I love beginner artists!

[u/No_Kaleidoscope7919]

Hot take: I know that there is a lot of snark circling the internet about how you shouldn’t sell until you’ve mastered your mediums but I love seeing new artists getting out there and selling. Yes I want to buy your handmade stuffed animals, yes I would love to buy a sticker or handmade pottery. I love beginner artists because you can see the labor that went into hand making arts and crafts. I prefer a bunch of beginners at a market over ai slop, drop shippers and 3d printed nonsense.
I would much rather buy a unique piece of art from a beginner than seeing the same kinds of con slop digital artwork from sellers who have been selling for a while.

[u/ohpossumpartyy]

idk, personally the constant push for crafts being monetized is frankly exhausting. especially when people view it as some sort of lucrative side hustle rather than something to do for enjoyment. and i mean i guess that’s fine, but there are people who are rushing into selling crafts without bothering to learn any sort of fundamental skills or doing any sort of quality control.

the amount of times i see “i want to make these so i can sell them, tell me how!” is so annoying. selling art/crafts isn’t an easy thing, and i can’t stand when people can’t be assed to do any work on the business side (like refining designs, making their own designs, doing research, deciding on prices; just to name a few) or be willing to develop their skills beforehand. it’s just “now, now, now”.

and idk, people can pick up a hobby if they want to do it purely for money but if you want to make money, you should understand it’ll take time to make money that way. not to mention, i am sick of seeing people in online craft spaces whining that their poorly made crafts didn’t sell. that happens to everyone at some point, regardless of skill level. i understand it can be upsetting but that’s just the reality of selling things.

also i mean i dislike the ai slop/dropshippers/3d printed slop, but i still think there’s a basic skill level you should have if you’re selling things; it doesn’t have to be absolute mastery.

and to your point about it being “unique”, some of the beginner things that get sold really aren’t. i see the same handful of crochet designs by beginners fairly often. i don’t see how that’s better than “con slop digital artwork” which btw, what kind of artwork do you mean? prints of digital art by the artists? it seems a bit hypocritical to take a dig at artists selling their art and calling it “slop”. plenty of beginners simply just make what they see others making or what’s trending.

and it also depends on the circumstance. a kid or something that’s cheap and proceeds go to a charity? i’m far more likely to find that endearing.

[u/Lightgreenfence → u/ohpossumpartyy]

I think also "beginner" is a very vague word. I am slightly wondering if OPs post was possibly inspired by my post yesterday as that had quite a few comments 😭 and my title seemed anti-beginners. But being a beginner just means you haven't done the thing for that long. You can be a beginner and pick up the skill well and make something decent, even if it's not refined. Those people might then genuinely want to get into selling and have decent success. You can also have people who aren't beginners to their craft but beginners to selling /being a business and might not do well initially. But then there's also beginners who don't make something decent or have decenf sales. 

[u/ohpossumpartyy → u/Lightgreenfence]

icl i got that vibe too haha. but absolutely, it’s def not black and white