- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
The furry fandom has one very unique thing that makes it very attractive to artists looking for business: it disproportionately encourages the creation of original characters.
In other fandoms you usually see a lot of fanart of existing characters, and most people aren't willing to pay for fanart when most artists are willing to provide it for free. The ones willing to pay are usually the hardcore fans, and by definition they're a tiny minority of the fandom in general. Sometimes you have more enterprising fans creating their own fan characters, but between many of those fans already knowing how to draw to some level, or getting fanart of their own characters done for free by fandom artists, there's not a lot of space for someone looking to make money.
In the furry fandom and adjacent fandoms (bronies, etc), having your own "fursona" or a whole stable of characters is almost mandatory. Having them drawn, even in scribble form by a Russian kid who can barely speak English and charges $5 for anything, no matter how weird or depraved, is only slightly less mandatory. So every Tom, Dick and Harry there will be commissioning an artist at some point, likely multiple times a year. So even if the fandom itself isn't the largest out there, the demand for art is absurd for its size.
Plus, it's "culturally" (if you can call it culture) a very welcoming place to artists that would often be decried as "mercenaries" in other fandoms. With how SJW-heavy furries are, it's a wonder they're so willing to chuck money out for ephemeral goods like pixels on a screen. All that adds up to many artists looking at furries like moneycows as well as lolcows.
The only fandom that has an equal emphasis on original characters is the RPG fandom. Problem is, those tend to ask for a lot more SFW pieces... and the standards for, say, D&D art, even on a basic level, are higher than your average furry smut. The average furry will only look at the tits or dick, the rest be damned. Not to much when the piece is a reference for Lolegolas, 5th Level fully-dressed and equipped Elf Ranger.
