Nearing my mid 30s and starting to have major anxiety about the long term viability of freelance art as a career. It's genuinely starting to weigh on me. Don't know what to do.
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I'm wishing you all the best on that front. Making a living out of art is hard I feel, but i guess it's liberating. As age come, you'll feel like the world moves faster and faster, but you get more confident about it. Well i hope at least!
It's a reality that sooner or later as artists we will have to live, in my case plan B is become a tattoo artist, plan C is to learn arts and crafts and become an art teacher, plan D is accept that I will work on a factory.
Plan Z is become homeless and walk until I die of starvation.
I mean, I guess in an ideal world there's lots of opportunities and ways to start from zero everything, but that's an ideal world. Plus the future of our world it's really blurry with all these tense situations, in the end we have to survive one way or another.
Rn the best we can do is make the most of our time in our jobs and, instead of thinking in the future "damn there's no more work" we should think that "man, those where the good days, and I'm glad I enjoyed every bit of it, I'm not nostalgic, neither depressed, but I lived good"
there are numerous r18 doujinshi artists still drawing porn, so that's a comfort to me as far as doing smut long-term.
but we definitely need some societal/global changes that favour/support being an artist, that's for certain.
if you can become a tradesman, that's probably a good shout.
This a really weird time. I’m hitting the same age point and it’s freaking me out.
I’m trying to plan out my birthday party to distract myself from thinking about it.
Maybe it’s our 1/3 life crisis.
Perhaps it's time to shift plans from long-term to short-term.
I know as artists we often have these grand ideas in the backs of our minds and we eventually get the mid-life crisis kicking at our mental back doors, I just hit 30 and I'm already starting to shift plans into motion
I know it's not my place but I do genuinely extend my hospitality and I'm willing to look past the parasocial side of things for this, I know how hard it is and what that feeling on the inside does to you.
I'm always down to talk if you need someone to talk to Boo.
I know for me personally (Because I'm not you) my plans for art have always been set in stone but what I wanted to do with art has always been a mystery, it's gotten to the point that I thought the goals impossible are now being put forward, I'm going to make comics no matter what the inside says
Yeah it do be feeling like a time of major upheavel in the job market, with the sheer number of layoffs and crazy tech advancements. You're definitely not alone in feeling a need to pivot, I'm also trying to re/upskill for better job longevity
I've been dooming on that thought for a couple of years now. Especially when life seems to be set on not letting me build any sorts of savings or somehow becoming successful. :'D
I'm in a similar spot. It feels like I'm finally hitting my stride in terms of doing art for a living, but I'm still not certain about the future of it. I've got a degree but no experience and no real desire to pivot to anything else aside from the money incentive
I'm hanging in and saving for a few years after this but I'm pretty worried about switching to other careers. Would have to get a GED and everything, lol.
Nooot looking forward to whatever the next job is.
Boyf has been pushing on and he's doing fairly well for himself. But genuinely I get what you're on about bud, it's rough. We're gonna be doing game dev work down the line ourselves.
Yeah, i've got an RRSP and a TFSA and shit. But I can only contribute so much to that, as I've said elsewhere here. Shit in major cities in this country has just gotten crushingly expensive. AND I MAKE GOOD MONEY! How are retail employees surviving. I don't get it, man.
I'm mid 20s and have been "paving the way" to start making art for a couple of years now; but i'm scared as fuck precisely because of this.
I know the perfect moment to start doesn't exist but... Man, the industry and economy looks so scary and unstable now.
If you're doing what you love & getting paid to do it you're doing something right. No job is safe/secure anymore, I'm on my 3rd career change: left aviation after it went down the shitter in '09, tech crisis of '22/'23 killed my firmware career, now taking the reins myself and going indie gamedev
I think thats a thing which haunts lots of fellow artists and people in general which doesnt have a stable work anywhere. Is a thing i think myself a lot. But despite all pain related with the work, still worth the shot keep going
It's uncertain but I'm sure you'll figure it out, my best wishes.
I don't draw but I just started a new job and am already getting frustrated with it. Grass is always greener and stuff.
Only reason for me to make money is to buy guitars and make comics 😅
The last 10 years I worked in animation studios and tried to pitch my SFW project, have a "real" career, leaving my NSFW art on the side.
No more studio work here and I hit 40 last year.
And here I am trying to survive off NSFW freelancing.
Yeah that shit is scary, I am barely gonna be trying to enter college now if anything to get into chemistry and hopefully get a job in any pharmacy, lab, anything, while trying to find retail job in the meantime.
I thought I'd be able to freelance my whole life but chances are that clientele will slowly diminish, it would suck if the freelance artist life was a bubble that is deflating, but I want to believe it won't happen, GenAI seems to just be seen as slop so that is a pro for us--
Nonetheless, you and all of us entering this stage have time, we just gotta take whatever job we find, build experience, continue doing whatever freelance work we can and we might just find a balance by the time we hit our 40s.
Nobody wants to, that's what sucks about this, we're going through hard times but I want to believe things can get better, or at least get unfucked just enough for it to be livable.
I want to still be able to see the same faces 30 years from now and know we made it.
Speaking as a commissioner and someone who never used AI, it’s obvious the stuff doesn’t have the divine spark of artistry, it can’t innovate on color choice, angle/perspective, or stylistic choices, it’s limited by the lowest common denominator of thousands of horny/bodyposts. It’ll never match u!
Thank u Respectable, I think that AI will always remain a thing but it will just be like processed bread and fresh bread, just because a factory does it, doesn't mean bakers are out of their job.
If anything I think this could tighten the relation between artist and client even more as time goes on
I think you’re right. Like, I could go to some AI and get 25+ iterations of something similar to my character if I put in enough fiddly keywords, but I’d much rather commission my regular artists who’ve worked with me before and know my chars, as I know their style! Working relationships R good!!
Part of the appeal of comms for me is how it's different artists' take on the subject. It contains their specific personality and idiosyncracies and quirks.
An AI could never replace that because it doesn't have any.
What's worrysome is people have less spending money, and companies keep squeezing them. Food, gasoline, and electricity gets more expensive, things become shoddier and needs more replacements. It's becoming harder for the average person to make ends meet, and so getting comms done get deprioritized.
I constantly think about this and sadly I also believe we need to consider freelance art might not last forever. Best we can do is prepare for the worst and hope for the best 😣
It's tough, I had to make the choice to prioritize a "real" job because of the stability it offered, but that hasn't made me any happier either since now I just don't have as much time for art.
It's a tough time out here regardless of which career we take, I wish you luck!
I believe in you. One little thing that can help, if you're not doing it already, is setting aside a little bit each month from art income and put it into a good ol' fashioned retirement fund. It helps the anxiety, and when number goes up it makes the happy chemical.
I am already. It's just not nearly enough. But it's all I can afford. And I make decent money too, which is scary. I don't know how people are managing this lol. Rent for a 2 bedroom in my city is on avg. like $3600 rn.
Gosh that's brutal. If it's just you, you can do art anywhere, but even that's not much consolation if you're at a place because of any number of reasons. Still, a couple sacrifices could mean putting an additional 1000 a month into savings instead of into rent.
Weirdly, the anticipation of that sort of anxiety is what kept me from doing art full time.
It really sucks that it's either doing something you're truly passionate about and have a hazy financial future, or waste away at a corporation for just the chance of more stability... 💀
But I believe in you, Boo! You have mad technical skills and a passionate audience! Have you thought about partaking in projects that can "pop off", like visual novels? Some of those furry VNs seem to have really impressive Patreons and such!
That is, in part, a side effect of being in your mid 30s. There's an ennui that sets in about the "rest of your life" when you realize just how much is (presumably) left.
That's comforting tbh. To know that this is somewhat normal. Early/mid 30s is a weird time, man. I still feel young and energetic about most things as I did in my mid to late 20s, but there's the ennui and anxiety too that you're talking about.
Probably doesn't help that my marriage just ended lol
Damn dude, Sorry to hear about that. I didn't have a clue. Hope you're doing okay 😢 Just keep being your best self. eventually all poor things end and better things come along.
((also cold dark PNW days dont help either ahahaha))
Definitely gotta' diversify, and put stuff away when you can. Commission art probably won't be sustainable when we're 70, but you can be a freelancer forever.
As someone who has a full-time corporate job + running a furry art patreon, I wouldn't recommend it.. Sure you have health insurance and cash, but you end up having much less time for anything outside of work. I plan on quitting corporate world soon as I pay off my loans.
i've struggled with this somewhat recently, it's an ebb and flow of being able to/skirting being burnt out. It's not easy to keep up the momentum at all times, but as far as i see it, as long as i can always make art, i'll be ok i think. Even if i need to get another job as my main job.
I want to keep making art, and that's what im going to do. Freelancing is tough work, but im going to keep it up for as long as i can, because i love the work i do, and know that even if i take a break i can always go back to it in the end.
these are harsh times, you'renot alone in feeling lost 🫂
Damn reading through your replies, feels like for a few years now I keep hearing about insane housing costs and living expenses in Canadian cities. Is it just even worse now?
Oh my LORD dude, examples like that (and unfortunately there's a lot like it) make me feel insane. Like housing value being so inflated because they just want a Fat down payment right away. Imagining paying a 20% down payment of 400,000 to get the privilege of living in that plywood dumpster. 😬
Yeah it's lunacy. We live in such a deeply fucked up and stupid system lol. On what planet should a tiny ass lot with what is essentially a crack house, built in 1923, be worth that? Suck my dick.
Yeah rentals are so out of hand now too, last horrible little news story I remember is a most of them use the same pricing software that like adjusts prices constantly to get the max amount for each unit, and it being software it can automatically fix prices with other separately owned properties.
(which if landlords were conspiring to fix prices and manipulate the housing market, it'd be illegal, but if it's a funny computer doing it then it's all good I guess 💀)
Reading this and many of your replies .. its both nice/comforting to know I'm not alone with these feelings, but it also sucks that fellow artists are dealing with the same thoughts and worries.
Same. I'm at a point where i feel like i'm highly skilled, but i'm constantly discouraged at my inability to even find an art job to the point where I wounder if i should get a boring job and just do art as a passion. we need some sort of job board just for artist.
And god forbid if you wind up out of fumes and need a break. Now you gotta keep going regardless or get another job and that's if you're lucky enough to wanna get one
Shit will eat up any form of savings and leave you dry before you can blink
It can still be viable with good support if you have it available. But it is difficult on one’s own. Being as hungry and ambitious as possible might be the only way to make enough to have a some sort of stability in the future.
garnering wrist issues from drawing even despite trying to take care of myself is also something i dread. i fully understand that in my 40s-50s is when things may go downhill physically and that scares me. i have no idea what to do, the job industry sucks!
As a newer/growing artist I feel this. The cost of living is crushingly expensive and I don’t feel it’s possible to survive on freelance art alone in the future. Multiple streams of creative output and income, proper investments that grow with inflation, etc. what else can you do really? 😩
I want to do full time and I believe I can. But the economy is in such a weird spot. I'll never stop doing art though, and I know everyone will find a way 🔥
I think about this all the time like...am I gonna be a furry artist till I'm 50? I bloody well hope so! Until then, I'm just gonna keep on enjoying what I do, while I'm still allowed to enjoy it! If life is kind to me, I'll keep doing it for the rest of my life 😤
Living of art is a constant worry, even when things go well, there's always that risk, nsfw bans, changes to social media, etc, I'm not complaining, I love what I do and things are good now, but I'm 40 next month, dong this for 15 years, and the worry never really goes always, hang in there friend 💜
After the pandemic subsided, there were major layoffs and the war with Russa & Ukraine took place. It all results in a world-wide soft reccesion. Trumps reign might accelerate that. NSFW content continues to be challanged, and ANY content creator / artist is threatned by AI.
However, the general sentiment of the people is that they *do not* enjoy the overconsumption of bad quality items created by hyper-capitalism. This includes current AI, too.
When the pendulum swings one way, it inevitably swings the other. It might take 5 years, even 10–
Which is short compared to how slowly we advanced just 500 years ago; but there will be regulations. Today, the biggest blow is the immense loss of reach for creators on Twitter/social media. But, in response, Bluesky was made.
Things will not look the same in 5 years, let alone the next 3.
I believe it will be okay. Things get better, then worse… then better. History repeats itself.
People in tech thought their jobs at companies were safe. Then they were fired. There’s not much difference in job safety at a company, compared to freelance, when both struggle to sell.
My current situation is fortunate, but ngl, the thought that if I didn't have family and a home to stay in, I'd basically not have a roof over my head with the money I make doing this IS kinda crippling for the future..
I've been struggling with these thoughts for awhile now, too. I don't think I'd be able to get further education to help even though it's my biggest dream so it feels stuck/suffocating at times :/ I just want to draw and be able to live, man.
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Plan Z is become homeless and walk until I die of starvation.
but we definitely need some societal/global changes that favour/support being an artist, that's for certain.
if you can become a tradesman, that's probably a good shout.
I’m trying to plan out my birthday party to distract myself from thinking about it.
Maybe it’s our 1/3 life crisis.
I know as artists we often have these grand ideas in the backs of our minds and we eventually get the mid-life crisis kicking at our mental back doors, I just hit 30 and I'm already starting to shift plans into motion
I'm always down to talk if you need someone to talk to Boo.
The wheels on the capitalism train do feel like they're falling off, though. Someone should figure out that universal basic income shit
I wish I could assist but my job contract forbids :<<
I'm hanging in and saving for a few years after this but I'm pretty worried about switching to other careers. Would have to get a GED and everything, lol.
Nooot looking forward to whatever the next job is.
I know the perfect moment to start doesn't exist but... Man, the industry and economy looks so scary and unstable now.
I hope i'm not making the anxiety worse😅
I don't draw but I just started a new job and am already getting frustrated with it. Grass is always greener and stuff.
Only reason for me to make money is to buy guitars and make comics 😅
The last 10 years I worked in animation studios and tried to pitch my SFW project, have a "real" career, leaving my NSFW art on the side.
No more studio work here and I hit 40 last year.
And here I am trying to survive off NSFW freelancing.
Hang in there Boo.
Gotta build experience in our 30s while we can --
I want to still be able to see the same faces 30 years from now and know we made it.
If anything I think this could tighten the relation between artist and client even more as time goes on
An AI could never replace that because it doesn't have any.
It's a tough time out here regardless of which career we take, I wish you luck!
best advice i could give, to anyone really; start retirement finances. investing, 401k, that sort of stuff
we just gotta do the best we can when we can
It really sucks that it's either doing something you're truly passionate about and have a hazy financial future, or waste away at a corporation for just the chance of more stability... 💀
And I have! It's just a loooooooot of work. But I'm interested in something like that potentially.
It's not happy, but it is natural.
You got this.
Probably doesn't help that my marriage just ended lol
Nobody warns you about leaving the key marketing demographic!
Well, except for Grandpa Simpson, but he's a crazy old coot.
Also, sorry about the marriage thing. [Insert inappropriate joke here based on in person nuance]
Marriage does makes things harder, please let yourself process anything in small portion or things will stack up and try to crush you
Also hope that there will be that art person in 40-50s who will share their experience
((also cold dark PNW days dont help either ahahaha))
The cold doesn't bother me at all tbh. I enjoy it. And hey, we've had some sun lately!
I look up to you and if you're having a hard time higher on the ladder
That makes me worry if I can make it 😢
Luckily I'm being given a chance to change my living situation but life really has felt like a leaky boat this past year.
And now that I'm improving my own boat the ocean outside the boat has caught on fire 🔥 🙃
these are harsh times, you'renot alone in feeling lost 🫂
https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/27463180/2535-e-broadway-street-vancouver
Shit will eat up any form of savings and leave you dry before you can blink
I've been thinking about this alot and it depresses the fuck out of me
My only hope is the game I'm releasing into early access next month. Commissions ain't gonna cut it anymore.
When the pendulum swings one way, it inevitably swings the other. It might take 5 years, even 10–
Things will not look the same in 5 years, let alone the next 3.
People in tech thought their jobs at companies were safe. Then they were fired. There’s not much difference in job safety at a company, compared to freelance, when both struggle to sell.
Your art will always be valuable. No one can replace the joy of seeing another human exercise practiced skill & creativity.