What do you look for in art?

What do you guys look for in art? What kind of art do you look for?

tags?
signatures?
manipulations?
references? ( digitaly drawn/ manipulated?)
Character designs?

Are digital paintings your preference?
Manipulations?

let me know. :) I'm thinking about coming back full time, and would like to know what kind of art to throw myself into for this site.

Last edited on 2016-05-05 at 10:13:58 by Bela

Pretty much anything but manipulations (unless I need a layout). I much prefer drawn work, preferably digital. I love things with pretty backgrounds (nature scenes).

Things that really catch my eye are well done tags and sigs, I find I tend to prefer ones with backgrounds compared to those without as well. If you do a slot sale with them you can make a decent amount of money, 50k per recolor adds up fast. Since it's a relatively small price to pay, people are more likely to buy it.

I do like large paintings as well, though those take time and because of that can be more expensive. I don't really like spending big wads of money at once so I can be pretty picky about this, but when I see one that I absolutely love then I just might throw a few mil at it.

Well made character references are great, I try to go the cheap route and do mine myself but considering I have 14+ to do and little time (and there's quite a few artists in the same boat), I think putting it out there and seeing if you get any bites may be a good idea. These can be tricky though because people like character references to be all pretty and shiny, and the markings need to be as close to the original as possible so it may end up feeling like more work than it's worth, especially if the design is a bit more on the complex side @.@

Unfortunately from what I've seen, manips generally don't really sell well :c They can be used for layouts but a lot of people just get one and stick with it for quite awhile so the market for that is slow. I think the best bet for this is to just have your commissions open for it and have ready examples. If you know coding you can offer a layout bundle as well, or work with someone who does know coding and split the funds, just to have that option available. Another thing on this which you've probably noticed, from what I've seen players don't really go for them unless they can get it custom to their own characters.

There's definitely pros and cons to each, I think tags and sigs are your best bet but keeping your options open and trying things out to see how they go is never a bad thing :D

Quality is my number 1 preference when buying art! Whether it be tags, sigs, refs etc, quality and something unique is what gets me purchasing!

Honestly, over used free lines put me off as does bucket filling, un-finished eyes (I don't know WHY people don't colour them in?), designs that are supposed to be realistic but don't really look it, off proportions, uncredited art, common colours and markings...

OK, so I'm fussy XD