Protecting Yourself as an Independent Artist
…And Dealing With “Nice Guys” On The Internet
Reading Time: 10 Mins.
From a boy, then a man, between always having been in tune with the opposite gender via various friendships and relationships, and female anatomy, throughout my entire real life (not just on the internet)— I’ve always had an underlying mutual understanding with the various dilemmas and experiences they go through regarding having something others (mostly horny men) covet. And as a professional artist who illustrates imagery out of my love and appreciation for the feminine form (that mostly horny men covet), it’s a rather thin contrast to how people can mistreat you off the basis of offering “visual beauty” to others. In either scenarios, if you tell people “no, you can’t have this”, it can open up room for mistreatment, narcissism, lies, slander, and shunning just for existing. Not to make light of greater ordeals such as violence against women (which I don't agree with nor tolerate), it's just the nature of how some people can behave.
So, for any artist who dares attempt getting objectively attractive in their craft and having integrity and honesty in their work, you have to protect yourself from such individuals. Because when your work is honest and objectively good, some have to come up with lies and deceit to paint you as someone you’re not. Thankfully, I never had to lie about my art work, process, or results in my entire 20-year independent career, let alone the near 40 years I’ve been on this planet regarding art (because why lie about drawing?), so I feel I’m pretty qualified to speak on this topic. With that said, I’ve devised a small list of rules I myself follow, that I learned from my own experience, to protect yourself in the very “nice guy”-like, exploitative, and manipulative art industry and community.
Your Art Must Be Bulletproof
If you are any bit as serious as I am when it comes to creating subjective masterpieces from a blank sheet of paper and making profit off of it, then you should automatically know that anyone encroaching in that space is just, bad vibes, man. I get the ick whenever I come across someone who searches my own personal private Facebook page to send me a DM about how much they are a fan and want to be like me in an obsessive manner, much to my acknowledgement nearly a decade later. Because, y’know, I’ve always been too busy minding my business and keeping my head to my desk making stuff and improving my craft over trying to slide in other artists’ DMs…
Exhibit A:
This individual hunted me down and sent this to me years ago via Messenger (which I never had installed). It’s normal for me to miss DMs everywhere, which is another reason I stopped making social media accounts, as I’ll go in a bit more detail below. Many creatives spend a lot of their time doomscrolling and yapping on their socials, and vain attempts to “network” with people who are actually, legitimately serious instead of working on their craft, so they assume I do the same, I suppose.
Exhibit B:
These days, that same individual constantly brings me up on their X feed because I once called them out for 1:1 tracing elements of my work like 4 years ago. They are quite obsessed and I feel like a girl who didn’t give a “nice guy” attention. I guess being an exhibit on a blogpost talking about “people to avoid” was the legacy they wanted as a creative. (shrug) Hey, at least I sold a ton of merch with the “creature on the left”, and that’s all that matters to me.
Now, no matter if I willfully ignored people or by common mere accident, the utter lack of attention can drive “nice guys” to do anything. But it won’t matter, because there are still genuine people who understand boundaries that will continue to love and purchase the art I produce from the sweat of my brow. No matter how much “nice guys” cry on X or whatever new and dying social platform they flock to and talk about me and spread lies and misinformation to people, they will struggle in mediocrity while I continue to provide the same level of expertise, integrity, prolificness, and creativity that I’ve always had in my work to those who value me while I’m alive, and not pretend they always did after I’m dead.
I never chase clout, clout chases me. And that’s because my art is bulletproof. It’s not perfect; no work of art is, not even the Mona Lisa. But it’s good enough to attract exactly what I need in order to live off of it independently.
Understand & Accept the Art Industry is Manipulative
One cannot be naive going into any creative industry. No matter what, this is the hierarchy that exists: There are tons of people who can’t create who need the few people who can create. It’s been like this since the dawn of time. Even when said “people who can’t create” like to butter up and shower with praise and cheap financial offers, what one provides is still worth more than whatever they can do. Because what does an artist, especially an independent one, need from someone who can't draw or paint? They can simply draw and paint anything themselves. Hell, I would pay premium money to a skilled drummer to use pots and pans to play at an event because I understand intrinsically as a creator that a talentless hack prolly couldn't even cook with them.
Never sign contracts unless it benefits you as an artist the most. From personal experience, during my decade-long tenure working alongside Udon Entertainment, I never signed a single contract. (No need to post any exhibits related to that because many fans still do it for me amidst their lousy cover redos and clones off my work and it should be obvious how much art I delivered to anyone with an operable brain.) Good for me, because then I would’ve never been able to publicly voice my opinion about shoddy working agreements and treatment of artists in terms of crediting, pay, etcetera. Just like in art, criticism in business matters. Otherwise, there would be no room for change for the collective. I care not about how people view me or the clout artists chase drawing characters I can still draw myself with no issue, I just want to be paid for what I can produce, like any sound and reasonable profession. If I don’t get paid properly, or there’s no real benefit provided to me, there’s no reason to continue putting up energy. Time is not only money, but the single-most currency of life itself. I value mine.
Let People Be People
I love people. I really do. Even with all their mistakes, errors, imperfections, insecurities, and caveats. I mean, I’m only human myself. I make mistakes, I’m prone to error, I and my work is imperfect, I definitely had my fair share of insecurities, and there’s caveats to being me. But I also love myself. I’m going to do what I’m going to do: me.
Therefore, I must let people behave as what they are: People.
No one knows the full picture about anyone, even if they state they do or come off like they know. Everyone meets other people at different stages in lives and everyone is a work-in-progress until they’re not working or progressing anymore. Great and honest intentions can be mired by poor events and circumstances. Such is life. Therefore, there’s no point controlling how people view others. And in my case, most of the people who talk about me online speak as if they personally met me. I’ll never understand how because I haven’t attended an art or comic convention since 2019, nor do I bother anyone online. Everyone always seeks me out and come up with the most random fables about me.
Exhibit C: This is the general amount of average visitors my site receives yearly. And I don’t have to do much but simply mind my business and draw. So, as anyone can clearly tell: I’m pretty legit and everything I claim I am. I simply let people do what they do off the proof and information. Individual in Ex. A&B is currently complaining on X about their followers being stuck at less than half that. Accept people will have their priorities.
Social media is problematic in a uniquely particular way where (as in the above example in Ex. A & B), people you have no clue existed can get in their feelings and write all kinds of crazy things about you. Which is why it’s a protection to keep to myself, especially as I’ve gained recognition off my artwork and notoriety off of my few failures. You don’t want to get involved with people you never had any business dealing with in the first place, because as I stated: no one knows the full picture about anyone.
Exhibit D: Stats from my last newsletter updating those involved with the production of my upcoming Syrup mixbook. I let people open or click on their own. If they forget or don’t keep up, it is what it is. I don’t twist arms and hold up anyone at gunpoint.
For example, a common criticism people have with the way I move is that they claim I never update or make efforts to update people. I always have, my entire career. Just this last newsletter I’ve sent out, my platform literally shows me who opened the email and who didn’t. And as you can see in Ex. D, not everyone opens their emails. People will often try to make me the guilty one for not taking accountability themselves. I accept that this is what people do. At first, it used to annoy me greatly, but now, I love them for it, because it’s quantifiable proof that things are not always “my fault” as the popular claim goes.
So, everyone knows what people as a whole are capable of. Just look at the art community today: they’re all being super toxic towards each other, especially now that generative AI has jumped in the picture. Artists mad at Pewdiepie because he spent time actually studying/drawing and they didn’t, lol. So, expect what people will do and trust accordingly.
Be Thankful
I’m always thankful towards those who genuinely support my work and have stuck with me all along. Because, I understand that you can’t be completely independent. But I feel this rule can easily get bent out of shape.
Sometimes, when one provides a lot of value, there are some who want to pretend as if they’ve “made them”. So when one doesn’t express the implied gratitude they want to receive, they’ll call you egotistical, or arrogant, or gaslight you by labeling you as something you’re not. But to me, it really is as simple as I don’t have to thank anyone who didn’t do anything for me. I wasn’t always good at making art, I had to genuinely work for it. Even when I thought my shit was hot when I was objectively bad, it’s always been a battle against myself and no one else. I told myself every single day to get up and sit at that desk and study and draw thousands of pictures over time. All amidst a bunch of nonsense I didn’t sign up for and was betrayed by many throughout my course to get to where I’m at now. But that’s what I’m thankful for: those experiences. For they molded and sharpened me into being a better person than when I started 20 years ago.
And most of all, I’m thankful for ME. There’s no one else I can credit my creativity to really but myself.
Exhibit E: 1 hr. self-portrait sketch time lapse off the top from earlier this year. At the end of the day, this is who I am and what I’ll always be capable of doing.
And that’s pretty much my MO. I do know regardless of what I write here, it doesn’t matter to me in the long run. I draw stuff, people like the stuff I draw, rinse and repeat. But these are main rules I abide by to protect myself and my artwork. I understand not everyone is built like me and can move solo and not rely on their own willpower, which is fine.
But for those who can, you know what it’s all about.👁️
