Porn and Career

[Marshtomp]

The internet is for Porn.
We have all heard this before...
Okay here it goes.


I got a serious topic today.

My brother...lets face it.. Draws smut and porn and boobs.
I really don't care about this.

But he's really been trying to get a career in Digital Art.
And wouldn't you know it.. He was caught. My Noisy mother went through the hard drive and found some of his stuff. I think she is afraid that if anyone finds out about what he does, it will ruin his reputation in the Art field.. Which I don't agree with.

I look at SFD, Papaya Kitty and Bittenhard and their stuff.. And they have an amazing reputation. It's hard to explain this to a dense mother though.

Is there a way to explain it is not that bad
or is drawing porn and looking into the Graphic and Animation field really a bad idea?

[Witchiebunny]

I think drawing porn under one's real/traceable name and looking into graphic art is...tricky and depends on the prospective employer.

Not everyone can look at the skills inherent in good porn and be able to see that said person who draws amazing porn will also be able to do other amazing art. Some employers can.

[Stormcaller3801]

There's a couple people out there I know of who have 'tasteful nudes' on websites with their name attached, yet are fairly big names in terms of drawing for comic books and so on. But I'm at work, so as you might expect I have no links.

With that said, my understanding is that your brother's best bet for a career in illustration is going to be depicting a wide range of things in a portfolio- mechanical drawings, architecture, people, products, and so on. If he can only draw one thing, that's not going to work. And if he has the traditional artist's nudes that display a study of anatomy and so on, that isn't going to do anything except help prove he's got the chops for the job. But I wouldn't suggest he run out to a job interview and say, "And here's some porn I did." That would work about as well as you might expect.

I'd say keep it separate, but don't worry too much about it. At worst he might have to explain to an employer that yes, he does that, but it's on his own time and he's entirely capable of figuring out the difference between that and his professional work. So long as he doesn't connect the two (no mentioning his new employer on any of his art or posts, no sharing the URL with clients) it will likely get a few concerned looks and then nothing more when he proves he's able to be an adult.

There could be the odd employer who'd freak- but there's always that case. If he's concerned (as opposed to your mother) I'd say his best bet would be to stop sharing the stuff for a year or more before his first job interview and then keep it limited to a pen name site that is excluded from search engines.

[Ayeaka]

Yes and no. General art world? Will get you a bad reputation unless you play it right.

Selling art online?

You're prettymuch fucked UNLESS you draw porn.

[Marshtomp]

[Marshtomp]

[Marshtomp]

[Ayeaka]

[JimmyChopblock]

The rule of thumb is to do porn under a pseudoname, unless it's "tasteful nudes" as mentioned earlier. However, if you draw nothing BUT "tasteful nudes" that doesn't show your range very well.

It's the same thing in film. Many directors and actors paid the bills in porn before moving on to becoming well known and respected people in the field - but it's rare that they used their real names while making porn.

It's not detrimental to do both porn and respectful artwork, just make sure you seperate yourself into two people when you do it. Unless, of course, you want to work soley in the pornography industry.

[Ayeaka]