Is racy art a problem in professional industry?

[Sythgara]

I've been suggested to do some adult themed commissions because apparently there's good money in it. I'm not really much of an anthro person but anyway. If I made another account and haven't officially linked myself to it would it be a problem with potential employers if they found out?

Or is it not an issue at all?

Thanks

[dpaint]

Well lets see if what you say is true, I get 1300 dollars for an 8 x 10 landscape painting, which takes me about 20 minutes to paint, I sell a couple of those a month. I think that is pretty good money, if furry porn is paying you that kind of money then go for it, otherwise no.

[Andrew Sonea]

Well lets see if what you say is true, I get 1300 dollars for an 8 x 10 landscape painting, which takes me about 20 minutes to paint, I sell a couple of those a month. I think that is pretty good money, if furry porn is paying you that kind of money then go for it, otherwise no.

Yeah but not all of us here are able to make that much money off of what is essentially a sketch... I haven't made any money off of my art at all, let alone sketches. And I don't think I'm that horrible.

I have to disagree with the OP in saying there is a lot of money in the porn niche; from my understanding there is a demand for art regardless of skill level, but pay is pretty bad from what I hear. So if you need a bit of cash, aren't at a high level of skill yet, and don't mind painting that type of stuff, then I say go for it if you want. To make the kind of money that dpaint is talking about though you'll need either a crazy work ethic or need to be REALLY good.

And yeah, it would probably be a good idea to get a pseudonym to keep things separate from your regular work as you never know how it may affect your career down the road if that's what you're associated with. You don't have to, but if you have a bit of concern, then I say err on the side of caution and don't use your real name. It really isn't tough to make up a name and get a new email and paypal and stuff for this type of thing... and I don't think there is much in ways of connecting your two identities other than if you flat out say it or have a super distinctive style (which, looking through your DA, you don't).

[Elwell]

...would it be a problem with potential employers if they found out?

Maybe. Depends.

[Sythgara]

Anything particular? I know one guy from gnomon who does some odd naked humanoid monsters for industry but also uses another name to do less mature themed work. I don't know how far Chris Sanders goes but I've seen some things of his that aren't exactly Disney material either.

Thanks

[Orunitier]

Yeah, are you talking about Cheesecake, Furry Porn, Nude Studies, people having sex, anything specifically?? Do you just want to draw/paint naked pics for the hell of it? Like Elwell says, it depends.

[JeffX99]

Here's the thing...if you do something someone wants, and they want what you do bad enough, they could care less. Look at Giger. I dare you.

[JFierce]

Well like others have said. It depends. Some people have an open mind and if you can do the quality of work they need they won't care I imagine. Others might find whatever your doing sick or gross (if it's something humanoid having sex like a furry or just in general sex, some people are prudes).

My non-professional opinion: If your not going to put it all in your portfolio why lump it altogether. I doubt if you were applying for a concept art position you'd show them porn/sexual themes or if you were trying to get a commission for porn/sexual themes would you show them how well you can draw neat guns.

[Sythgara]

I'm just curious. If someone were to get popular with one type of artwork that's clean, maybe go on to make few movies and then people find out he or she also drew porn commissions, to give a better example. What the reaction would be.

Maintaining a good name is something I'd be worried about is what I'm saying.

[vineris]

I dunno. You might lose some jobs if the people hiring you find that stuff distasteful.

But really, how difficult is it to make another identity on the Internet? Not very. Sign up for a Google account with a fake name, use that to create all other accounts and you're in business. The only difficulty is with banking and I'm pretty sure you can get around that by incorporating and then using your business name for everything. If anybody really cares to dig deep into your business they'll find your real name, but why would an Art Director look at your portfolio as Sythgara and think "what I want to know is if this guy is behind the Big Furry Dicks Corporation"? If they even know to ask the question, chances are that they're into that side of your art.

[QueenGwenevere]

Here's the thing...if you do something someone wants, and they want what you do bad enough, they could care less. Look at Giger. I dare you.

Of course, Giger is not exactly targeting, say, the children's book market... So it all depends.

Then again, you do get people like Tomi Ungerer who did both childrens books AND the "Eroticon" (which is everything the name implies...) THEN AGAIN, that was the '70s. So it depends.

And Doctor Seuss did racy stuff before getting famous for childrens books... But I guess if you're Doctor Seuss, anything goes.

As long as you keep things fairly separate you're probably okay. How separate they should be depends on how racy is racy and what exactly your non-racy market is, and how famous you are.

[JeffX99]

What I'm saying is people don't, and won't care. If they want your work they'll use you regardless, if they don't want your work they'll find any reason they can not to use you. Be smart about what you put in your portfolio of course but this is really a non-issue.

[Sythgara]

Oh, definitely. I wouldn't put that with my actual work. Thanks

[Shorinji_Knight]

... I get 1300 dollars for an 8 x 10 landscape painting, which takes me about 20 minutes to paint, I sell a couple of those a month...

Respect. This has inspired me to go back to traditional painting.
I would love to know how you go about making gallery contacts! I think my biggest problem as an artist is the difficulty I have in promoting myself. Do you go through an agent or do you have more success on your own?

(Sorry if this derails the thread. I thought about posting the questions as a new thread, but I wanted to include the quote.)

[dpaint]

Respect. This has inspired me to go back to traditional painting.
I would love to know how you go about making gallery contacts! I think my biggest problem as an artist is the difficulty I have in promoting myself. Do you go through an agent or do you have more success on your own?

My partner (girlfriend) helps me but I still handle some of them myself. Some gallery owners prefer to deal with her some with me. Starting out, the biggest thing was deciding on what my focus was going to be to market myself. I was still working full time as a games artist and painted on the side. I chose landscape painting because I was doing characters and props at work and I loved being outside and painting landscapes. So my portfolio had 20 paintings, mostly landscapes and a couple of still life's and portraits to show I could do them at the same level.

I then got every magazine out there, Art of the West, Southwest Art, American Art Collector, International Artist, any magazine that had my kind of work in it. I went after the galleries that took out at least quarter page ads in those magazines. I figured if they couldn't afford a quarter page ad every month they weren't worth my time. I started with the ones closest to where I lived and spread out from there. We would go to the gallery quarter whenever we traveled looking for new venues. If a gallery said no I asked them for a recommendation or advice to improve my work. If they said not now, I contacted them again in 6 months or a year and showed them a completely new body of 20 paintings made since the last time I contacted them. I also started applying to local, regional and national shows that had my kind of work in them because I knew the galleries would be more interested if I had awards and shows under my belt. It took 8 months to get in my first gallery.

I think the key is to paint a lot though and focus on a genre. When I started out, I painted around 400 paintings a year from life. When my galleries wanted to run an ad, most of the artists in the gallery didn't have any new/ good paintings so they used mine a lot because I always had 3 or 4 for them to look at. When the magazines had some extra editorial space in an issue they would call me because the galleries were running so many of my paintings in their ads. That got me invited to shows and noticed by other galleries. The work shows your serious and it helps your quality. Pretty soon I was in shows and galleries my teachers were in. Like Pasteur says" All things being equal chance favors the prepared mind"

[Shorinji_Knight]

Thanks dpaint that was very helpful and greatly appreciated. It has given me a lot to consider.

[sone_one]

if people (those with the money) knew, giger would (something different than could) produce appropriately cute children book illustrations for their project, and meeting the price... why wouldnt they hire him?

the point is not if you do/did something else at a certain moment. the question is, if you appear to be reliable enough, to finish a certain task, to justify the investment/risk.

[edit] not saying you should put pieces in your portfolio you feel uncomfortable with, just because its been paid... aint been paid to draw furry porn yet, but theres still pieces i dont show...

[Notophthalmus]

if people (those with the money) knew, giger would (something different than could) produce appropriately cute children book illustrations for their project, and meeting the price... why wouldnt they hire him?

Employers do have to think about PR. If you were casting the host of a kid's TV show, would you hire a porn actor? It would seem more like a stunt than a sincere offering.

Of course, Giger and the OP's situations are apples and oranges. Giger's crazy fetishistic stuff is a well-known part of his work; if you know any more about him than that he's "the Alien guy" you know he draws some unwholesome stuff. That's very different from a relatively unknown artist who's done a few commissioned pornographic drawings in addition to the body of non-pornographic stuff in his portfolio.

But what do I know?

[sone_one]

Employers do have to think about PR.

someone whos known for literally anything, is always better for PR than someone whos not known at all. and going by the amount of art thats posted everyday, do you really think these niches are as well observed at all?

go by another nick, if you (absolutely) have to draw stuff you dont like, to sustain your living. that should do it. the idea of some art director going into bank accounts to verify internet identities and their body of work is hilarious. not like they dont have a demanding job and a life.

[QueenGwenevere]

Whatever you do, DO NOT try to sell anime products to a producer of children's shows by showing them a demo reel full of tentacle rape scenes.

(True story from a client.)

(Needless to say the sale fell flat.)

[Sythgara]

Oh boy, someone didn't think it through, huh?

[Sanny]

It has happend now and then, rember seeing uroskodoji in the child section of a video store.

[Qitsune]

But then, a school banned one of Adam Rex's books from their library. It was the Dirty Cowboy. You can look it up, it's about a cowboy taking a bath, he's naked most of the book but it's not vulgar or anything. The school board said the book was promoting nudity. Now, Adam isn't known for his tentacle rapes and his previous work hasn't come out in the case as far as I can tell. He's known for grisly zombies in M:tG so it's a completely different thing. But what if he HAD been known for it. Someone would have dug it up and his book might be banned in more than one school because some people are prudes... More often than not, it's not going to be a problem, but it can happen.