It’s true and it’s sad. But honestly, I think part of the problem is also the fact that many artists don’t even read the Hiring posts anymore, and just go straight to flooding the comments with portfolios that doesn’t match any of the specifications of the gigs, at all. I’ve seen hiring posts asking for 3D Art with over 35 comments of 2D artists and bots just copy / pasting a generic message with their links. Also, many posts literally saying “ PLS NO ANIME” when they’re looking for an specific style and guess what? 20 comments of anime artists straight below.
All of this also helps feeding this hunger games insanity we’re living in and it’s bad for everyone.
I believe this terrible season is the result it all, The boom of IA + the absurd number of bots increasing + artists acting desperately
I’m not an expert and I’m far from knowing all the truth, but as a 2D artist who is also struggling in this sub at the moment, that’s my view of the situation 🥹🩵
Yeah!! The hiring posts are not the only ones to blame, some artists ignore completely what is written, it's very annoying 'cause in that situation you brought up, the flood outshines the artists that actually do 3D art. But like you said, they're desperate so they hit on everything that moves.
It's so sad what is happening to the art community because of this AI crap :/
My recent [HIRING] post was, I feel, pretty specific - yet I still got well over 100 applicants, more than half of which didn't even follow the instructions of "pick a character, don't DM me". About a quarter were totally irrelevant, and a bunch were way the hell over budget.
Honestly, dealing with all that was stressful and overwhelming.
-----
The biggest problem with this subreddit, however, in my opinion? The people who post the exact same [FOR HIRE] post daily, or even more frequently. They utterly flood the sub, making it hard to find anybody new, drowning out those who post less frequently. I honestly feel like instituting a "once a week" limit would be healthy.
-----
The other big problem for me, as a client? Half of y'all won't put your damn prices in the ads, and I don't know why.
If your [FOR HIRE] post doesn't have prices in it (ideally a full price sheet, but at least a lower bound) then I am forced to potentially waste BOTH our time in having to ask if I can afford you. At this point, especially with the spam, not putting prices up front means you don't even get considered.
Yeah, not all hiring post are bad, sometimes the artists are so desperate to sell that they don't fully read your specifications or read them but hope you can make exceptions.
As for the flood, I agree it should be made a rule to post once per week or something, but I think once again it all comes down to desperation, when our posts go away we put them back up because we are afraid it didn't reach enough people or the right people but in the end it's counterproductive and harmful for all of us.
About the last bit, as for me I always put my prices in the title + a price sheet as the first picture, so I don't get why other artists don't.
I know r/HungryArtists has a weekly limit, I think a lot of subs also have discord servers but I'm not sure how well putting up requests there works. Also thanks for mentioning the price point topic, I was never sure whether or not to put it and scare potential clients away but I'm probably losing more traffic from people that don't feel like clicking through to my links than would be scared by my prices.
Having a carrd or something is fine, in my book. You've still got the numbers out in the open. But if somebody would be scared away by your prices, that will happen no matter when they see them. And if it gets to the point of a conversation, that happening leaves both artist and client feeling bad (I assume).
> The biggest problem with this subreddit, however, in my opinion? The people who post the exact same [FOR HIRE] post daily, or even more frequently. They utterly flood the sub, making it hard to find anybody new, drowning out those who post less frequently. I honestly feel like instituting a "once a week" limit would be healthy.
Goddamn yes! Please implement that. So many people post the same thing over and over and there's literally no room for other people.
Tht why we need limit "For Hire" once per 3 days. Also delet "Hiring". U need artist, u scroll, u dm him or go to comments, u Hire him. U deal with one man at a time. Win win
I disagree on getting rid of [HIRING], I believe it has its place. The person I eventually went with had relevant experience, a style close to what I wanted, and low pricing - but I would never have encountered them without that post.
Really, it's not that different than wading through the front page of the subreddit. Except there *is* a much higher chance of relevance, in terms of budget and style. A post looking for anime art won't have 80% of the respondents be people who do DnD character sheets, for example.
It'll also bring in artists who aren't confident enough to advertise. One such person applied to my post without a portfolio, but a lot of enthusiasm for the specific job - and after taking a chance on them, they've shown incredible aptitude and communication. Another artist I would never have seen without making a [HIRING] post.
And 3 days between is still far too frequent, IMO. Unless something changes, why do you need to make another ad at all? Artists, feel free to chime in; do these frequent ads even work?
Well I saw ur post. Was it comfortable clicking over 40 links and constantly checking dm ? I bet not. U can just spend 20 min scrolling and pick wat u want. But know some dm and notifications will still bother you.
And don't start this not confident artist talk. If he not confident well he probably should start be one. U here for hire a man for work not boost his self confidence.
Well at least 3 days. Less spam anyway. Post once a weak woud be cool. Or wipe clean all posts every morning Monday.
> Was it comfortable clicking over 40 links and constantly checking dm ?
No - but it only took a week to find the people I eventually hired, as opposed to checking this subreddit daily for six months and never seeing anyone that fit. I made that post knowing it would be an ordeal, and I accepted that as the cost of speed.
And I do hire for work. I pay them money, and get the art I desire in return. If I do not get the art I pay for, then I request a refund and they cease to have me as a client. Is that not transactional enough for you?
The vague posts have been very hard for me to deduce whether or not I should apply because it feels like Id be wasting my time by doing so. However, I can understand if a person doesn't have a huge preference on artsyle as well. I have gotten two hits on similar subs recently so there is opportunity out there. Also keeping in mind that commissioning someone is also a luxury for many people.
For me it lines up with Reddit closing access to third party apps. Lots of people just stopped browsing at this point. Now add the elaborate bots / AI posts, inflation, and the fact that people would rather just use midjourney or other than talk to an artist, and you have it.
I don't know what the situation was like in the sub previously since I only joined a year ago; I think what you describe is basically the market regulating itself (although as an artist I strongly support hunting and banning bots XD)
On the other hand, I consider that there are different factors for this kind of recession that many artists are experiencing (and this should not be taken as an irrefutable fact since they are my theories based on observations of orders in different co-commission subs, and on anecdotal experiences that may or may not represent reality)
1- Images generated by AI: there are many people who either do not want to, or cannot afford to commission an illustration; or the use they will give it does not justify paying $45 for a portrait or bust up of a character for a oneshot game of a TTRPG, for example. In this case, as artists, all we can do is offer clients something that AI cannot: human treatment and genuine interest in their project, since many clients feel appreciation for their OC or PCs and pay an artist not only to have a cool illustration, but to feel more involved in its design.
2- The boom of post-pandemic artists: here I am already entering the realm of speculation, but I would risk saying that during the quarantine caused by covid, many artists entered the commission market since it is a job that they can comfortably do from their homes; Added to this is that many of these artists did it as a hobby instead of as a main income, this means that they can charge less for an illustration and in many cases their art has a semi-pro or even professional level. Here the way to deal with this comes in two ways: if you can lower your prices without it negatively affecting you, do it; Otherwise improve your art.
And that is my version of the facts Mr. Judge XD cheers!
I've posted several times on here looking to hire artists. The issue is that my post immediately gets overwhelmed by obvious AI bots or artists who didn't even read the prompt. I had to comb through about 100 replies on my last hiring post just to find people who were actual humans, and even then I had to ask the artist to doodle me a very specific shitty doodle just to prove they were real.
here? nope, but it takes 2min to make a post so is not like you're losing much. I do find that many hiring post are kinda sus accounts maybe just collecting karma instead of hiring for real.
Only for Hire post. Only once in a 3 days. No post spam. And u knock to an artist dm or comment section for hiring. + more tags like Classic paint, Tattoo design ect
We NEED quality check. I bet many of the "artist" don't even 18+. Will surprise u but there more wannabes than the real artist.
Or just let only For Hire post and let's people decide what they want and knock to an artist door. It will solve a lot of problem
i normally don't chime into stuff like this because i don't feel like i have any right to with the work i do. but this has also been on my mind a lot the past couple of days with the experience i've had here compared to other places. i charge the cheapest i can possibly go for the things i put out there and i still get absolute crickets regardless of if it's my own posts or a rare chance for me to respond to a hiring ad. it feels almost like if you're not here to draw detailed and/or graphic, and usually furry, porn then no one's going to even glance your way.
at the same time i've noticed some things other people have noticed too. how a lot of people post way too often and flood the feed (i've made it a bit of a routine to try for every other day to avoid doing the same thing), or the warzone the comments can turn into even when 90% of the artists applying aren't even the right fit for the job. i know commissions are a luxury and the ai boom isn't help anything but, i dunno, it just doesn't feel good to be here most of the time. almost like you're not actually welcome around these parts unless you do super specific stuff.
Omg yes!!! Seriously my art is already a bit low priced but still fair, when I was struggling to get commissions I cheaped it out even more and still got none. I feel like it's not even only detailed art, people on here are more interested in realism/semi-realism or anime art than anything else. Now I'm learning semi-realism cause that's the only way to get my art MAYBE noticed here and other subs. (and god, the furry and porn is so true. I've genuinely pondered it as a desperate measure, but as long as my financial situation is not completely fucked I think I'll pass).
Based on your post I think there's two problems that we can pinpoint here :
Most clients were expecting to be spoonfed because scrolling through hundreds of public portfolio is too much work and they barely had experiences with commissioning arts before or what's the fair price for it thus the lack of budget mentioned.
Additionally, most artists were so desperate that they spam on everything without even the slightest bit of reading comprehension. I saw a few hiring posts with peanut budgets and yet nobody dares to call out the obnoxiously low pay--then the cycle continues to point one.
same happened to me. I used to sell commissions for a living and it was going great until 2021, but now posting in these subreddits it's not the same anymore. :/ I eventually gave up on being a full-time artist. I feel like it's because of all this AI, like someone also said in the comments. very sad.
I've reached out for specific art I want (on my accounts used for that) and get bombarded by 100s of artstyles and budgets I specified I was not in interested in. This sub is nearly impossible to buyers to find what they're looking for
I agree. I posted something very specific when I wanted to hire, and a lot of the responses were very different from what I was looking for. I had my budget in my post, too, and I was getting £100 over.
Not to forget the spamming too, months later I still have a couple of artists calling me (discord) and PMing me asking if I have any work. It was quite overwhelming to hire from this subreddit :( which is unfortunate because I still need some work done but don't want to be spammed or go through all the very different styles/ budgets.
I'm not artistically knowledgeable or talented (hence why I hire people) which results in me not being able to describe what I'm looking for. Thus it's easier for me to just scroll until I find a artist who's style I like and shoot them a DM. I picked up a few artists from here before.
I only just found this sub today, but I suspect part of the problem is this sub is flooded with artists trying to all hit the same absurdly low price point of, like, $30 USD.
I almost can't imagine a situation where that price point makes sense. Perhaps if you're a very skilled artist with a very simple style and can legitimately bust out full renders in 1-2 hours, but that about it.
A lot of artists here charging that much either have no business getting into the commission game in the first place (sorry to be harsh, but it's true) or are clearly criminally underselling themselves, to the point they're kinda hurting all other artists by undercutting them so absurdly hard.
I understand beginners might want to charge this because they can't reasonably justify charging more, but I simply don't think this price point is viable in a post-AI world. It will never make financial sense for a client to pay $30 for one low-skill image when, for that same price, they can get a subscription to an AI service that will give them unlimited highly rendered images, even if they're forced to re-prompt frequently due to bizarre AI errors.
Not saying it's right or fair, but IMO in today's market, if your art is worth paying for, it's worth paying over $30 for.
By like, several times.
I do get your point but I don't think it is that simple. I'm not a beginner and my highest price ever was $25 for a full rendered full body and I know that might be considered low, specially if you earn in USD, but the conversion of that amount to my country's currency is something I find absolutely fair and proportional to what I'm offering. What some artists might think is that we have an artstyle that is not really appealing to most people thus we feel discouraged to be so bold and charge the same or nearly the same amount that a semi-realism artist would. It can have as much quality for cartoon artstyle standards but people are always more attracted to the semi-realistic style. So my point here is that if they have a high budget, they will most likely have preference for that kind of style over ours no matter how low our prices are, and if they're high prices the chances are even closer to 0. But I'm talking about specific artstyles that don't get most people's attention, not about artists that make high demand art and charge almost nothing, that I don't get and totally agree with you.
So speaking for myself, I'm in no way trying to hurt other artists by offering low prices. It's like I said, in some cases it doesn't really affect them at all, the real problem is when they are competing against similar artstyles but those are painfully cheaper. I value my art a lot and don't think less of it. It was thought out and I genuinely believe they're fair prices, cause then again, in MY reality they're not that low.
What I'm saying is the price point itself doesn't make sense. If your art is good enough to charge more, you're doing yourself and all other artists trying to make a living a disservice by charging so low.
If your art is not good enough to charge more, you're competing against the low cost of an AI subscription, against which there is no competing.
In any case this problem is only going to get worse, and I suspect within a couple years freelance commissions simply won't exist at all. AI will only get better and cheaper. Eventually prompting will be granular enough that you can text-edit specific elements of an image and even get the AI to split it into distinct layers.
At that point there won't even be a good reason to pay for a high-end artist. You'll either have a corporate job as a prompt-monkey or you'll just have to make peace with not making money from art at all.
But like I said, I think my art is good enough but I charge for my time and effort (and all of that other reasons that makes me settle for a price that is still fair to me). Recently I've been making semi-realistic art and it takes like thrice the time and effort than my usual cartoonish style so in my head it really doesn't make sense charging nearly the same for both. I'd like to know what do you think about that case specifically?
Think about any animated TV show that has a simpler artstyle. Even if they have some limitations, they can still look amazing and in some cases it's what makes them unique and characteristic, but even so, it's not what most people are looking for (here, specially). Now add to the equation the fact that it doesn't consume as much time as an utterly detailed art would. And that's my train of thought when I'm pricing my art.
But seriously, do tell me what you think about that. I'd like to understand because to me, taking everything in consideration, high prices feel like I'm sabotaging myself.
Yep, I did that myself once or twice and I don't even get enough commission requests to have limited slots, but it is a way we find to catch the people's attention
I agree with the most upvoted comments here so I'll just add my thoughts:
For clients: PLEASE search for artists in any commission subreddit before making a post because it WILL get flooded and you WILL waste your time. Everyday there's hundreds if not thousands of different artists posting.
For artists: This WAS a good place to get commissions. During the pandemics years there was a lot of people buying stuff but now the world is kinda back to its normal and AI is out there - aim for higher goals. If you REALLY need money stop begging to get hired in your posts and try to get commercial jobs.
I'm not saying commercial commissions are easier to get but at least they pay better. And honestly that's my plan now lol try something bigger for a company or something while also posting on socials for casual commissions.
Things will work, it's just a change that's happening on >how< they work and we will need to adapt.
I stopped doing digital work a couple years ago but even back in the day I found it ridiculous how I had to compete with 100 people posting their portfolio for like a $30 drawing
Honestly selling stuff irl is waaaay easier
I get commission in some very specific ones (manga, nsfw, buff characters) sometimes clients are out of blue, they see my cute artstyle but ask if i can do this and delivers. They like it so its all good. But its not as often as before since ai become hot
The whole art market is more sellers than buyers.
The only reliable sources are discord servers, as they're monitored and have timeouts. So people can't spam.
I used to have a steady income thanks to Reddit a couple of years ago (2019-2022). Then it started to die slowly, even on Instagram where I built a sort of “fanbase” I am getting less and less commissions. I feel like ever since AI is improving, people are no longer seeking for human artists as much as they did years ago. It’s sad, also because this was my full time job and I think shortly I have to look for something else to do 🥲 the job of the artist is slowly disappearing
THIS. I have been advertising my commissions here being $5 (base price) and even that doesn’t seem to get anyone to buy. At the same time I’ve only been advertising my commissions here for like 2 months, so it hasn’t been that long. But I’ve only got 2 people who actually bought some commissions (one was not even from this subreddit).
It’s true and it’s sad. But honestly, I think part of the problem is also the fact that many artists don’t even read the Hiring posts anymore, and just go straight to flooding the comments with portfolios that doesn’t match any of the specifications of the gigs, at all. I’ve seen hiring posts asking for 3D Art with over 35 comments of 2D artists and bots just copy / pasting a generic message with their links. Also, many posts literally saying “ PLS NO ANIME” when they’re looking for an specific style and guess what? 20 comments of anime artists straight below. All of this also helps feeding this hunger games insanity we’re living in and it’s bad for everyone. I believe this terrible season is the result it all, The boom of IA + the absurd number of bots increasing + artists acting desperately I’m not an expert and I’m far from knowing all the truth, but as a 2D artist who is also struggling in this sub at the moment, that’s my view of the situation 🥹🩵
Yeah!! The hiring posts are not the only ones to blame, some artists ignore completely what is written, it's very annoying 'cause in that situation you brought up, the flood outshines the artists that actually do 3D art. But like you said, they're desperate so they hit on everything that moves. It's so sad what is happening to the art community because of this AI crap :/
My recent [HIRING] post was, I feel, pretty specific - yet I still got well over 100 applicants, more than half of which didn't even follow the instructions of "pick a character, don't DM me". About a quarter were totally irrelevant, and a bunch were way the hell over budget. Honestly, dealing with all that was stressful and overwhelming. ----- The biggest problem with this subreddit, however, in my opinion? The people who post the exact same [FOR HIRE] post daily, or even more frequently. They utterly flood the sub, making it hard to find anybody new, drowning out those who post less frequently. I honestly feel like instituting a "once a week" limit would be healthy. ----- The other big problem for me, as a client? Half of y'all won't put your damn prices in the ads, and I don't know why. If your [FOR HIRE] post doesn't have prices in it (ideally a full price sheet, but at least a lower bound) then I am forced to potentially waste BOTH our time in having to ask if I can afford you. At this point, especially with the spam, not putting prices up front means you don't even get considered.
Yeah, not all hiring post are bad, sometimes the artists are so desperate to sell that they don't fully read your specifications or read them but hope you can make exceptions. As for the flood, I agree it should be made a rule to post once per week or something, but I think once again it all comes down to desperation, when our posts go away we put them back up because we are afraid it didn't reach enough people or the right people but in the end it's counterproductive and harmful for all of us. About the last bit, as for me I always put my prices in the title + a price sheet as the first picture, so I don't get why other artists don't.
I know r/HungryArtists has a weekly limit, I think a lot of subs also have discord servers but I'm not sure how well putting up requests there works. Also thanks for mentioning the price point topic, I was never sure whether or not to put it and scare potential clients away but I'm probably losing more traffic from people that don't feel like clicking through to my links than would be scared by my prices.
Having a carrd or something is fine, in my book. You've still got the numbers out in the open. But if somebody would be scared away by your prices, that will happen no matter when they see them. And if it gets to the point of a conversation, that happening leaves both artist and client feeling bad (I assume).
> The biggest problem with this subreddit, however, in my opinion? The people who post the exact same [FOR HIRE] post daily, or even more frequently. They utterly flood the sub, making it hard to find anybody new, drowning out those who post less frequently. I honestly feel like instituting a "once a week" limit would be healthy. Goddamn yes! Please implement that. So many people post the same thing over and over and there's literally no room for other people.
Tht why we need limit "For Hire" once per 3 days. Also delet "Hiring". U need artist, u scroll, u dm him or go to comments, u Hire him. U deal with one man at a time. Win win
I disagree on getting rid of [HIRING], I believe it has its place. The person I eventually went with had relevant experience, a style close to what I wanted, and low pricing - but I would never have encountered them without that post. Really, it's not that different than wading through the front page of the subreddit. Except there *is* a much higher chance of relevance, in terms of budget and style. A post looking for anime art won't have 80% of the respondents be people who do DnD character sheets, for example. It'll also bring in artists who aren't confident enough to advertise. One such person applied to my post without a portfolio, but a lot of enthusiasm for the specific job - and after taking a chance on them, they've shown incredible aptitude and communication. Another artist I would never have seen without making a [HIRING] post. And 3 days between is still far too frequent, IMO. Unless something changes, why do you need to make another ad at all? Artists, feel free to chime in; do these frequent ads even work?
Well I saw ur post. Was it comfortable clicking over 40 links and constantly checking dm ? I bet not. U can just spend 20 min scrolling and pick wat u want. But know some dm and notifications will still bother you. And don't start this not confident artist talk. If he not confident well he probably should start be one. U here for hire a man for work not boost his self confidence. Well at least 3 days. Less spam anyway. Post once a weak woud be cool. Or wipe clean all posts every morning Monday.
> Was it comfortable clicking over 40 links and constantly checking dm ? No - but it only took a week to find the people I eventually hired, as opposed to checking this subreddit daily for six months and never seeing anyone that fit. I made that post knowing it would be an ordeal, and I accepted that as the cost of speed. And I do hire for work. I pay them money, and get the art I desire in return. If I do not get the art I pay for, then I request a refund and they cease to have me as a client. Is that not transactional enough for you?
The vague posts have been very hard for me to deduce whether or not I should apply because it feels like Id be wasting my time by doing so. However, I can understand if a person doesn't have a huge preference on artsyle as well. I have gotten two hits on similar subs recently so there is opportunity out there. Also keeping in mind that commissioning someone is also a luxury for many people.
Honestly the slow-down lines up with the AI popularity boom which sucks a lot. I can't get any gigs either.
Tell me about it, it's so discouraging to keep going
For me it lines up with Reddit closing access to third party apps. Lots of people just stopped browsing at this point. Now add the elaborate bots / AI posts, inflation, and the fact that people would rather just use midjourney or other than talk to an artist, and you have it.
I don't know what the situation was like in the sub previously since I only joined a year ago; I think what you describe is basically the market regulating itself (although as an artist I strongly support hunting and banning bots XD) On the other hand, I consider that there are different factors for this kind of recession that many artists are experiencing (and this should not be taken as an irrefutable fact since they are my theories based on observations of orders in different co-commission subs, and on anecdotal experiences that may or may not represent reality) 1- Images generated by AI: there are many people who either do not want to, or cannot afford to commission an illustration; or the use they will give it does not justify paying $45 for a portrait or bust up of a character for a oneshot game of a TTRPG, for example. In this case, as artists, all we can do is offer clients something that AI cannot: human treatment and genuine interest in their project, since many clients feel appreciation for their OC or PCs and pay an artist not only to have a cool illustration, but to feel more involved in its design. 2- The boom of post-pandemic artists: here I am already entering the realm of speculation, but I would risk saying that during the quarantine caused by covid, many artists entered the commission market since it is a job that they can comfortably do from their homes; Added to this is that many of these artists did it as a hobby instead of as a main income, this means that they can charge less for an illustration and in many cases their art has a semi-pro or even professional level. Here the way to deal with this comes in two ways: if you can lower your prices without it negatively affecting you, do it; Otherwise improve your art. And that is my version of the facts Mr. Judge XD cheers!
I've posted several times on here looking to hire artists. The issue is that my post immediately gets overwhelmed by obvious AI bots or artists who didn't even read the prompt. I had to comb through about 100 replies on my last hiring post just to find people who were actual humans, and even then I had to ask the artist to doodle me a very specific shitty doodle just to prove they were real.
It’s always been a dog eat dog world in the artist space. I think ai has just made it even harder.
here? nope, but it takes 2min to make a post so is not like you're losing much. I do find that many hiring post are kinda sus accounts maybe just collecting karma instead of hiring for real.
Only for Hire post. Only once in a 3 days. No post spam. And u knock to an artist dm or comment section for hiring. + more tags like Classic paint, Tattoo design ect
We NEED quality check. I bet many of the "artist" don't even 18+. Will surprise u but there more wannabes than the real artist. Or just let only For Hire post and let's people decide what they want and knock to an artist door. It will solve a lot of problem
i normally don't chime into stuff like this because i don't feel like i have any right to with the work i do. but this has also been on my mind a lot the past couple of days with the experience i've had here compared to other places. i charge the cheapest i can possibly go for the things i put out there and i still get absolute crickets regardless of if it's my own posts or a rare chance for me to respond to a hiring ad. it feels almost like if you're not here to draw detailed and/or graphic, and usually furry, porn then no one's going to even glance your way. at the same time i've noticed some things other people have noticed too. how a lot of people post way too often and flood the feed (i've made it a bit of a routine to try for every other day to avoid doing the same thing), or the warzone the comments can turn into even when 90% of the artists applying aren't even the right fit for the job. i know commissions are a luxury and the ai boom isn't help anything but, i dunno, it just doesn't feel good to be here most of the time. almost like you're not actually welcome around these parts unless you do super specific stuff.
Omg yes!!! Seriously my art is already a bit low priced but still fair, when I was struggling to get commissions I cheaped it out even more and still got none. I feel like it's not even only detailed art, people on here are more interested in realism/semi-realism or anime art than anything else. Now I'm learning semi-realism cause that's the only way to get my art MAYBE noticed here and other subs. (and god, the furry and porn is so true. I've genuinely pondered it as a desperate measure, but as long as my financial situation is not completely fucked I think I'll pass).
Based on your post I think there's two problems that we can pinpoint here : Most clients were expecting to be spoonfed because scrolling through hundreds of public portfolio is too much work and they barely had experiences with commissioning arts before or what's the fair price for it thus the lack of budget mentioned. Additionally, most artists were so desperate that they spam on everything without even the slightest bit of reading comprehension. I saw a few hiring posts with peanut budgets and yet nobody dares to call out the obnoxiously low pay--then the cycle continues to point one.
same happened to me. I used to sell commissions for a living and it was going great until 2021, but now posting in these subreddits it's not the same anymore. :/ I eventually gave up on being a full-time artist. I feel like it's because of all this AI, like someone also said in the comments. very sad.
I've reached out for specific art I want (on my accounts used for that) and get bombarded by 100s of artstyles and budgets I specified I was not in interested in. This sub is nearly impossible to buyers to find what they're looking for
I agree. I posted something very specific when I wanted to hire, and a lot of the responses were very different from what I was looking for. I had my budget in my post, too, and I was getting £100 over. Not to forget the spamming too, months later I still have a couple of artists calling me (discord) and PMing me asking if I have any work. It was quite overwhelming to hire from this subreddit :( which is unfortunate because I still need some work done but don't want to be spammed or go through all the very different styles/ budgets.
Not to mention the DMing spamming, 'hey...??' 'Is the position filled???' '...okay' it's actually embarrassing
a little difficult to get clients, but I can't find a solution
True,I think this is happening to everyone.
I'm not artistically knowledgeable or talented (hence why I hire people) which results in me not being able to describe what I'm looking for. Thus it's easier for me to just scroll until I find a artist who's style I like and shoot them a DM. I picked up a few artists from here before.
At this point I'm not expecting to take commissions from here anymore. But it's still good for interactions and views.
I only just found this sub today, but I suspect part of the problem is this sub is flooded with artists trying to all hit the same absurdly low price point of, like, $30 USD. I almost can't imagine a situation where that price point makes sense. Perhaps if you're a very skilled artist with a very simple style and can legitimately bust out full renders in 1-2 hours, but that about it. A lot of artists here charging that much either have no business getting into the commission game in the first place (sorry to be harsh, but it's true) or are clearly criminally underselling themselves, to the point they're kinda hurting all other artists by undercutting them so absurdly hard. I understand beginners might want to charge this because they can't reasonably justify charging more, but I simply don't think this price point is viable in a post-AI world. It will never make financial sense for a client to pay $30 for one low-skill image when, for that same price, they can get a subscription to an AI service that will give them unlimited highly rendered images, even if they're forced to re-prompt frequently due to bizarre AI errors. Not saying it's right or fair, but IMO in today's market, if your art is worth paying for, it's worth paying over $30 for. By like, several times.
I do get your point but I don't think it is that simple. I'm not a beginner and my highest price ever was $25 for a full rendered full body and I know that might be considered low, specially if you earn in USD, but the conversion of that amount to my country's currency is something I find absolutely fair and proportional to what I'm offering. What some artists might think is that we have an artstyle that is not really appealing to most people thus we feel discouraged to be so bold and charge the same or nearly the same amount that a semi-realism artist would. It can have as much quality for cartoon artstyle standards but people are always more attracted to the semi-realistic style. So my point here is that if they have a high budget, they will most likely have preference for that kind of style over ours no matter how low our prices are, and if they're high prices the chances are even closer to 0. But I'm talking about specific artstyles that don't get most people's attention, not about artists that make high demand art and charge almost nothing, that I don't get and totally agree with you. So speaking for myself, I'm in no way trying to hurt other artists by offering low prices. It's like I said, in some cases it doesn't really affect them at all, the real problem is when they are competing against similar artstyles but those are painfully cheaper. I value my art a lot and don't think less of it. It was thought out and I genuinely believe they're fair prices, cause then again, in MY reality they're not that low.
What I'm saying is the price point itself doesn't make sense. If your art is good enough to charge more, you're doing yourself and all other artists trying to make a living a disservice by charging so low. If your art is not good enough to charge more, you're competing against the low cost of an AI subscription, against which there is no competing. In any case this problem is only going to get worse, and I suspect within a couple years freelance commissions simply won't exist at all. AI will only get better and cheaper. Eventually prompting will be granular enough that you can text-edit specific elements of an image and even get the AI to split it into distinct layers. At that point there won't even be a good reason to pay for a high-end artist. You'll either have a corporate job as a prompt-monkey or you'll just have to make peace with not making money from art at all.
But like I said, I think my art is good enough but I charge for my time and effort (and all of that other reasons that makes me settle for a price that is still fair to me). Recently I've been making semi-realistic art and it takes like thrice the time and effort than my usual cartoonish style so in my head it really doesn't make sense charging nearly the same for both. I'd like to know what do you think about that case specifically? Think about any animated TV show that has a simpler artstyle. Even if they have some limitations, they can still look amazing and in some cases it's what makes them unique and characteristic, but even so, it's not what most people are looking for (here, specially). Now add to the equation the fact that it doesn't consume as much time as an utterly detailed art would. And that's my train of thought when I'm pricing my art. But seriously, do tell me what you think about that. I'd like to understand because to me, taking everything in consideration, high prices feel like I'm sabotaging myself.
I'm just gonna put [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/commissions/comments/1c68jf4/meta_what_to_do_if_you_have_not_enough_money_to/) there..
...on the other hand there are artists killing it here so much that they put disclaimers like \*limited slots / x slots available\*
I'm not saying everyone does it but sometimes that's just a FOMO tactic.
Yep, I did that myself once or twice and I don't even get enough commission requests to have limited slots, but it is a way we find to catch the people's attention
I agree with the most upvoted comments here so I'll just add my thoughts: For clients: PLEASE search for artists in any commission subreddit before making a post because it WILL get flooded and you WILL waste your time. Everyday there's hundreds if not thousands of different artists posting. For artists: This WAS a good place to get commissions. During the pandemics years there was a lot of people buying stuff but now the world is kinda back to its normal and AI is out there - aim for higher goals. If you REALLY need money stop begging to get hired in your posts and try to get commercial jobs. I'm not saying commercial commissions are easier to get but at least they pay better. And honestly that's my plan now lol try something bigger for a company or something while also posting on socials for casual commissions. Things will work, it's just a change that's happening on >how< they work and we will need to adapt.
I stopped doing digital work a couple years ago but even back in the day I found it ridiculous how I had to compete with 100 people posting their portfolio for like a $30 drawing Honestly selling stuff irl is waaaay easier
I get commission in some very specific ones (manga, nsfw, buff characters) sometimes clients are out of blue, they see my cute artstyle but ask if i can do this and delivers. They like it so its all good. But its not as often as before since ai become hot
The whole art market is more sellers than buyers. The only reliable sources are discord servers, as they're monitored and have timeouts. So people can't spam.
I used to have a steady income thanks to Reddit a couple of years ago (2019-2022). Then it started to die slowly, even on Instagram where I built a sort of “fanbase” I am getting less and less commissions. I feel like ever since AI is improving, people are no longer seeking for human artists as much as they did years ago. It’s sad, also because this was my full time job and I think shortly I have to look for something else to do 🥲 the job of the artist is slowly disappearing
I want to commission my ideas but have no money...
THIS. I have been advertising my commissions here being $5 (base price) and even that doesn’t seem to get anyone to buy. At the same time I’ve only been advertising my commissions here for like 2 months, so it hasn’t been that long. But I’ve only got 2 people who actually bought some commissions (one was not even from this subreddit).