business

SELLING OUT: How it’s going

Image | | sandpaperdaisy

In this post I declared my intentions to start uploading a ton of simple designs to my print on demand sites in the year 2022. After the explosion of AI generated images, I already can’t believe that I once wrote that I worried about the ethics of manipulating stock art that I bought the rights to use…what a difference a year makes.

Anyway… I managed to cram a total of 200+ designs into my two most frequently used print-on-demand stores before the year ended, and have been doing my best to shove more in as we enter 2023. So the question becomes: did it help?

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when ai imagery destroyed my dream, it saved me as an artist.

Image | | sandpaperdaisy

All my art life (which is actually all my life now that I think about it) I have worked to become a better and better artist. At some point, this became practicing every day to become a more technically excellent artist. I wanted very much to have a more steady hand, more economy of line, better compositions, superior color combinations, more dynamic movement, a better grasp of anatomy, and a better command of an ever-growing box of tools, including digital tools.

Then AI generated images came along.

Continue reading →

Loving Your Rejects and Yourself

Image | | sandpaperdaisy

Sometimes, a piece I do won’t be used by my client.

Rejection can be surprising and downright disappointing. If I recall correctly, the two pieces below were actually declined right around the same time. It was very tempting to wallow and mope and decide there was no point in trying anymore because clearly, no one wanted me in their book ever again. Maybe you’ve felt the same if you got a rejection cluster.

Instead of giving up though, I got back up. I certainly allowed myself some wallowing and moping, sure! …But then I took a deep breath and got back to the business of making the next thing I was passionate about.

Here’s the story of how that went. Continue reading →

Selling out…FOR FUN?! as a digital artist

bruh what r you doin or how I learned to start selling out and BRUH
| sandpaperdaisy

In the past, I have bared my withered, jaded artistic soul to you all on the subjects of Popularity, Ambition, Commission Work, Spec Work, and Screw Ups. Today, I am going to tackle SELLING OUT. From a PRO SELLOUT STANDPOINT NO LESS! So strap in, sharpen your pitchforks, light those torches …or just scroll to the end for a wealth of tips on how to sell out efficiently so you don’t have to do all the tedious research I did.

Selling Out: An Overview

So first off, what do I mean by “selling out?” For my purposes, I’m not talking about making money from your own art, unless you’re literally making art you hate for money. Actually, I’m talking about completely phoning it in and using all of your painstakingly acquired design skills to quickly make stock art and fonts into designs you can sell. I am talking about the laziest, most money-grubbing (legal!!!!) use of your artist skills imaginable. 

WARNING: I’m going to talk about sellout art and sellout artists a LOT until you get over any kneejerk reactions you might have to that phrase. Because I might be a little sick of artists just …never being expected to make any money from their hard-won art and design skills, or only being allowed to make money in a certain way that is sufficiently prestigious or noble.

Generally, when artists decide to “sell out,” it’s a financial decision. Their pleasure from personal expression isn’t enough to offset their monetary needs, so they gloomily resort to selling out in order to survive. I don’t think selling out is automatically a BAD thing, as you might have guessed, but I’m not interested in doing it for survival. I’m interested in doing it for FUN. Continue reading →

What the Hell Are You All Doing: Or, How I Learned to Stop Fearing Twitter and Love the Bomb

a metallic purple space worm erupting from a surreal ruby red sandy landscape kind of dune ish but not scifi
Image | | sandpaperdaisy

So, it’s 2021. The world is in flames. Millions are dead. What are we all up to?

I’ll go first. I’m working on a book cover for a cool novel.

The novel, called Blue Feathers, Bright Flames, is one of three projects I’m really excited about at the moment. The second is illustrations for my own book, and the third is a bunch of leggings ideas I want to make for Whimsies Leggings. So that will all be a lot of fun, I expect. Truthfully though, I’m even more excited about watching my children flop around, so that’s what I’m doing most of the time. But this is an art blog so

I’ve also adjusted my expectations…a LOT.

A rainbow with the words no one cares above it
A lot-A lot.

For one, my novel needs a lot more work! It’s been stuck in Development Hell since April 2020, as the pandemic wreaked havoc on different plans I had for it involving collaborators. That has all had to be scrapped. No one is coming. But, I’m ready. Let’s do this, Me.

I’ve also recently realized that clients change over time just like I do. This was the year that I learned that a client who has needed my help in the past won’t necessarily need it going forward. I had to grieve for an old business relationship or two, but ultimately it just meant I had more time to help other people.

And I finally figured out how to do social media.

Continue reading →

AMBITION: 25 YEARS OF BEING THAT GUY

Image | | sandpaperdaisy

As a part-time freelance artist, I’ve raised money for day trips and dates, medical help for family members and friends, art supplies, booth rentals, and presents. I even managed to raise some money for charity. I’ve had a pretty good run! I’ve been able to do many things I could not have otherwise done.

It is with these things in mind that I will now proceed to destroy my artistic reputation forever.

Lol destroy your what?

I’ve been a jerk more times than I can count, although I will attempt to count them for this article. But one common thread has united virtually all of my artistic knavery.

I speak of AMBITION.

Almost every (art related) act I’m ashamed of stemmed from my artistic ambitions. It’s not pretty! But if you’ve seen my gallery, you already know that “pretty” is not the goal here, so let’s get started.

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Are You Ready to Build a Fanbase? Yeah, Me Too.

A terrified girl sprawled on the snow looking up at a menacing shadow covering her.
Image | | sandpaperdaisy

Let me start out by saying WE ARE IN AN EXPERIMENT TOGETHER.

I’m a prolific and modestly successful obscure artist. At the time of this writing, 251 people have a passing awareness of me on Twitter, 252 on Facebook, and 5 on Patreon. I think most of them overlap, so let’s call that 252 fans total. Weed out the bots and people who have abandoned the platforms and let’s call it 200.

I have been active as an artist online since 1995. This should tell you that I am not an authority on building a fanbase. You’re not here to listen to my expert advice, you’re here to observe me succeed or fail, and try some of the same things if you’re interested.

What could go wrong?

Ready to start experimenting? Let’s go!

Continue reading →

The Two Kinds of Art

| sandpaperdaisy

For me, there exist only two kinds of art. Medium has nothing to do with it, nor does whether the piece is one-of-a-kind or reproduced, technically perfect or relatively unskilled, famous or obscure.

No, for me the only two kinds of art are Art you make for yourself and Art you make for others.

There is a lot of discussion and judgement on both sides from artists who believe that commercial art is not “true art,” or successful artists criticizing their peers for not considering the “business aspect” of art. All of them have valid ideas to consider. As for me, I only have one big assertion to make about the two kinds of art as I have defined them:

It doesn’t matter which kind you do. Continue reading →

Navigating FAN ART and Copyright Law 2022 Update

two children adrift on the sea of the earth's atmosphere, their ship a home-made rocket
| sandpaperdaisy

UPDATED 12/3/2022: Rights holders are starting to work with fan artists. Here is Teepublic’s Fan Art Program and here is Redbubble’s Fan Art Program. (I’ve used both myself.) This is an avenue to LEGALLY make and sell fan art of some properties.

UPDATED 4/18/2017: FUNimation released a very helpful statement about fan art and trademark, read it here.

DISCLAIMER: I don’t have a law degree nor can I give legal advice.

I like to make fan art sometimes. Maybe you do too. But, you might be wondering: is it legal? Is it morally questionable? Is it bad for your career? Is it copying someone’s work? Let’s take a deep dive into this incredibly thorny topic and answer these questions for ourselves. Continue reading →

Artists: 6 Reasons you should team up with a good freelance writer

Friends Lauren Tharp LittleZotz Writing and Heather Landry Sandpaperdaisy Art
| sandpaperdaisy

A few years ago I became friends with Lauren Tharp of LittleZotz Writing. I didn’t know she was a freelance writer, only that she was the significant other of my incredibly talented artist buddy Ramiro. When I did find out about her occupation, I was mildly interested simply because I wanted to get to know her. Little did I know exactly how invaluable it is for an artist to know a good freelance writer, or how mutually beneficial our friendship would prove to be over the years.

Here are a few reasons why you really need a good freelance writer in your life too! Continue reading →

The basics of setting up Patreon from a clueless comic Creator

Sandpaperdaisy Art on patreon
| sandpaperdaisy

As of early this morning, I have a Patreon page! It was all unfamiliar to me, so I’ll share what I learned while setting up.

Keep in mind, I just learned about Patreon yesterday. I’d seen it once or twice before but I didn’t understand the mechanics. Well, I stayed up all night until my eyes bled, reading over everything and carefully combing through other creator pages. Here’s what I gleaned: Continue reading →

The specter of spec art

The specter of speculative art
| sandpaperdaisy

A lot of artists and other freelancers have opinions about “working on spec,” that is, doing work without compensation in hopes of obtaining a job or some other benefit in the future. Some maintain it’s a necessary evil in the industry, some believe it’s a good way to get exposure, and some urge you to avoid it like the plague.

So, which approach is best? Continue reading →