ADVICE

How do I get better at drawing fat/plus size bodies?

There is no short answer to this! This best way to learn is by practice and observation and lots of hard work. But here are some tips/resources:

1. Use reference. Here are a few: this reference pack, this book, and this online archive!

2. I made a brief Twitter thread about my thought process when drawing fat bodies.

3. Find good fat art that you like and figure out what you like about it and try to incorporate elements of it into your art!

4. Examine yourself and your own anti-fat biases. Having anti-fat bias isn’t bad as long as you’re willing to do the work to recognize and reverse it. I highly suggest following yrfatfriend on Twitter.

You may have some biases and thoughts that are negatively effecting how you perceive fat people and, therefore, how you draw fat people. I resisted drawing double chins for years because I hated mine so much I didn’t think I could ever draw one appealingly. I’ve done a lot of work trying to accept and love mine and other people’s and a big part of that has been learning to draw them in a loving and charming way.

How do you get started putting your art on clothing? Should I work with a print on demand service or find a factory?

Unless you are able to gather significant capital yourself, you probably want to do print on demand. my favorite POD service is Threadless since they have transparent pricing, no listing fees, and good quality printing. They will also generally suggest a profit margin for you, which I think is helpful when you’re starting out.

Profit margins for POD services are entirely different from if you’re working with a manufacturer directly and buying the pieces yourself. With POD, you’re likely to make a profit of 10% or less (depending on the item), with non-POD general rule of thumb for retail cost is 2.2-2.5x your cost to manufacture that item. That being said, if you work with a manufacturer directly you have to spend time and money finding a factory that can do what you need at a scale and price you can afford and you have to do your due diligence sussing out how they treat their workers and the quality of their craftsmanship.

Doing non-POD is much more expensive up front (thousands of dollars vs. free), but the potential long term profit is also much larger. However, that also comes with an amount of risk, Since non-POD services will expect you to buy a minimum number of pieces (usually in the hundreds) and you can’t make a profit if you don’t sell the pieces. As a rule of thumb, if you are just starting out making products and don’t have an established customer base, you probably shouldn’t put up money you can’t afford to lose.

Do you have any art tutorials?

I don’t make them frequently, but I do have a few scattered across my Youtube and Tiktok and my Tumblr tutorial tag.

How do you get popular on social media? How do you build an audience for your work?

Sadly there is no simple answer for this. It takes a lot of consistent work and activity, a certain amount of skill, an amount of appeal in your work (and appeal does not necessarily mean making it generic/cute), and a LOT of luck. I’m always surprised when my work takes off anew. I’m never expecting it — I just do what I always do and sometimes the stars align and it zooms off into the stratosphere. You cannot control your own popularity and it is unhealthy to try.

That being said, whatever you do, make sure it’s genuine. Draw things you like and draw consistently and other people who like the same things that you like will find you. Make friends around your skill level and help and encourage each other. Be genuine. Let yourself make the things you like, no matter how niche.

How do you make a webcomic?

I have a video about that right here!

Do you have any tips for putting together an artist portfolio for work or school?

I am not the best person to ask about this, as I stopped accepting most client work after 2016 and have not made a portfolio in literal years. But regardless, here is my advice:

Remember that your portfolio is going to continually change. Put in your strongest work and not work that brings down the quality of the portfolio. Don’t try to create a bunch of new work just to fill your portfolio, chances are you’ll end up with too little time and too much stress. You’ll be better off with work you’ve done before.

Don’t make apologies and do your best to present your work in a clean and efficient way. Some people like using tablets to show their work, I’d say only do that if the gallery or however you’re viewing it is really high quality, easy to navigate, etc. If you’re going for print, get good quality prints, consider formatting, etc.

Keep in mind that everyone looking at your portfolio is looking for something different. Some people won’t like your work, some people will. You won’t be suited for everything, it’s okay. At the end of the day all you can do is make a portfolio that reflects your work as best as possible and hope your work shows through.

How do you fill your shapes quickly in Photoshop?

I made an autofill action script!

How do I find work as a professional artist?

This is not my area of expertise; I have not taken on client work for a few years now. I highly recommend reading through the Dear Art Director and following the social media of artists who are currently working in the field you want to work in — and not just the ones with huge followings. Find the smaller creators who are still making a living doing what you want to do; they will frequently share advice and resources.

And make sure you make your art and contact information easy to find. A lot of people looking to hire artists are looking at social media. The more clicks they have to do to find your work/info, the more likely they are to give up and move on.

How do you make a portfolio or webcomic site?

Again, this is not my area of expertise, please try YouTube!

Where should I sell my work online?

That’s entirely up to you! There are a lot of options (Etsy, Woocommerce, Shopify, Squarespace, BigCartel, Storenvy, etc.) and each has its pros and cons. There are a TON of videos on YouTube about this, but it all comes down to knowing what YOU need.

Short answer, if you are a small artist without your own customer base to drive sales, you will want a site that has a marketplace (like Etsy or Storenvy) to help customers find you. These will offer less customization and will come with more fees, but you are paying for access to a large, existing customer space.

If you already have your own customer base then the world is your oyster!

What merchendise would you recommend for someone just beginning to sell their work online?

Start small. I started out doing prints, buttons, bookmarks, my books, and commissions. Merchandise is a lot of work and requires a lot of money to make. The artists you look up to with a fully stocked store have been doing this long enough to build up inventory and funds to buy that inventory. They’ve been doing this for years, don’t compare yourself to them.

A lot of small artists want to start out with enamel pins because they are cute and small and popular and seem easy. I would not recommend this. A reputable, good quality enamel pin seller will usually require a 100 MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity). That means that at minimum you will need to order 100 pins per design. Selling 100 units of something you yourself designed, from your own store, is not a thing everyone can do and it is easy to lose money if you start with items with a considerable MOQ like this.

Where do you get your art prints printed?

CatPrint

Can I cosplay something you’ve drawn?

Yes, totally! And if you do, I’d love to see it!

How do you find your art style?

An art style is nothing more than problem solving! It will naturally evolve as you encounter problems in your work and figure out how you want to handle them.

My art style is constantly evolving based on what I am working on — my Monster Pop! work does not look anything like my Spitfire work, and so on, but it is all mine and it is all my problem solving, so people will always see some sort of common thread when looking at my work even if I don’t see it.

How do I get in contact with you/another artist I admire?

If you approach working professionals/people you admire for help, demonstrate off the bat that you are familiar with them/their work and keep your email/message brief and be polite. Well-known/popular artists get a lot of emails/messages from all sorts of people, and most frequently from people who just see a follower count or a popular post or something and cold email them without any care or specificity to them as a creator. These sorts of emails usually get dismissed out of hand. 

If you are looking to someone for help, be sure there is something specific about them that resonates with you that’s more than just “I see you are popular or successful and I also want that.” No one really likes getting those emails/messages because it feels like they could go to anyone as long as they had a high enough follower count or worked at X company. Instead, look at their work or accomplishments and go “this aspect of this person’s work speaks to me, they work this job that interests me, I want to learn, etc.”

SPECIFICITY IS KEY. General questions are very hard to answer without investing a significant portion of time that most of us do not have to give.

AND AGAIN: KEEP IT BRIEF. it’s really tempting to want to perfectly explain yourself/your situation, but you are a stranger and most people working in art are pretty busy, and you are not the only person sending them this kind of inquiry.