@NotMetaB  
well that wasn’t really my intention, but sure, if it inspires you in that way, I’d hate to take that from you. I was more pointing out that people should understand how little they’re paying an artist and how incredibly unfair that is given the skill, practice, and specialization required to be in the field, and most professionals/businesses who hire artists understand this, while 14 year olds on the internet don’t.
 
There is, however, the converse; Most artists aren’t artists ‘cause they want to have a career or make money it it; they’re artists because they literally can’t not be artists. It’s just in your blood and it’s something you’re gonna do because you love it, whether people are paying for it or not. I find that to be a pretty inspiring concept, and it should be motivation for those purchasing the art to encourage and enable that in the artists they follow, rather than paying them so little that it becomes physically impossible to support onesself from doing art.

@BakuHaku  
Might I quote this as one of my motivations to get back into practicing art? This type of thing is an exceptional display of passion over profit.  
I haven’t been worried about profit, but when you put the perspective of how much passion people put in despite relatively low profit, it’s quite thought-provoking.
 
(I swear the alliteration isn’t intentional.)

@Keith Mowz  
@thanatosG3
 
I know this conversation is dead-and-in-the-ground by now, but as an artist I felt inclined to chime in on this concept: Think about it in terms of hourly wages. Even the fastest artists will still spend 4-5 hours on a single illustration, and if they charge 50 bucks for that illustration… You could make that much money working for the Quiktrip down the street.  
Art is an incredibly specialized field; the number of hours that go into learning, practicing, and refining your skills as an artist is honestly equivalent to that of a medical practicioner(Not trying to compare the value of their services to society or anything, just in terms of time invested), and nobody balks at the idea that doctors should be getting the equivalent of 100 or more bucks for a single hour of work, or take home 6 figures in a year.  
Or, to put it another way, if an artist is able to do a single illustration in an 8 hour day of work, and they earn 100 dollars for that 8 hour work day, then they’re making $26,000 a year (assuming weekends off and no vacation time whatsoever). That is only a few thousand above the poverty line. 100 bucks for an 8-hour commission (which is most decent artists doing 1-2 characters+environment) is on the CHEAP CHEAP end, and yet a lot of furry and fandom commissioners turn their nose up at anything over 40 bucks.  
None of you guys were actually claiming Sparrow’s prices were too high or anything; I’m not bitching anyone out in this comment, I just find it tends to be really helpful to non-artists when you put the actual numbers of cost vs. hours worked into perspective. A lot of people who start out angry about paying a decent price for a commission get REALLY sheepish when they find out they weren’t willing to pay you more than what a McDonald’s cashier makes.

@TheEquestrianGallade  
I’m at least 100% sure that most people don’t care

I’m at least 95% sure that isn’t physically possible.

@Background Pony #1CBB  
I wanted proper pictures, and boy did I get them.

@thanatosG3  
On one hand, they need to make a living… On the other, it’s not that hard to take decent pictures with an Iphone camera.

@Keith Mowz  
This is true. Even Artists that don’t draw, paint, or sculpt ask for a lot. I had a professional photographer do some shots so I could send them to my family, he charged 400$ for every 30 minutes.  
Which makes me glad that It took 15.

Also the whole thing about how fandom artists, even the ones making ‘the big bucks’, are still only charging a fraction of what genuine professional artists charge for their business. Hundreds of dollars.

And, you know, supply and demand. Why would you go for a lower price and have to say know to 50 people a month when you could just raise the price and only have to say no to 5 or 6? You’re still drawing as much, you’re just being much better compensated for your talent and not having way more people asking you to draw them stuff than you can handle.

@The Smiling Pony  
Not even so much that as a lot of artists tend to not know what their art is worth when they’re starting out. Desire and quality lend a lot to that and as such even if the art is very good, many times because nothing has yet to be established, prices start lower since a price point too high will result in no business at all.

@Rhurrs  
Yeah, pony artist commission prices are generally way lower than other commission artists that do the same kind of art, by half or more.

@The Smiling Pony  
Pretty much just that. I’ve spoken to some of the people who got things from him earlier in his career and let’s just say that his prices have gone up a fair bit since he started. Which, now that I think about it, is probably another reason that he doesn’t do much pony, most casual fans probably couldn’t easily afford something like this.

@Baskerville3  
It happens with a lot of “big name” artists; commissions end up paying rent, so their personal art they used to do years ago becomes very rare.

@Rhurrs  
wait. so he does commisssions only? i always thought he did what he liked and half the time commissions.

@Rhurrs
 
@Baskerville3  
I assumed it was one book, and it was just flopped over it, rather than squished up in there super tiny-like.

@Baskerville3
 

@The Smiling Pony
 
@Background Pony #AB11
 
they’re cumflation is number 1. but two things bug me a little.  

@InvaderSplooge  
It’s just a favor, s’fiiiiine…

…….  
 
Rarity stealin’ my jerb and title!

@InvaderSplooge  
The Splooge invaded.
 
And it was glorious.

@Rhurrs  
Thankfully.

Par for the course when it comes to sparrow.

IT  
GOT  
FREAKING  
BETTER!!!
 
<3 <3 <3

@BakuHaku  
Little chance of that. You have no idea how hard it is to commission Sparrow…