Have any of you tried getting illustration jobs on websites like

Post your work

>>2789519
Yeah I've tried a few, not the two you've mentioned but fiverr and some thing for comic commissions and I think another one. I never got much out of them. I got some hits on fiverr but since they have that stupid system where you can't charge anything higher than $5 until you've done X number of jobs through them and it takes nearly a month to get your $3.90 after their fees and paypal's, only to be able to raise your price another measly $5 until you do X *more* jobs, it wasn't worth it. I've gotten way more and better paying work out of random social media and even posting here than any of that stuff.

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>>2789532
everyone is requesting line art actually so ive been using this one a lot. I have a few others in different styles

>>2789543
That really sucks, I've kind of avoided that one because I think it just supports greedy cheap assholes.
Do you make a decent amount doing that?
I'm not really talking like your full income or anything.
It would really help me to just have like 100 dollars a month in commissions right now.

>>2789575
Yeah I just post on tumblr, DA, twitter, etc. Don't bother with facebook, it just doesn't get enough traffic for the amount of hoops you've got to jump through to maintain it. At least not so much for art. I've had kind of a rough situation that's prevented me from working on art as much as I'd like but I've built up enough demand that I could probably make several hundred per month if I was able to work consistently. On average I get commissions of $40-60 at minimum so if I was able to do two every month that's already $100 per month. You should be able to get at least that since your work is good and if you do color too that'll help even if it's simple flat fills. If you go social media route I'd say tumblr and twitter are the best to start out with.

>>2789605
Thank you Anon. How did you ever get started though? Like, what do people even commission you for? LIke, OCs, porn or what? That's all I can figure. On the other websites though it seems to all be business related or someone starting a book, card game etc.

>>2789649
The first commission I ever did was through craigslist and that was a nightmare. It was supposed to be a poster of a group of oc's but it went way off the rails. Most of what I've been commissioned for is fanart, very few oc's. I don't normally take jobs for oc's because they almost always end up in these long back and forths over details of the character's appearance. With fanart that's all avoided since the character has a set look. I do porn and furry on the side but to date I've still made more on my sfw art than my porn though that could be because I only recently started the porn. Whether you go sfw or nsfw post mainly what you *want* to draw. Don't get caught up drawing things you don't really care for. Capture the audience you want to draw for first and take those commissions and don't be afraid to turn down ones you don't actually want to draw. There'll always be someone who wants what you draw and even if you doubt that, always tell yourself that.

>>2789666
Alright, thanks Anon. That was really kind advice. I'll keep at it.

>>2789677
You're welcome anon, and good luck.

Yeh. I've tried. I'm "decent" at art and thought maybe using those freelance places would give me a place to force me to work and improve while getting paid.

Nope. Fiverr, Upwork, Guru, all of those places want people who are masters of their craft who will work for cheap. I've had people haggle me for something that would require 6-7 hours of work from me just for $10, and I'm not going to spend that kind of time on something for so little.

In the end, my writing ending up getting way more attention than my art, so now I went from "Guy who wants to try and be a freelance artist" to "Dude who does Copywrite, SEO, and Content Writing."

>>2789519
>upwork and freelancer
>started a few days ago
You need jobs under your belt to get jobs, it's just how it goes.
Eventually you will get one or two decent clients that will keep coming back and those will provide most of your income, the rest will be filler.

>some people are real assholes about paying and no one wants to hire someone without experience
You're cheap. Cheap workers get hired by cheap clients. Those generally have no understanding of business, are egocentric, think they're being benevolent just by giving you work, haggle and otherwise try to squeeze you dry for the small change they're paying you.

Even so, those platforms are about putting clients first, and freelancers second. Not to the degree that some other, public tender type, sites, but still.

When you have a site and a following, and people come to you for commissions because of your art, you are in the superior position.
They come to you to get you to do something for them.

When you freelance and/or apply to ads or job offers, you are in the inferior position.
Nobody gives a shit about your art, what you do or who you are, they have a set jar of quarters they don't mind throwing at some faggot to do a job for them.
People also tend not to be in control of their lives and they try to get the most sense of superiority from dominating and abusing desperate peasants and/or retarded rookies that are willing to work for chump change.

>>2790112
I'm surprised writing got you somewhere. How did that happen? That route I thought was even harder than illustration.

>>2789519

if you have to fish for gigs on those sites you are nowhere near good enough to even think about getting jobs. get welfare or a part time job and study hard for a couple of years while building up a portfolio aimed at your target commercial niche.

>>2792125
No.

>>2792125
>get welfare

I won't tell you to kill yourself, but please die as soon as you can, Anon.

>>2792359
That's literally what it's for though. Ideally you would use welfare to move forward in life so that you wouldn't need it anymore.

>>2792481
No, it's supposed to be help poor people who CAN'T sustain themselves, be it because they can't find a job, or their income isn't enough.
Not for a spoiled brat to leech off hardworking people because you are too entitled to work on a job that's not of your liking.

That being said, the whole idea behind welfare is retarded and rewards laziness, and you should be ashamed for supporting it.

>>2792497
>No, it's supposed to be help poor people who CAN'T sustain themselves, be it because they can't find a job, or their income isn't enough.

But they should die, anon. They are dead weight and the only thing that is more expensive than feeding them is cleaning them off the pavement.

>Not for a spoiled brat to leech off hardworking people because you are too entitled to work on a job that's not of your liking.

I see no ill with trying to fulfill a profession that you would be more useful at. I would much rather my tax dollars go towards that, as it is a far more productive use of welfare.

>That being said, the whole idea behind welfare is retarded and rewards laziness, and you should be ashamed for supporting it.

It does reward laziness, so why not do something productive with it?

>>2792531
Anon, nothing you say makes sense. The only argument to be made for welfare, is to help people who really can't work. You know, charity, except it's forced on you.

If you are taking the money from people who deserve to keep them, because they worked for it, and you give it to people who don't work because the simply don't want to, that's a moral hazard.

Just because you want to be an artist doesn't mean you are supposed to be an artist, and also, even if you were to get good and start producing good pieces of art, it's a terrible investment of money, because art doesn't agregate on productive value, you are doing nothing to advance society, you just took money from people who would have been using it better than you. Working as an artist is a luxury, it shouldn't be incentivized with stolen money.

>>2792531
>>2792552
Both of you are a couple of /pol/tards with no idea how government assistance works. It's required you be employed, a full time student, or in some other job training or program to get it and they DO check that, damn near monthly. It's a fucking nightmare trying to have those benefits as an artist, it's not worth OP's time. And the assistance program is not meant to reward laziness, much like you're intended to walk up escalators not simply be carried up. Only here when report day comes up, the escalator will dump you off if you don't work or the instant you work a little too much - just enough to be kicked out but not enough to stay out so you fall on your ass next month without the assistance and end up right back in The Line.
But that's moot. OP is good enough to get good pay from commissions or freelance gigs. He said he only needs $100 a month to help out and he'll be able to get it easily despite /ic/'s unyielding pessimism and warped expectations.

>>2792572

>What are unemployment programs

Welfare programs don't mean to reward laziness, but there is this phenomenon called unintended consequences. If you give money for someone to stay at home, this person will tend to stay at home. There are cases where people could get a job, but by getting a job they would not receive welfare, and their income on salary would be lower than on welfare, so they stay unemployed. Another example are welfare for poor people based on how many children they have, which incentivizes them to have more children, then having more people living in poverty.

>>2792698
Unemployment isn't the same as Welfare you double moron. Unemployment is paid by a former EMPLOYER. Even if the EDD garnishes the employer if they're unwilling to pay it, it comes from them not from taxpayers and is hence once AGAIN something that requires a minimum amount of previous gainful employment as well as monthly proof that you're still seeking employment. I can tell by everything you're saying you've never personally had to deal with these programs and you're just regurgitating republipuke while I've dealt with all of them. You're ignorant and you're wrong and again it's completely a moot point because if OP only needs $100 extra bucks he's clearly not in enough need, most likely to even qualify for any of this assistance let alone it be worth the months long process of getting approved and jumping hoops to maintain it. He's better off selling his art and the only reason I bother explaining all this is so he sees why he shouldn't even consider that suggestion.

I forgot to sage that last comment but before you reply with more nonsense just know I won't be back to continue this. Go educate yourselves you idiots, or go back to your cesspool to be fed more bullshit instead of looking at the bigger world around you, you tad/pol/es.

>>2792755

First of all, employers are taxpayers, what you meant to say is "it doesn't come from me!". Second, it does affect your pay, since a tax on the employer is discounted on the payroll of the workers, after all, it doesn't make sense for an employer to have to pay for people to not work for him, it isn't viable.
And finally third, you don't seem to have realized I am not talking especifically about the US, since I am not really american, just like you have failed to indentify my political ideology and where I am coming from.
Anyway, I just wanted to leave this reply to myself, since it seems you had to run back to your cesspool as soon as someone with an opposite opinion replied to your bullshit, I work hard to educate myself on politics and economics besides drawings, but I don't see how you are doing the same, jumping to conclusions, calling people names and running from arguments, I also don't think you can see the world around you when you have your head that far up your ass.

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OP here- I just wanted to say that things turned out a little better. I got a good commission to design t-shirts once or twice a week, hopefully more if I can. The problem with Upwork though is I think that it doesn't make a whole lot of differece, it still shows I have "0% job success rate" until like 6 months which I think is bullshit.
Keep at it anons, we're~all~gonna~make~it~

>>2795637
Have you tried other sites besides Upwork? I am thinking of getting started on one of these sites, but I don't know which to pick

>>2795661
My best advice to you is to pick one and stick with it. I'm trying the other ones out too but its kind of hard to keep up with everything and they have different modes of payment and stuff. Stay the fuck away from fiverr I guess, it sounds like trash that undersells all of us.
We're in this together anons so lets not sell our sells for cheap and ruin the market.

>>2792572

>It's required you be employed, a full time student, or in some other job training or program to get it and they DO check that, damn near monthly.

What you're talking about is the TANF grant which is only granted to poor familiws. However, the TANF grant isn't the only type of welfare distributed. There's multiple welfare programs like food stamps and SSIs. To claim that there is only one type of welfare is dishonest, but I can't expect leftists to tell the truth.

Requirements vary by state. Texas, for instance, requires that you have a low income level. It doesn't matter whether you're employed or unemployed.

>>2795750
>>2792748
>>2792755

I'll add that the TANF grant is only 1 out of the 600 welfare programs out there and that TANF grant requirements vary greatly by state. Here's an example state that disproves what you're claiming.

http://www.welfareinfo.org/benefits/california-calworks-tanf-1229