Hello! I made an account and came out of lurking just to answer your plea.

It’s difficult to avoid turning what you love into a chore, but everything online and offline will want you to do it. I’ve been doing art for two decades, but it seems like nowadays everyone and their dog will see something artistic or good and say "Hey, you should sell that on etsy!". They just entirely cut out the middle part where they enjoy or appreciate the thing you make.

My initial rant over, allow me to cut to the advice. This may be more general than you require, but I am bequeathing it to you:

Keep office hours, even when you didn’t manage to achieve what you wanted to achieve that day. Yes, even if you spent the whole day on Youtube. If you have a near deadline emergency, then do it as overtime, but mark the time you do and reclaim it later. You must have time which is not work.

Know what you will and won’t do for money, and make that immediately clear to your potential customers.

Know your audience. If you are selling grapes, don’t start listing narwhal carvings on the same website - make a new narwhal carvings shop front.

Understand why you’re posting your art online. Maybe it’s for the community, artist acclaim or money. Always revisit your goals and question whether they’re being met with the effort you’re putting in.

Trim your professional portfolio of work you don’t want to do. Only post stuff you want to work on.

To some degree you must be both marketer and artist. If you can imagine it, use one voice when talking about your work as a commodity and one voice when talking about it artistically. Your art has a market rate, and there is an amount people are willing to pay. Do not sell it for under this.

Some people will waste your time asking for things to be cheaper and cheaper and faster and faster. They will spend most of their time complaining. You can safely price these people out of your market. You do not want these people to be your clients, and you want it to be as uncomfortable as possible for them so they will leave.

Get another hobby. Doing art to recover from doing art is going to kill you with burnout in the long run. Take up knitting, sport, or reading. You don’t rest from drawing by drawing.

If you can, take frequent breaks - both short and long term. Look up from your desk every hour or so in order to reset your depth of vision. Have days off from your computer to prevent your arms getting tendonitis. It will eventually come for you, but with good maintenance you will have your hands and arms long into your career. Your body is the rarest and most expensive tool of your trade, treat it with the maintenance it deserves.

Take mental breaks where you think of something other than work. Refuel your creativity by visiting museums, watching films and visiting new places and people.

Don’t get hung up on maintaining "your style". That’s a common excuse to never develop as an artist. Your style comes from the fact you yourself have made it, and it’s an imperceptible quality - not the way you draw noses.

Stay professional and put everything down in writing, regardless of how nice the client seems.

Always take 50% up front in case things turn sour, and have an agreement of what you will exchange for that 50% if you must cut ties with the client.

Agree to minor changes to work but be careful not to let minor changes become entire redraws.

Finally, and most relevant to your question:

Frequently make new accounts in places you are trying new things. Do not link back to your personal website or share the same imagery. This will prevent customers asking for things you don’t want to do, and If you get an awful customer you can safely quarantine them to whatever branch you’ve made. I’m assuming you do furry commissions, and the clients in that section of the internet seem like they can be both lovely and dramatically volatile.

Last of all, don’t listen to old artists. We tend to be bitter and backwards. Do what feels right and don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

Hope this helps.

edited 12/6/2025, 4:47 pm