Ive Spent 8 Consecutive Years Lurking On Here, Posting A Few Of My Own Art Things But Mostly Just Quietly

I’ve spent 8 consecutive years lurking on here, posting a few of my own art things but mostly just quietly observing, tapping like and filing away things for later. I feel like a tumblr veteran, yet not at all. I’ve never been one to participate much in social media (as an illustrator it is regrettably part of my job to an extent), but I think I’m gonna finally start poking my head above water here, see how it goes. There’s a lot going on in my life right now, things are difficult and feeling very turned upside down, so I feel like I need to take community where I can get it.

Let me become soup

Grocery shopping for gnome soup

ko-fi ❤️

This is something I was explicitly told back in art school, that you can show at most 2, MAYBE 3 different things you’re able to do in your portfolio. Art directors or whoever may hire you want to see and know exactly what they’re getting. I can understand that, but it is deeply limiting to not explore and experiment—or at the very least to be forced to do that purely in private. It’s doubly fucked for that to leak out and affect people who should in theory just be making art for themselves, not a career.

I agree completely, very limiting and sad. I’m pretty bad about showing a consistent brand myself, I want to experiment and to do more than just one thing as a freelancer, and I know it’s holding back my career. It’s unfortunately something I probably need to make some hard choices about. Streamline for the capitalism of it all

do you think the obsession with ‘style consistency’ in online art communities is mostly caused by this idea that your art style needs to be easily marketable & recognizable as a brand (especially when you’re working as a freelancer). i see the /least/ amount of progress in my art whenever i try to aim for style consistency. i don’t know exactly where i’m going with this but i think there’s some sort of connection between trying to monetize/market your art & limiting your growth as an artist. and i think it’s very sad.

Halloween Buddies

ko-fi ❤️

Really loving Dracula Daily

ko-fi ❤️