Board Thread:Animal Jam Talk/@comment-35550844-20180828221008/@comment-34945646-20180921135253

Controversial opinion about Art, Trading and In Game Art commissions for Items.

People think wrists for art [more specifically, if you're trading wrists to the artist who made the art] is SUPER DUPER unfair. As an artist myself, I put TONS of effort and care into my art, making sure there isn't any mistakes and the colors are both proper and the right color for shading etc etc. [TIP: SHADE WITH DIFFERENT COLORS! NOT B/W OR DARKER COLORS OF THE COLOR YOU'RE USING! it makes it super vibrant and doesn't make it look all grey and gloomy!]

and it can take days and even WEEKS to finish these. [I will take 5+ hours out of my day to finish 1 piece, which is almost a full school day's of work and sometimes I need to take more than 4 days to finish a piece] I've had to resort to saying my art is limited to 5 copies per piece, because people complain about how I dont accept wrists, short collars, etc. for my art. Now, the 10-25 hours I take to finish art could be cut by 75 PERCENT if it werent for the fact that the AJ art program is VERY VERY hard to work with. I hate it but making at in AJ is the only thing really getting me through some days without being bored.

Now, I know people think this is mean of me, cause sometimes people don't have more than good shorts or even just den betas. I know this, and I understand. But as much as I really hate saying this, it's no reason to be lowering prices for this reason.

I wanna explain why I think this.

Now first, let's talk about the whole... 'behind the process' of all this.

First, of course obviously art takes a LONG while, for alot of artists even if they arent as good as Hyenine. [Sidenote: Hyenine is a Nazi and voted for trump. I personally hate him with a passion. Don't @ me or talk to me about politics.] If people are taking hours out of their time, especially like artists like Melipolol, Soraska, Moonthecatfire, 0tokun, OminousOwl and Jammer03dv8. All of these artists are actually friends of mine, and I feel massively upset how many times I've seen them so happy to get even a bad short collar, or worse, even WILLING to accept that just cause they want their art out into the world, even if they see it as unfair... They put so much work into their art and I just feel like non-artists don't really get that, even outside of animal jam. I see amazing artists only charge $30 for art for hours of work, even though it's extremely unfair and actually technically considered slave labour if you're paying so little, if their work is put as considered their full time job.

I've also been in [distant] contact with the artist Pounda, and their art is amazing. They've said my artwork is amazingly unique and given me free artwork, and I am absolutely thankful for them cause they give me hope that hopefully the Art trading community in animal jam will get better soon. I even still have the JAGs from when they told me my art is wonderful.

Now, let's consider the other factors.

Diamonds take a long time to stack up, and you're usually limited to 1.5 masterpiece making a day [believe me when i say i have to make copies or customs quite alot, even if giving them out as gifts or making new art entirely].

And even then, if you're nonmember, that's not available. You need tokens, and you arent gonna get very many with just a wrist. [most of the time people with trade atleast 1-4 tokens under the worth of your spikes if you're asking for tokens for your spikes, which is devastating and sometimes people want over for their tokens.]

And now with the worth of spikes on technicality. '''Disclaimer: Dont sell your borkin items for money! It's against the rules!!!! I will find out your username if you admit you sell your items and both doxx your username and report you!!'''

Now, if we consider the conversion between the spikes and how much they sell for on sites such as Ebay, deviantart and playeraccountandsell (i forget the actual name but I use to frequent it to try catch some people sharing their usernames to report them.)

Wrists usually sell around $5 on all of these. Bad shorts sell for around $7 AND good long collars usually sell for around $15, although red might sell for a bit higher, and Black long collars sell for $25-35. By IRL means, asking $15 for a art print [which, in AJ is just asking for a masterpiece with unlimited copies] is pretty standard and OK. but Custom artwork, or 1 of a kind artwork? It certainly is infuriating. You're getting artwork tailored to your own needs, that will take lots of work and will take time out of school, and other hobbies. I mean, I'll take even a decent collar just for a custom artwork offer if I get offered it, but it's still massively undering someone's hard work.

And again. Yes I know. people dont have enough to get that, I get it. But if people really want certain stuff, they have to work for it. Just like everything else. And I don't like that sentiment either, but it's painfully true for everything. I mean, beggers in animal jam dont get too far cause they're just begging, not actually trying.

Actually thats another reason why I like doing art in AJ despise all this stuff like how long it takes and how fussy the program is. I'm doing something I love doing, and the work I put on them gets me things in return. But shorthanding the hardwork is a [bad word] move. Just cause you think it's "not worth much" or "you dont have enough" isn't an exuse. If you dont think art is not worth much, then you don't appreciate it enough to trade for it, especially if you're just getting it for a art gallery. If you don't have enough, thats ok. I take pity on you, but you have to work for things you want.

That's all I have. I'm not gonna listen to any arguments against what I've had to said, probably more specifcally but not exclusively to if you aren't an artist yourself. You can express them but do not express them towards me. I do not care, as I am set in my thoughts. It's nice to get that out also.