anonrerising | Spring into Salt

I did not realize he had 2000 people on a skin pinglist
that's a lot of people, and I thought the 700 people on staff's gene error updates pinglist was a lot already
I make a lot of varied aesthetics too but maybe only 1-2 out of 10 ever get enough signups to print. when I ping for them most of the people signed up don't send me their gems so I can't even afford blueprints
it's good to hear from another skin artist who sometimes struggles, but 150 is 10 times the amount I have
thank you for talking with me instead of attacking me

There's a lot of factors, more than people usually think about, that play into skin success I feel. How often do you release them? Did you release it during a particular event (large collabs/flight festival day 1)? What pose is it on? How much do they cost? Do you advertise your skin shop anywhere else? What aesthetic does it appeal to? Are the colours easy to work with?

I've been on and off into making skins for probably three years or so now, admittedly my library isn't that huge because I make them more whenever I feel like it; I started getting commissions for custom orders only in this year. Speaking for myself I still don't entirely understand how this works, my first two skins were drawn very poorly and with very shitty shadows/lines applied to them, and both of them somehow got 30 copies printed which is on the high end for me. There are occasional but somewhat consistent cases of first-time artists releasing a skin that sells very well.

I don't pay attention to dates or events when I release skins but I used to do 3-4 a month whenever I finished one
they cost 850g, or 1000g for the ones that I would print only 5 of because they're limited. I looked at how other skin shops priced their skins for that
I think the colors are easy to work with but I just draw them on top of the psd templates, should I try to preview them on other dragons too? I link reskin links for previewing when I ping for GASP
and for aesthetic, I've tried some of everything. silks and wings and flowers on wildclaws, desert silk stuff, hyperpop, cute hatchling skins. I've even tried releasing a skin right after a new ancient to catch the hype. that worked a little better and it's one of the few skins I printed
I don't know where else to advertise my shop other than GASP

yeah, you should try previewing or colorpicking from dragons made from the onsite scryshop, it wont be a surefire way to get people to buy, but i think it would help- sometimes a color being a few shades off turns people off from buying. hypefishing has worked for me historically too, but i avoid publishing skins towards the end of the start of the month- since those times tend to overlap with fest skin rejects.
by the way, if you draw on a canvas that isn't 350x350, i recommend using photopea to resize it to 350 and use the bicubic sharpener resizing option when you go into image size. its a lot better than most art programs resizing tools.

I use firealpaca or my phone's drawing app, I'll look at downloading photopea
this is helpful, thank you
how do you pick what dragons to scry? should I pick popular color combos, or just random ones? maybe I can look in hatchery thread for pretty dragons?

I tend to look at popular colors first! in my mind these are antique, oilslick, umber, stone and that sort of neutral colors. but thats because im one of those dirtcore skin makers. x)

but hatcheries seems like a good idea, i never thought of that. another idea is to generate color palettes from a website like coolors ahead of time, or find pinterest boards, then make a dragon scry around it. started doing that recently and its been nice to have a direction to be pointed in (and it seems like the people in my shops like it too, my sales been improving and very consistent in my personal experience haha)

that's a really good idea, thank you
I was feeling very discouraged but this makes me excited to try again

I think the more average price is 750 for accents and 850 for skins, if all your skins are 850 at base price it might be one of the reasons why people don't sign up. 850 feels like a lot for an accent with less coverage. If you already don't have one, make a google sheet (there are templates if you can't make sheets like I am) and hotlink it at the top of your post, maybe even in bolded and enlarged text; I've noticed that generally people like signing up on sheets more than asking to be added.

You should definitely try picking colours from dragons and previewing them on scries, even randomized ones would work. Typically I pick my colours from harlequin/jester since they tend to use both the most common accent gene colours.

Stick your skin shop into your bio and signature. Signature will help only if you're at least somewhat active on forums but it could help a little even if you post once in a blue moon. If you're in any FR servers on discord you can try selling your skins there. Sign up to Daily Uma Adverts as an artist, the posts there are slightly inconsistent but it could help with attracting new people after the initial GASP boost.
https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/skin/3118217/129#post_58678843

Also, try finding something that you're having fun with. Like just a thing that you, yourself, like drawing. You can't have very good quality if you dislike the process itself and want it to get over with. I really like patterned fabric, personally, so usually my skins involve that in combination with something else.

the problem is I like drawing a lot of things but they don't translate well onto skins
I have a lineless style and it blurs into the dragon when it's on site
I will look at the spreadsheet thing, thank you, and my accents are 500g.
I didn't know about the daily UMA adverts thread so I will check that out as well

Adding something like a contrasting outline or fade behind your skin, or even just a sharp transition, could help for the drawing to pop, drawing lineless isn't antithesis to good skins. Mywitness's entire database is a testament to that. Here's some examples I could find from a quick search:
https://www1.flightrising.com/game-database/item/61757
https://www1.flightrising.com/game-database/item/59420
https://www1.flightrising.com/game-database/item/62500
https://www1.flightrising.com/game-database/item/61521

thank you a lot
I started the thread just wanting to whine but you and the other anon have provided a lot of good advice to me instead of letting me wallow in self pity
I'm excited to revamp my skin shop
I hope both of you have good luck in the future too <3

oh i didnt mean to attack you, thats on me and im sorry about that. but yeah similar to what the anon said above, august has made skins for years so naturally he has a way higher audience for the skins he makes. but variety is a huge point in why he *is* so popular. he is just really flexible in a lot of subjects, and that probably contributes to why people are willing to bet on a completely unknown skin. its about how much people like his past archives rather than it being a joke- if someone else who didnt have the same following as him that hes built over years did the same bit, it would not have gone as hard. im even willing to bet if someone else that is considered just as popular wont be able to create this sort of reach.

i know you werent looking for any particular advice, but if you arent already, basing skin colors on scry shop/existing dragon colors helps sales a lot when they match peoples dragons. i find people like clean lines a lot. i dont know what your shop looks like but its the two basic things i follow. <3

I think I make a big variety of skins too, and it always hurts more than it helps
I got advice from a flight rising discord I'm in, and every time people tell me that I should stick to one aesthetic or carve out a niche :/
it's encouraging I guess that variety is his thing but I don't know how to replicate it. do you have any advice on that? I want to draw a lot of subjects too
thank you for the advice, I was only looking to vent when I made the thread but you and the other anon are really sweet.

i know august uses something called autoline to make a lot of his skins, it makes his skin have that signature clean color look. he doesnt bother with rendering on the skin image itself, and instead relies on recolor the dragons lines and shadows for contrast and rendering. thats my personal opinion on why his flight rising skins seems so appealing to a lot of people- because of that clean, polish look even without the usage of a lot of rendering.

August renders a lot in his skins, actually. He exaggerates for effect when he talks about not rendering. He's explained before it's to encourage people not to spend too much time worrying about small details when the final skin is resized. The clean colour look is years of understanding how skins resize and general colourblocking skill. August is extremely good at utilizing shapes.

Here are some images he's posted in his skin shop with big images of his skins. There's clearly shading and rendering, but it's stylized. They're great images to study if you want to see how he works.

https://i.imgur.com/yRBJ0jI.png
https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/skin/3225785/148#post_58590104
https://i.imgur.com/ZNmaIIO.png
https://i.imgur.com/nfDskD6.png

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