Rants

Art Requests

(Well hey will ya look at that. This book isn't dead after all)

So I decided to revive this poor book I literally made two chapters in and forgot about.
So here's a rant that is long overdue.
Enjoy!

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So

Art Requests

I have very mixed feelings on this topic actually.
On one hand, it let's an artist explore new designs. Sometimes someone requests something the artist have never even thought about drawing before! Requests open up an entirely new world for possibilities for drawing.
But on the other hand, requests can take valuable time away from artists and can tear artists away from important projects and the things the love and are experienced in drawing.

Let's talk about the positive side first:
Sometimes when an artist creates a style for a certain thing (humans, dogs, cats, dragons, etc.), they become obsessed with drawing it and they soon realize that's literally all they draw. Because of that, artists can be very tense when trying to draw something else, either something they've never drawn before/doesn't draw frequently.  I, as an artist, can say that when I stop drawing a certain character/creature/species and then decide to draw that character/creature/species, I struggle. It's almost like learning how to draw that character/creature/species all over again! And it's frustrating. 
Requests give folks the opportunity to stay on top of those struggles and even learn to draw entirely new characters/creatures/species! I haven't been taking requests for years, but I feel I've been doing it long enough to say I at least think I know what I'm doing.  And I have to say, in the amount of time I've had requests available, I've gotten some pretty interesting requests here and there.

(I WONT BE CALLING PEOPLE OUT BY NAME IN THEIR REQUESTS SO PLEASE DONT TAKE OFFENSE IF YOU HEAR YOUR REQUEST AS AN EXAMPLE)

One of the most common requests is Oc's. Now I have nothing wrong with requesting that. I've even done it myself. Honestly, it's fun to see your character in someone else's style! Though Oc's are pretty easy to draw, it's fun to see the design and color choices of other people! It's also a fun challenge to convert someone's Oc into your style.
The second most common request is characters from a book series, movies, TV shows, plays, etc. Now there's nothing wrong with these requests. Sometimes you can't think of anything that you want someone else to draw so your mind turns towards popular characters that already exist. I've done this plenty of times before. But I have one problem with these kind of requests. When you ask others to draw your characters, the end results are so exciting to see! Someone else drew your original character. It's like people basically drawing fanart for you (but you asked them too). The moment the artist posts the request you asked for, but it's a popular character from something else, isn't as exciting as it is when they draw your character.  These type of requests always feel more lazily thrown out to the artist. It almost feels like that person felt inclined to request something, but didn't want or have Oc's to be drawn. So instead it feels like "Oh hey uuhhh draw Firestar or something  idk lol." Now as someone who has taken requests and also requested things to other people, I can definitely say the best part of a request is to post and see the user who requested to drawing's reaction. It makes all of the time you put into that drawing feel well spent when the user loves and is satisfied with what you made, especially because you made it for them specifically. But when I finish a requested drawing involving a cannon character, the user's reaction isn't as strong. Sometimes users who request cannon characters haven't even acknowledged my finished work, even though they specifically asked me to draw it.  And that hurts.

But overall requests can help an artist experiment with style and help them out of art block. Requests are also very rewarding when the user who requested it sees the finished product.

Now I would like to dive into some of the more negative sides of requests.
Number one: it's free work. Unlike commissions or art trades were you get something out of your work, requests are free art which anyone can take advantage of. The only payment you get out of that drawing is the reaction of the user when you've finished. And like I've mentioned earlier, when you don't get a reaction or acknowledgement from the user, it feels as if that hard work wasn't worth it. When an artist has requests open, literally anyone can stop by and ask for something to be drawn.
Number two: the artist's mental health. This is something that has taken a great toll on me recently and it's very common. When I first opened up requests last year I was ecstatic whenever anyone would ask me to draw something. But now, as my art has improved, more and more people are dying to get a chance for me to draw something for them. (At least now people have stoped asking for cannon character requests. Well, for the most part) When people see an artist with a likable or interesting style, one of the first thoughts that usually come to mind is "Wow, I wish they could draw something for me ahhh," but what people don't think about as much is the mental health of that artist. Requests just continue to pile up on the artist until they're struggling to find their way out. And that's what's been happening to me recently. I currently have more than 15 full body digital requests to go through. I've had almost no time recently to work/draw something I want or enjoy. It's just been making drawings for others constantly. I'm not the one to vent to their audience. I don't want to give others (especially ones on the internet) my personal problems. But I've been under a lot of stress recently. And most people don't seem to care about that. I'm not some machine that spits out drawings for others and nothing else. I have a life and things to do, but I always feel like I should be working on requests instead. I've even broken down a few times because of just damn requests. But others don't care about you. Just your art and more specifically, art for them. They don't stop for a minute and think about the actual person and how they're handling this. No. It's just "Draw my character." Like I said already, I've been so caught up in stuff for others, I barely have any free time to draw my own stuff and when I do, I feel like I should be working on requests instead. The joyous reaction of the users after their drawing is finished is alway rewarding, but after awhile, it looses rewarding feeling. A simple "Thank you looks great" seems forced and it doesn't satisfy me anymore.

But yeah
That's about it.

Requests are a blessing and a curse. 

Sorry if it got a little vent-y towards the end. It's just something I'd wanted to say for a while but never got around to it.

Thank you to all who took the time to read that whole thing.

I'll try to update this book more frequently if you guys want me to.

If you have anything at all you'd like me to cover in this book, I'd love it if you would suggest something to me!

Again thank you

~Diamond ❤️