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Hey guys. I just wanted to stop by and let you guys know of the big decision I’ve made recently, which is to quit the art world as a career. The past two years have been tough…getting children’s illustration jobs and other odd jobs here and there, and then paying off medical bills that seem without end. I’ve had to oversell and undersell myself to make things work out. Recent;y I have gone over my finances and I see that I will not hit my expected profit this year. At the start of the new year I determined that I would only remain career-driven with my art if I could pull in 10k in profit after expenses, irregardless of time put in. Unfortunately this won’t possibly be met, so faced with hard, inked truths on paper I have decided to call it quits.
This means that I will only be working on my own projects starting next year and will only offer commissions here and there via ebay or on request, but nothing like before where I kept a cache of clients and lists of deadlines. Obviously, being an artist by nature means I will never “QUIT” drawing or doing what I do…I just won’t be publicly selling myself as before, or mass marketing like crazy.
The one exception to this will be for the Anatomy of a Werewolf book, which was due to be released at this year’s MFF (Midwest FurFest) con. This also unfortunately had to be canceled in light of my workload and other things, but will be released a year late at MFF con 2008. I got a refund for my table space at MFF but I will still be around, doing badge commissions or what-have-you. The anatomy book will become bigger and better for having a full free year to work on it though, and the choice was made to postpone it because if I pushed myself to release it by this deadline it wouldn’t be 100% the way i wanted it to be.
I also have pre-sale slots open for that book, so if interested in it, it will be $35. It will be over 100 pages (hopefully 200-300 now) long and full of transformations, bones, structure, and general hands, feets, and torso pose referance material for werewolves and other predator were creatures, and hopefully a fun read to boot. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/643943/ shows the cover art.
So there you have it. I am slowly working on all of my current commissions to finish within this year and have a clean slate for next year so I can find a “real job” and say goodbye to the stress of having to make art for money.
I’m so sorry, Water. But I hope that you continue to do what art you can. Hopefully it will be more of a joy for you if you are not constantly stressed about needing to make enough money to live. I hope things work out.
Sorry to hear you can’t make a living being an artist. But at least you’re not quitting completely.
Any ideas what “real job” you’d like to get?Sorry to hear that you have to get a job. The art world is very tough. My husband can’t quit his job either, to make Fairy Fossils or Elevation Indicators or any other artistic/inventive things he would like to do. I can’t not work to be a writer either. Kevin J. Anderson (a sci fi writer) told me that he couldn’t quit his day job until after he got his 80th book published, but his wife (Rebecca Moesta, another writer) still kept her job a while longer. It’s a sad world that doesn’t give a good value on art.
Well…the job I aim to find will probably be the same as any other…cashiering. There’s just no jobs around here. It’s a simple, smallish town where the largest store is WalMart and there’s not much else but fast food. I am going to TRY to land a job at Games Workshop about 45 minites from my home though, because the thought of cashiering all day makes me cringe, especially since I’m a college grad. At least at Games Workshop I can assemble and paint and play games all day I love, so I’m gonna hold out for that for a while.
I am sorry to hear that as well, but glad you will still do it if requested or sometimes. That game job does sound fun. Hopefully you will be able to get a job that has insurance and could help you with the Medical bills.
I’m sorry to hear that you won’t be doing art full time. I know that was one reason why I never went into art for a major. I was too worried about bills (along with being worried about having to do art I didn’t want to do in college… particularly abstract…).
I look forward to that book coming out. I would love a copy! Maybe I’ll be able to get a commission from you at some point in the future when you aren’t overloaded and I have spare funds *puppy eyes* I love your dragons (and I missed all the ones on ebay – wrong timing with the unemployment 🙂 Definitely keep up with the art on the side, even if it’s just working on stuff just for you and good luck on getting in with Games Workshop! That would be absolutely awesome!
Don’t worry. The werewolf book is taking longer than planned so it will be bigger and better now anyway and I’ll let everyone know when it’s up for grabs. I’mplanning to throw in a corner animation now too.
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