>>103371525You can basically divide artists into two broad categories:
Fandom artists will primarily draw for a specific fandom of which they are a part and remain dedicated to that fandom for years, churning out art of the same few characters in various poses, outfits and situations, often exchanging artwork or collaborating with those who they share fan spaces with.
And trend artists. They will follow the bandwagon from trending thing to trending thing, never staying with one franchise or fandom for more than a few months. Their goal is engagement and fanbox money, which is essentially their livelihood. You will see a clear backwards lineage depending on how long they've been an illustrator that will probably start in Touhou or some classic 90s/early 2000s comiket darling and proceed through popular seasonal anime, kancolle, im@s, azurlane, FGO, genshin and the whole chinese gacha extended universe, horsegirls, vtubers, blue archive and now sliding back to horsegirls again. They follow the trends because that's what makes money and for a lot of artists you don't get this good and stay at illustration without some financial incentive. The proliferation of paywall services and the ongoing fundamentalist crusade against nsfw internet content has basically made it the norm to paywall your content and chase trends for dollars. Currently Blue Archive holds the mandate of heaven but it's only a matter of time before the next big thing eclipses it and content shifts over to whatever that is
