Trade (Early Access): Aphrodisiac Antics! (Patreon)

Synopsis/Description:

My half of an Art Trade with @BaavyNSFW! 

Brady (left) and Jean (right) enjoy a special night in latex, made even more special by the special aphrodisiac mix they're huffing?  

Isn't that sweet?

Timelapse!  

The Rant:

Art Trade!

Before I get started, there's an important disclaimer I have to lay down:
I don't do art trades for just anybody.

I'm not normally one for art trades because for a few reasons. 

For starters, the name is normally disingenuous because a trade implies equal value. And, sure, both sides can see the trade as that of equal value, but more often than not, it ...isn't? If you're trading me a single frame of illustration, while I'm trading you 72-120 frames (3-5 seconds @ 24/fps), I'm inherently putting in more work, even accounting for the fact that not all of those 72-120 frames will be individually unique frames, or that I'll be using process tricks to mitigate the amount of work I'm doing. Certain mediums of artistic specialty just inherently come with more work, which inbalances the trade, unless the side who's medium comes with less work overcompensates, either in quality or quantity.

Even within trades of the same medium (i.e. one pic for another), both artists may not be putting in the same level of effort, either intentionally or unintentionally. For example, an amateur/casual artist might be putting in their best effort, but because they are either not at a point where they realize the full scope of what they must do to equal the workload of the more advanced artist, or because their workflow sacrifices quality for speed, their finished output just won't be at the same level as the more advanced artist. 

In both cases, one person is getting more out of the trade than the other, intentionally or otherwise.

Pragmatically speaking, art trades have no financial value either. Paying me for a drawing/animation with another drawing/animation doesn't help me with the dozens of things I tend to need payment for, like food, bills, transportation, mental/emotional/physical healthcare, entertainment, etc. Sure, I could monetize my side of the trade (patreon content, prints, cards, etc), but that's not a guaranteed means of income, especially with the kinds of work I do as SaunterWing. 

^Following that, because the work being done is free, trades have a tendency to fall down the priority tree extremely quickly, in favor of commissions, patreon content, non-Saunter side hustles, and day-job priorities. When that happens, the artist who's workflow demands more of them tends to de-prioritize the trade, which can lead to one half of the trade falling weeks, if not months behind, especially if the characters/subject matter are something the artist is neither familiar with, nor has ever indicated a passing familiarity with.

Emotionally speaking, the other thing with trades, is that they work best with people who have more than a surface level connection, too. One of the reasons I tend to not like trades is that people requesting them tend to request things I'm not familiar with or have no interest in drawing. I'd like to think I'm a versatile artist in multiple ways (multiple mediums, multiple subject matters), but I'm not omnidisiclinary, and even if I was, I have specific tastes, (and, unlike others) often for reasons I can actually pinpoint. If I don't like something and/or haven't heard of it, it's either that I know for a fact I don't like that thing/character, OR whatever it is is JUST that obscure. If you try to wrangle a trade out of me, knowing that, it's either going to be massively delayed, or not up to my usual level of quality. Which is because you're forcing something out of me, rather than coaxing it out of me organically, which, having written that, is a bad taste all around. 

So, yeah, I'm generally not one for art trades.

So what IS Saunter's general criteria for trades?

Well, it's threefold:

• I REALLY like you.
• I REALLY like your art.
• I'm getting something out it (which also applies to requests)

Let's break these down.

Basically, if I like you as a person, it means that your mental and emotional happiness is something I care about (most of you are online friends, so I can't do anything about your physical or financial wellbeing). One of the easiest ways for me to show I care, outside of engaging you on the regular, is the gift of art. So why not gift you one of my most valuable skills? Note, also, if I like you? It usually means you've put in the work of getting to know me, supporting me mentally (chatting), emotionally (caring even when I'm not in a place to reciprocate), socially (liking/sharing/engaging with my content), intellectually (tips/tricks) and/or financially (donations, commissions, patreon). It means that I know that you care about me as a person and not just as a resource (art factory, quickstop google answer generator, reliable hype/donor-person). Its not hard to get me to like you, but it DOES take work and a long time.

The thing about really liking your art is that it doesn't necessarily have to be on my level (either in terms of skill or medium) for me to like your art enough to trade. Most of the time, it means you do one particular thing in a way that I really admire (even if I have the ability to do it myself). Sometimes it just means you do something I REALLY wish I could do, but just don't have the capacity for, for one reason or another (If you've written for Abby, yes, I'm talking about you). Either way, in that instance, I'm happy to trade you, and more often than not, we BOTH get something out of it.

Speaking of, something the SFW community has ruined is the idea of revenue and exposure. The thing about both of those is that there are multiple kinds of revenue you can accept, and exposure CAN have tangible benefits.

In terms of revenue, you can have:

• emotional revenue (doing/receiving thing for/from others makes you feel good)
• Social revenue (the person you're doing it for has access to a greater audience than you do)
• educational revenue (you learned something in doing the thing that's outside your comfort zone)

This is where "exposure" comes from. How these have been ruined is that:

•  the emotional revenue you get isn't as much/high as you would have gotten by not doing the trade/doing it on your own terms.
• The person you are doing it for either has barely more reach than you do, or no clout with the people you are hoping to reach
• You didn't learn anything you wouldn't have learned by just doing it for yourself.

That second one is really important because I think a lot of accidental/intentional scammers (let' call them what they are) don't realize that, in order for clout to be a tangible form of payment, you have to have enough that the artist will see tangible results, either in future potential interactions, or tangible future revenue.  Odd are, if you're at the level where you can actually offer clout as a meaningful form of payment, you probably don't need the artist (or for them to do it for free), because you either can generate the content for yourself, or you have enough revenue to financially compensate them, in addition to offering the clout that your platform will offer them. A lot of would-be "exposure-clients" don't realize (either through arrogance or ignorance) that they don't have anywhere near enough clout or reach to offer an artist as payment. And unfortunately, the market has become so saturated with exposure clients that its just become general artistic safety not to accept any form of compensation that relies on exposure (see also "contests.")

Wow, that was a long disclaimer. Almost makes me want to make it public! Is that a thing you guys might want? Sound off in the comments!

I'm not going to say where Baavetti sits in Saunter's criteria of tradeworthy friendship, cuz it's none of your business. But Baav is good peeps and their stuff is fun.

As for the art itself, I kinda sat on this one for a while. 

Not because of any difficulties with the subject matter or characters (though gas-play isn't inherently one of my favorites, due to somnophilia being a bridge too far for me, and I like the struggle), but due to the composition. Jean cuddling on Brady isn't hard, but doing it in a way that felt sexy and uniquely "Saunter" was hard. I had a few comps I played with beforehand, but it wasn't until I got on the iPad that everything really fell together, especially once I found the brush I reeaally like for inking.

Yep, another Procreate/pad plug. I can't help it! The thing is so daggon useful. If they could make multitasking a little more user-friendly, I'd be golden for life!

 Once that hit, everything fell into place (barring an accident where I merged the lineart layer with the hatching layer). Speaking of, when inking, I've started to develop the practice of inking my major lines first, and then hatching/lighting over them, rather than inking and hatching together as I go. I think its made my art way more consistent and coherent. The hard part is making it a habit, and remembering it as I go every single time.

Either way, Baavy was sweet enough to declare the piece worth the wait, and I'm inclined to agree. Its deffo a piece that makes me excited for the public venture to be announced on Thursday!

What do you think?
Let me know in the comments!
Your feedback lets me know how I'm doing!
Thank you for your continued support and patronage, and I'll catcha over yonder!

-Saunter!