How do you live as a webcomic artist without being featured?

[charizard123]

If webtoon only pay $100-1000, what have to do a webcomic artist who isn't featured to live from art?

the 99% of webcomic artist don't get to much patreons,
the 99% of artist who can live thanks to their patreons are nfsw artist... but webtoon doens't allow nfsw, and you can't use that webpage to promote your art because they will ban your comic as they did with mine

you don't have time to make comissions and the art of webcomics are different from the art of comissions, so you are improving skills that you can't sell

sell your webcomic in physical book works? You should have tons of subscribers

Do you have other idea?

If you want to live from art, maybe being a webcomic artist is not a good idea?

If you don't have the skills to be a featured artist you better don't try?

People who aren't feautured artist are just hobbyist artist?

I read all the time readers saying "author, please comeback... why you stop publishing?". And I wonder is if because they realized that is a hard work that will probably never reward

Webcomic artist is the most unrealistic? Is it better to try to be an illustrator, a normal comicbook artist or concept artist?

What are the outputs for a webcomic artist?

[joannekwan]

Yeah, if you want to make a living as a webcomic artist, you have to be really lucky. Yes, a certain amount of skill producing and marketing your work is required too. I'm not saying there is no hard work involved. But getting that big break does involve some luck.

Same goes for non-webcomic art, even porn. Like yeah, drawing porn is lucrative, but you still gotta find customers and they have to happen upon you.

So how do you live? 1. Find someone who's okay supporting you or 2. Get a day job.
And a note on day jobs: You can look for work in art fields, but they're usually highly competitive since there aren't all that many positions to fill.

But webcomics is probably the least lucrative creative endeavor. People have better returns writing and self-publishing or designing/making things for sale through sites like Redbubble or their own storefronts. So it would be smart to branch out to try and employ as many avenues as possible.

Webcomics really are a labor of love. You have to love your work so you can see it through. Because if your motivation is only determined by monetary returns, then you have to learn how to play the market and create something that could appeal to many many people. But even that's a gamble, because you still need some luck to get off the ground. That's why creators put so much emphasis on just loving your own work first and foremost. Because money and fame are not guarantees.

[darthmongoose]

It is extremely hard to make a living on webcomics alone. Most artists I know whose comics make money also do commissions or have a part-time job on the side. It's just the sad fact of the world; comic artists' wages haven't risen with inflation in several decades, and being a comic artist is something you do out of passion, not to make a lot of money.

It's pretty hard to get featured/go premium, and really you can't deliberately aim for it so much as just to good comics and hope for the best, so a lot of artists take matters into their own hands, usually with a combination of:

• Patreon, but let's be real, you're only likely to succeed here if your work is professional quality and you're also drawing something that's either incredibly compelling or hits a niche interest genre (like nsfw, specific fetishes, furry, lgbtqia+).
• Paywalled Spin-offs and extra content (either sexy stuff, fluff or side stories)
• Kickstarter or Gofundme to raise money for printed collections whenever you get to enough pages for a print edition.
• Merchandise like prints and shirts (though the years of shirts being the main earner are behind us, webcomics can't just make money from them).
• Comic commissions, like shorts for magazines, instructional comics for businesses etc. Workshops for events can also be popular, or straight illos. Like yes, drawing a comic is different from drawing a single illo, but nowadays an illustrator can't afford to specialise. I even taught myself digital painting, 3D modelling and animation so I could also get work as a games artist. Sure it'd be NICE to just draw comics all the time, but it's just not realistic. All the comic artists I know here in the UK also do either illustration work or games art work on the side or as their main job.

If you're really lucky, you might get picked up by a publisher and get royalties or a payout for the IP, or investment to develop more work from your IP, or the dream scenario, sell the movie rights, but this is such an unusual scenario it's best not to expect it to happen.

Being a webcomic creator is hard, and if you don't have a combination of high skill in writing/art, marketing savvy and pure luck, you probably won't make a part time living off it, never mind full-time.

[SeraphicMayin]

To live from art, you have to be skilled enough to have a product that people want to pay for. This requires not only becoming a good artist but also knowing how business works.

If you're working independently, you have to take all the responsibility for your skills and knowledge.

I personally think luck is just a confluence of unseen events that you place yourself in the path of and can only take advantage of if you have the ability to. Even if your comic is featured, if it isn't very well executed then that stroke of luck didn't actually do much good.

Opportunities tend to open the more you learn because you can recognize and take advantage of said opportunity.

Webcomics are a medium that has the potential to combine the best of prose, stage and screen. And so that requires study into each other medium to see what works and has worked for ages.

I purposely found a way to make my commission work into Comic-style your-character-here commissions so I could practice making comics and refine my process. So there are ways to make side jobs work for you both to improve skills and make money. I've done it. Still doing it.

If you don't have the skills now, that's no reason not to try.

What matters is how badly you want to get your webcomics done well. That that requires studying a wide range in the field of storycraft and fiction as well as finishing a lot of work so you get that practice in.

It's this process that weeds out the career professionals from amateurs in my opinion, not how much money is made. And in the long term, professionals can sustain their works through their career.

This kind of career isn't easy. But neither is any wildly successful career that will sustain you for the rest of your life.

Hard work has never been instantly rewarded in my experience. Years of smart and focused hard work though... Yes that has paid off.

And I never once thought it would.

I just knew as long as I kept learning and finishing stories, something would have to give. But I had to keep growing as a person and artist to become the kind of person who can get paid for her artwork.

I can safely say that as of right now I've managed to make a fledgling career out of purely webcomics.

I'm still not where I want to be (the head artist of a comic instead of an assistant + doing my own comic in the fringes of my work time) but it's closer than I was years ago.

[AirisKiahin]

Everything is possible if you work really hard.
I used to be a student of Technical University. My parents wanted me to become a programmer since that's a really good profession and (sorry for my modesty) I was good at that. I liked programming but my dream was to be an artist.
I almost had no real life because when I wasn't studying at university, I practiced art. All on my own, because nobody ever supported me. When I became strong enough I started doing commissions
I've launched few comics during university, they failed.
At the same time I was lucky to become a trainee in a prestigious programming company. It was really hard and no talent could help. I knew I could finish this program and that would give me the real well paid job. But that meant I would have to give up drawing.
I had a stressful year. I didn't want to give up on anything, but finally I just broke down with absolute exhaustion and lost interest to everything. I gave up drawing, I wasn't successful at my training, I wasn't successful at university. My girlfriend treated me like shit and things were becoming worse and worse.
Later I got into hospital. I had no laptop there and I got so weak so I couldn't even hold a pencil for a while. So there were just me and my mind. I had a whole month to think over my life.
I realised that I don't need my Master Degree, so I decided to leave university. I realised my girlfriend doesn't care about me and our relationships were abusive. I wasn't yet sure about programming and art. I was to make this choice.

Then I came back home. I had a week ahead to have rest, so I decided to draw for myself. And then I created a character of my current webcomics, Sheas and joined one drawing community, where a friend of mine, YumiCH, had her characters Lein and Luka. She inspired me and then I just burst. I've started expressing all the pain, all the emotions through Sheas. I was speaking through my character and that created a whole series of short stories. I've never drawn so much and so easy.
My girlfriend and my co-author hated me for that. They wanted me to draw for them, they were very jealous. That was the moment I realised I want to make my choices for myself. I broke up all the sick relationships and became free.
I was drawing, drawing, drawing and YumiCH was there. She was always so interested and supportive, so I suddenly discovered I haven't seen how great she was for whole 6 years of our friendship. We started working together and her Luka and my Sheas became a couple. And so did we later

And I made the final choice. I gave up my training as a programmer and dive into art. My parents didn't like that, but I didn't care. Since then I started to live for myself.

Then there was an extremely hard year. Me and YumiCH launched "The Fate!" - our first comics. I became the main artist and that was a hard fight. I had to take lots of commissions, keep stable updates and also run my Patreon. YumiCH is still a student. She supported me as much as she could with her love and care, but she could do nothing about my load.
I had to save each penny, I had to work 16 hours per day with tiny breaks. I had no holidays, my hand ached every night because it was very tired. But I knew I did that because it was my choice. This was for my future and my happiness.

It's been a year now. I still do commissions for living, but it's 3-5 pieces per month instead of 10 like it was at the beginning. I still have big load, but now it's 10-12 hours per day instead of 16. And I can allow myself some rest. My comics now earns some money. Not too much, but enough to get through. I became stronger, faster and more experienced. I know much more about socializing, advertising and other stuff that works for my comics. I can analyze and predict situations. I can form and keep my schedule.

Being an organized artist working on his own is a very hard way. Only few people can survive this struggle. I survived, but haven't yet finished my fight. It hurts me much, but I don't regret it. This choice made me free. Now I draw the things I love together with a person I love.

I have to be very strict to myself. I formed a schedule which I follow no matter how tired I am. And that's the only way to survive, there're no shortcuts. But I really feel that every month my comics grows stronger and stronger. Especially I feel it on my Patreon. It took me a year before I started to earn anything, but now I get more patrons every month and most of them stay with me for long time

So I guess if you want to live as a comics artist, then live as a comics artist. But get ready this is going to be years of fight and broken hopes. Nobody told that's going to be be easy, but I think the results absolutely worth it

[Kiweevil]

I went to school for 3D Animation, Digital Media, and Graphics Design. Reading your story is really inspiring to me. Thank you for posting this.