>>53904983This is a thought process I see a from a lot of people, but let me propose an argument to it since I've personally escaped this type of thinking and come out the better for it.
>to make as much as a literal McDonalds burger flipper you need to sell 300 $100 dollar commissions a year or the equivalent.Your calculation is correct, to get anywhere near minimum wage with your commissions it's definitely going to take a lot. Even more so if you're in the first world.
The most practical argument against this is (unfortunately) skill issue. If doing $100 commissions is going to take you forever to "pay off" then all you have to do is make your art worth more than $100. It's not exactly out of the question either, people will absolutely drop $200-300 if they think your art is worth it. And if your bottleneck is quantity then developing a quicker, more streamlined work process is also a skill issue.
You get what you put in when running a business. If you're not willing to get better and be competitive then why do you expect to get monetary compensation above minimum wage?
>I draw for fun. When you have customers, time pressure, complaints etc it’s a lot less funThis one is needs a bit more self introspection I think. Think about it like this; if this is your hobby and you're guaranteed to spend a lot of time doing it in the future anyway, why not get money for it? That's the practical argument for getting commissions.
Now for the fun aspect, you have to think about why you do this activity. Is the act of doing itself what's fun about it? Or is it the feeling of realization that you've improved after every session? Or is it the feeling of having created a product? The answer isn't actually going to be a specific one of those but a combination of them.
Even skilled artists have parts of the drawing process that they most likely dislike, there are a ton of monotonous and challenging steps in the process, so if you're basing your fun on solely the act of drawing then personally I think you're delusional. Now we can wonder why would you go through the tough parts if it's not fun. Well why do you choose this activity over other things like playing video games if all you look for is the "fun in doing"? Probably because we love drawing. Then isn't it exactly what love is to weather the tough times and take it with the good?
If you base your fun on improving then isn't it a better feeling knowing that you can create something in a specified parameter defined by someone else in a timely manner, meaning you have to be disciplined enough to live up to the standards? (Doing requests in drawthreads is already what this is about anyway)
If you base your fun on the final product, is it not a better feeling knowing that it's not just you that appreciate the final product, but someone else too? And not just in a "your friend saying 'yeah it looks good" to you in a polite manner either, you have literal, monetary proof that they appreciate your skills.
After my initial apprehension of trying to make money out of this hobby, these are just my personal thoughts that I end up with. Not every commission have turned out well, but I try and learn from every one just as I would from personal art and studies. Plus, I get paid which means I can work less hours in my "real" job and get to use that time to do more studies to improve more in my drawing.
If your line of thought is that you don't necessarily want to take it seriously and hold yourself to a standard of constant improvement, that's fair. But then why not choose other activities that gives you an easier, more instant dopamine hit like vidya or jacking off?
If it's because you think you're not "ready" for it, when will you be? Are any of us ever ready to face any trials of life? The only way to tell is to throw yourself into the fire and see what comes out. Even if you fail and your first series of commissions are a major failure so what? You're not dead, it does not take away your ability to apologize to your clients and try again.
Personally I think all artists and any other students of discipline should want to hold themselves to a higher standard of constant improvement. What's the worst that could happen? You get better at your skills AND get paid for it?
