💼 Careercow Andrew Dobson (aka Tom Preston)

[Stud2Stud]

[MEDIA=twitter]589629182910472193[/MEDIA]
Andrew, the important distinction to make is that it's actually the demand for "good artists" that's never been higher, and that people aren't willing to pay "shitty artists" a living wage.

To examine whether Dobson's claims of people unwilling to support artists is true or not, let's compare Dobson's Patreon with that of another Deviantartist.

Dobson

Sakimi Chan

This woman is earning nearly 500x what Dobson makes in her Patreon, because she actually makes art people want to see. (Granted it seems like a lot of it is just super pandering NSFW stuff, but she clearly knows what her audience wants)

It just so happens I looked up some webcomics today and found out Lackadaisycats now has a Patreon, too.
Turns out Tracy Butler got over 1000 supporters in less than 3 weeks and is now receiving 5k a month, which is mind-blowing when you consider she's had a track record of releasing very little content for lackadaisycats over the past few years due to her other work.
What I'm trying to say: Tracy Butler managed to get a lot of support for her truly amazing work, even though she's not had the biggest output.
Dobson struggles to get a decent amount of supporters, even though there's some sort of trickling stream of releases...

Then again, just compare this regular comic Dobson made to this little bonus strip Tracy made on a whim... or, to take a look at a somewhat more simple comic, check this one out. It also shows how she handles people that would make Dobson go into a frothing twitter-rant-rage. Not saying this is the perfect way to handle such comments, but damn it, instead of strawmanning the shit out of it like Dobbob would, she made a marvelous little comic strip that also sorta highlights the characters personality in an exaggerated manner.

I guess what I am trying to say is this: There's artists that are obviously more invested in their craft than Dobson and it really shows on Patreon -despite not having a huge amount of released content.

Spoiler

Then again, Studio Foglio seems to only get 142 bucks a month, which pains me. They are really nice people and their Girl Genius comic is simply amazing, but on the other hand, they seem to rely a lot less on Patreon and Kickstarter for regular stuff than, say, Dobson and the likes.

 

[Pickle Inspector]

I think the problem with Dobbys Patreon is he doesn't really consider what his fans want, other web artists seem to offer various things like sketches or digital copies of their previous works while Dobby is practically telling people he'll give them whatever he feels like (Before the reward tiers were something ridiculous like "If you back at this level I will consider making more of the comics series you like").

And it's not just the rewards, his milestones are obviously things that he wants and not what his fans want, at least I'm assuming his fans don't want to pay for the costs of his website and for a Minecraft server, they probably would prefer to see regular comics.

 

[Night Terror]

We have video evidence Dobson exist. Be warned, this video is worse than the attack on Charlie Hebdo (in Dobbybear's mind):

https://youtube.com/watch?v=7rgXKUXOgvU
Edit: I think that guy was an asshole to do that unprovoked, but if you're ever curious about some of the "fan art" of Dobby that features the spray bottle, that's where it comes from.

I saw Dobby the day after this happened. He was no worse for wear, but he wasn't taking any drawing requests. He was pretty quiet, didn't say very much. In contrast to his comic persona, he seemed pretty meek.

 

[ShittyRecolor]

It just so happens I looked up some webcomics today and found out Lackadaisycats now has a Patreon, too.
Turns out Tracy Butler got over 1000 supporters in less than 3 weeks and is now receiving 5k a month, which is mind-blowing when you consider she's had a track record of releasing very little content for lackadaisycats over the past few years due to her other work.
What I'm trying to say: Tracy Butler managed to get a lot of support for her truly amazing work, even though she's not had the biggest output.
Dobson struggles to get a decent amount of supporters, even though there's some sort of trickling stream of releases...

Then again, just compare this regular comic Dobson made to this little bonus strip Tracy made on a whim... or, to take a look at a somewhat more simple comic, check this one out. It also shows how she handles people that would make Dobson go into a frothing twitter-rant-rage. Not saying this is the perfect way to handle such comments, but damn it, instead of strawmanning the shit out of it like Dobbob would, she made a marvelous little comic strip that also sorta highlights the characters personality in an exaggerated manner.

I guess what I am trying to say is this: There's artists that are obviously more invested in their craft than Dobson and it really shows on Patreon -despite not having a huge amount of released content.

Spoiler

Then again, Studio Foglio seems to only get 142 bucks a month, which pains me. They are really nice people and their Girl Genius comic is simply amazing, but on the other hand, they seem to rely a lot less on Patreon and Kickstarter for regular stuff than, say, Dobson and the likes.

Damn, Butler's art is so drop dead gorgeous!

 

[Daario Naharis]

To me... This pay artists more thing... Seems to stem from a lack of passion. Maybe. Like... Compare and contrast with Kelly Turnbull, I think it is. Unfair, I know, but still. Platinum Black really gives me this magnum opus vibe. It's amazingly creative (Thus far we've had weird catfish people trying to pick a fight with a grey giant of a man with weird animal like ears because of fantasy racism, only for the fight to be broken up because his seemingly socially awkward friend is apparently super fucking bad ass and one of the cat fish men recognized him. And apparently the plot is about fucking prize fighting.) an never once have I heard her go on about how it sucks because this or that, she just produces this magical thing. I admit, I don't hang on her every word, but I'm pretty sure she isn't making it because money. You can almost feel the passion and creativity in every panel. I got that passion vibe from that dragon tea pic, but... I dunno. I've said it before, I'll say it again. If art makes Dobson as unhappy as it sounds like it from his tweets, I don't get why he hasn't sought out greener pastures.

 

[Stud2Stud]

I think the problem with Dobbys Patreon is he doesn't really consider what his fans want, other web artists seem to offer various things like sketches or digital copies of their previous works while Dobby is practically telling people he'll give them whatever he feels like (Before the reward tiers were something ridiculous like "If you back at this level I will consider making more of the comics series you like").

And it's not just the rewards, his milestones are obviously things that he wants and not what his fans want, at least I'm assuming his fans don't want to pay for the costs of his website and for a Minecraft server, they probably would prefer to see regular comics.

Well, I can get behind the logic of using Patreon to find out what comics to make in the future - it's actually a decent way of directly asking fans what they want.
"Choose this option to get more SYAC" is a nice and handy way to gain some insight into the demands of his fans.
Now, where it all falls apart is where Dobson uses the rewards/stretchgoals as something he either should be doing anyway (since, you know, being an artist implies making art) or they are purely ridiculous nonsense ("back me and I'll open a minecraft server" or "back me and I'll back others"... just, what the fuck were you thinking Dobson?) but what really takes the cake is the Skyrim book for Children. A) The idea is just weird. What is he trying to achieve here? Does he think TES is such a great fantasy background, it should be used as foundation for children's books? Is he aware publishing such a work would be a bitch and a half due to copyright? B) If he wants to make it, he should just fucking make it.
Dobson is like a small child that goes "Let me eat some ice cream or else I won't play with my Lego!" if you catch my drift. Why does he need others to pat his ass into making such a project if it's something he wants to do himself anyway?

And that is why Dobson will never amount to anything. He just can't get his fat ass unstuck from his desk-chair and start to work on something even though he wants to do it anyway. I have no clue what it takes to be an artist - animation or otherwise - but I got a hunch you don't land a job at Disney or SU by waiting till someone strokes your ego until you finally feel like doing a half-assed job and then complain when people criticise your shoddy product.

 

[Dudeofteenage]

And that is why Dobson will never amount to anything. He just can't get his fat ass unstuck from his desk-chair and start to work on something even though he wants to do it anyway.

Dobby and Connor should collaborate on something.

 

[Pickle Inspector]

but what really takes the cake is the Skyrim book for Children. A) The idea is just weird. What is he trying to achieve here? Does he think TES is such a great fantasy background, it should be used as foundation for children's books? Is he aware publishing such a work would be a bitch and a half due to copyright? B) If he wants to make it, he should just fucking make it.

I can sort of understand the Skyrim kids book (Aside from the copyright infringement), if I remember right when he had the old Patreon rewards up the most backed thing was "More Skyrim art" (Or something like that) so from that I'm guessing either a lot of his commissions are Skyrim based or his fans really like Dobbys Skyrim art so it'd make sense for him to make something that his fans would enjoy. (He might have been influenced by Penny-Arcade doing a Cthulhu themed children's Christmas book but forgot Lovecraft stuff is public domain now or maybe reads Prequel and forgot Skyrim isn't? I don't know, I'm a Brit and not 100% sure on what counts as a parody under the US laws anyway.)

Also aside from Dobby being lazy and not just going ahead and doing it like you say a problem is it's a reward that comes before making comics on a regular basis when it really should come after the basic stuff.

Well, I can get behind the logic of using Patreon to find out what comics to make in the future - it's actually a decent way of directly asking fans what they want.
"Choose this option to get more SYAC" is a nice and handy way to gain some insight into the demands of his fans.

The reason I didn't like it being used as a way to gauge what to make next is because they are usually used as reward tiers and he was asking for more money for those tiers and not offering anything else in return, he didn't even say he would make more of those comics just that he would consider it, it doesn't matter now though since he removed them.

 

[Gensdupays]

Let's just say, for the sake of arguing, that Dobson's ability and art style was similar to Sakimi Chan's. Even if that were the case, he wouldn't get as much money as her. Why? Well, she is very well known and has a positive reputation, but more importantly: she draws R34. The only connection that I can make between a high number of donations on Patreon and content is drawing porn and R34. Theoretical Dobson still wouldn't do this, so his Patreon would never work. Actual Dobson not only wouldn't do that, but nobody would want to see his attempts.

 

[Butta Face Lopez]

If I was getting close to $50k a month for drawing porn probably literally every single image I did would be a depiction of me drawing the pornographic picture and masturbating with wads of hundreds pouring out of my ass

 

[Wulfgar Von Heltzer]

..............................Jesus fucking Christ.

 

[Chan the Wizard]

He drew a fucking cheesecake drawing of Spider-Gwen, he did not actually rape someone. In fact, Spider-Gwen is a fictional character, last I checked fictional people cannot have their feelings hurt.

I'm sure Dobbybear will step up and match the donation if they reject it.

 

[tepid]

Literally hasn't been a better time to be an artist, do you think Sakimi Chan would be making that sort of money 30 years ago? haha no way.

Just because you've been unsuccessful at making money from your skills doesn't mean all artists have that problem Dobby.

 

[namazuros]

[MEDIA=twitter]589892958112976896[/MEDIA]
..............................Jesus fucking Christ.

Really? Really? After drawing porn of women violently exploding against their will, Dobson is in no position to act like a defender of cartoon virtue.

 

[A Random]

Don't forget about lying about his own identity to fit in that group.

 

[Pickle Inspector]

Dobby is not impressed by renaissance era art:

 

[Skeletor]

...he has to be trolling us here, right?

 

[MerriedxReldnahc]

"Have you seen their anatomy?"
I'll just leave this here

(Ok, this one is from several years back so its a little unfair as an example)

 

[Wulfgar Von Heltzer]

Or this:

 

[fishercat]

Or this: