Hi! I still feel pretty new here so forgive me if I've posted in the wrong place or seem stupid OTL

Recently I've been wanting to draw NSFW art more often than I have been, but I'm not sure what sort of projects I should be focusing on in my spare time between commissions. So to help me make a decision, I want to ask what's more important in terms of NSFW art; knowing and getting attached to the character you're looking at, or the specific action or kink they're performing?

Is it more important to have characteristic dialogue between characters in the piece? Or have them silent to make more room for kinky close ups and details? Would you rather have a bunch of introduction to set up the characters and setting in a comic/animation, or go straight to doing the dirty? Are there examples of a perfect middle between the two?

Thank you for any opinions in advance!

Most of this is a matter of preference, and the same person might have different preferences in different circumstances. This thread is like a thread asking "which is better, chocolate ice cream or vanilla?"

I mean, you'll get answers but they won't mean very much.

Instead, I have a suggestion for you. If you want to improve as an artist, what you ought to do is to vary what you're doing. Each thing you mentioned is distinct in some way that practicing that thing would lead to improvement, up to a point, where after that point it would be better to change up your subjects or style to keep improving.

So the question you should be asking is, what do you want to start out drawing? What is it that you like with respect to NSFW art?

Clawdragons said:
Most of this is a matter of preference, and the same person might have different preferences in different circumstances. This thread is like a thread asking "which is better, chocolate ice cream or vanilla?"

I mean, you'll get answers but they won't mean very much.

Ah, thank you. Yeah, I expected the answers to be a matter of preference, but I wanted to see what a person's opinion was and why. To hear someone say "I like this one comic because it does this and this," helps me get ideas and techniques I can apply to my own work. If someone tells me they like chocolate ice cream but only with sprinkles, that lets me know that maybe I should try adding sprinkles to my own ice cream to change it and give it a quirk, if that makes any sense.

Clawdragons said:
So the question you should be asking is, what do you want to start out drawing? What is it that you like with respect to NSFW art?

I think what I'm struggling the most with is that... I have no idea, really. I feel like I want to do everything; animation, comics, stories, all of it-- but then I often get stuck there. Whenever I start a project it feels like after a while I've bitten off more than I can chew, and I also struggle with the audience and traffic portion of showing off my art/commissions, which... I know I shouldn't worry about, but I do, since I can't really work and I wanna make freelancing my thing. I'd love to do animated scenes like tabuley or diives, or comics that expand my own characters, but I feel like I'm just not there yet in terms of skill or time. I'm not sure if I should work on a giant project for myself, keep making more YCH animations, or keep pumping out small stuff like drawings or doodles and mini-comics. I want to make art people enjoy seeing that I love making, but I love all of it, and I have no idea what people would want to see from me at this point. So, I guess that was my purpose of the question too.

Sorry for the wall of text, I feel like I rambled LOL... thank you for your answer.

Personally while YCH are... fine, and fairly profitable, I wouldn't rely on them, particularly when more starting out.

Starting a big project when you're not super comfortable with a medium probably isn't a good idea. For animation, for comics, for other stuff, there's a lot that you have to learn that you don't need to learn for regular art.

If you want to learn animations, start with small loops. Work on improving with those before creating longer sequences - if your fundamentals aren't solid and you try to do too big of a project right off the bat, that's a recipe for failure. Likewise, if you want to learn comics, do single-page comics, then work up to multi-page comics.

At some point what you've got to do is just pick something and go with it. It sounds like you have choice paralysis right now - you've given yourself too many choices and are having trouble narrowing them down. So here's what I do when that happens:

Pull out a coin. Make a list of possibilities. You listed a few things, so let's use those. Flip the coin twice. Feel free to adjust the possible results as you see fit.

Heads = H, Tails = T

HH: Begin learning to animate
HT: Continue practicing with standard art
TH: Start working on stories
TT: Begin learning to make comics

Once the coin has made a decision for you, stick with it for a while as your main focus.

The coin commands and we obey.

nasty-pink said:
Hi! I still feel pretty new here so forgive me if I've posted in the wrong place or seem stupid OTL

Recently I've been wanting to draw NSFW art more often than I have been, but I'm not sure what sort of projects I should be focusing on in my spare time between commissions. So to help me make a decision, I want to ask what's more important in terms of NSFW art; knowing and getting attached to the character you're looking at, or the specific action or kink they're performing?

Is it more important to have characteristic dialogue between characters in the piece? Or have them silent to make more room for kinky close ups and details? Would you rather have a bunch of introduction to set up the characters and setting in a comic/animation, or go straight to doing the dirty? Are there examples of a perfect middle between the two?

Thank you for any opinions in advance!

Well, I think what you should think first is if doing NSFW art will be worth doing because if you're a full-time artist, not a hobbyist, it will be really bad for you if the company you're working for probably will discover your work and it will be bad for your reputation. I have seen some artists that started doing NSFW art, then got unemployed because their employer discovered their content.

So first thing first, make sure that your NSFW content be as far as you can get to your personal account, also avoid posting them or donwload them into the computer's or through network's company (if you work on a big company, they can track your internet's browser and download history through their servers). Avoid doing art while close to people you don't know, etc, etc. If you also work on an intertainment company, make sure your drawings be as different from your style as possible so people don't find your NSFW art and compare to your work.

But if you're still sure to do NSFW, so I think what you should do is "make as hot as possible".

I know it's silly but if you think about it, that's the core. You actually don't need to think much of the character because people do a lot of character modification with the vanilla character but the fans still likes it because it's hot.

Male Renamon, dominant Guilmon, anthro Stitch, Jack Savage & Nick Wilde ship, it doesn't matter. Make it as pleasurable to the eyes as possible.

Also another thing to get more bank to the buck, is doing tests. What kind of tests? Market research.

Yeah again it's silly but it works. You need to look what people are liking the most by looking what that artist that's making a lot of profit is doing differently than the other, if is the theme, characters posing, art quality, style, etc, and see what people are looking for the most, if it's gay content, straight, etc.

You also should do "tasting sessions" like do your arts and see your watcher's reaction if you got a lot of watchers, likes, comments, by posting that kind of ark with that kind of kink.

So yeah I think it's more like "testing the waves" because we can say what we most like but just because we like these doesn't mean EVERYONE likes the same. For example, I could say that I like to see gay sex between two hot men, assuming that everybody likes the same, but if you research you would probably discover that what people likes the most is vore. With carnivore plants. :/ just a silly example. Don't think about it too much

Anyway, just saying that don't rely on that too, neither what people like the most. Just practices and test how people reacts. It also don't matter the kind of content you decide to make. Being illustration, animation, comic, story, etc. This only rely on your hability than your content except if you try to put a lot of kinks in a same content, like Servant of the Serpent; retain on doing that.

After all that, I hope I helped in some way with my opinion. Wish you luck ;3

Clawdragons said:
Personally while YCH are... fine, and fairly profitable, I wouldn't rely on them, particularly when more starting out.

Ah, alright, thank you. Those have been the only thing that have really worked for me so far. I guess that's another thing to add on as to why I'm so lost with my work, LOL

Clawdragons said:
At some point what you've got to do is just pick something and go with it. It sounds like you have choice paralysis right now - you've given yourself too many choices and are having trouble narrowing them down. So here's what I do when that happens:

Pull out a coin. Make a list of possibilities. You listed a few things, so let's use those. Flip the coin twice. Feel free to adjust the possible results as you see fit.

The coin thing is a great idea, I never thought of that. I agree that I have choice paralysis, it's something that often happens when it comes to personal projects. I have a bad habit of putting something down when I feel like I'm not getting the results I want. Thank you very much..... I will put my decision in the coins hands.

Henlein_TheKobold said:
Well, I think what you should think first is if doing NSFW art will be worth doing because if you're a full-time artist, not a hobbyist, it will be really bad for you if the company you're working for probably will discover your work and it will be bad for your reputation. I have seen some artists that started doing NSFW art, then got unemployed because their employer discovered their content.

Luckily, (or... unluckily?) I haven't really been in a position to work for a company yet. I have two accounts for almost everything, Nasty-Pink being the NSFW side, and Cutie-Pink for my normal. I also only really post to sites that are geared for NSFW-- I even made a NSFW twitter, but I haven't used it in fear of that particular reason. I'm not ashamed of doing NSFW, I just don't want it to be found unless it's searched for.

Henlein_TheKobold said:
But if you're still sure to do NSFW, so I think what you should do is "make as hot as possible".

I know it's silly but if you think about it, that's the core. You actually don't need to think much of the character because people do a lot of character modification with the vanilla character but the fans still likes it because it's hot.

This is what I was wondering when I first posted the question. What I DO know is that I like drawing my own characters, and creating something of my own that people will really coo over. I feel like there's a big difference between seeing a character in a hot situation, and seeing a character you know the personality of in a hot situation. I suppose that may also be my downfall in a way, though, since I don't do much fanart-- I'm sure a lot more people look for a Lucario over a pink furry being of chaos with a big ass they know nothing about. That's why I was wondering if I could hit a happy medium, somehow.

Henlein_TheKobold said:
Also another thing to get more bank to the buck, is doing tests. What kind of tests? Market research.

Yeah again it's silly but it works. You need to look what people are liking the most by looking what that artist that's making a lot of profit is doing differently than the other, if is the theme, characters posing, art quality, style, etc, and see what people are looking for the most, if it's gay content, straight, etc.

I... never thought of this. I don't know why I've never thought of this. LOL. I'm probably going to do that right away, at least to get an idea of what to work towards. Thank you, all this advice helps a lot. I feel a bit more encouraged about doing art now.

nasty-pink said:
Luckily, (or... unluckily?) I haven't really been in a position to work for a company yet. I have two accounts for almost everything, Nasty-Pink being the NSFW side, and Cutie-Pink for my normal. I also only really post to sites that are geared for NSFW-- I even made a NSFW twitter, but I haven't used it in fear of that particular reason. I'm not ashamed of doing NSFW, I just don't want it to be found unless it's searched for.

Yeah exactly. I'm emphasizing this because it happened to an artist I started to follow recently, he was an japanese dude that started doing art in FA. But then he posted a journal saying that that his employers found out his NSFW and said that he would be absent for a while. He did come back saying he made an another account but he never posted something ever since.

There were also an another artist that I met in a furry forum that I founded some NSFW art made by an another account that has the exactly same artstyle as his so I asked him if he has inspired through him. But then he explained to me that it was his NSFW account that he does only for profit and he asked me to not tell to anyone because he's ashame of that (he does vore art and others things).

And before all that I was asking myself the same if I should some NSFW arts too, but what I feared was exactly what happened to them, at the same time that I wanted to work with art. And I decided to not do NSFW art because I wanted to be an artist to make stories, more than make NSFW. That's why I asked if that's what you want to do

nasty-pink said:
This is what I was wondering when I first posted the question. What I DO know is that I like drawing my own characters, and creating something of my own that people will really coo over. I feel like there's a big difference between seeing a character in a hot situation, and seeing a character you know the personality of in a hot situation. I suppose that may also be my downfall in a way, though, since I don't do much fanart-- I'm sure a lot more people look for a Lucario over a pink furry being of chaos with a big ass they know nothing about. That's why I was wondering if I could hit a happy medium, somehow.

Well doing your own characters it's fine too but the problem is exactly what you said: characters that is not well-known. It's not well-known because the viewer don't know nothing about them. And writing a background on the description won't help enough. But for that, there's a solution: show his story to the viewer.

What I mean by that? Instead of making a solo character that's doing nothing but posing, being naked or not, make him interact with something or someone within a theme, being just a solo image to multiple images.

Like instead of doing this:
post #1184587
post #1184578

Do this:
post #1057281
post #1064095
post #1394754
post #1537027

And all this was made by the same artist.

nasty-pink said:
I... never thought of this. I don't know why I've never thought of this. LOL. I'm probably going to do that right away, at least to get an idea of what to work towards. Thank you, all this advice helps a lot. I feel a bit more encouraged about doing art now.

Why thank you. No welcome. ^^

These tips is what you learn in any Character Design course. Maybe you should do one, just to juice out all these advices.

I can get into the stuff that gets right into it or has a bunch of story (the first Sheath and Knife or No Harm No Foul comes to mind).

What is off putting to me is when it flops from one to another. Someone making a porno suddenly wants to make a story.

In a broad sense, sadly just getting into the down and dirty will get you more attention initially, if that is your goal early on :P