You mentioned thematic direction being wanting. I've been feeling that way for a while, deep down. I'm not really sure what I want to do, honestly.
"Post your Art" Thread -
- Thread starter The Hunter
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You mentioned thematic direction being wanting. I've been feeling that way for a while, deep down. I'm not really sure what I want to do, honestly.
You're currently catering to the lowest common denominator. What you are spending hours upon hours hand-rendering will be appreciated for all of 2 minutes until a furfag busts their nut.
The very least you could be doing here is private OC commissions so people are throwing money at you to wallow in their degeneracy.
If you're publishing this stuff for free then you're a fool.
The whole hours and hours thing you said resonated with how I've grown to feel about spending the time. I think you're right. I can definitely do better to take my art in a more highbrow direction, and I appreciate your blunt honesty. I'll definitely reflect, and maybe just study to improve technically for a few months while I think on a more satisfying direction.
As for return, I've managed to complete maybe 20 commissions now. It's been interesting to say the least. I'm surprised people pay as much as they will and how accommodating the commissioners have been.
In all honestly, your technical skill is above average. It's always good to try and actively improve, but that isn't the issue here. It's your content that needs revision, IMO.
And that is only my opinion, because your work isn't to my personal taste, but nor does it seem to be to your own tastes - otherwise you'd be flaming me and defending your work.
How transferrable is the skill you've developed of depicting anthropomorphic NSFW cartoons? I'm unsure, but the skills you've developed in digital hand-rendering can be transferred into film animation, video game concept art/animation, and even portraiture if you're willing to work with subjects a little more realistically (pet portraits are a big thing and will continue to be so).
Gar For Archer
kiwifarms.net
While it’s certainly not to my taste either, if he’s in it purely for the money I can’t blame him. It’s much harder to find an audience for non-fetish art, and you’re competing with a MUCH larger talent pool. I personally draw for my own enjoyment so I’d never stoop to drawing furshit, but if you have the skill to distinguish yourself (and @John Furrman is well above the average technical execution of your typical furry shit) I’m not gonna judge for using that to make some cash on the side.
I agree with this, but @John Furrman has doubts themselves.
So maybe while my initial reply was more nasty than constructively critical, I'm trying to follow that up with a dialogue that won't allow them to pigeon-hole themselves into a market that they aren't entirely happy being in.
Gar For Archer
kiwifarms.net
It’s ultimately a question of why you’re drawing in the first place. If you’re doing it for the money, it’s just an uncomfortable fact that porn and fetish art (furry or otherwise) command way higher profits. If you’re doing it for your own enjoyment, you’re still more than capable of drawing stuff that you enjoy outside of doing furry commissions. If you DO enjoy drawing but the furry commissions eat up all your free time, then maybe ease up on the commissions a bit.
I could sense your criticism wasn't in bad faith. Inspiration can come from anywhere, and sometimes stern words are what is needed to be heard. Although I can't go to art school, I know that's what the much harsher constructive critiques that some teachers give their students and being hurt by harsh words and then overcoming the points a weakness is a part of the process of becoming a better artist.
I genuinely like making furshit, have for years, but I think I am outgrowing the low brow stuff. I've needed a bigger challenge that technical skill can't overcome alone by tackling more thematically mature themes that have a real narrative to tell.
edit:
Yeah, I'm tired of commissions for now. I got a new day job after a 5 month forced vacation from the last due to economic depression. I started taking commissions to pay the bills while I bummed around studying art on my own. I need to finish what I started though, and deliver on what I said I would to the commissioners.
You don't need to go to art school to be an artist. So let me save you how many thousands of whatever currency you're familiar with.
The majority of successful contemporary artists are drop-outs. They have a strong business sense that is complimented by their creative skill.
A degree will help you get into the lower-level jobs within the realms of Graphics/Illustration, but that's nothing that a very strong and diverse portfolio couldn't counter.
Maybe you should move into exploring animation on your down-time, just as a hobby. Learn about the software and see what you can come up with. Just have fun with it.
If anything, atleast you might be able to render animated furporn which will really bring in the big bucks.
NOOOO!!!!
I was just about to say, I was very much impressed with your fur asses, and if there's ever been a time that a big-tit deer riding a Harley caught my attention, now is it.
By all means tackle the themes you want to tackle. But you've got a God-given-gift for asses, bro, and don't let the idea of having a "highbrow turn" make you feel obliged to lose sight of that.
I mean -
there's no reason you can't have your fun AND be srsartist at the same time.
(I'm guessing you work in digital, right? The Chinchilla piece kind of reminds me of a guy named AssasinMonkey; are you familiar with him?)
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Drew this yesterday because I was bored, first time using actual special effects!
boy we sure did have a deep philosophical conversation that basically boiled down to: to draw furshit or not to draw furshit? that is the question
tis it nobler in the mind to branch out for fear of being labeled smutartist, or to wriggle in one's own complacent fun of drawing thine thicc furry ass, and in doing so, conquer?
I'm badly paraphrasing hamlet here but my advice would be, by all means, keep drawing stuff but maybe try some new ideas, like drawing ayyyliums, or humans or such so as to give yourself even more creative potential, the more you can draw, the more work you have access to accepting, and therefore, the more dank cash you'll be rolling in! versatility is the artists most underrated weapon
There's also a danger involved in continuing to draw the same stuff, and this is particularly so for furshit, the moment you have to draw say, something human-like, you're probably going to have trouble due to a detachment from human forms.
Most of the furshit characters were ones i came up with when i was very young and didn't realize back then how much i'd regret it later, but i just look past it and do it when i have to, as its good for my growth as an artist, and I do think Svoli, that russian blue i draw a fair bit, is pretty cool, I would never sexualize my furshit though- because im not a zoophile.
I don't even call myself a furry just because of the schmaltzy connotations the label carries.
Welp, time to finish up that Esperia drawing i posted last page, if there's been no responses before i'm done ill edit it into this post as i have done before.
While I have a fun time doing the funnest part of drawing, here's some examples of the kind of stuff i draw just to try new things out, art is best grown via experimentation and trying new shit.
EDIT: oh on the art school thing, it's basically useless.
I've seen the stuff graduates from art school can draw and you're already above their level john, it'd be a waste of time and money to attend
I personally might still definitely have some things to learn but im hopeless in academic situations so i'd rather just continue to grow on my own terms, backwards and silly as they are!
EDIT2: It is done!
So her right hand is a bit weird looking and the lighting is a little weird on the right of her stomach but all in all im immensely thrilled with how this turned out!
Background was good fun, too~!
tis it nobler in the mind to branch out for fear of being labeled smutartist, or to wriggle in one's own complacent fun of drawing thine thicc furry ass, and in doing so, conquer?
I'm badly paraphrasing hamlet here but my advice would be, by all means, keep drawing stuff but maybe try some new ideas, like drawing ayyyliums, or humans or such so as to give yourself even more creative potential, the more you can draw, the more work you have access to accepting, and therefore, the more dank cash you'll be rolling in! versatility is the artists most underrated weapon
There's also a danger involved in continuing to draw the same stuff, and this is particularly so for furshit, the moment you have to draw say, something human-like, you're probably going to have trouble due to a detachment from human forms.
Most of the furshit characters were ones i came up with when i was very young and didn't realize back then how much i'd regret it later, but i just look past it and do it when i have to, as its good for my growth as an artist, and I do think Svoli, that russian blue i draw a fair bit, is pretty cool, I would never sexualize my furshit though- because im not a zoophile.
I don't even call myself a furry just because of the schmaltzy connotations the label carries.
Welp, time to finish up that Esperia drawing i posted last page, if there's been no responses before i'm done ill edit it into this post as i have done before.
While I have a fun time doing the funnest part of drawing, here's some examples of the kind of stuff i draw just to try new things out, art is best grown via experimentation and trying new shit.
EDIT: oh on the art school thing, it's basically useless.
I've seen the stuff graduates from art school can draw and you're already above their level john, it'd be a waste of time and money to attend
I personally might still definitely have some things to learn but im hopeless in academic situations so i'd rather just continue to grow on my own terms, backwards and silly as they are!
EDIT2: It is done!
So her right hand is a bit weird looking and the lighting is a little weird on the right of her stomach but all in all im immensely thrilled with how this turned out!
Background was good fun, too~!
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Well, if you're going to take the Hamlet route, then you'd have to stick with the smut, as that is what you know, and who can tell what will become of you if you try to go all highbrow? "Thus conscience does make cowards of us all"
Uhhh... I mean, it is and it isn't. It's definitely more useless than most college, which is already useless in many fields anyway. And yes, I can confirm firsthand that John Furrman is better than most grads.
That said, art school is just like any other horribly overpriced liberal arts education; if you go there simply to learn, you're doing it wrong. What it is, is a really good way to network with rich assholes of an impressionable age, whose parents might give you a job, or put you in touch with the CIA, etc etc.
Take the guy from that other thread, for example; David Hockney.
Hockney's a good artist, but he didn't get to THAT level of success because he's a good artist - I can guarnatee he got to that level because he knows how to play politics and curry friendships with the elite. You look at Hockney's portfolio, and it's - yeah, OK, ho hum, it's not really thing but sure whatever? But then you look at his bio, and it's all - Royal College of Art, Hollywood Hills, London, Paris, mansions in Malibu. He was friends with dozens of big name artists and gallery owners, and that doesn't happen just because you're a talented artist with brilliant ideas. You get that from moving in the right social circles, which you get from being in the right places.
Granted, not everyone is going to want to be a Hockney, and even if you DO, you're probably not going to make it. But if you want to actually break into the
"ART WORLD" in your own lifetime, instead of like fifty years after you're dead and some art historian chances upon your masterpiece, then art school might be a good idea.You could always just go for a couple semesters, establish yourself as The Cool Maverick Everyone Loves, then pull some dramatic stunt and drop out?
I like the colours a lot! Especially the glowing effects; works very well.EDIT2: It is done!
So her right hand is a bit weird looking and the lighting is a little weird on the right of her stomach but all in all im immensely thrilled with how this turned out!
Well by all means the smut can super continue if hamlet demands it, but it doesn't have to be furry smut.
But I'm the one pulling shit from hamlet, our furshit dude who I wager hasn't graced us with furshit in 6 months because he himself is quite ashamed of it, is a different person and he should do as he sees necessary.
And yes, that is the one good thing with college is that you can make contacts, I personally would never seek that from college because i absolutely hate rich assholes let alone working with them. I'd sooner stay poor and a borderline pov fuck than be in service to some dipshit whose only redeemable quality is the lining of his pockets. But that's me and John may be different.
There is however, a fairly low chance that will even happen, and even if it does rich assholes have a tendency to ruin your lives work if they so much as feel like you could be doing better. They also have the power to ruin your reputation and chances of getting future lucrative deals entirely due to their influence so it's a big risk to take if it can even come about.
Also the phrase 'highbrow art' is just an artefact of the conversation john and the clown were having-- and thus probably isn't a real term artists use but I wouldn't know.
I'm an entirely homebrew artist and the contemporary and even abstract art scenes largely alienate and baffle me so i keep clear of them with an untold level of zealous abstinence. I can at least see the appeal and fun behind abstract art, after all i did just spend the last four hours drawing shit tons of glyphs by hand to make scythe look cool.
Elitist artists are people I'd just like to avoid in general anyway and in the contemporary scene where shitting colors across a canvas at random, or painting nothing, or nailing a single screw into a piece of wood is considered high tier art-- there is no shortage of them.
I can't see the enjoyment to grossly overvaluing useless garbage with no message or purpose or even attractive qualities so I'm pretty sure contemporary artists are actually just fucking insane and the only reason contemporary art has a place in the world is because people are stupid enough to buy it just to say they did or something, again, rich assholes being rich assholes.
But, I am speaking from a very practical point of view so maybe there's a reason people enjoy contemporary art enough to buy it for the insane prices people charge for it. Because apparently a blank canvas is worth thousands of dollars when sold by this one artist?
Yeah, I really don't get how doing next to no work or actually doing no work at all as is the case in the above example is so valuable. But I think I've ranted about that for quite long enough.
As for my piece, I'm glad you like it! The glowing effects were a tricky balance and I thankfully have a trained enough eye now to be able to know when too much is too much. The Dramatis style which her and my work prior (Xaela) were rendered in has been getting much better as I've been practicing more with it and seeing what works and what doesn't.
I would like to say I have art to post in order to justify this makeshift wall of verbose garbage worth reading but I'm afraid I've come up short. I'll just have to hope my writing style is enjoyable enough to make reading this banger of a post remotely worth your time.
But I'm the one pulling shit from hamlet, our furshit dude who I wager hasn't graced us with furshit in 6 months because he himself is quite ashamed of it, is a different person and he should do as he sees necessary.
And yes, that is the one good thing with college is that you can make contacts, I personally would never seek that from college because i absolutely hate rich assholes let alone working with them. I'd sooner stay poor and a borderline pov fuck than be in service to some dipshit whose only redeemable quality is the lining of his pockets. But that's me and John may be different.
There is however, a fairly low chance that will even happen, and even if it does rich assholes have a tendency to ruin your lives work if they so much as feel like you could be doing better. They also have the power to ruin your reputation and chances of getting future lucrative deals entirely due to their influence so it's a big risk to take if it can even come about.
Also the phrase 'highbrow art' is just an artefact of the conversation john and the clown were having-- and thus probably isn't a real term artists use but I wouldn't know.
I'm an entirely homebrew artist and the contemporary and even abstract art scenes largely alienate and baffle me so i keep clear of them with an untold level of zealous abstinence. I can at least see the appeal and fun behind abstract art, after all i did just spend the last four hours drawing shit tons of glyphs by hand to make scythe look cool.
Elitist artists are people I'd just like to avoid in general anyway and in the contemporary scene where shitting colors across a canvas at random, or painting nothing, or nailing a single screw into a piece of wood is considered high tier art-- there is no shortage of them.
I can't see the enjoyment to grossly overvaluing useless garbage with no message or purpose or even attractive qualities so I'm pretty sure contemporary artists are actually just fucking insane and the only reason contemporary art has a place in the world is because people are stupid enough to buy it just to say they did or something, again, rich assholes being rich assholes.
But, I am speaking from a very practical point of view so maybe there's a reason people enjoy contemporary art enough to buy it for the insane prices people charge for it. Because apparently a blank canvas is worth thousands of dollars when sold by this one artist?
Yeah, I really don't get how doing next to no work or actually doing no work at all as is the case in the above example is so valuable. But I think I've ranted about that for quite long enough.
As for my piece, I'm glad you like it! The glowing effects were a tricky balance and I thankfully have a trained enough eye now to be able to know when too much is too much. The Dramatis style which her and my work prior (Xaela) were rendered in has been getting much better as I've been practicing more with it and seeing what works and what doesn't.
I would like to say I have art to post in order to justify this makeshift wall of verbose garbage worth reading but I'm afraid I've come up short. I'll just have to hope my writing style is enjoyable enough to make reading this banger of a post remotely worth your time.
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And a comfy thread deserves comfy art so here I decided my last post was a bad habit so this post I will talk sparingly and just share the comf!
It should be noted that some of these art pieces are fairly old.
It should be noted that some of these art pieces are fairly old.
I mean, I'd rather look at normal smut than furry smut, yes, but ngl, furry IS a very profitable genre. Furs tend to have above-average disposable income, high demand for art, low impulse control, and no families to save money for. That makes them a perfect audience for smut peddling, so if like Furrman you enjoy furry and are willing to draw furbutts, that's actually one of the more sensible and fiscally-responsible avenues you can pursue as an artist.
A source of great shame, maybe, but "it's a dirty job and someone's got to do it".
"Highbrow" isn't usually used, but "high art" and "low art" can be, and the term "highbrow" is certainly understood, and describes a real phenomenon that art school types will be well-acquainted with. Academic artists also draw a distinction between "fine art" and "illustration" (boils down to almost the same thing), with most of what's being posted here in this thread qualifying as "illustration". Illustration is taken somewhat seriously and is often accepted as a day job, but it's definitely viewed as a lesser discipline to "real" art.
Sometimes, sure. I'm not that fond of many contemporary artists myself, so please don't take this as me defending them, BUT - in fairness, highly-valued contemporary art generally does have a message. Even if the message is something you'd find trite or ridiculous, like "this screw in a block of wood asks the question, what is art?", fine art is very much focused on having messages and "conversations", so much so that the presence of a message is the primary thing which defines it against, say, mere illustration. Being able to write up a convincing art statement that conforms to the artschool elements of style - or at least, being able to convince an art dealer, gallery owner, historian, or collector that your art has a message and that message is totally smart and not dumb - is a big part of the process, and one of the things that art school will teach, but which you will certainly struggle with if you try to learn it on your own.
It's mostly helping friends and getting tax write-offs. I know that might sound dismissive, and I'm not trying to belittle fine art here, but it really is true, at least according to the professors I know who've actually worked as fine art dealers in major cities. Art is an appealing commodity, because besides looking nice (sometimes?) and generating discussion at dinner parties, its market value is HIGHLY subjective; a given work of art can be worth anything people are willing to pay, from thousands, to even millions of dollars. As such, rich dudes can (and will) use fine art to play with the market, making investments and stashing equity away for a rainy day.
Consider something pleby, like vintage computers or Pokemon cards. You can certainly collect these things; fun hobby, conversation pieces, all that stuff right? However, vintage hardware and trading cards have fairly non-volatile value that is defined by the purchasing interests of millions of other (usually nearly broke) nerds. If you want to buy a Yawning Squirtle card, say, there's only so much that card is going to be worth to the market. If its book value is currently fifty dollars, you can't just up and declare your card is worth fifty thousand - which may not be an issue for poor people, but IS an issue for the rich. Sometimes, if you're rich, you want to put fifty thousand into a single, easy to manage asset, rather than deal with a giant crate of Yawning Squirtle cards.
So let's say you know some cool artist who hangs out in Manhattan, and he's got a lot buzz from the fine art community, then - yeah! OK. Let's say he's selling a blank canvas today? Bold, subversive, cheeky! Since it's a one-of-a-kind piece, and you're here first, you get to decide what it's worth. Say it's worth a few thousand? Buy it up, BOOM. Worth a few thousand, easy. Now you've got this expensive piece of blank-canvas art hanging in your boardroom or whatever.
The value of art is defined by its market, and in the case of fine art, its market is dominated by rich people like this. You get enough powerful people interested in your art, and the value of your art skyrockets. Take someone like, I dunno, Basquiat let's say - there was a time when Basquiat was selling postcards in Central Park for a couple dollars. At that time, a couple dollars was all his art was worth, because that's all people were willing to pay. But he eventually caught the eye of some gallery curators, got famous, and had the good sense to die young and tragically. Now people in the art world love him! This painting, for example, was sold to a Japanese billionaire for over $110 million:
Is it worth a couple dollars? Is it worth $110 million? It's worth whatever the buyers are willing to pay for it, really, and if you or one of your artschool friends can convince a billionaire to invest in your artwork, then sure! Sell that blank canvas for thousands, or even millions. Shine on you crazy diamond.
Yeah like that piece the last one is worth at least 50 as there's been genuine effort made, and yes those reasons are exactly why I hate contemporary art, it has absolute zero to do with skill or talent it just has to do with how many powerful / rich friends you have, going back to my point of 'rich assholes being rich assholes'.
I couldn't have less respect for the "genre" and yes that does require airquotes, if I tried.
It's like people who make dubstep, as in the old dubstep which was made by people who have zero musical talent (and not the blazay take on electro/synth it is today) and just wanted to call their grody rythymless bullshit credible and had friends rich enough to make it into a "genre".
The excuse of "art is subjective" only goes so far as talent and effort as far as I'm concerned. It's grossly unfair to say a blank canvas is art, it's just a canvas-- there is no talent or effort involved. I get why people think more of it and you make that very easy to understand, but those people are fools who undervalue talent and overvalue worthless garbage a child could create via nepotism.
It actually makes me sick, and in a world so fixated on the ideals of capitalism and how much people downplay socialism then we have shit like this which is the horrid amalgam of both. It's yet another feed the rich entitled dipshits scheme that is behind so many of the world's problems.
But anyway, I think i got most of that off my chest, my overall analaysis is contemporary art is just elitist bullshit for people with more money than sense. I also think it should not exist and people who dabble in contemporary art should be mocked, slandered and smeared like the bastard worthless thieves they are, and i will do that in places I have the permit to do so.
But as I have commited the sin of making more uncomf posts, I will now pay it back in full by posting comf art so as to soften the blow of all this trashtalking to a useless sect of society i've been doing~
Some of these are quite old. The first and last in particular
I couldn't have less respect for the "genre" and yes that does require airquotes, if I tried.
It's like people who make dubstep, as in the old dubstep which was made by people who have zero musical talent (and not the blazay take on electro/synth it is today) and just wanted to call their grody rythymless bullshit credible and had friends rich enough to make it into a "genre".
The excuse of "art is subjective" only goes so far as talent and effort as far as I'm concerned. It's grossly unfair to say a blank canvas is art, it's just a canvas-- there is no talent or effort involved. I get why people think more of it and you make that very easy to understand, but those people are fools who undervalue talent and overvalue worthless garbage a child could create via nepotism.
It actually makes me sick, and in a world so fixated on the ideals of capitalism and how much people downplay socialism then we have shit like this which is the horrid amalgam of both. It's yet another feed the rich entitled dipshits scheme that is behind so many of the world's problems.
But anyway, I think i got most of that off my chest, my overall analaysis is contemporary art is just elitist bullshit for people with more money than sense. I also think it should not exist and people who dabble in contemporary art should be mocked, slandered and smeared like the bastard worthless thieves they are, and i will do that in places I have the permit to do so.
But as I have commited the sin of making more uncomf posts, I will now pay it back in full by posting comf art so as to soften the blow of all this trashtalking to a useless sect of society i've been doing~
Some of these are quite old. The first and last in particular
Felt like sharing some stuff of mine in no particular chronological order that I'm proud of/has aged well for me:
I like drawing Gondola :>
I like drawing Gondola :>
Well, uhhh... this is awkward... but THANKS????
EDIT: Looks like the bastard deleted the comment, lol. Must've found out I use Kiwi Farms.
Oh well... At least I have a screenshot of it.
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