Letting Your Art Market Itself
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Hey all! 👋
Last week, I relaunched Teknakolor and had a nice rush of sales! First off, I want to thank all my new and repeat customers who dropped by for the warm support and buying merch from me once again for the relaunch. The platform and store will continually be updated from here on out with a catalog of brand new products to choose from. Such as a new holiday Thiccabelle set this week!
As I grow older, it becomes rather clear to me that time is always a major indicator of revealing the truth amidst a world full of lies and liars. And that I have to really not worry about much beyond that as a creator simply on a path to become among the best artists that ever lived. Which is really no different loftier goal than some of everyone’s favorite fictional characters.
Ash Ketchum wanted to be the greatest Pokémon trainer. Naruto Uzumaki wanted to be the ultimate Hokage. Goku wanted to continually train and become the strongest warrior alive. And we all loved them for it. Unfortunately however, in real life, those kinds of goals are seen as foolish and attract hatred just like the opposition said protagonists faced in their own stories. Oh well, it’s not like naysayers and haters can do anything about it. Especially since your work will simply market itself, which is what today’s blogpost is about!
Clean Art Will Do All The Dirty Work For You
Exhibit A: Art isn’t meant to be an exhaustive source of content like it’s popularly portrayed to be and used as on social media. True art will always stand the test of time.
In order for your art to even be in the position of being marketable, it has to be bulletproof (like I’ve shared before here). It has to be technically sound, visually attractive, and include something desirable. The aim should be to get people to want to see and view more of it so badly, that some lash out at you for taking it away like little gremlins. Once you have consistent proof in your results of those traits, then it’s time to let it work for you.
Earlier this week, I was notified of older official artwork of Chun-Li I’ve done for Udon (that I allegedly “didn’t deliver” on, according to what the company CEO once told me during a private tantrum he threw out of nowhere over the pandemic) being reposted by a fandom account on X. Now, what’s perfect about this example is that I haven’t been on Twitt— I mean, X since early 2022 and haven’t done a single thing for Udon since 2020. And since then, my pen name has reverberated through the digital aether like the traces of an apparition going “woooooooohhhhhh…” 👻
Haunting people is pretty fun, ngl.
Exhibit B: Getting over 50 thousand likes and half a million views off of old art without even being on there doesn’t even feel fair to other artists…
When people genuinely love your artwork, there’s no force on this planet that can stop them from doing so. In both of the reposts in Exhibit B above, the amount of engagement it received is reminiscent of the time when I was once on (Twitter) sharing the art myself. That’s the power of having art that can’t be ignored. It has to be built from the ground up and takes a substantial amount of time and effort to do so, though.
As I always state: when I started off, I wasn’t that good at all. Yes, I was better than my peers at school and was popular for being “the artist” (I won “Most Artistic” in my senior year without trying and dropped out after, lol), but when I went online, I had my work cut out for me. There were so many frighteningly-good artists. However, I knew exactly what I wanted to accomplish: getting my name out there, working with Capcom, Atlus, and other companies, alongside my idols like Adam Warren on Empowered, tagging up with culture giants like Aaron McGruder on Boondocks, etc. But in order to do so, my own art had to be rock-solid.
Remember that most people won’t bother to do what is necessary for their own dreams, so by that logic alone, when you are working painstakingly hard and getting betrayed left and right by some you’ve placed trust in, rest assured, it will pay off. And the very art you have fine-tuned will be the omnipotent result.
Exhibit C: By the way, I got my money from the people who actually love my official art I delivered after I politely begged the company who refused to pay and treat me fairly. Exactly like I said I would.
I don’t ever ask for much from anyone. Only simple, easy things I give others off the bat: Respect, kindness, honor, and honesty. Nothing crazy. But when your own original art (like Xarope’s booty) is worth more than whatever those (you tried to get on board with you deluded themselves into) using or doing with it, you gotta leave them where they want to stay at.
As a Clean Dude, I Love Dirty Talk
When you’re in heat of the moment of giving backshots and that thick-assed naked, long-haired señorita starts murmuring the dirtiest words about you and how you’re doing the job between her moans and shouts, it can be one of the most invigorating feelings a man can experience. Like, “chill babe, you’re gonna make me nnnnuuu—”
…real ones know what I’m talking about. 😏
Similarly, I’ve found much joy in working my ass off behind the scenes and letting some talk shit on the internet because really, my work is done so well to them, they can’t shut up about me. When you’re putting in dat werk, there will be people who can’t do for themselves what you do for yourself that’ll constantly talk negatively or say dirty things and/or lie about you. Like clamoring I “scam or steal” from people. Mannnn, only things I’ve ever truly stolen were girly mags from Walgreens as a teenager and disloyal women from mediocre men.
This is law. It can’t be avoided. Which is why you have to embrace it.
Exhibit D: Here we have mentally ill souls projecting themselves on X about being ashamed they’re such a bunch of b*tches and pretending they know what goes on behind the scenes with me. If I didn’t own up to any of my mistakes, then they wouldn’t have solid, good art to look at. I lost count how many mistakes I’ve made that I learned from in my work. Shoutout to my homie with the Sonic avatar laughing at these folks though, lmao.
Always remember that naysayers and haters are the minority. It’ll be the same 20 losers amidst 50,000+ who don’t care like that. Most people will just be like “wow, that’s really good” and either move on or look your work up and support you directly. Especially considering (Twitter) has a reputation now for a bunch of nobodies to gather and talk shit about people who are accomplishing something all day long every single day, it should never be taken seriously anyway. It’s just not a real place, but your art can work for you on it. And at least they’ll still admit how good the art is, and that’s the lesson here: Marketability. Setting yourself apart from that as a professional artist will make the hive mind upset. Most creators worth their salt are scared to face backlash for setting boundaries, which is why they stay on there freely giving to them; keeping themselves in a perpetual cycle of misery and fear.
I know deep down everyone wants to fulfill their own dreams, but also that not everyone is as courageous to do what’s necessary to achieve it. Again, getting talked negatively about is necessary. But it’s incredibly worth it as I receive so many positive hits on my sites from all over the world daily by people who are interested in whatever I have to offer.
There's no such thing as bad or good publicity. It's just publicity.
Welp, that’s it for this week’s blogpost. Once again, thank you to all who support my work. I truly can’t do this without any of you. It’s a cold, harsh world out here. Especially this holiday season, so I hope and pray that everyone is safe and well! 🙏
Exhibit E: They really wanna do business with an artist like moi.
Stay posted here for more news on the Syrup Mixbook and other stuff! There are only 2 Hardcover copies left to grab for preorder as of writing this. By the way, I recently measured my progress accurately on the book’s content and it’s 78% finished now! Surprised myself that I’m further along than I initially estimated. I also contacted my printer and they’ll be ready to print hardcover copies (which is the most difficult variant to have printed) around Spring next year so that’s my personal deadline. I’ll have some interior previews to show on my next blogpost.
Now back to work for me as I put Tyler’s “Thought I Was Dead” on repeat.
Toodles!✨
