I want to genuinely thank the commissioners and watchers on this account, whether you're a regular or just the occasional visitor.

Until recently, I feel I've taken for granted that most of my usual clients are all super fantastic people who are thoughtful, patient, and kind.
As an artist who started out too nervous to show anything I drew to literally anyone, let alone charge real cold hard cash for it, let me just say that I would actually not be here doing any of this without you guys. Those first few extremely positive interactions with clients as a commission artist changed the whole game for me. You guys changed the game.

Every once in a great great while, I am reminded that not everyone who commissions artists is genuine or respectful; some of them are even blatantly malicious toward the community and even dangerous to artists.



I won't dwell for too long on the topic, but I feel I need to just mention it:
Every artist that takes online commissions is a freelancer. The prices they set for their projects are self-determined and self-enforced, and while I'm sure there are some commission prices out there that are either too low or too high for the product offered, it's none of anyone else's business what they choose to charge. Their reasons could range anywhere between: feeling out what the right price range for their work is- to "I will actually starve without the money from these projects" and none of them is obligated to explain themselves. I've been doing this for about a decade now, I've never seen an artist genuinely engage in "price gouging" as though the commission industry is a cash-grab. Doesn't mean there aren't artists out there who do, but I do strongly believe that those artists are a minority.

Especially here on FA, the majority of commission artists are simply attempting to have a good time. I don't know where the image of an absolutely loaded commission artist sitting on a mound of dimma-dollars like a dragon came from, but just choose a comms artist at random from FA and I guarantee that this individual is supporting themselves with that money. Hell, given current economic and societal issues, they might even rely SOLELY on that money for their sustenance. They're not here to steal your money or waste your time, they're (probably) fucking furries- you know what that means right? Means they're probably born in the 80s or 90s and given the generational strife implicit there; it's infinitely more likely than not that selling their art contributes to them being able to feed themselves.

I am fortunate that I'm able to keep my pricing relatively low because I have a good wage-slave job that allows me to get hands on necessities with ease - That job does absolutely kill me, like actually murders me weekly and if I decided one day to leave the hellish fucking workplace of a real world job to try on commissioned art as a means to feed and house myself, yes- those prices would need to go up.



Precious few of us become internationally recognized Patreon celebs. Most artists would just lose all independence in life without the support of Patrons and freeform commission clients. In times like these with mounting global atrocities and the ending of all things™ people in low econimic brackets needing to make more money is... hardly... news? And that extends to freelance furry porn artists, c'mon guys, fuck

If an artist you like raises their prices, try to consider the motivators before you go around shilling some rhetoric about artists being greedy internet goblins who only ever turn into evil money-eating content creators. It's incredibly harmful to both the artist community and the client community. Both of them will see you saying that shit. Artists who might very genuinely need to raise their prices to save their actual fucking lives might hesitate to do so because they don't want to be "one of thooooose artists" and clients may decide to up and write-off artists who tweak their price ranges.





I consider myself very lucky to have (somehow) been surrounded by a community of caring and lovely people who enjoy my work and have enjoyed watching my progress as an artist even though my posting is irregular af ugh so sorry
I do see you guys, and for every bad interaction I've had with clients and watchers, you guys double the good vibes in return. I hardly even notice the unfortunate experiences.

So thank you all, you make this silly little machine chug and it overjoys me to see so many of you still here, still engaging, even if I'm slow to work at times and meander with my interests.
Love ya 💙