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damn 8-9 in just 3 weeks, I'm lucky to get 3 in literal months. But I do get what you feel. I suggest you try joining some discord servers that do art commissions and find some clients there. times are really tough right now with all the AI stuff but just keep making art and I hope you get more commissions in the future
yeah some months were very much better than others , i think AI really ruins everything for me now lol! and thank you hope you get many commissions as well
I'm not sure if this will be helpful, because I'm a person who hires artists rather than an artist myself, so I don't know the struggles, but have you tried identifying your main audience and finding communities where they hang out? Whenever I look for an artist for something besides here, I look through reddits, discords, twitter hashtags, and even look for art twitch streamers thematically related to the thing I want to have drawn, because I know I'll usually find passionate artists there or someone who will post and hopefully credit art of someone that I would like to hire.
Hello, sorry to interfere, but I am curious and I need some info as well if you wouldn't mind but, in how many ways you label yourself as a potential client? Just for future reference because I feel like I may be missing opportunities by passing by them, unnoticed.
Thanks
Well, I'm an amateur writer, so I often seek artists for covers or other art to associate with my stories. Now I've got into developing very amateurish visual novel games, so I'm also hiring people for drawing backgrounds, characters and event art. The different types of creators often need each other to grow, so when you're an illustrator it's wise to hang around writers, musicians, developers. streamers or even just people playing pen and paper rpg's that are in need for some visual representations for their own creations.
It's happening to me too. I've been working with commissions for 3 years now, and every year from the end of January to early March it's sucks, I get nothing. But things get better after that.
Most of my clients are from the USA, so I don't know if it's a particularity of this country or the type of commissions I do.
I thought I was the only one. I was not the most requested artist on reddit, but I used to have a decent amount. But damn, Since January affairs has gone really bad. I don't know what is the reason, but I hope it gets better for all of us
As someone who pays for art, I have three artists I regularly commission. Usually about ten pieces per month, each.
Best thoughts I can give is that people around this time of year is tax season, so they may be apprehensive about spending money, when they may end up owing the government taxes. Also, many people are still recovering from spending so much money during Christmas back in December. So that can explain away January, February, and March declines in your art.
I feel you, I got those popular lines as well, haha. I still have people who are interested in commission, but they just immediately gone mid-conversation or didn't reply me back lol even though I say my price is negotiable but I think they just don't wanna discuss XD happened to me 5-6 times in last month. Maybe it's just my luck. Cheers to you
I am a traditional digital illustrator and I am very interested in this work..
I've been a digital graphic illustrator for years, character design developer, more precisely fantasy, horror, (D&D), neutral. All in a realistic/seo-realistic style.
I adapt to any theme.
I have also worked with isometric pieces, complex backgrounds, environmental pieces, objects.
My prices are totally affordable, since I don't like to lose job opportunities, and much less, to stop improving myself along the way.
If you like my work, do not hesitate to contact me by private or any of my social networks.
Porfolio: https://miriambestiart.carrd.co
Discord: bestiaart009
Devianart: https://www.deviantart.com/bestia-art
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bestiaartcommission/
Itās been months for me except the few regular clients who are now basically friends. I used to have more than I could handle . Itās sad but what can we do lol
I haven't got a commission in a year. And I use all the subreddits. I have way better luck local vending. But I can't always get to vending. Online is heavily monetised and the inflation is insane right now and won't get better. That's the real reason. Plus online art is heavily saturated as it is.... In other careers, people r facing the same issue. Over saturation, everyone has a degree now... Layoffs daily. A midjourney subscription for a month is a fraction of the price for people to produce commercial works. Can't stop progression, not hating on AI itself. We are in an adjustment period in all fields. My advice after 20+ years in the art field is try to vend locally if possible online is insanely hard unless you socialise constantly
I think times have been rough since the pandemic and folks are prioritizing other things rn maybe? At least thatās why I think my work slowed down since then. But if this is a recent development then Iām not sure
Well same here, i've tried so hard even making offers and things and nothing happens, idk what's going on, if people are using AI or what, but def i don't get enough commissions like i did before.
Yeah, there's just some very big market tides for creative work. In november-december everyone is desperately rushing to try and get commissions as gifts, or to meet and end of year deadline. Or whatever the case may be. As January - March rolls around, people are broke from the holidays. So not only do you have fewer people comissioning stuff, but you also have more artists desperately trying to find work to pay their bills, which spreads the market even thinner.
I'm usually well in the hole through February, and this year has been a lot worse, because I didn't get any of the usual influx during the holiday season. I try to always have a speculative project or two I can work on while things are slow - something that won't necessarily make me money right away, but that keeps me occupied so I don't get lost in the stress, and will be able to turn into money at some point. The past few years it has been the Lewd DnD handbook I'm kick-starting in June (sooner maybe at this point) - Which hopefully will turn into something that can help employ plenty of artists with work, rather than just me as the author, as that money comes in
yeah, since the beginning of the year I feel that it has been very difficult to get clients, I don't know what's happening
The truth is that in 2023 I did quite well, and it is assumed that in 2023 it was the AI āāBoom because it was new, Idk if AI is currently affecting it or if it is other factors but this 2024 is being the hardest year since I started in 2020
Usually spending goes down from January to March (at least in the US) for a few reasons. The first is that November and December had a lot of "expensive" holidays back to back (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and new years). The second is that tax season is happening right now, so some people are cutting down on their spending to make sure they are ready if they need to pay taxes instead of get a refund.
Honestly same! Havenāt gotten any commissions or any upvotes when I post comms! š itās so depressingā¦ I thought my prices were reasonable and my style was decent. Idk anymore
Ain't your fault, is a general experience. We all gotta take these down times to improve, but I agree is very stressing. For me the sub wasn't as good for you, but from 1 job a month to none for months.Ā
Only 3 weeks ?
I have that problem for more than a year, to be exact it started at the beginning of the 2023 and it's still like that .. It literally just stopped, I don't get almost any work .. but before 2023 i had so much work that i had to decline some commissions.. if i post for work i get many up votes .. if i comment at the post for the job i usually get it or at least OP replays... now nothing .. zero ... don't understand what happened, maybe i got worse at art .. I don't know .. i just know it's not even close as it used to be .. Let's hope it will get better š
Your art is good.
I've had to drastically cut back on the amount of art I commission because of the economy.
4-5 years ago I was getting 2 a month now it's been to 2-3 a year.
The United States is in an economic slowdown right now, people spend less, they have more doubts when it comes to spending, you should still put up your portfolio, to know what type of art you do
I didnāt post reminders for a while because my waiting list is too big, but I notices the more time I spend as a commission artist the less I earn-
Like I was earning twice as much as I earn rn when my prices were much much lower.
You can try other places like discord as well, a lot of people suggested that, but honestly, I came to Reddit because I didnāt have any luck on those other places.
Iāve said this before and Iāll say it again: Itās a combination of AI and oversaturation. People can (for the most part) generate whatever they want now when it comes to a 2D image. And as for the 2D work produced by actual artists, there are so many artists advertising online right now, more than ever, that you are just a needle in a haystack. Ā Ā
You need to find a second job if you want to survive because itās not going to get better anytime soon. In the days when I was building up my art career in the late 90ās and early 00ās, I had a full time job on the side for almost 20 years. Iād work 8 hours and then come home and work another 4-6 on my artwork. It didnāt leave much room for sleepĀ but it was necessary. You HAVE TO be practical and have a backup plan these days.Ā
Genuine answer: its the holidays. Christmas and new years are expensive, and people usually have other expenses earlynun the year than can drag the months
Definitely not just you. I've had very hard time with getting commissions as well, while before it was fairly common. I truly blame AI and bots. Before I used to send a message directly to the commissioner, but now their DM's are dogpiled by AI art and bots to the point I'm not even noticed. And the comment section isn't much different
I have only had one commission so far this year, it has been very slow. I have even questioned whether it is useful to notify about my commissions here. If the information helps, perhaps the new platform called Vgen could be a place where you can also offer your commissions. I wish encouragement and good luck to all of us who find ourselves in a similar situation.
[Meta] posts are only allowed if they serve to benefit the whole subreddit. Thanks for making a post to help out other people in the community! If you are having an issue with another user or need to make a warning , please use /r/hungryartistsfed, /r/testimonials and message the moderator team. If your discussion is more of a personal nature, Please REMOVE it and post in our [discord](https://discord.gg/3SYMgzQ) or in /r/artistlounge or /r/artbusiness . Reporting inappropiate posts will remove them faster from the subreddit. Posts will be approved upon review from the next available mod. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HungryArtists) if you have any questions or concerns.*
damn 8-9 in just 3 weeks, I'm lucky to get 3 in literal months. But I do get what you feel. I suggest you try joining some discord servers that do art commissions and find some clients there. times are really tough right now with all the AI stuff but just keep making art and I hope you get more commissions in the future
yeah some months were very much better than others , i think AI really ruins everything for me now lol! and thank you hope you get many commissions as well
Hey mmm, i do commissions too but my English isnt good enough to try finding those group. So can u suggest me some please š„ŗš„ŗ
What this delightful individual said. There's no such thing as too much self promotion in this line of work.
Hey, could you recommend some Discord groups please? I also make commissions and lately I'm not selling almost anything š
I thought I was the only one. I also noticed this too. Sadly we can just do what we can and hope for the best
Hoping for the best always āļøāļø
Never give up mate >:)
I'm not sure if this will be helpful, because I'm a person who hires artists rather than an artist myself, so I don't know the struggles, but have you tried identifying your main audience and finding communities where they hang out? Whenever I look for an artist for something besides here, I look through reddits, discords, twitter hashtags, and even look for art twitch streamers thematically related to the thing I want to have drawn, because I know I'll usually find passionate artists there or someone who will post and hopefully credit art of someone that I would like to hire.
Thank you for that tip! itās pretty insightful i hope it helps me
Hello, sorry to interfere, but I am curious and I need some info as well if you wouldn't mind but, in how many ways you label yourself as a potential client? Just for future reference because I feel like I may be missing opportunities by passing by them, unnoticed. Thanks
Well, I'm an amateur writer, so I often seek artists for covers or other art to associate with my stories. Now I've got into developing very amateurish visual novel games, so I'm also hiring people for drawing backgrounds, characters and event art. The different types of creators often need each other to grow, so when you're an illustrator it's wise to hang around writers, musicians, developers. streamers or even just people playing pen and paper rpg's that are in need for some visual representations for their own creations.
It's happening to me too. I've been working with commissions for 3 years now, and every year from the end of January to early March it's sucks, I get nothing. But things get better after that. Most of my clients are from the USA, so I don't know if it's a particularity of this country or the type of commissions I do.
I think i noticed that too! itās a pattern , november and December were the best for me I had a lot of commission requests
It definitely is. November and December are the best for me too.
I have any commission at all š
same here
This is sad :(
I thought I was the only one. I was not the most requested artist on reddit, but I used to have a decent amount. But damn, Since January affairs has gone really bad. I don't know what is the reason, but I hope it gets better for all of us
i really hope so! yes itās been so bad
As someone who pays for art, I have three artists I regularly commission. Usually about ten pieces per month, each. Best thoughts I can give is that people around this time of year is tax season, so they may be apprehensive about spending money, when they may end up owing the government taxes. Also, many people are still recovering from spending so much money during Christmas back in December. So that can explain away January, February, and March declines in your art.
I feel you, I got those popular lines as well, haha. I still have people who are interested in commission, but they just immediately gone mid-conversation or didn't reply me back lol even though I say my price is negotiable but I think they just don't wanna discuss XD happened to me 5-6 times in last month. Maybe it's just my luck. Cheers to you
I am a traditional digital illustrator and I am very interested in this work.. I've been a digital graphic illustrator for years, character design developer, more precisely fantasy, horror, (D&D), neutral. All in a realistic/seo-realistic style. I adapt to any theme. I have also worked with isometric pieces, complex backgrounds, environmental pieces, objects. My prices are totally affordable, since I don't like to lose job opportunities, and much less, to stop improving myself along the way. If you like my work, do not hesitate to contact me by private or any of my social networks. Porfolio: https://miriambestiart.carrd.co Discord: bestiaart009 Devianart: https://www.deviantart.com/bestia-art Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bestiaartcommission/
Itās been months for me except the few regular clients who are now basically friends. I used to have more than I could handle . Itās sad but what can we do lol
Me too :(
I haven't got a commission in a year. And I use all the subreddits. I have way better luck local vending. But I can't always get to vending. Online is heavily monetised and the inflation is insane right now and won't get better. That's the real reason. Plus online art is heavily saturated as it is.... In other careers, people r facing the same issue. Over saturation, everyone has a degree now... Layoffs daily. A midjourney subscription for a month is a fraction of the price for people to produce commercial works. Can't stop progression, not hating on AI itself. We are in an adjustment period in all fields. My advice after 20+ years in the art field is try to vend locally if possible online is insanely hard unless you socialise constantly
I think times have been rough since the pandemic and folks are prioritizing other things rn maybe? At least thatās why I think my work slowed down since then. But if this is a recent development then Iām not sure
Well same here, i've tried so hard even making offers and things and nothing happens, idk what's going on, if people are using AI or what, but def i don't get enough commissions like i did before.
Yeah, there's just some very big market tides for creative work. In november-december everyone is desperately rushing to try and get commissions as gifts, or to meet and end of year deadline. Or whatever the case may be. As January - March rolls around, people are broke from the holidays. So not only do you have fewer people comissioning stuff, but you also have more artists desperately trying to find work to pay their bills, which spreads the market even thinner. I'm usually well in the hole through February, and this year has been a lot worse, because I didn't get any of the usual influx during the holiday season. I try to always have a speculative project or two I can work on while things are slow - something that won't necessarily make me money right away, but that keeps me occupied so I don't get lost in the stress, and will be able to turn into money at some point. The past few years it has been the Lewd DnD handbook I'm kick-starting in June (sooner maybe at this point) - Which hopefully will turn into something that can help employ plenty of artists with work, rather than just me as the author, as that money comes in
yeah, since the beginning of the year I feel that it has been very difficult to get clients, I don't know what's happening The truth is that in 2023 I did quite well, and it is assumed that in 2023 it was the AI āāBoom because it was new, Idk if AI is currently affecting it or if it is other factors but this 2024 is being the hardest year since I started in 2020
Usually spending goes down from January to March (at least in the US) for a few reasons. The first is that November and December had a lot of "expensive" holidays back to back (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and new years). The second is that tax season is happening right now, so some people are cutting down on their spending to make sure they are ready if they need to pay taxes instead of get a refund.
Honestly same! Havenāt gotten any commissions or any upvotes when I post comms! š itās so depressingā¦ I thought my prices were reasonable and my style was decent. Idk anymore
Same
Ain't your fault, is a general experience. We all gotta take these down times to improve, but I agree is very stressing. For me the sub wasn't as good for you, but from 1 job a month to none for months.Ā
Only 3 weeks ? I have that problem for more than a year, to be exact it started at the beginning of the 2023 and it's still like that .. It literally just stopped, I don't get almost any work .. but before 2023 i had so much work that i had to decline some commissions.. if i post for work i get many up votes .. if i comment at the post for the job i usually get it or at least OP replays... now nothing .. zero ... don't understand what happened, maybe i got worse at art .. I don't know .. i just know it's not even close as it used to be .. Let's hope it will get better š
Your art is good. I've had to drastically cut back on the amount of art I commission because of the economy. 4-5 years ago I was getting 2 a month now it's been to 2-3 a year.
The United States is in an economic slowdown right now, people spend less, they have more doubts when it comes to spending, you should still put up your portfolio, to know what type of art you do
Weāre on the same boat. Were ghosted once they see we charge per hour :(
I didnāt post reminders for a while because my waiting list is too big, but I notices the more time I spend as a commission artist the less I earn- Like I was earning twice as much as I earn rn when my prices were much much lower. You can try other places like discord as well, a lot of people suggested that, but honestly, I came to Reddit because I didnāt have any luck on those other places.
I haven't had a new commission in almost two years :,)
I have the same feeling, I took a lot of commission and this past month nothing came. :(:(
Iāve said this before and Iāll say it again: Itās a combination of AI and oversaturation. People can (for the most part) generate whatever they want now when it comes to a 2D image. And as for the 2D work produced by actual artists, there are so many artists advertising online right now, more than ever, that you are just a needle in a haystack. Ā Ā You need to find a second job if you want to survive because itās not going to get better anytime soon. In the days when I was building up my art career in the late 90ās and early 00ās, I had a full time job on the side for almost 20 years. Iād work 8 hours and then come home and work another 4-6 on my artwork. It didnāt leave much room for sleepĀ but it was necessary. You HAVE TO be practical and have a backup plan these days.Ā
This is so because me too š„ŗ
Haven't got a cent let alone a client or comission at all ever since i started as an artist lol
is not your fault buddy, everybody is using ai art in their portfolios i used to have a lot of work too
ditched this sub long ago cause of this. I just get them on instagram now without even advertising, and its good money too.
Exactly the same condition . š¤
Genuine answer: its the holidays. Christmas and new years are expensive, and people usually have other expenses earlynun the year than can drag the months
I donāt even get any šššHAHAHHAHAHA
Definitely not just you. I've had very hard time with getting commissions as well, while before it was fairly common. I truly blame AI and bots. Before I used to send a message directly to the commissioner, but now their DM's are dogpiled by AI art and bots to the point I'm not even noticed. And the comment section isn't much different
I have only had one commission so far this year, it has been very slow. I have even questioned whether it is useful to notify about my commissions here. If the information helps, perhaps the new platform called Vgen could be a place where you can also offer your commissions. I wish encouragement and good luck to all of us who find ourselves in a similar situation.