Is it too late to start?

Hello there!
 
I kinda started out a month ago. My stuff is still horribad.  
I had to start with art this late due to reasons… But I am afraid that it’s simply too late to be a pony draw person and get noticed too.
 
What do you think?

“Still”? You’ve only uploaded 2 images! You’ve got plenty of chance to improve.
 
You should have seen my “art” when I’d only been drawing for a month.

@BrownieComicWriter  
That is true. I am just afraid even if I grind it hard. I’ll have no audience.  
Which I know is a bad motivation but I do wish to have my future work noticed.
 
Also yeah. I have uploaded 2-3 pics to test the stuff out. I was really slacking off until now.

It is never too late to draw ponies. There is atleast confirmed 2 more seasons, a MLP movie and the fandom is still growing. I’ve started practising art 2 weeks ago and now I am learning how to work with programs.

@Siberian Pizza  
That sounds great! Is the fandom really growing?
 
Also I wish you good luck!  
What programs you wish to use for your drawing/painting?

never too late as long as your passion is there.
 
An audience takes a lot of time and dedication, it also needs a lot of you promoting yourself and not being afraid to call yourself awesome. I never thought I’d get an audience either but I’ve managed it even with my sparse work. You can do it =3

@Sono  
Awesome.  
Any suggestion on how to promote myself?

@norikago  
If you started a month ago, your time is better spent developing your abilities than trying to gather audience. Even if you had the best marketing skill in the world, your popularity would not last very long if your product is not appealing enough to keep people interested.
 
Yeah, it’s hard, but same goes for everything worth doing. Just start small. Make a habit to spend 30 minutes a day trying to improve yourself, and ask for feedback frequently. You’ll get there.

@Background Pony #101B  
You are right. I will work hard to make it happen.
 
Also I was just wondering. The market seems to be closed down at this point.

It’s never too late to draw whatever sparks your imagination.

@norikago  
Start small. Cross post here, DA, Tumblr, maybe FA/IB if you’d like, if you post to DA just post into related groups that actually helps some. Tag yourself. Join groups too in general, find yourself a circle of artists you like and post along with them.
 
Just make sure to do it for yourself first, but I won’t say “oh you should ONLY draw for yourself” nah if people actually believed that no one would be posting art ever. It does feel good to show off something you worked hard on, and of course, having a bigger audience = more people who can offer critique which is always nice.

@SeraphimDawn  
I hope so! I have big plans. ^^
 
 
@Sono  
Yeah. I have a dA and tumblr, just in case.  
Thanks for the advice.

@norikago  

 
Then just get better and force it to open.
 
Or if it’s sealed really tight, the skills you learn can still be applied elsewhere. We will likely outlive the fandom anyway, so even if pony is the the only reason we start, we all have to move beyond that eventually.

If you want audience you have to draw what people wants. You will get better with drawing canon characters than with OCs. Outsider ponies are not very popular as well (Snips and Snail, Twist etc.). Avoid drawing SFW and NSFW from one account, make separate accounts. Look out for running popular themes on the internet. And the most important avoid drama at all cost!

@Grieffon  
“Or if it’s sealed really tight, the skills you learn can still be applied elsewhere. We will likely outlive the fandom anyway, so even if pony is the the only reason we start, we all have to move beyond that eventually.”
 
Yeah. You are right. Call of duty 40k Gothic warfare sureliy will need concept art one day…
 
“Then just get better and force it to open.”  
Yeah. Sounds crazy but I like crazy. A challenge.

@Siberian Pizza  
You mean I should make a different name for the nsfw? Or that a nsfw blog would do?
 
Yeah. I noticed too that I usually look for the characters I like.  
While I want to work hard to make it big. Umm, pandering is what I would do in my taste. I want to enjoy what I draw.
 
Also yeah. I dislike drama, nobody likes it.
 
Thank you.

@Siberian Pizza  
That is…not…very good advice at all. :I More like…pretty bad? xD
 
You’re basically telling him/her to follow the leader, do mass production, cater to the lowest common tastes, never attempt anything new or original; Which is like, the worst possible advice you can give anyone?
 
“You will get better with drawing canon characters than with OCs.”
 
Why? What does that have to do with it?
 
“Outsider ponies are not very popular as well (Snips and Snail, Twist etc.).”
 
Again, why? Do you have something against side characters? Those ponies have plenty of fanart, many of it very high rated.
 
No, seriously:  
instead of just being the Xth person to draw a plain Twilight, if s/he does a thing that nobody or few others do or expect him/her to do, that would automatically make him/her more wanted by simple laws of supply and demand.  
Also you gotta practice among other things what you know and enjoy because it is obvious that is probably you will able to do the best.
 
Drawing popular stuff is good for making people find you in the first place, like getting more Google hits and such, but actually since you’re drawing poni you already kind of achieved that first step since you’re operating within a community.
 
(PS. I think there’s nothing wrong with establishing what your “thing” is on your own terms. You will get “known” for something you did well anyway, and better if it is something you’re proud of than, say, a fetish commission you did only to try to become more popular.)  

 
Annnyway I think you’re doing fine.  
Right now I’d say you can easily counterbalance your lack of skill with extra effort, over the ones who are skilled but lazy or too busy.  
Like, you should color something you made and add a background and it’d look pretty neat.

Are you fine with crossover art?

@Vree  
Yeah. I will do that as soon as I can.
 
Also I wouldn’t draw anything I don’t feel right.  
I believe in making good art over pandering.

@SeraphimDawn  
That is a good question. I never really fancied it to look at but it can’t be too bad unless it’s something I don’t fancy.

@Vree  
OCs tends to blend in with other OCs but there are always exceptions.  
I have nothing against those ponies, but they are not as popular as the mane 6 or other background ponies.  
He wanted audience and I gave him advices what I noticed over the past 5 years, but he was not specific how he wants to get his audience if throught originality or mainstream.

@Vree  
If you want to draw something that people will like, then it’s good advice. Of course, you absolutely don’t want to just cater to what other people want. But few people will click on something they don’t know that they’re already interested in. They’re likely going to be searching for those popular things, so in the unlikely event that something unrelated does show up, they’ll almost certainly pass it right on by, because they were looking for something else!
 
I am a very strong advocate of artistic expression. But it does pay to draw something that people want to see. You have to entice them, to draw them in, and only then, when you have their attention, will they be likely to look at something you came up with yourself.
 
For instance, most of my earliest few pieces on DeviantArt got hardly any attention at all. The ponies that I uploaded around the same time, however, gradually started to pull people in. At the time, a lot of what I drew was canon X OC shipping. However…
 
My first breakthrough came with a Sparity picture uploaded on April 18th, 2013.
 

 
In fact, to this day it still has the most comments out of any picture in my gallery. It’s also the second-most viewed (the most-viewed being another Sparity thing) and the third-most favourited. This was when I started to realise that people clicked on what they were interested in. So I made my name, if you will, on Spike X Rarity pictures. Then I gradually moved away from that area, and started doing standalone pony stuff. But the audience stayed. I had their attention. Since then, I’ve pulled in more viewers by doing more popular things. First I did suggestive anthro pics, then I drew some Five Nights at Freddy’s fanart. And it’s only because of doing those things that I have my modestly-sized audience today! Now I can pursue my own projects on the side, and if people click on them, great! And if they don’t, it’s not the end of the world.

@Siberian Pizza  
Yes. I did word my question too broadly. My fault.
 
 
@BrownieComicWriter  
Yes. You might have the best art but if people don’t have a chance to look at it. That might feel bad.
 
My tastes are rather vanilla. I admit there are certain things I would do with ponies for attention. I’m just like that.

So. Thank you everybody for the input. I do feel more confident.  
Now I just have to draw a lot and everything will be fine!

If you want my advice, just do your thing and the audience will find you in time. Don’t feel like you have to satisfy others. This is your hobby and thus you should draw what appeals to you to satisfy yourself. Don’t be afraid to experiment or go outside your box, but find your niche and stick with it.
 
As for getting better, that just takes time and practice. Rome wasn’t built in a day, right? Here’s a couple of guides I found to be unbelievably valuable when I was getting started:  
>>456502 (Safe)  
>>323395 (Explicit for a naughty bits guide at the bottom)
 
And one I found recently which would have been a big help back in the day:  
>>896311 (Safe)
 
And if you’re interested in making vectors, a how-to guide made by me for turning sketches into them. It’s a bit outdated, but it’s tried and true and I still use this technique:  
>>631324
 
What I can recommend is to start drawing poses from the show by using these guides. Don’t straight up copy or trace, just mimic the pose and draw from scratch. Here, do this one for the heck of it, if you feel like it. It’s three pones side-by-side at different angles; it’s perfect to practice on.  

 
Also too, link your user name to your artist tag and get yourself some props (like the little artist badge beside your user name). It asks for an external site link (to a DA or whatever) but if you don’t have one, just use your profile page from here like I did. Go to your profile page and click “User Links” to do it.