Do most artists draw art without expecting any money?
Definitely amateur artists don't expect money, but as you get better and more popular people tend to start offering money. The furry fandom is more serious about this than other online spaces, they pay more and will rarely ask for free art.
Do most artists do it as a side hustle in addition to a regular job? Is that exhausting?
Artists very often have a day job, but we as the audience are more likely to notice full-time artists because they tend to be more active and prolific. Being a more popular artist makes it easier to make it a full-time job, and making it their full-time job makes it easier to get popular.
What sort of “salary” could one reasonably expect from being dedicated to full-time drawing [furry] art?
Oh there was a survey going around on this topic actually. Behold, graphs and a spreadsheet. Most artists i know are broke.
If it’s meant to be your only source of income, how does your job security feel?
It's kind of a dream job and a lot of people want it, so supply is high and it can be hard to pay the rent with this. The quality standards are also pretty high. Add the fact that the economy isn't doing great and a lot of people don't have means to pay for as much art as they'd like. So no, i wouldn't guess it's a stable income.
Is it required to “get lucky”/“get noticed” in order to make any real amount of money?
My optimistic opinion is that putting out quality art consistently over time will get you noticed no matter what; i don't think luck is a factor, if the goal is profitability then catering to the audience's tastes is much more important.
The hard part is making quality art consistently. For one thing, not everyone lives in suitable conditions to work from home, that kind of luck is a factor.
If by "get noticed" you mean "get promoted by bigger artists", then yeah that helps a lot, but it's also possible to just grow on your own.
Is it fun, or does it become “work”?
It becomes work. Starting a drawing is a lot easier than finishing it, so it definitely requires discipline and work ethic.
But also, the kind of people with the inclination to draw for 8 hours a day are absolutely passionate about art and would do it anyway; and making art of a high enough quality to make a living requires the kind of practice that comes from drawing for 8 hours a day.
Any other interesting topics that I don’t know enough about to ask?
It's relatively common for artists to not consider themselves furry, but they draw anthros and therefore have a furry audience. Membership in the community is not required, all that is required is anthro animals.
But, when it comes to making a living, i do think it takes a furry to know the esthetic expectations and how to subvert them, even with AI art. And a lot of artists stay away from furry because of the negative associations, so competition is not as stiff as it could be. This is especially true for NSFW furry art, that's really a niche where you only go if it's what you're into.
Well i do notice a discrepancy there: 385 say they do art full time, but only 189 say that they do it for more than 30 hours a week.
But honestly, whether we compare it to 385 or 189, 33 is still a minuscule number regardless. And then you look at the prices of comissions under different parameters (auction, non-auction, how many characters, YCH).
I really hope that there's some kind of selection bias, for example maybe this survey reached smaller artists more, or the least productive artists had more time to answer a random survey, or something