The truth is, I draw a lot still. An extreme amount tbh. But the majority of it will never go on here.
I recognize that there's a functional difference between establishing a following as a Fandom artist and an OC artist. The truth is, as a Fandom artist, anything you draw immediately invokes death of the Author/Artist. Because the characters exist within the context of a story that's already known by the people looking at your art, they're able to establish their own feelings and reactions quickly. OCs for fandoms have the same benefits, to an extent, as they can quickly establish themselves as aligned or juxtaposed to the preexisting notions of the world.
OC art divorced from a preexisting piece of media has no such benefits. Devoid of context, there are three, maybe four methods by which the viewer can establish a reaction and feeling. The quality of the art, the type of art it is, the character designs themselves, and maybe relating it to a piece of existing media, although that last one is often considered rude.
The truth is, very rarely is the art I make something I, or anyone else, would consider prestigious. I draw my OCs as I want to draw them, and rarely is the art extremely high quality or concept. I don't draw comics, I find them difficult, and due to my poor attention span, I just can't. That immediately eliminates two methods that would be used to establish my OCs to the viewers of my art. Most people do not read lore dumps, and the few who do, while they do engage with them delightfully, are such slim pickings that you often end up talking quietly to the same 3 to 5 people, which I would honestly rather do in my discord servers and DMs with friends than strangers. Tumblr, for better and for worse, is one of the best websites for artists. But, you cannot break your niche easily. I started as a fandom artist. I am proud of the Revalink drawings I did. I'm proud of the Yautja drawings I did. I'm proud of the Beastars drawings I did. I likely won't do any more besides maybe that last one, and that's fine. If I post my art here, and it's not one of those three things, it will get 5 notes at maximum. I would simply rather not waste my time.
And yes, who knows, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'll get lucky one day, and I'll never see that happen unless I post it. And, posting it barely takes a couple minutes, why not try?
Well, the most popular drawings I ever did, even within fandom spaces didn't even hit the 100 mark. Granted, I was worse at art back then, but I doubt it'll change much now.
prguitarman
gummygunk
stormborns
areudirty
vaporwave
janainaart
annaxmalina
