Critique my crap (NSFW)

Picking up drawing was the best and worst decision of my life. Yeah, I've had fun, but it has also been driving me up the wall. I've been putting more and more effort into trying to improve my work but it's not going anywhere. It doesn't seem to matter what I do, nothing can break the magic 350 mark.

I've been losing all hope and motivation these past couple of months. Before I finally toss the tablet out the window, I'd at least like to know where I went wrong. I'd appreciate it if someone who knows what they are doing could look at my recent artwork and let me know why it keeps failing.

Glutenfree has just regular pony ass:
https://derpibooru.org/tags/artist-colon-glutenfree_texmex

Not_texmex has weird fetish stuff, but normal versions too. Be sure to filter scat, watersports, vomit if you're going to go through this one:
https://derpibooru.org/tags/artist-colon-not_texmex


These always seem to do fairly well at first and then they just die a horrible death, while similar stuff by others succeeds. No one I've asked has been able to point out any specific reason why they keep falling short (or maybe they're just trying to be nice).

It's incredibly demotivating when you don't know if people ignore your art because of the fetish stuff you also do (even though you have a separate tag for the clean stuff) or because there's something wrong with it, or they just aren't seeing it because you're just a literal who and can't compete.

I dunno, I don't see any issues with any of your art (i like the fetishes, not usually into females, but that doesn't change my opinions) and I myself usually get sub-30 upvotes max, sometimes sub-60 for porn, soemtimes negative all the way, and I've stopped caring about score years ago with my own art, I just do what makes me happy and if others happen to enjoy it, it's just a bonus.

I don't quite know what you personally expect or want to see as I don't know your feelings, but I feel like you should just focus on making yourself happy and pleasing yourself above all else, unless of course you also want to please others as well. It can be de-motivating to try and please others while not being happy enough yourself.

I'm sure that advice isn't useful, but I tried. I like seeing your art, the fetish stuff specifically, it's very well done and high quality.

@LightningBolt
I honestly don't know what I should expect either. I just want to see improvement. Comparing apples to apples, I think my stuff should be able to compete at least sometimes, but it never does. They do well initially and then just hit a brick wall. At the same time, similar stuff by other artists does amazing. I know there's randomness to it, but they can't keep failing 100% of the time. Like I feel something should have taken off by now.

One piece of mine managed to somehow sneak on trending once (>>2297272) and as a result it did awesome, so I sort of know they should be good enough, but that just makes it worse. My art has improved since then but it nothing has managed to replicate that success. I have a feeling that since they can't trend, people aren't seeing them, and the lack of exposure makes it harder to get seen. Sometimes they come painfully close before they get shot down and that's killing me.

I try to make different versions because I know what it's like to have a rare kink, so why not? It's just frustrating the clean stuff gets ignored, but anything gross always gets all the attention it doesn't need.

I swear, every time I post a nice clean pic, it gets flushed off the front page in five minutes by someone spamming EQG screencaps. Then when I post something gross and want it off the front page ASAP, it gets stuck there for an hour (I wish there was a "DON'T SHOW THIS UPLOAD ON THE FRONT PAGE, 99% OF PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO SEE THIS" checkbox, it'd help)

@Rexton the III
Truthfully I don't even bother making 'clean' versions of fetish stuff unless I personally want to. But I also don't do canon characters, or popular anything, and I do vectors, and I only do what I like, so ending up in trending for me would be when hell freezes over.

Really I wish people just used filters more instead of shitting on every scat (ha) image they see because 'it no make pp hard', but not much can be done about that other than forcing people to do it, and then they probably refuse out of malice and spite.

Ask yourself, do you want to cater to as many people as possible, or do you just want to share what you enjoy? Or some combination of both?

I want to do more than "just" fetish art and I want to do the best I can. I don't care about some twisted sort of fame, I just care about doing a good job of it.

I mean, it's just clop but that doesn't mean I shouldn't try my best. But right now I just don't know wtf I'm doing wrong.

Sometimes scores are a mystery. A particular picture can captivate the audience for some undetermined reasons, and it can never happen again…

The fetish pictures will always have a lower score, lol. It's rarely a good indicator for one's scoring potential.

Maybe try alternative compositions? Just noticed that almost all your pictures have one or two characters almost filling the whole frame, they may need some air. And things rarely happen with them, they're just in some sexual situation for the camera, it may help making them doing things, casual butt-plug at the beach or things like that.

Also the characters seems to use an alternate style, it can influence the scores in both ways. You may need to check people's opinions about it if you really play for the numbers. It can be complicated, though ; https://derpibooru.org/search?q=artist%3Aclopician uses an alternate style which is almost a 3D version of https://derpibooru.org/search?q=artist%3Aarareroll 's, and some people really hate it, but it still bring good scores…

@d1ckbitch
I appreciate it.

Yeah, obviously fetish crap is going to not do great, but this isn't about that. It's the clean stuff.

Can you clarify what you mean by alternate style, I don't quite follow?

@Rexton the III
They look a bit more shorter / compact than the original characters, with thicker legs etc, and as their poses are usually being curled up or sitting with not much space left, I would say it looks confusing at times, making the picture hard to read, especially with the lack of space in the picture I mentioned above

@d1ckbitch
Well, I guess that's something but it's not something that can really be helped at this point.

I think that making number is more of hurdle with getting to people than making art. I heard that actually spreading to other platforms could help. The more platforms, the wider audience and more work for you ;/ And derpi doesn't has that big of audience compared to other platforms, especially for that niche fetishes.

Also maybe commissions are the way? It's like you actually make other people put something into your piece of art therefore making them care more about it and spread it for longer? idk. just my guess.
(Just make a checkpoint and remember who you are before delving into world of furry (pls dont) business)

And if not, I think that d1ckbitch has some good points, that images feel a little cramped and proportion of ponies is a little off? Maybe? idk. I like them anyway

I didn't meant you have to change the style, just that there's some ways, that may be interesting to explore, to express it in a way that would better reveal its potential.

With composition etc

@Background Pony #3D90
I've done a handful of commissions for charity, I just don't advertise them because I don't have a lot of time for them. Anyone can ask for one and I may or may not take them up on it. I'm not looking to profit.

I think my proportions are pretty OK, or at least they shouldn't be the main issue because some absolutely horrifically maimed shit gets all the love in the world.

Make them do more things, sure, but if you look at what's trending it's mostly "artistic nudes", so it's not like it shouldn't be possible to go places with any number of the things I've done.

Composition, yeah, that's something that can always be improved, but again, disembodied floating genitals on plain white background do well enough.

I just don't know. I appreciate the input but it all seems a bit nitpicky. It's not like I've not analyzed all these things thousands of times by now. I should probably just start drawing XBOX huge tits anthros, that seems to be a free pass.

@Rexton the III

I should probably just start drawing XBOX huge tits anthros, that seems to be a free pass.

Not to me.

Draw what you want. People love the downvote system to troll others that make good art and bring the spirits of those users down.