pink dog bug

Hello!! I'd love to give some tips to a fellow furry artist trying to make some money :D

Currently, my sources of income are commissions and payments from Etsy and Kofi for my bases! I'm only just starting to branch into dealing at cons and merchandise this year, but currently I'm in the "putting money into the business" stage :') Adopts are also good to try ang get into so you're not doing comms all the time!! To be clear, I am also currently on unemployment payments until I'm making enough for furry art to be my only income! I tried doing furry art full time back in 2022 for about 6 months, I also had patreon back then which was a great way to get a more stable payment. But I ended up eating my savings and had to get a retail job :(

I really think it's doable to do furry art full time and make a liveable amount, but when you start out you definitely need savings, another income or someone paying your bills to keep you afloat.

As for how to get commissions, I've been doing comms since I was 15 on DeviantArt for like 50c for a fullbody XD and I feel really lucky that I don't have much trouble getting comms now. Some quick tips would be: - ALWAYS post art examples when advertising your commissions!! - Putting most of the info (price, how to pay etc) into the image is really helpful for engagement, especially on sites like Twitter. - Make and post personal art, and make it art you'd like to get as commissions (Don't make art you think will "get popular" or you think people will want to buy, you'll burn out!!) - I have a website at the top of my linktree with my base prices AND I'll post a comm post with examples and prices in it every now and again - posting commissions once they're done seems to help a lot, even if they're not as popular as your personal work, if just ONE person sees if who wants something similar, that's a sale!!

Sorry for the long post, I hope this was helpful! Feel free to dm me if you'd like some more personal help or ask more questions on tumblr!!

I've had Ruby for about 10 years!! She used to be a wolf, because I went by "rubywolf" on flipnote hatena!

And then here's how I designed her when I moved to deviantart when I was about 13!

Eventually I decided I wanted her to be a border collie and she's slowly evolved over the years. I like to think that as I grow as a person Ruby grows alongside me! Only recently did I move away from the red design to a more lovecore, pink one.

Sorry for the long post!! This was a fun question thank you for asking <33 as for other species I love to experiment and reimagine Ruby as other animals! I think if I had to choose a different animal to have as my fursona I’d be a rabbit. But I’m pretty sure Ruby will always stay a dog!