{ "submission_id": "454850", "keywords": [ { "keyword_id": "85", "keyword_name": "anal", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "129764" }, { "keyword_id": "6664", "keyword_name": "crap", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "522" }, { "keyword_id": "3", "keyword_name": "dog", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "173164" }, { "keyword_id": "2379", "keyword_name": "exhibition", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "1603" }, { "keyword_id": "165", "keyword_name": "male", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "1199955" }, { "keyword_id": "413", "keyword_name": "muscle", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "29794" }, { "keyword_id": "416", "keyword_name": "oral", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "67854" } ], "hidden": "f", "scraps": "f", "favorite": "f", "favorites_count": "95", "create_datetime": "2013-08-06 09:51:02.774949+00", "create_datetime_usertime": "06 Aug 2013 11:51 CEST", "last_file_update_datetime": "2013-08-06 09:49:50.215065+00", "last_file_update_datetime_usertime": "06 Aug 2013 11:49 CEST", "username": "Wolfblade", "user_id": "16", "user_icon_file_name": "159265_Wolfblade_badgeavatarsm2.png", "user_icon_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/large/159/159265_Wolfblade_badgeavatarsm2.png", "user_icon_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/medium/159/159265_Wolfblade_badgeavatarsm2.png", "user_icon_url_small": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/small/159/159265_Wolfblade_badgeavatarsm2.png", "file_name": "588818_Wolfblade_wb_workout.jpg", "file_url_full": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/full/588/588818_Wolfblade_wb_workout.jpg", "file_url_screen": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/588/588818_Wolfblade_wb_workout.jpg", "file_url_preview": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/588/588818_Wolfblade_wb_workout.jpg", "thumbnail_url_huge_noncustom": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/588/588818_Wolfblade_wb_workout.jpg", "thumbnail_url_large_noncustom": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/588/588818_Wolfblade_wb_workout_noncustom.jpg", "thumbnail_url_medium_noncustom": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/588/588818_Wolfblade_wb_workout_noncustom.jpg", "thumb_medium_noncustom_x": "65", "thumb_medium_noncustom_y": "120", "thumb_large_noncustom_x": "109", "thumb_large_noncustom_y": "200", "thumb_huge_noncustom_x": "164", "thumb_huge_noncustom_y": "300", "files": [ { "file_id": "588818", "file_name": "588818_Wolfblade_wb_workout.jpg", "file_url_full": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/full/588/588818_Wolfblade_wb_workout.jpg", "file_url_screen": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/588/588818_Wolfblade_wb_workout.jpg", "file_url_preview": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/588/588818_Wolfblade_wb_workout.jpg", "mimetype": "image/jpeg", "submission_id": "454850", "user_id": "16", "submission_file_order": "0", "full_size_x": "409", "full_size_y": "750", "screen_size_x": "409", "screen_size_y": "750", "preview_size_x": "164", "preview_size_y": "300", "initial_file_md5": "ae91a1fb74eb28262c16678513de4aa6", "full_file_md5": "f5179dccafd7b1d967293dbf1b5429fd", "large_file_md5": "b442e4ea677ef79a97ab38c3c6246871", "small_file_md5": "ea4b2121333548a6e43016cf921ad0f9", "thumbnail_md5": "d9874391682f818ebf722c2be35f422d", "deleted": "f", "create_datetime": "2013-08-06 09:49:50.215065+00", "create_datetime_usertime": "06 Aug 2013 11:49 CEST", "thumbnail_url_huge_noncustom": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/588/588818_Wolfblade_wb_workout.jpg", "thumbnail_url_large_noncustom": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/588/588818_Wolfblade_wb_workout_noncustom.jpg", "thumbnail_url_medium_noncustom": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/588/588818_Wolfblade_wb_workout_noncustom.jpg", "thumb_medium_noncustom_x": "65", "thumb_medium_noncustom_y": "120", "thumb_large_noncustom_x": "109", "thumb_large_noncustom_y": "200", "thumb_huge_noncustom_x": "164", "thumb_huge_noncustom_y": "300" } ], "pools": [], "description": "So, I see an artist make the usual journal where they know they need to raise their prices but the inner conflict, etc, basically fighting the ENORMOUS social pressure this fandom has on creative people to undersell themselves.\n\nI make my usual response, say a lot of stuff about supply and demand and value and blah blah blah, and I realize... I don't follow any of my own advice on this subject.\n\nLook at this. This is crap. I don't mean that to insult anyone who is currently in this range of ability, EVERYONE is crap until they do it enough to learn to be better than crap. This was in the old stuff folder in my old stuff folder. 2001, maybe. I've been doing this for over a decade.\n\nNobody knew who I was when I put this pic up for auction, and I don't think I'm being too full of myself to say a few people know of me by now. But this crappy mechanical pencil sketch on a piece of printer paper drawn by a nobody, I'm pretty sure the first art I ever tried to sell, was worth $80 to somebody 12 years ago. I couldn't even tell you how >insane< it was to me back then, holy crap, oh my god, look how much somebody thought something I drew was worth! Back when I still sucked so bad, I thought this was actually pretty good!\n\nHere I am, over a decade later, living off of commission work, my own boss, a pretty good number of watchers, fans I know by name, people I've known since before my niece was even born, friends who started as fans, at least a LITTLE better at what I do than I was back then... and I'm charging less per figure than what I was worth as a nobody a decade ago.\n\nI >hate< being inaccessible to people who like my stuff. I don't >want< to be too expensive for people who want my stuff, my style, my whatever-it-is specifically. I hate thinking that people who enjoy what I put out there might hate me because they can't get something from me for themselves.\n\nBut this is stupid.\n\nThis is my job. This is my LIFE. I'd sooner lose both my legs than my ability to draw. I don't have anything else I feel is worth my being here, or anywhere. I love doing it. I want to continue doing it. I can't do it nearly as much as I had been because I've cheap-fast-quantity-sketched myself for the past several years right into some good old fun carpal tunnel so doing what I love doing is now physically painful. I don't do this JUST for money, I >love< making people laugh or pop a boner, or fuck yes, jizz themselves because I drew something they thought was hot.\n\nI've been so concerned about trying to do as much as I can for as many fans as I can while trying to not be TOO far out of anyone's range to get SOMETHING from me, and all the while I'm doing quick cheap sketch after quick cheap sketch and not doing stuff like comics and folios and just general appeal art for the sake of sharing, because I can't do any of that when one commission sketch costs so little that I have to spend all my art time doing them and still find myself just barely getting that last 30 bucks the day before rent's due.\n\nI don't know what I'm going to change, but something has to change. I know this is a lot of blah emo baw whatever on a really really crappy pic. I'm posting this to try and make myself stop procrastinating on this. I've been \"considering options\" for a different business model for months, all the while just never making a decision and just keep doing the cheap shit because it makes people happy and I very much LIKE making people happy. But I'm not happy. And I'm too selfish a person to keep ignoring that, and to continue to sell myself for less than what I was worth when I wasn't worth half what I am now. So sue me. ", "description_bbcode_parsed": "So, I see an artist make the usual journal where they know they need to raise their prices but the inner conflict, etc, basically fighting the ENORMOUS social pressure this fandom has on creative people to undersell themselves.

I make my usual response, say a lot of stuff about supply and demand and value and blah blah blah, and I realize... I don't follow any of my own advice on this subject.

Look at this. This is crap. I don't mean that to insult anyone who is currently in this range of ability, EVERYONE is crap until they do it enough to learn to be better than crap. This was in the old stuff folder in my old stuff folder. 2001, maybe. I've been doing this for over a decade.

Nobody knew who I was when I put this pic up for auction, and I don't think I'm being too full of myself to say a few people know of me by now. But this crappy mechanical pencil sketch on a piece of printer paper drawn by a nobody, I'm pretty sure the first art I ever tried to sell, was worth $80 to somebody 12 years ago. I couldn't even tell you how >insane< it was to me back then, holy crap, oh my god, look how much somebody thought something I drew was worth! Back when I still sucked so bad, I thought this was actually pretty good!

Here I am, over a decade later, living off of commission work, my own boss, a pretty good number of watchers, fans I know by name, people I've known since before my niece was even born, friends who started as fans, at least a LITTLE better at what I do than I was back then... and I'm charging less per figure than what I was worth as a nobody a decade ago.

I >hate< being inaccessible to people who like my stuff. I don't >want< to be too expensive for people who want my stuff, my style, my whatever-it-is specifically. I hate thinking that people who enjoy what I put out there might hate me because they can't get something from me for themselves.

But this is stupid.

This is my job. This is my LIFE. I'd sooner lose both my legs than my ability to draw. I don't have anything else I feel is worth my being here, or anywhere. I love doing it. I want to continue doing it. I can't do it nearly as much as I had been because I've cheap-fast-quantity-sketched myself for the past several years right into some good old fun carpal tunnel so doing what I love doing is now physically painful. I don't do this JUST for money, I >love< making people laugh or pop a boner, or fuck yes, jizz themselves because I drew something they thought was hot.

I've been so concerned about trying to do as much as I can for as many fans as I can while trying to not be TOO far out of anyone's range to get SOMETHING from me, and all the while I'm doing quick cheap sketch after quick cheap sketch and not doing stuff like comics and folios and just general appeal art for the sake of sharing, because I can't do any of that when one commission sketch costs so little that I have to spend all my art time doing them and still find myself just barely getting that last 30 bucks the day before rent's due.

I don't know what I'm going to change, but something has to change. I know this is a lot of blah emo baw whatever on a really really crappy pic. I'm posting this to try and make myself stop procrastinating on this. I've been "considering options" for a different business model for months, all the while just never making a decision and just keep doing the cheap shit because it makes people happy and I very much LIKE making people happy. But I'm not happy. And I'm too selfish a person to keep ignoring that, and to continue to sell myself for less than what I was worth when I wasn't worth half what I am now. So sue me. ", "writing": "", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "", "pools_count": 0, "title": "blarp", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "image/jpeg", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "2", "rating_name": "Adult", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "4", "name": "Sexual Themes", "description": "Erotic imagery, sexual activity or arousal", "rating_id": "2" } ], "submission_type_id": "1", "type_name": "Picture/Pinup", "guest_block": "t", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "33", "views": "2897" }