01-28-2014, 06:28 PM
Here's the nub. Do you want to do art to generate your income or do you want to generate your art based on income? Sounds kinda the same, but there are a couple of differences.
The first, is that by enjoying what you do, you will probably eventually find a market for it. It may not be the initial goal but it may end up paying off at some point. May not be right away, may not be a lot (especially if in a hard genre to crack) but it will happen if you get yourself out there and keep striving.
The second one is adapting your skills and what you do specifically for the goal of making money. This one sucks if you treat it badly. You can do all sorts of things that are still art related and making you money (furries and adult illustration are examples) but aren't exactly what you intended. Still creative though, but....
There's no point looking at the industry and justifying your choice if what you want to do (which it sounds like it is) is the first option. Just do it. See what happens. If you want to compromise a bit and do other things to still be creative and get some dough, hell it's all learning, do that too. It probably beats flipping burgers.
There are several western artists (and eastern non japanese ones) that I have randomly come across that seem to make a decent living doing anime that mostly cater to the anime non Japanese audience, so you don't have to have lived it in Japan to do it. No reason you can't too.
If that was the case we wouldn't have Japanese making dub music.
The first, is that by enjoying what you do, you will probably eventually find a market for it. It may not be the initial goal but it may end up paying off at some point. May not be right away, may not be a lot (especially if in a hard genre to crack) but it will happen if you get yourself out there and keep striving.
The second one is adapting your skills and what you do specifically for the goal of making money. This one sucks if you treat it badly. You can do all sorts of things that are still art related and making you money (furries and adult illustration are examples) but aren't exactly what you intended. Still creative though, but....
There's no point looking at the industry and justifying your choice if what you want to do (which it sounds like it is) is the first option. Just do it. See what happens. If you want to compromise a bit and do other things to still be creative and get some dough, hell it's all learning, do that too. It probably beats flipping burgers.
There are several western artists (and eastern non japanese ones) that I have randomly come across that seem to make a decent living doing anime that mostly cater to the anime non Japanese audience, so you don't have to have lived it in Japan to do it. No reason you can't too.
If that was the case we wouldn't have Japanese making dub music.