>brainstorm for original idea or concept
>everybody comment how it's a rip off of <something>

>Design character off top of head
>Don't like it cos it looks like someone you hate.

>Sit down and try to draw something portfolio worthy.
>Turns out like shit in comparison with random sketches.

>Be vorked

>The sketch looks better than the lineart

>Trying to assemble professional portfolio
>The best art (the ones that took the most time and effort) are odd porn (ie not suitable for public viewing)

>>41873
>>41875
ARGH!

>Spend an hour drawing something cool
>Zoom out to see the finished product
>See glaring mistake
>Have to erase %70 of it and start again

>>41880
>the next attempt doesn't look as good as the first, even without the error

>>41875

I can draw porn only when it's based on my roleplays, and never in any other context. But I get weird if someone asks me to post the RP transcripts publicly along with it. I dunno why.

Ever since I noticed the super-stylization and sameface going on with a lot of professional manga/comic artists' work, it's been hard to give them a fair chance.

Which I regret, because for all I know, their work could, in fact, be fucking awesome, so dismissing them simply because their women have pencil waists or giant teacup-sized eyes wouldn't be fair.

>look little sister's drawings
>they are way better than the ones I made when I was her age
>tells me it's because she learned a lot from me when we spent time drawing together

> Draw cartoon cheesecake
> Release it anonymously into the wilds of the internet
> Turns up on Paheal

>>42109
>>41781
>>41784
>>41875
>this

>want to practice/fill portfolio
>feel like I am wasting time
>start looking for work instead
>look at portfolios quality
>repeat
BAH!

>Write comic
>Draw it and ink it and scan it and edit it
>Spend two hours type-setting it because you no longer find the joke to be funny

>want to draw porn
>nope, don't want people to recognize my style or find out I'm into that.
>well, maybe I'll do nonsexual, cute stuff.
>no, if you do that, then if your stuff gets popular, you'll have to commit to it. Else if you so much as draw a boob, suddenly your Mr. Rogers persona goes out the window among the soccer mom types and the water cooler joke will be you're a socially maladjusted pervert.
>well.... uh... I...
>okay, how about I try and emulate other peoples or franchises styles and produce fan comics?
>no, because then you'll be tempted to tell stories deeper than three panel gags and eventually fuck it up writing checks your storytelling and art can't cash. Do you WANT internet notoriety as a Tryhard?!
>I really do not. ;.;
>welp, back to paint.net. To draw alone.

>>42091
Manly tears.

>>42109
Dude, I've seen that happen... except the guy signed it and it wasn't even too cheesecakey. He said he didn't know how to feel about it. XD

>>42118
>old project
>all jokes are outdated and they were the main thing going for the comic
>okay.jpg

>>42119
lol pretty much most of it
>no, if you do that, then if your stuff gets popular, you'll have to commit to it. Else if you so much as draw a boob, suddenly your Mr. Rogers persona goes out the window
And the more you deny the porn interest, the more heartbreaking it can be to the fans when it comes to the light, I tell ya. Well probably more depending on how fucked up goes the porn and how cute you drew.

>Open up for commissions
>Get none
Yeah... I guess not advertising and being well know would do it.

HELLSTROEM! I know you are posted over at the other end of the internet but I had to say, you're brilliant and I missed your antics.

>>42122
Thanks Dan - warms my heart :)
I find tossing out ten drawings per hour does something to my skills, which is why internet drawfaggotry is such a beneficial bit of training.
You have to tell a story in no time flat, and still be clear enough that people can read your arts.
Also
>>42119
^this

>drawing something
>almost done
>wrong layer
>restart
>halfway done
>still wrong layer

>>42109
> Draw cartoon smut
> Release it anonymously into the wilds of the internet
> It DOESN'T up on Paheal

>Start drawing cartoon smut.
>Never finish.
>All files lost.
>Let everyone down.

>>42196
>Draw cartoon smut
>Release it anonymously into the wilds of my kitchen garbage
>My MOM finds it

>draw cartoon smut
>get paid for it
>swagger

>>42199
>Draw cartoon smut
>computer borks
>need to send it to get fixed AND get backup done
>well shit

>if you dont practice youll never get better
>if it doesnt get better you get discouraged
>if you get discouraged you dont practice
>if you dont practice youll never get better

>Go to drawing discussion boards
>Realize it only leads to more art-related self hate and chances to be discouraged by looking at another person's art or work ethic
>Vow to only worry about my own work and not bother myself with the progress and complaints of other artists
>Still looking at and posting in this thread

>>42203
>>42204
>look at others' work over X time period
>genuine improvement, mostly
>look at own work over same period
>almost no change
>in fact it's probably worse

>>42205
Hello, me.

>>42206
Dear me,

Walk over to those insecurities and PUNCH them in the FACE.

Sincerely,
me

p.s. lose the beard for fuck's sake

>>42207
>lose the beard
Quite frankly how DARE you.

> Be working on illustration
> Experiencing both Desire to finish the drawing, and Hatred of the same drawing
> Both increasing at the same rate
> Which will max out first? Place your bets!

<- Strip part 2 related

>Need to draw, even if it's just fanart.
>Make progress.
>Totally erase it later because the style was off or some other reason.

Alternatively.

>Want to draw.
>Waste time on internet instead.
>I really need to draw.
>Why aren't I drawing?!

I have drawn so many porn in the past month I nearly gorgot how to draw clothes and poses that aren't spreading legs... :/ I'm not even that good at drawing porn yet.
fuck

>>42216
I get that second one alot.
I mostly get over it by using my "its-for-my-future!" logic, that goes as follows.
>Want to be a kickass Pixar animator.
>But first I need to learn to animate and get contacts.
>But I need to go to a good school for that.
>But I need a kickass portfolio for that.
>But I need to be better at art in general for that.
>But I need to keep practising and drawing alot for that.
>But I can't practise and draw alot if I can't finish this one drawing.
>So get off the internet and get to drawing, for fucks sake.

Y'know, I might end up making a comic of that.
If at least to prove to myself I can pull out two pages with the works and still have a job at the same time.

>>42217
Porn might actually be a good way to master anatomy. I found drawing a lot of naked people, sexually or otherwise, made drawing clothing on them a hell of a lot easier because I could figure out where the folds would be and so on.

>have horrible ability drawing humans, takes you days to draw one sketch and even then it looks horrible
>drawing buildings/landscapes takes you minutes and always look amazing

>>42248

You do have to be careful using too much porn as reference though. If you're using nothing as porn for a reference then after a while porn poses start to creep into your non-porn work.

>>42316
See: greg land.

>>42316
I've used nude models as reference for porn, but I don't use porn as an actual reference. I'm familiar with Greg Land (although I had been told he flat-out traced porn references) and his work is definitely not something I want to emulate.

Yeah, porn is good to reference for making porn and not much else. Even then the camera work isn't always quality, so you might get some weird shots that don't translate well into a drawing. But, let's face it, if you are wanting to draw a POV shot of somebody being penetrated, porn is probably going to be your only resource.

I hate artists with massive egos. Don't get me wrong, self-esteem is great. Not enough people are proud of their work. But the thing about Leonardo DaVinci was that he didn't go around telling everyone he was a triple threat that everyone was gonna be jealous of and would take the world by storm. His skills said everything for him.

>>41781
My friend was complaining about this too. She draws a lot of anime guys in suits or Victorian costumes, and had to convince a commenter on dA that not every picture of an anime guy in a Victorian suit was Black Butler fanart.

>>42314
>exact opposite problem

Quick, Fusion Dance!

>>42314
>>42428
Get someone who can write, but can't draw, and we have a kickass comic.

>"hey man how does my pic look
>"eh its a lot better than what i can draw"
>i didnt fucking ask how well you could draw i asked how my pic looked

>>42109

Mine tunrs up on pay to view sites

>>42442
>>others stealing your work and making others pay to see it
>>you get none of the money

Pretty sure that's illegal and that you have the right to at least send them a cease and desist letter asking them to pull it. That's a dick move by them, and I'm sorry that happened.

>>42453

No, its very bad art

>>42454
It's still your art. You deserve any money people want to pay for it.

>read too much manga
>naturally draw compositions that read better from right to left

>>Artist: "hey, I'm taking free requests, suggest any [insert fandom here] pairing you want me to draw"
>>a bunch of people request the most popular pairing, which the artist hates
>>artist draws a picture of the two characters pissed off at each other, followed by text about how much they hate the pairing

Why draw something if you don't like it? You have the power to turn down a request if you so choose. It's not like they're paying you.

>>42480
Taking free requests is, quite honestly, one of the worst things an online artist can do. People begin to view the person's work as having little value since they can get it so easily. The benefits are practically 0 for the artist (unless you are so desperate for attention that a "thanks nice work" is worth the effort and time), and if the artist ever goes from requests to commissions, people will view him as a sell-out and would probably be less willing to commission him than if he had only done comms from the beginning (either out of a fuck that sell-out or the idea that he will break down and draw for free again).

Basically, charge early and, as long as you are halfway decent, charge high.

>>42485
I see where you're coming from, but doing requests is really fun, especially when you only take requests you are personally quite fond of.

>>42486
True, but I'm of the belief that for many artists the ideas they're most fond of are the ones they've come up with themselves.

>>42485
I offer free requests for two reasons.

a) I don't believe I'm good enough to charge money for my art yet.
b) my parents are convinced Paypal can snoop into your personal info and therefore have refused to allow me to sign up for it. The closest I've gotten to payment on anything is getting inexpensive Steam games gifted to me in exchange, or a hat in Team Fortress 2, or something.

>>42488
If you ever decide to charge money as an evolution of doing requests, just be ready that some people could very likely get upset (I was with you when you sucked and now you are trying to charge me?, why did you give them free stuff and not me?, what a sell-out!, I only liked your work because you fulfilled my requests for free). Not everybody is that way of course and some artists will happen to have better luck there than others, but it is definitely something to consider.

At the very least, if you feel you must do free requests, be very selective and only do a small number. Make people work for it and don't be afraid to tell somebody that you don't like their idea and refuse to draw it. People have a much harder time going from free to paying than from not getting anything to paying.

Also, that feel when you give somebody a free sketch request and they commission somebody else to color it.

I'm not sure if good feel or bad feel.

>>42492

>>42493
It is an odd feeling, no? On the one hand, it is nice to know the pic was liked. On the other, I always view the drawing as the more impressive/difficult part, so somebody else being paid for the coloring but the artist not getting paid for the sketchwork feels... odd, I guess. I mean, it is great to see it colored in the end, but... It just reaffirms my belief that requests are generally a bad idea.

>>42492
That's a thing?
Gooooddd that's gotta suck.

>>42496
All the more reason that requests=bad. But hey, at least I know I coulda charged had I wanted to? lol

I guess my low self-esteem is such that I can't see myself ever willingly getting paid by anyone. The one time I asked, my friend wouldn't stop laughing at the idea of it (she wanted a tattoo and I suggested a fee of maybe $5). But I think that's a bigger issue than just art.

>>42499
Seriously. Don't draw for other people for free, unless it is like your close family or something. Otherwise you will just get taken advantage of or other people will use your art for their own financial benefit or to boost their own reputation or notoriety. Plus, the more you give, the less people appreciate it and therefore the less they are willing to do for it if you ever do get the confidence to charge, as is the case with anything including art.

If you REALLY want to do stuff for free online, do so anonymously in a community where you won't be recognized, or do so very rarely and selectively.

>>42501
People barely if ever ask me to draw for them, though, hence the insecurity. They barely even look at it.

>>42502
Keep at it. I'm not some great artist or anything, but I used to be complete garbage, drawing crude scribbles in MSPaint and crying about how all my stuff sucked. But, if you keep with it and seriously work at it, at some point people will take notice in a positive way. Relatively unknown artists with recently developed skill who have high insecurities about their work are the easiest to be taken advantage of, so keep your guard up and don't let the thrill of attention cloud your judgment.

Also, random commenters who see a work they like and instantly claim it's fanart of their character or of their fanfic or use a drawing someone else did of their character without asking permission really piss me off.

>20 and unemplyed
>drawing skills are not too bad but could be improved hugely if I knew what to focus on
>don't know what to do with my life
>only know I don't want a "normal" job and want to make money with drawing

>>42510
draw in your private life, McJob until you're good enough to make lots of money.

>>getting really envious of people who get a lot of notes/likes on Tumblr and dA because you have no other way of gauging whether your work is "good" or not

>>42519
That's kinda tricky though, porn-related stuff gets popular by default, quality notwithstanding.
I suppose you're a bit better off gauging by comparing your old stuff, seeing what you learned to do better since then, keeping improving on your rhythm.

>>42519
Sites like deviantart are often popularity contests. Yes, good people tend to become popular over time regardless, but some shit artists get a lot of followers due to niche (read: fetish) art or catering to various communities. Some decent artists get elevated to god status through a combination of decent (not god-tier) art and circumstance. I see people going apeshit and paying a just decent artist tons of money for a fairly bland pic and then acting like it is the best thing they've ever seen, simply because it was drawn by artist "X", who by average DA user definition is fucking fantastic.

A lot of people on deviantart aren't the best judge of art quality when it comes to grading the huge sea of decent-to-good quality artists that fill the site. Most can distinguish between shitty gradeschool art and pro quality, but for most anything in between is judged on other factors. The only real way they have to judge their quality is through the popularity of the artist or how e-famous they are. You can tell this by looking through such an artist's gallery and noticing that even their lazy, lower-quality pics get similar reception to their better work.

Acting like you're hot shit in the art world doesn't hurt, either.

>Draw stuff for my friends for free because they're my friends
>Lots of them are writers or RPers, so there is a big bank of characters I've probably read about to draw
>One of my friends says they will pay me to draw something
>I tell them I'm not wholly comfortable with charging my friends for my work
>She forces me to accept payment by being so insistent about it
>Pays me way more than I would accept for a normal drawing, especially with conversion rates
>I tell her, she doesn't care, tells me to just fucking draw the stuff

And that's how I paid for my video games for a while.

>>42540
That's how I got most of my Steam games (and a good number of Team Fortress 2 items). People liked my art enough to pay me, and even though it was mostly people who were already friends of mine, I was still very appreciative of it.

I think the most expensive one I got was Assassin's Creed II when it went down to $20, and a friend of mine bought it for me in exchange for a drawing and the possibility I'd Livestream it. Sadly the framerate is really high, so no Livestream, and I have no idea how to play a stealth game.

>really complicated tattoos

>really complicated tattoos

>>character in a series is custom-tailored for certain fetishes
>>artist draws Rule 34 of another character, completely changing them to fit that fetish instead

>>"I'm a way better artist than you but I'm not going to upload anything I draw to the internet to prove it"

>See an artist get paid money to draw something he/she almost certainly would have drawn on his/her own anyway

...Uh, I guess I missed the point of commissioning or something.

>>42634
Well, at least for me, I'd commission someone based on what they like and what they specialize in drawing.

>>42634
What, you'd try to hire one to draw stuff he wouldn't?

There's a difference between paying someone to apply their style and flair to new characters or new ideas and paying them to do what could just as easily amount to cleaning up and old sketch they had previously drawn.

>>42637
What if the person's a friend of yours and you feel you owe them a fiver or wanna help them out if they're low on money?

>>42638
That's a totally different story. As an artist, I'd just feel guilty having some stranger pay me a lot to draw a bland idea of something I would have just drawn on my own anyway.

>>42634
>>42635
>>42636
>>42637
>>42638
>>42639
I spoke about this with a friend, and he and I came to a conclusion that it depends on how many and what kind of commissions you get. Like if you're just starting out and commissions are your only source of income, you're greatful for any attention you get. More experienced people can afford to be more picky.

>>42645
Sure, maybe they can afford to, but that pretty much defines artistic and creative stagnation. More experienced should mean you are able and willing to do more, not less.

>>42646
That defines what the artist wants/cares to do. Not to mention going to an artist for what he doesn't do is counterproductive. You'll get better results if you ask for what he does better and is interested in. It doesn't make that much sense going to Rob Zombie asking him why doesn't he make a bolero.

>>42647
I see your point, and I get it and agree to an extent. Maybe I don't give the best opinions since almost as a rule I do not commission other artists, but if somebody were willing to pay me a fair price for drawing a character/style/theme I've never drawn before, I see no reason not to draw whatever he/she wants.

But hey, if the commissioner is really happy with what they get, so be it.

>>It doesn't make that much sense going to Rob Zombie asking him why doesn't he make a bolero.
>>dat mental image

>>42648
>>42649
Hey, not saying Rob Zombie -couldn't- make a decent bolero if he decided, but unless it made sense like for a movie or something and he were up for it, the logical thing would be looking for a guy famous for some good ones.

>>42654
I wouldn't be surprised. I just have this mental image of him squinting over a sewing machine or threading a needle with this intense look on his face and a dummy with a half-finished bolero on it in the background. I don't know whether it should be the most metal bolero ever, or the most un-Rob Zombie-esque bolero ever. Whichever's funnier.

A little more on topic though, a couple of my teachers were frustrating me because they were sort of railing on self-taught hobby artists a bit, people who don't intend to be professional artists, but are good enough at doing commissions on the side to make up for times when money might be tight in their main job. And I don't get why that's a bad thing. For some, yeah, they're good at art, but they don't want to do it as a career, like how some people are, I dunno, accountants or stock brokers and they have a band on weekends.

>>42660
Uhm sorry to kill the joke, but I was referring to the musical style bolero... it was sorta the first one that came to mind. But with your description, that's actually pretty hilarious.

I guess your teachers might just be worried about the market? Either way, I wonder how many can actually hit the gold being a serious artist on their main job. From what I've seen, comic book artists (including the ones working for the Big Two) work pretty hard just to make a name, nevermind making big money.

>>42670
Ahh, I didn't know about that style, that's why. But thank you.

I dunno if it would necessarily be competition? My teachers are animators, but the friends I know who are hobby artists essentially just draw peoples' OC's on commission every once in awhile when they need an extra $5-10 for gas or a new video game. They're going to school to be doctors or scientists, art isn't their main passion.

>>teacher gives me smooth comic book style inking pen so I can practice varying line thickness
>>doodling a bit before class
>>"oh let me borrow that pen it looks super smooth I forgot to write my name on my homework"
>>mfw

>Have Gigs of rule34 saved as "references"
>barely look at them ever
>whenever I'm stuck and start looking through, i can never find the image i want
It's like a tub of legos i swear to god

>>42679
I created my own booru served up to me through XAMPP (gelbooru serves up an open source version of a limited version of the site's code), and made a Chrome plugin that lets me add any image to it directly through a context menu, with a popup for tagging purposes. Makes finding refs much easier.

>>42679
First, figure out which artists are worth emulating or not. I used to look up to certain artists when I was in middle school, who, at least at the time, had terrible anatomy, flat shading, etc.

At least how I organize my refs folder is as such:

--Males
--Females
--Non-gender-specific (perspective, proportions, poses, clothing folds, wings, etc.)
--Coloring/shading tutorials

>>42683
>>42681
>>42679
http://puu.sh/1DaeE

Organizing is definitely one of those things to do from the beginning. Once you have years of saved reference material, the thought of sorting it all is rather daunting.