18+ ART AND YOUR REPUTATION

Use a pseudonym if you feel you aren't confident or feel you have people you know IRL that you don't want to have find out, but otherwise I'd just make a distinction between the normal art and NSFW ones, different galleries so a person who doesn't want to see the NSFWs doesn't have to.

You have manga artists like Azuma who made Azumanga and Yotsuba&! draw hentais before, which I find kinda funny because Yotsuba&! is very much for all ages and pretty innocent.

I've seen people make a new account name for themselves when they want to unassociate their username with 18+ art. Some people don't mind and are fine with having 18+ art and normal art be under their username. If you're freelancing it all the way, then I think it's fine to have both normal and nsfw arts, and it shouldn't be a problem there.

I've had a fair amount of experience drawing 18+ material, both paid and unpaid. In all honesty, I don't think too much of it. Drawing nude characters or naturally occurring events like sexual intercourse is pretty par for the course if you want to continue to develop your artistic skills. Of course, doing it and doing it and showing it around to people are two separate matters and that's where it really depends on the level of comfort each individual artist has regarding adult subjects.

In all honesty, I've actually made close to ten thousand dollars in adult related art commissions in the last few years, so there's definitely a market for it. If you truly want to make a living as an artist, and you yourself don't possess any qualms about the subject matter, then by all means... give it a shot. It's important to try and diversify your skillset as much as possible. Being able to correctly draw a naked character is just as important as being able to draw them fully clothed.

I've found that my openness and experience in drawing 18+ art has also been quite a boon. Ecchi capable artists are typically harder to find in communities like this (good ones are even rarer) so anything that makes you stand out is a good thing considering the insanely competitive world of online graphic arts freelancing.

As far as a pseudonym goes... I'm technically against the idea of having one in theory, but I do think that it's the more prudent course of action. Stuff on the internet never really goes away after all. My day job would suffer greatly should my students ever happen upon any of the big breasted ecchi pics I've done that are squirreled away in the deepest corners of miscellaneous jp image boards. >.>

On a lighter note, I actually prefer ecchi requests as far as paid commissions go. From my experience, they've usually earned me 50% more money for 50% less work.

I don't think the OP is asking for conjecture.

A lot of successful Japanese artists came from eroge. Just saying.

author=JosephSeraph
Guys, artists -- how comfortable do you feel in drawing 18+ art? Those of you who do - how does it affect your career and reputation as an artist, positively or negatively?
What reaction do you think your followers would have if you started delving into 18+ art? How would the market react to that? Would it be wiser to opt for a pseudonym instead?

I myself am thinking on working on some 18+ ero stuff, for $$, anatomy training and because heck, it's a hella' cool! But I am afraid of it having a negative impact on my nonexistant career as an artist. I'm not sure if it'll be worth it.

Probably it will, as long as I can earn money doing what I love, but--~

(also it's technically easier to make money with 18+ art)

Give your opinions and your own expeciences on the matter!

Sorry if this is the wrong forum ><

and i'm kind of nervous for having posted this u_u

I love drawing my own material, I can accommodate for any weird fetish I have and not have to give a lick to anyone, that said-- I'm not often public about it. If I am it's on a board that I know won't have trouble with these ill confessions.

I've never posted a picture of my porn though, because it's not incredibly good, just awesome for me because it can be what I like to see.

Also on most forums posting pron is a bannable offense, anyway. I'd be too ashamed of whatever I did create to go through with posting my self-engineered smut even if that rule wasn't a virtual constant across most boards I visit.

Sometimes I'll post a harmless part of the image, like for instance if i like how the face and head came out, I'll post that if it's separable from the obscene NSFW spectacle that the image would be at full capacity.

author=BizarreMonkey
I've never posted a picture of my porn though, because it's not incredibly good, just awesome for me because it can be what I like to see.

Also on most forums posting pron is a bannable offense, anyway. I'd be too ashamed of whatever I did create to go through with posting my self-engineered smut even if that rule wasn't a virtual constant across most boards I visit.

I don't know if you are aware of this but the internet is like... 70% porn, 29% cat videos and 1% everything else. You can find an infinite number of places dedicated specifically to letting people post drawings of your particular weird fetish.

I'm pretty sure its only illegal if it involves actual children (i.e. pictures or clever photoshopping). Drawings and fictional stories involving underaged sex are fine for right now. The only exception I ever heard of is if the fake image is indistinguishable from a real image.

Sometimes people try to push for the criminalization of fictional/cartoon child pornography, like recently in Japan, but I doubt it'll happen any time soon. (It was once the case in the past here in the U.S., though...)

Just don't be surprised if no one ever wants to talk to you again if they find out you draw little boys' winkies.

edit: Okay, its actually illegal, or at least vaguely so, in a lot of places: the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Norway, South Africa, South Korea, the Philippines, Sweden (maybe), and in some US States.
But really a lot of it is just really vague and seems to change on a whim from case to case.