How to generate customers?

[WolfenMara]

Welp I never knew there was a forum here until today. But um, hi!

I've been drawing for almost all of my life! I love it, live for it basically. But I'm totally stumped right now. How do I draw attention to my work? I struggle to get feedback on DA and even here on FA, and it's recently been a little frustrating. I actually am looking for people to commission me, but it's hard.

I almost wanna blame my art and say perhaps I'm overcharging, or I'm just not "good." But.. I think I'm alright.

Here's my gallery, let me know if you think I'm overcharging, serious answers only, please.
Userpage of wolfenmara -- Fur Affinity [dot] net

So, any tips on how I can get customers? Is there a better art site for animal artists other then FA/DA? D:

(I hope this is in the right forum category..!)

 

[redhusky]

My best advise is to be consist and show quality in your work. You need show that your art is worth buying in the first place and that you can deliver it in a timely manner. I started by doing art trades and requests to demonstrate what I could do when asked and how long it would take. Don't do too many otherwise people would start expecting you to only do free work.

 

[SkyFurCreations]

Wow, this work is actually amazing. I wouldn't drop the prices down a single $€£¥₩, these are really well drawn and completely worth the price. Simply posting art is never enough. I'm going to send you a personal message with my real advice, but for people reading wondering the same thing, make every social media account you can think of, take advantage of every popular sharing app, and just REALLY put your work out there. Go to events and display your work, or at least put a BUNCH of your art on one single page, with your contact information (buy an $8 prepaid "burner phone" for this) and print out 100 pages with photo paper, and hand them out at events, or mail them to somebody going to an event, who will agree to hand them out.

 

[Zrcalo]

@WolfenMara personally what I'd do is tag the shit out of your work. For example this pic: www.furaffinity.net: Indulge Me by WolfenMara

your tags could include: hot sexy yiff yiffing sex hawt female lady boobs boobies magic magick fire power witch dress catwoman etc etc

I've found that also participating in the community for a long while and actively commenting and faving other peoples'' works, works wonders as well!

also after reviewing your artwork.. a lot of it seems to look like its either heavily referenced or even traced. So that may be one of the reasons why someone may not want to buy artwork. If you use a reference, I'd include it in the description. Also developing your own drawing style is one of the biggest ways to be recognized in the fandom.

 

[WolfenMara]

@WolfenMara personally what I'd do is tag the shit out of your work. For example this pic: www.furaffinity.net: Indulge Me by WolfenMara

your tags could include: hot sexy yiff yiffing sex hawt female lady boobs boobies magic magick fire power witch dress catwoman etc etc

I've found that also participating in the community for a long while and actively commenting and faving other peoples'' works, works wonders as well!

also after reviewing your artwork.. a lot of it seems to look like its either heavily referenced or even traced. So that may be one of the reasons why someone may not want to buy artwork. If you use a reference, I'd include it in the description. Also developing your own drawing style is one of the biggest ways to be recognized in the fandom.

You think I trace? I'm sorry but I'm not sure how to take that? I upload speed paints showing my process from start to finish, a lot of my new stuff I even don't use a reference for. Of course when I do, I reference from life and photos, but never just trace. You are the first person to suggest that, I hope dearly you are the only one. How do I prove to you that I hand draw my stuff ?

And isn't tagging that painting as "sex" and "yiff" misleading?

 

[WolfenMara]

My best advise is to be consist and show quality in your work. You need show that your art is worth buying in the first place and that you can deliver it in a timely manner. I started by doing art trades and requests to demonstrate what I could do when asked and how long it would take. Don't do too many otherwise people would start expecting you to only do free work.

Ah yes I've done a lot of trades on DA, though now people keep asking for trades and don't show interest in paying ;(

 

[WolfenMara]

@WolfenMara personally what I'd do is tag the shit out of your work. For example this pic: www.furaffinity.net: Indulge Me by WolfenMara

your tags could include: hot sexy yiff yiffing sex hawt female lady boobs boobies magic magick fire power witch dress catwoman etc etc

I've found that also participating in the community for a long while and actively commenting and faving other peoples'' works, works wonders as well!

also after reviewing your artwork.. a lot of it seems to look like its either heavily referenced or even traced. So that may be one of the reasons why someone may not want to buy artwork. If you use a reference, I'd include it in the description. Also developing your own drawing style is one of the biggest ways to be recognized in the fandom.

Wait, I think I know you from Wajas.

 

[Zrcalo]

You think I trace? I'm sorry but I'm not sure how to take that? I upload speed paints showing my process from start to finish, a lot of my new stuff I even don't use a reference for. Of course when I do, I reference from life and photos, but never just trace. You are the first person to suggest that, I hope dearly you are the only one. How do I prove to you that I hand draw my stuff ?

And isn't tagging that painting as "sex" and "yiff" misleading?

I'm not saying you're tracing, but when a style goes from

to

and back to

it looks really misleading.

thats why posting links to the reference pictures are really important. I'm not saying you're tracing AT ALL. I'm just saying it /looks/ like something suspicious is up. Just helping with the well known thing. speedpaints are GREAT ways to learn, you just have to post your references if you use one really closely.

With the "sex" and "yiff" it was more of an example, but I would definitely tag the post with "boobs" "boobies" "sexy" etc. Because the picture /is/.
Also if you want your viewcount to go up and get commissions, the best way to do it is to draw porn, and usually unusual porn.

 

[Zrcalo]

Wait, I think I know you from Wajas.

probably! I used to work there. Sorry if I'm really blunt with things, I'm just trying to help out.

 

[Owleri]

Your art is gorgeous and I think your prices are very reasonable, you do have some high price commission options but I think you have a good variety that any commission budget could really find something they are look for c:

I think the only thing I really see is that your examples and your gallery in general seem very limited to canines with humans as a second subject and while there is nothing wrong with this I think if you'd like to appeal to a wider audience it might be good to sprinkle in a bit more variety. You do extremely well drawing canines for sure and your humans are well drawn but if that's all people see then it may be more difficult to sell to people that don't necessarily have human or canine characters for you to draw.

Otherwise, I think being active in the communities of where you are selling your art is equally as important. Faving art and leaving comments is a great way to draw in attention on your own work and for DA joining in groups where you can submit your art helps too. I think your best bet is the chats and forums on DA and here though, because if you are involved in the community people can really see you and that can be marketing in its own way. I hope this is helpful, I'm still pretty new to commission work myself and these are some things that have worked for me so I hope they help you as well.

 

[WolfenMara]

@WolfenMara personally what I'd do is tag the shit out of your work. For example this pic: www.furaffinity.net: Indulge Me by WolfenMara

your tags could include: hot sexy yiff yiffing sex hawt female lady boobs boobies magic magick fire power witch dress catwoman etc etc

I've found that also participating in the community for a long while and actively commenting and faving other peoples'' works, works wonders as well!

also after reviewing your artwork.. a lot of it seems to look like its either heavily referenced or even traced. So that may be one of the reasons why someone may not want to buy artwork. If you use a reference, I'd include it in the description. Also developing your own drawing style is one of the biggest ways to be recognized in the fandom.

I'm not saying you're tracing, but when a style goes from

to

and back to

it looks really misleading.

thats why posting links to the reference pictures are really important. I'm not saying you're tracing AT ALL. I'm just saying it /looks/ like something suspicious is up. Just helping with the well known thing. speedpaints are GREAT ways to learn, you just have to post your references if you use one really closely.

With the "sex" and "yiff" it was more of an example, but I would definitely tag the post with "boobs" "boobies" "sexy" etc. Because the picture /is/.
Also if you want your viewcount to go up and get commissions, the best way to do it is to draw porn, and usually unusual porn.

Well unfortunately the dates posted are not the dates drawn. The first and second are years apart, and the time put in is a huge difference. This gallery is new, and dates posted are not accurate.

Also they are different styles...my try at cartoony vs realism...apples and oranges.
I don't need to defend further. Thanks for the input. Spam tags is good advice.

 

[Zrcalo]

Well unfortunately the dates posted are not the dates drawn. The first and second are years apart, and the time put in is a huge difference. This gallery is new, and dates posted are not accurate.

Also they are different styles...my try at cartoony vs realism...apples and oranges.
I don't need to defend further. Thanks for the input. Spam tags is good advice.

gotcha! and not a problem!

 

[TheKC]

Personally I think you should keep tags true to what the content of the picture is. But I agree tagging with as many words as you can is a good thing. I even add "Commission" to my works.

I agree the style jumps around, maybe due to you uploading new and old works mixed up. A lot of newer work would help out a lot.

If you don't want to do any more trades or free works. Maybe put up a few events where you sell slots at half price. Having lower prices to hook people in can help, then slowly increase as you get more people. Thats what I did when I started out.

On your reference. It's hard to tell what is Sketchy and Panted Sketch, then what the other things you are getting. You should also fill out the commissions page of FA. That will show people you do commissions.

You can also post here on the forums that you are open for commissions and look around the Hiring tags. Show off your art around where ever you can.

Add your FA and DA to your signature so people can easy find you where ever you post!

 

[redhusky]

Ah yes I've done a lot of trades on DA, though now people keep asking for trades and don't show interest in paying ;(

Yes, it will take time time but that's part of the consistency area.

 

[Faunosaurus]

If you're concerned about getting too many trade offers and not enough commissions, you could always put your trade status to "friends only" or something along those lines.

You could also try a more "pay by hour" kind of work, and have your listed prices as estimates rather than hard prices. Simpler pieces are less, while more complicated pieces would be more. Finding a good price to balance between both kinds of commissions without ripping off your commissioner or yourself is hard.

 

[Yarik]

You have some seriously amazing works in your gallery BUT when it comes to get noticed: quantity > quality
In order to get noticed you have to fill many pages in your gallery. (Similar to me you only have one page right now - also the style and quality varies a lot. That's why artists like us don't get many watchers.) be consistent and upload a lot of pictures. Sometimes you will barely get noticed because you had bad luck with the upload time. But this is why you should upload a lot. Try to upload at least one image per week to build up your gallery.

Quality is more important when it comes to get people interested in buying something, but you won't find anybody if you don't get noticed at first.

 

[stablercake]

Wow, this work is actually amazing. I wouldn't drop the prices down a single $€£¥₩, these are really well drawn and completely worth the price. Simply posting art is never enough. I'm going to send you a personal message with my real advice, but for people reading wondering the same thing, make every social media account you can think of, take advantage of every popular sharing app, and just REALLY put your work out there. Go to events and display your work, or at least put a BUNCH of your art on one single page, with your contact information (buy an $8 prepaid "burner phone" for this) and print out 100 pages with photo paper, and hand them out at events, or mail them to somebody going to an event, who will agree to hand them out.

I will agree with most of this advice, especially the social media bit, get on every platform you can and post good work and even post concepts and sketches to some of them, people love seeing the process!

However, do not ever post a phone number to a public forum or flyer where customers are supposed to be able to use it. Even a burner phone, since that's saying to the customer that you're asking for people to contact you by phone. This makes you essentially always on call, do not constantly be on call for customers, I have done this, you have a life too and sequestering your work to the internet has really saved my sanity. Being available for customers is good, being constantly available to the whims of customers anytime they want can be bad.

Also, if you print out flyers with your work on it and hand them out on a corner or in the hallway of a con or anywhere else that's not at a DD or AA table, I can almost guarantee you'll lose as many or more customers than you gain. If you want to get the word out, attend the event if you can, especially if it's a con, and have the flyers at your table or business cards so people will be able to pick up your contact information if they want to commission you or just watch your work when they get back to a computer (the fandom is like 90% online after all). You can even have a person sort of hand them out near your table if you're concerned about not being able to get to everyone, just don't have them hand them out randomly.

 

[CommissionWhore]

This is really sad to say, your art is amazing, but what I can tell from personal experience: I spent 10 years as BlackHowligKiller selling regular commissions and I just got to do like 3 or 4 quick, cheap sketches. I changed my name to CommissionWhore and made only ONE nsfw art example. It's been like two months since then and I HAD to close my commissions because I was FULL of work.

It is really really sad, I'm not saying you should start making NSFW stuff, but, probably trying styles more popular than hyper realism may help. Good luck!

 

[Fallowfox]

Your art is actually surprisingly good and it's a damn shame that you do not have the following you deserve, given how many second rate artists have huge entourages.

 

[Faunosaurus]

Your art is actually surprisingly good and it's a damn shame that you do not have the following you deserve, given how many second rate artists have huge entourages.

I agree their art is fantastic but I feel like that second part is unnecessary, not only since I'd rather not insults someone's own style which someone else might think as unappealing or unskillful, but also in that most of those popular "bad" artists know how to get people to see their work and make it appealing.

You'd be hard pressed to find a popular digital artist doesn't network. Most of the time popular artists not only have connections to other artists, many times being good friends, but also shamelessly self endorse and interact with their fans. You'd be surprised how much simply being personable can generate fans, and how far being kind can get you. You know the saying that nice guys finish last? Utter bullshit. Self promoting can seem a little daunting and a bit selfish almost. But the reality is that you need to do that kind of stuff in order to get people to even glance at your work. So don't be scared to promote your own work! And when you do get a circle of artists friends going, they often do art trades or promote each other by drawing each other's characters and things like that. Artists will often also reblog (or retweet, repost, etc.) fan art of their characters if they keep track of that kind of thing (which many do). And if your art gets reblogged by an artist you like, even just dropping them a message saying thanks for reposting them can start a conversation with them. Everyone thinks big digital artists are these big, unreachable cold people, but in fact they're often super nice and willing to talk.

It might also be a no-brainer, but popular artists make art that people are interested in, they make art that has a broad range of people who want to see it. Most of the time this is done by doing fan art. And while it's true that fan art may only attract the fans as long as you keep doing it, when you do both fan art and original content back and forth, they will see it. And hopefully, they will enjoy it! You can get tons of notes and reblogs and comments on fan art, but what you really want are the type of fans that legitimately love your art, no matter what you draw, especially if it's your original content.

I was going to write some more, but I forgot what else I was going to say (I'm deathly ill at the moment) but I hope this helps!

 

[WolfenMara]

Thank you very much for the kind words and advice. All of you!!
I think now I realize what I must do, going forward. I'm trying not to get down, but it can be a little demoralizing sometimes, when I'm really proud of something, and not many people seem to agree!

I'm actually really shy, so maybe I come off as cold. @_@

 

[ThisisGabe]

Make a prices sheet, show it off on as many on this list as you possibly can: Category:Website stubs - WikiFur, the furry encyclopedia
Make sure you're easy to contact. Make a google form to help streamline the process so that people can easily tell you exactly what they want.
Also, browse the FA journals by changing the number of the journal in the URL. At least 1/100 of the journals have furries saying "Hey, i need an artist! does anyone know of any artists open for commissions" and it takes you less then 10 minutes to find them.