comm for Ken and the Smolder short comic a long while back.)

I still don’t know the full scope of the audience I have / will have that enjoy the work enough to willing support it AND buy it.

BUT it is still something i want to and plan to give a shot. A proper shot.

I have both a Gumroad and E-junkie accounts already registered for months now so I’ll have places to sell content eventually.

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When I get to it and ACTUALLY get to it.
I’ll be set.

Stop doing commissions, you always get backed up because of some emotional baggage or other stupid shit and refund people. Obviously you love art, but you do not have the discipline to make it your job. Why not just draw for your sake and stop this roller coaster of emotional crank yanking?

Enough.

I’ve caused my own issues.

But please don’t spew shit when you have no clue of my situation and it’s entirety.

(This probably the most TMI I will be period.)

This is a PayPal capital Loan.
There are no monthly or weekly payments if you are approved for it.
BUT, depending on how big of a fee you choose to pay directly to PayPal.
A larger or smaller percentage of each sale made immediately goes to repaying that loan.

In my case, it’s 30% every single commission. (Small or Large)

Here is that (my) history from the last 10 months.
(September 2017) during saving + moving preparations to now. (July 2018)

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(the First loan was to see how it worked, paid back immediately, The Second loan was to get this house in the first place with the help of commissioners and a mutual because I didn’t have a valid enough proof of income to get the place myself. Had to pay several months worth of rent upfront alongside the security deposit. The Third loan was to catch up on bills that piled up due to my fuck up/not working more and refund others.)

All that remains is $277 on the last loan. Then done.

I’ve been working the last several months to almost a year now with this clutch.

Which has made the many times I’m not drawing enough, having to refund or pay for any repairs on anything, a bigger loss and much more work than it would normally be otherwise for anyone. (More commissions than needed because any payments received are cut almost in half.)

Besides this entire thing being a matter of exhaustion/getting a breather, wanting to polish and expand my own content.

I’m making the choices now because what issues that were major problems both emotionally and financially have been resolved or being lifted. (The last bit being Paypal Capital and Backlog)

I know that I am taking things slow now. (and as they should be.)
I didn’t handle working with such pressure well while dealing with emotional problems. (I mean, can’t say I’m personally keen on dealing well or being  mentally prepared when it comes to the life of my own parent being a major part of that. I refuse to get into that.)

I have no reason to or want to work with such a clutch again.

It was/still is a big fucking annoying handicap.

But I sure as hell can and have worked damn decently when there’s nothing hampering what or who I choose to work on and how I choose to work on it.

And that should be less of an issue now with that weight off my back.

(And just to give some numbers using May for example since it was the most recent and not entirely rocky Month: What is usually finished on a normal schedule and WITH the 30% Paypal Fee removed, that would be a $1.2k difference rather than losing $1.2k. An amount I can comfortably use to refund others without doing more than necessary to cover them and still pay my rent & bills month by month until everyone has gotten their refund or artwork.)

sorry not a critique but, honestly, how are you able to properly deal with all that? if i were at your level and got told i still make that many mistakes, i’d just drop art entirely.

I take it how it is, gives me something to keep in mind and improve on.

Mistakes can be fixed, some just take a little longer than others.

Personally: I’d rather be told sincerely that my work has flaws when it’s needed or if I personally ask for it than being told without much thought my shit doesn’t smell / you do the best “X” or “Y”. But that doesn’t mean i’ll consider feedback that’s flung my way without any purpose but to just to take jabs at any artist for shits n giggles or because of some bad intentions. It gets easier to tell which is which over time.

Wouldn’t have gotten anywhere over the last few years if I didn’t ask or get any form of feedback from friends/mutuals/others.

It’s obvious with your coloured sketch commissions with which characters you liked drawing and which ones you don’t. Ones you do have a bit more polish put into them, whereas ones that don’t look more rushed.

(felt this one needed an answer)

Admittedly, at any point, if you’re seeing work that is more polish than usual.

I’m more likely enjoying myself or the character(s)/idea far too much to stop at what was originally paid for.

(I can’t say there are any sketches that are picked that I dislike. I wouldn’t pick them if I disliked the character begin with. But there is definitely still characters, ideas or themes that catches my interest enough to really go a bit further if I have the time to.)

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20-25 sketches are picked at a time out of all forms submitted.

So believe me, when I say, there’s plenty to choose from. If I’m picking a character it’s more likely I like the character or the idea enough to try my hand at drawing them.

Though, that doesn’t mean my first or second attempt at drawing the character will be as good as I originally wanted it to be. (But if commissioned again I do try to do better if I feel and/or I’m told I did poorly on my first attempts.)

You take the biggest fucking absences and then just automatically show up.

(felt this needed an answer)

Old unhealthy habit that spans years back.

Can’t say I’ve gotten better at not going dark, I do have my reasons and feel I’ve at least gotten better at bouncing back from taking any absences and keeping myself from complete radio silence.

Made a post about taking my own measures to avoid things like hiatuses or ghosting the hell out. It’s working out a bit so far.

A vast majority of your stuff seems unfinished. Like colored doodles or one step above. I can understand some easy quick stuff in between bigger projects, but it seems thats all there really is these days. I like chips just fine, but I want the steak every now and again too.

(felt this one needed an answer)

Similiar to the other ask, 

Bare with me a little longer when it comes to all the loose and sketchy works that are posted back to back and its repetitiveness. It’s a little out of my control right now until I finish what I need to do. (Still sitting on a bulk of cleaner and more polished commission work so those will be posted eventually.)

I still try to put out what I can, I complained about quality a lot before. But this year I really didn’t want the quality of pieces to keep me from approaching ideas, characters and having fun with the things I wanted to try. (Because of that I feel 2018 felt more active for me thus far, I stopped worrying & said fuck it. For a while In between it all I drew what I wanted and for the people I wanted to. Even if some of it was not the most stellar thing to look at. It was definitely a bit of fresh air and made all this work feel a little less overwhelming.)

Overall the work that you are producing is excellent. The main problem I see is with your sketches. I know they are supposed to be quick and you produce a lot of them, but I fear your line quality and attention to detail are suffering. The lines are rough and compared to your personal drawings and comic art, it makes it look low effort. There are perspective and form issues with mainly your sketches and that’s attention to detail. Such as the poppy with the hammer, The handle doesn’t line up.

(felt this one needed some form of an answer)

Well, that one hits close to home and something i’m aware of.

As far as producing something of quality -> it’s more or less out of my control for the time being. Needing to do well enough for the sake of maintaining decent enough output that I’m doing enough owed work than I am adding onto it while avoiding or currently running on my own fumes to just get what I can finished.

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Still looking forward to when everything is cleared up, so output and quality being so different becomes a non-issue.

Well personally you have a identifiable look’n style and your rendering is good too, so is there anything in particular that your not happy with (cuz following unfocused criticism can do more harm than good)

No worries about the focus bit.

As things are right now: Being able to see what others dislike/get multiple perspectives gives me an idea of the scale + where I should iron out and hyper-focus on at least for the moment to get the more glaring issues with my work out of the way. The feedback serves as a minor band-aid for adjustments I should look into as of right now until I have the time to sit around peacefully to study/practice without the daunting obligation of finishing off the remainder of work I owe.

I still do cherry pick a few, but so far the majority have made a few things very clear to me that most dislike or find off with my work that I haven’t truly considered an issue before.

(An extra note: good chunk have really put me at ease about my own personal complaints that others have actually taken notice of too. Kinda felt I over worried about minor things and exaggerate on how weird/off it was. But good to know I wasn’t too off with my worry, complaints and irritations.)