lirenya
patreon
Hardships of an artist~
🕑 Added 2025-02-25 10:10:42 +0000 UTCThis might not be your usual post~
I've been owning a Patreon since probably 3 years now. I've probably taken only one break, beside the fact that my workflow is delayed but, after 3 years on here, I can't really grasp what I'm doing wrong.
For the most of time I wanted this platform to become the main source of my income, I always have ideas, I always draw, I always post - I'm consistent.
I noticed other artists around me be able to make that come true and I couldn't help but compare, but then i'd tell myself ''maybe probably I just need to give it more time, and as long as i stick to being consistent, it's gonna pay off, because my hobby is my dream job''
But everytime I reach a milestone - that is 40-45 patreons, some people leave, and I've been stuck on that for a very long while now.
Don't get me wrong - I appreciate DEEPLY those of you who stick around for so long and are here for good vibes and art, you guys always have the bestest things to say and you're my small community I just adore.
But I can't really comprehend what I've been doing wrong - at some point I told myself, aight, maybe it's the content, maybe I need to do more? So I decided to learn 2D Animating and do that once every 2 months - then I thought that maybe people leave because they can't relate to me since all I do is post art, so I started sharing some goofy life stories of mine for the people who want to relate to me, and show I'm not just an art-producing machine but a human being.
Then again, Twitter has been tough on me too - it's not about me being stuck on 60K on twitter, but me not being able to target a bigger audience because even my profile or replies don't appear to no one who doesn't follow me.
Instagram deleted one of the arts I recently did even though she was the most clothed out of all - and it's not like I can grow there either anymore.
I guess this post is either a rant or, maybe a question to what I should be doing or what I've been doing wrong all along.
It just seems I've been stuck in place for a long time. My ideal goal was 200-300 patreons so I could make a steadier income to focus more on the other things I want to do, such as not needing commissions as much anymore, to then be able to draw characters I enjoy drawing, cause let's be real, commissions are great - they are, but my income depends on it, and sometimes I'd rather draw some Nikke girls or even characters from newer games that come out that I find dope, it gets me more pumped and when I'm pumped I work faster.
I'm not sure for others, but for me personally, social media has been quite cancer for growth and, if you know me and chatted with me before, you definitely know I'm quite ambitious and I get frustrated when the work I provide doesn't bear the amount of fruits I expected, especially when putting years into it.
I guess this is just a side of probably also lots of other artist's struggles - we draw, we see things go super slowly even after years, we decide that maybe we need to do more - we do more, and we're still stuck on the same straight road, and some of us burn out.
I'm a way too ambitious of a mf so I'm not letting shit slide. But I can't seem to know how to find my workarounds with Twitter to finally show my content to strangers - and make my milestone come true, even if it takes another 2 years.
Am I sad? Not really. Just contemplative
Comments
Lirenya
Honestly any advice is helpful. It's funny you say it like that cause, even though I don't like comparing myself, I found myself going down this rabbit hole that maybe my art is the problem, maybe it's not clean enough, or, whatever other flaws I could find. So thank you, I appreciate it a lot. I will definitely keep Shibe Ink in mind. The thing is, if only I was able to benefit more from my patreon rather than commissions, I could be pumping more fanarts that I could use for future merch and actually look for partnerships, which would be super consistent, right? Don't get me wrong, commissions are fun - but sometimes a bit draining since most customers do have a say or two for the pose or other stuff, most of my bests works were the ones that I had whole freedom, but it's either that either I don't have enough for bread hahah. My first impression on Bluesky was me having one of my art get flagged day 1 because of panties. So I geniuely don't know how that's gonna roll. I'm gonna try out couple stuff and see how it goes. Thank you a lot for taking the time to write this. I've been drawing digitally for now past 7 years - it's quite sad the internet is not so artist-friendly anymore, with the rise of AI and both with people who have short attention span to appreciate someone's making.
Aegis
As I recognize that this isn't really an invitation for advice, let me start by saying that, as someone who's been scouting through the 'field' of 2d pinup artists, you are legitimately one of the stronger artists I've been able to find; your skills with composition and color are well above many of your peers, especially considering your diversity in character posing, and you compare well with artists with more years in the space. That said, you might benefit from reaching out to a coop group, something like Shibe Ink; as you indicated, the promotional side of the work is arguably one of the hardest parts for artists, both in terms of keeping ahead of opaque censorship decisions and maintaining visibility in a crowded field, and I think your art is at a level that you could receive serious consideration from the right group. I would also encourage you to consider Bluesky more heavily; the social media game is just as difficult there as anywhere else, but there's been a lot of growth in its art space and from personal experience reposted content has a lot of reach on the platform. Looking forward to more of your art.
