19 June 2024

>Warning, most of this "tutorial" is more like a journal rambling of what i feel are the best practices to get your skins sold. I don't get 70kG every print. I'm not that even big of an artist. I literally see 2 runs filled and I pop a can of Red Bull. I also accidentally broke the code and it looks cooler this way, so I will leave it as it is. You can also skip to the bottom for the tips, if you dont want to hear an old fella ramble about the past. it also has a terribly rude tone, if that doesn't deter you enough.

▶▶▶Directory▶▶▶

• TL;DR
• the art, man. ← the tips
• get money ← the other tip to get people actually buying
• closing words

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  ▶—————— TL;DR

  so you come here, scrolled down, and don't want to read all of that. Let me summarise it for you :

  • GET GOOD IN ART, A BIT AT LEAST. Not Negotiable. Use limited colour palettes.
  • Have a 10-pack Accent always ready in your Hoard.
  • throw your accents on the AH, ping GASP, and wait for them to get snapped up.
  • alternatively, submit accents for approval the moment a fresh new breed is released. ping GASP the moment the site is updated. people love new pretty stuff.
  • alternatively: ignore the ramble and just go straight to MythicalViper's awesome guide here that covers literally everything | [archive version]

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    ▶—————— the art, man.

    ▹—poor artwork and colour cohesion

    A good skin makes a user reluctant to put a lot of stuff and let the artwork really shine, with some flowerfalls to add a final "touch" to it.

    Many concepts genuinely suffer from "Great Taste But Awful Execution", which is really sad. Colours are muddied and do not have any cohesion, and these are usually the beginner artists. the only solution to this is genuinely getting better at drawing fundamentals and after at least three months of proper studying you'll figure out that rarely does red work with green except for christmas.

    another common problem I found out was how "too blending in" some skins were. they seem to be on the way to being transparent, lacking contrast, and only appearing on dark Python/Morph colours or Basic. The silks aren't silking. 350px is terribly limited space and I can see the airbrush. use small cohesive palettes: the tundra hatchlings below are a good reference!

    Solidify your colour understanding, and solidify the things you want to be present on your dragon. Don't run too amok with trying to create iridiscence without knowing what makes them tick or tasteful.

    also, when you ping users, show them the full version of the skin, that is, with shadow and all. having a RESKIN preview link helps massively too. users aren't really a fan of a beautiful skin that is later surprise- ruined by muddy shadows.

    

    ▹—not putting your name 'out there' enough

    get involved with the community ! dominance teams love to make prizes in order to entice users to hand over dragons for exalting. once in a while (not all the time, please don't go and pester you flight's dominance team with 40 requests) consider asking if you can donate a flight themed-UMA that users can win for raffles. There's likely to have some consideration, and it's much better if you are able to fund your own printing copies to give them. It's not direct profit, but it goes a way in bringing 'name' to your self.

    And how can we forget one of the most obvious ways - the monthly elemental holidays are where everyone "competes" to have their skin on site. Enter it for fun, enter it for enjoyment. there is a fantastic guide by two users, 888 and MythicalViper who have written an extended guide with tips and tricks on higher chances of winning. What you want here is users to be wow'd by the creativity you bring regarding the flight. You want your name out there as an artist that makes fantastic thematic skins celebrating them. That's the name part of this portion. These two users have the literal opposite of art styles, yet their skins are beloved sitewide.

    This fixes two problems in one go, and it's creating skins for unloved breeds. They are utterly lacking and these breeds will 100% get love by designing creative elemental skins for them. When the next month's post for skin submissions, hit that post button with your dragon's skin.

    ▹—oversaturation of the market

    this part is my fave part, and it's less advice and going into total permanent sicko (greed) mode. hell it's why i'm half assed to bother making skins anymore in general, because these are the fun "times" to make skins.

    in 2019,Ancient Breeds were released. These are dragons created in order to have more "Dragon Content" that cannot wear Apparel, but can wear skins.

    The point is that new breeds are fresh grounds for you to bring your name up to speed. They are free from the shackles of Modern Breeds that already have established art, and you can do the same "tired" things that are on wildclaws and the like. when hatchling skins were announced, there was a 2 week period of preparation users could have to immediately upload their artwork and have it approved. I ran for my typical stuff and sent it the moment the site went up.

    These new breeds are the your best bet. You can also take a short while, maybe a week or two, to avoid the initial rush and take time to craft a really nice and well fitting colour palette of an accent. god, that first ever obelisk accent is truly the king of garbage. lmao. but it sure as hell gets people in fear wondering how someone drew THAT fast.

    

    ▶—————— pinkfloyd-money.mp3

    ok this is a good ton of hoohah,156L. how are you supposed to actually you know, print the artwork, if you don't even have the money to even buy the blueprint in the first place? Let alone a shop?

    well that's easy, you just gotta save up money obviously. the not easy part is being motivated to do Fairgrounds this for about 4.8 weeks straight without spending a single treasure or gem to save up for a 2500 10-Copy Accent. Once you have your hands on one, it's much more easier from here onward. but there are also many other methids like baldwin and melting down all that sweet sweet useless items to good materials.

    When you submit the artwork and it's approved, you have removed a lot of the waiting work. toss them out on the Auction House at 550G, and ping GASP + limited tag. People like when they can access it immediately for whatever use. users also love that limited tag, even when it's up for future reprints. really, just put it on and people will come. the number of times i left out the limited tag and had such low numbers is....a lot. lol.

    at 550G, it's a reasonable price, and more than enough to cover another 10-pack blueprint! accents will always have more profit in the long run than skins. with clever skin artwork and positioning, you can make a gorgeous accent that is well below 31% while still beautifying dragons. The point is to always have enough gems in the end at least to buy a copy of 10-pack accent blueprint.

    dont be too discouraged. sometimes bad luck happens and you manage to only do 1 run. 2 is awesome, and 3 is popping an energy drink. as long as you can always afford a 10 pack, or 1 in your inventory, you are always safe.

    ▶—————— closing words

    the small victories are the best. celebrate them. in the grand scheme of things it's a silly virtual pet game people play so they can lavish their big serpentine lads.