jthrash 2023-09-07 07:41:38

Good for you, don't sell your soul to NSFW (unless, of course, you just really enjoy it when you're much older).

I don't know if ANYONE could have a ton of luck doing commissions right now, even if they were masters of their craft. Online commissions seemed to be doing better during the early years of the pandemic, when we were all bored inside and wealthier terminally-online people seemed to cope with it by asking for more commissions than usual. COVID is obviously not 100% gone, of course, but now that many of us are free to go outside and do stuff again, the "bubble" on pretty much any media, whether it was streaming, online commissions, animation or video games, have burst and are actually worse off these days the more better off we all are resuming the "touching grass"-type stuff we did up until 2019.

I know I was literally getting remote work right here on Newgrounds during what were otherwise the worst years of lockdowns, but now I have to work much, much harder and smarter if I so much as want someone to commission me for a small sketch again. Maybe I'll have better luck if I can sufficiently prove I can do other people's OCs and designs (rather than just my own), but for now, to avoid some very likely disappointment, I would suggest strictly drawing for the fun of it and as a hobby, and hopefully by the time things start looking up for the art community again (at least in the United States, the entertainment industry is 100% in a slump right now due to people spending less time at home and in front of screens alone, although other stuff like AI, the dual writer/actor strikes, and the simple fact that if Disney is doing poorly, so does the rest of Hollywood certainly don't help), you improve and start getting comments from your biggest fans telling you what they would actually pay money for you to draw for them.

jthrash 2023-09-07 22:04:50

@DerangedKnite Obscurity on the Internet can be somewhat a blessing in disguise at first--you can just draw whatever you want and simply focus on your skills--once you do get known for doing a thing well, you can ONLY post pictures of that one thing everyone specifically follows you for while they ignore every time you branch out to a different style. Now would be a good time to just forget about all that stuff such as followers and likes and comments and just draw for the the sake of practice.

If you focus on getting famous and rich for commissions, drawing is just going to feel like a chore and you'll burn out of art entirely. But if you just draw for the fun of it and not worry about those metrics, eventually you're just naturally going to find what you want to get good at specifically, what you can imagine drawing constantly once you do get known for that one thing, and then maybe after decades (yes, DECADES) of practice and showing your art to anyone who cares to look, you may find that people will actually come to you to do commissions for them, instead of you having to ask for them.

I'm kind of learning that myself, honestly. I've spent so many years since college trying to optimize my job search and resume to work at a place like Pixar, when in reality a more sustainable life path for me would be to work at a decent-paying non-art job, with a reasonable schedule that allows me time to practice art + just relax on my own time, and hopefully through years of experimentation, I can find my "style" and people would be coming to ME to do work for them. For better or worse, it's best to think of the art industry like dating--the harder you try and the more desperate you come across as, the less success you'll have. It's best to just be chill and have fun in both cases.

jthrash 2023-09-08 08:38:18

@DerangedKnite I'm really sorry about that. I'm pretty sure you mentioned in another forum post that you wanted to be a web designer? Maybe your passion lies there, rather than art, and frankly in this day and age there are way more job opportunities for people that can code websites and complicated stuff like that. Art is supposed to be fun at the end of the day, and if you're stressing out about the sheer amount of time it takes to get better, then maybe that is just a sign that your passions lie elsewhere. We all have to work for a living, but it helps to find something we find enjoyable and rewarding to do for the rest of our working lives, well into old age. It's really up to you, and the reason older users on this website keep beating you over the head with that "time and patience" stuff is because, unlike us, you still have tons of time to experiment, make mistakes and figure out what you really want to do for years and years.

I can understand it's frustrating, though, that you don't have someone irl who can mentor you. Despite all the advances in technology and online tutorials, nothing beats the quick, intense training of a real-life teacher who can monitor your work at every step in real-time. It would be undeniably faster to improve that way. All I can say is that if you really want to be an artist, then it would be better and more rewarding to just do the work rather than constantly ask for help, and if art turns out to be not your thing, that's fine, too, there are tons of people on Newgrounds who simply just review and compliment art, animations and games they love, rather than making their own art, while working a day job that frankly contributes far more to society as a whole than a bunch of silly doodles ever will.

Since my own day job these days is in the mental health and wellness sector, I also feel it might help to seek professional help if you're feeling this much pressure to succeed in general before you even turn 20. Most of us are still more concerned about 100% completing our favorite video games and/or having one-night stands at that young age and in general cling to our childhood while we still can, until our parents force us to at least bag groceries for a living in our mid-20s. Only about .001% of the entire Earth's population is genius enough to succeed while they're still basically children, and at least in the United States, I highly doubt there are any talented astronauts under the the age of 30 or even 40. If even after learning this you feel the need to pressure yourself into being successful in a difficult industry like art, then seeking help from a qualified professional to give you the good kind of reality check (that you don't need to stress yourself out so much), rather than strangers on the Internet that can only really help you with specific drawing tutorials.