WTF I SOLD OUT?!? WHO KNEW?!?!

"See, This proves you are only here for Fame and Fortune.

There are struggling artist on here who are more creative and draw better than you. They don't do fan art out of Dignity. These artist also do it for the ability to draw, You are plainly here for a Dollar and nothing less, It is almost sickening how someone like you can appear and instantly do this while creative people with original ideas, Unlike you, Are struggling.

I am blocking you. I want NOTHING to do with you. Hopefully you won't last too long on here."

- anon



Ok, fair enough, fair enough. I'm definitely here on DeviantArt for the DEVIANT side more than the ART side. Big surprise, right?

Yeah, people stuggle. I'm one of them. Dignity is a relative term though.

Do I WANT to draw boobs, simply for (as you so eloquently put it) "the ability to draw?" Yeah.
Do I WANT to draw ponies, simply for (as you so eloquently put it) "the ability to draw?" Yeah.
Do I WANT to draw sexy ladies, simply for (as you so eloquently put it) "the ability to draw?" Yeah.
Do I WANT to draw fanart of things I'm a fan of, simply for (as you so eloquently put it) "the ability to draw?" Yeah.

Do I get WAAAYYYY more hits, popularity, publicity, and ultimately make a meager living because of it? Yup.
Do I kill two birds with one stone by doing this, doing what I want AND making a meager living off of it? Yup.

Is that SMART marketing? FFUUUCCKKKK YUP.
Do most artists know how to market? FUCCKKKKK NOPE.

Do you need to market to be an artist? Nope.
Do you need to market to make a living? Yup.
Do you need to be skillful, talented, or trained to make a living? Nope.
Do you need to be well known to make a living in this business? Yup.

Is art a business? If you want it to be.
Do the creative and business sides of art CLASH constantly? 'ERRYDAY I'M CLASHIN'
Is this unfair to either side? Not if the artist/illustrator in question truly believes in their chosen ideals.

Did I go to college for an art degree? Nope.
Did I go to college for a marketing degree? Yup.
Is "slugbox" and all that encompasses it the end result of years of study? Yup.

Do I love what I do? Yup.
Even the business side? Yup.
EVEN MORE THAN THE ART SIDE?! At least just as much.
Do I want to draw porn forever? Nope.
Will I always have to, on occasion, in order to make a living? Yup.
Does it bother me? Sometimes.
Does its REALLY bother me? Nope.
Am I a simpleton? A little.
Do I have a lot of fans? Yup.
Do I have a lot of haters? Yup.
Do I love my fans? Most of the time.
Do I appreciate my fans? EVERY. FUCKING. MINUTE.
Do I want to make my NSFW, SFW, OC, PONIES, FANART, AND ARTIST FRIENDS ALL HAPPY AT THE SAME TIME SOMEHOW?!?! Yes... but it's time-consuming... please be patient with me.

Where do I draw the sell-out line? At a subscription service.
Would I cross the line if I needed to? Well, if I NEED to, I NEED to.

U MAD? Yup.
Your fault? Not really. You're clearly on the more "creative" side of art. That's well and good. But if you don't CARE about business or fame, maybe stfu up about how other people have it?

I'm out here to survive, not change the world or uphold ideals. If I can provide some people with some joys and neat pictures while I'm out here, ALL the better! If I can find time to even please myself (not a lot of time for that...) that's the BEST time... But priorities first. Gotta pay the bills, which means drawing that Double Rarity BJ in the hopes I'll get some hits to my website. Luckily, I have absolutely no problem with that image or content. I'd draw it anyway. ... Two birds. One stone.

But you know what the BEST strategy in the world is? Accumulate a following using things that both YOU AND OTHERS love... and then switch to your own stuff. Comic starts next month, y'all. It's a weird one.

In the meantime, though. Enjoy ponies. I do. And a lot of you do too! Woo! Everybody wins!!! In fact, if it wasn't for the ponies, I wouldn't be STARTING a REAL comic. They've taught me SO much in a technical illustrative sense.



On a final note, anon, you seem like the kind of naive fool who would just LOOOVVEEEE Jhonen Vasquez for no reason other than you watched some Invader Zim on youtube... Let's end on some of his words of wisdom! (though really, it's just common sense!)


"

Getting noticed

Got an email from an aspiring artist who was asking for advice on how to get noticed , how to get attention for work that ISN'T essentially fanart.  I guess the experience on their end is that when they do original pieces, the response is hardly a spark of what they get when they do something referential that people already know.

I figured I'd respond here since it would help more than just one person.

You can NOT get noticed now unless you draw referential stuff.  Sorry, artist.  The universe no longer allows for you to exist without climbing up onto a tower of tired references, eating as much of it as you can, gorging on the festering corpses of what came before or what's popular now and then shitting it back out at the audience you hope to capture, hoping enough of them have their mouths open to ingest what's been ingested ad infinitum  into their "art-appreciation centers".  

That's what you gotta do.  Just get started already.  You're wasting your time if you're not already drawing Legend of Zelda fan art (try cute female versions of Link!), or some Star Wars thing.  My Little Pony is big right now, so stop trying to do anything new and do some Pony art already!

You might think I'm being sarcastic, but that's only because you can't see me wearing my Super Mario t-shirt while I'm drawing Sonic the Hedgehog wearing a Darth Vader helmet.

Good luck, and remember…NINJA TURTLES.

"

(src: jhonenv.tumblr.com/)