BLOG

Draw and Chill

Growing up as a kid I'd always be creating my own monsters, mutants and robot characters. Now, as an adult, whenever I have a few free hours to draw something, I often turn to my 'Monsters and Mutants' sketchbook to see what I can come up with. The aim isn't to create anything glossy and polished like a lot of my typical digital work. Instead, it's just about having fun and seeing what ends up on the page.

Creation Process

Most of the time I'll just start drawing random shapes and a creature seems to emerge from the page. Occasionally I'll have an idea to begin with. It might be to re-work one of my childhood drawings, or I'll use something from a film, or game as a starting point.

No-Pressure Drawing

To be honest, I never intended to share any of these. Whenever there's an intention to show off my work it creates an added pressure to try harder or even be more self critical. That's not the point of this sketch book. It's all about drawing to relax and have fun with it. If you're an artist or creator, perhaps it's worth also considering the idea that just because you made a thing, it doesn't have to get posted online. It's quite freeing. But if you decide at a later date to share what you do with the world, there's no harm in that either.

Pen and Ink

For some reason I decided to stick with black and white pen drawings for these. Each image starts off as a pencil sketch. I use my trusty Pentel mechanical pencil with a 2B lead. After I've got the basic gist down, I take over with a Zig Manga Ka Flexible pen. I use Fine for the lines and Medium for larger areas of black. Occasionally I'll use black Kuretake Fudegokochi Brush Pen. Although the Fudegokochi pens have a nice flow of ink, sometimes they can over-flow and spill out a bit too much. I've quit using them as I don't want to wait for ink to be drying. I've recently bought a set of white Gel pens, which I expected to use on these, but not had too much opportunity soo far.

These are all drawn in an A5 Molskine sketchbook:

More creatures to come...

I'm just over two thirds through my sketchbook so far. I intend on finishing it, even if it takes another year or two! If you're interested in commission me to draw you a creature of your own like the above, let me know. Otherwise, I'll continue to rely on what my crazy mind can come up with 🙂

Thoughts about Etsy (as a seller)

I've had my Etsy store online for a few years now. Etsy being an online marketplace built to house arts, crafts and creations by original content creators, artisans and designers. I've never actively promoted it since the store here at Benkrefta.com lists everything I sell on Etsy and more. Also at a lower price since I do not need to pay Etsy's middle-man fees.

This isn't going to be a huge in-depth article about Etsy as a selling platform with how to guides on how to set up an Etsy store. Instead, just a few current thoughts I have after using it for a few years now.

Why do you have an Etsy shop, if you already have an online store?

Initially I set it up hoping to use it more as a marketing tool. A way to direct people from Etsy's market place to my shop here. As it turned out, people preferred just buying via Etsy. Despite mentioning this website on my Etsy page and profile and despite my products being cheaper here at BenKrefta.com, customers didn't seem to want to venture off-site. They were happy to simply complete their purchase through Etsy. Perhaps the thought of going to the source doesn't cross a potential customers mind? Or customers miss the call to visit my site? Perhaps it feels like too much effort to click an extra few links when the product is already right there in front of them? Perhaps customers value Etsy's buyer guarantee in the case something were to go wrong with an order?

Ultimately it doesn't really matter what platform a buyer purchases from. It's all good so long as the customer is happy with the price they pay and I'm happy with the price I get. It's just a shame I can't get to pass on the saving to customers I'm otherwise paying Etsy to host a product listing, process payments and communicate. I already have these facilities set up here.

In short, I've learned that it never hurts to list your products on as many platforms as possible. It's been a benefit to use Etsy in addition to my own website and generates additional sales I would otherwise not have had.

What's it like to use?

As selling platforms goes, It's not bad. Setting up and editing listings or multiple listings is straight forward. More so than my own site which uses the WordPress eCommerce module 'Woo Commerce'.

Payments reach my bank account within a day or two. Not instantly, which is a shame, but a lot quicker than Amazon.com for example. Amazon insists it holds my money for 3 months in case of needing a reserve to deal with potential returns and refunds.

Layouts are clean and everything works as it should without being overly complicated.

A battle against art thieves

One thing I, along with many marketplace sellers often complain about is the amount of businesses which abuse the platform. The site is set up for individuals and small businesses who produce handmade, niche products. However, there are way too many sellers on the site which will, for example, steal a load of images and content online then reproduce it on t-shirts, posters and apparel. Yes, it's against Etsy's terms of service, but there's so much of it and not always easy for a layman to tell who has the right to reproduce what. It becomes a complicated and time-consuming task to moderate. 

On a personal level, I've now seen 8 different sellers who have stolen my artwork and attempted to sell it printed onto products without my permission on Etsy. I don't even regularly search for it, and often just stumble across my stolen art. No doubt there's someone on Etsy right now attempting to profit from my work illegally. I've simply not got around to finding it yet.

I have managed to get my artworks removed from each of the Etsy seller's listings. However as far as I know the offending sellers have never received any disciplinary action or been banned from the site for breaking the law. They are all are still able to sell other products. One or two of my artworks being taken down from their store doesn't seem to be enough to raise questions about the authenticity of their remaining products. So far as I can see these sellers are still blatantly stealing and profiting from other artist's work. This suggests to me that so long as Etsy is making money they're not going to go to any great lengths to remove seller accounts listing products which all obviously infringe upon copyright.

Therefore it seems that the responsibility to educate customers about this situation has fallen upon us artists and original content creators. I went on to mention this on the site in "My Ebay Story".
See below:

My Etsy Story

"I graduated with a 1st class BA Degree in Graphic Media in 2008 and have since worked in the art and design industry since. I've written and illustrated several best-selling how-to-draw books, selling close to a million combined copies to date, translated into 4 other languages and sold globally.

The work I sell on my site and Etsy store is original- created by yours truly from the ground up. Typically an image starts out as a sketch, the line-work then refined before adding the colour and tone. I try to bring my love of varying art styles; from manga to tattoo to graffiti art into my work and with the aim to make each piece eye-catching and unique.

On a personal note; The art game can be tough. I often feel frustrated that I (along with other original art creators) am competing in a huge arena of sellers who produce little more than a carbon copy of an existing picture or art thieves who literally steal an image from Google and stick it onto a product to sell. Several times a year I'm having to request that stores online, including a few other Etsy sellers stop stealing and using my art - it's a never ending battle and I'm just one artist of many this is happening to.

Prospective buyers are often none the wiser to this situation. I'd like to see shoppers support artists who have made the effort to bring something original into this world, who aren't looking for shortcuts or to make a sale off of another artist's works. So please read about the individual creators on Etsy- find out who they are and how they create their arts and crafts. Are they genuine? If you were to purchase an item on Etsy, will the profits support an artisan or simply fall into the pocket of an art thief or merchant who may not even have permission to reproduce the work they've made use of?

Thank you :)"

Etsy Killed Me!

Edit: As of 2022 Esty banned my store. A rival seller made multiple false claims that I'd used copyrighted images which they owned. This was not the case! I create all my artwork from scratch and have the initial sketches and layered Photoshop files to prove it. Due to multiple cases coming at me simultaneously, I was unable to dispute this situation with Etsy. And despite filing counter claims to prove no laws or rules were broken. Bizarrely, Etsy now refuse to answer any email I send them and have completely cancelled me from their platform. They've made it impossible to resolve. If you like to shop through Etsy and was hoping to buy one of my works there, I apologise. Although my shop is fully stocked with everything I'd had for sale on Etsy (and more).

I can’t say I have a great answer for this one since it’s been years since I used anything other than Photoshop. I guess the reason for using something other that Photoshop would be to save money. Or find something that suits you better- whether it be simpler and easier to use or more relevant to creating the type of art you produce. I used to like Paint tool Sai, Painter and Clip Studio Paint  (was known as 'Manga Studio' back in the day when I used it). Krita should do the job if you don’t want to pay any money.

It's also worth looking into tablet based drawing apps which tend to be easier to learn with limited functionality. Autodesk Sketchbook, ArtRage and Procreate are spoken of highly within the artistic community. Although I've personally never tried them - I don't have an Ipad or Tablet computer.

The best thing would be to try all of the above and see which one suits you. Most Apps will provide at least a 30 day free trial if they're not already free. How about setting yourself a project to create an artwork with each piece of software? This would allow you enough time to evaluate it's pros and cons before making a decision about which to use on a regular basis.

When creating a character and a background, would it be best for both to be detailed, or only one of them to keep the focus on one feature?

If the brief / objective is to create a character for example, concept art character designing, then focus entirely on the character. Sure, you can add background elements to give some context, but it’s not necessary to go too detailed unless you are deliberately illustrating a scene.

Do you have any other tips or recommendations on digital drawing or creating an original character?

Before even picking up a pencil, it’s worth writing down 3-6 themes or elements you want to include in the character. Ask yourself- What’s their gender? What genre/s are you designing for? What part of the world are they from? What’s their job/role? What kind of abilities do they have? What tools do they use to help with their duties? What type of clothing would make their job easier? For example:

Gender: Male

Genre: Medieval fantasy

From: The Mountains

Role: Hunter

Abilities: Strength, tactics and cunning

Tools: Bow and Arrow, Axe

Clothing: Something to keep him warm in the mountains and camouflaged and protected when hunting

Once you’ve figured out these questions, think of a feature that makes them special and stand out from every other generic hunter character. Maybe he’s got a crazy scars from battle, or a huge, magical bow that fires 20 arrows at once?

Also consider what wouldn’t work with this character. For example, a metal arm wouldn’t help if you’re in cold environments. Loud and colourful clothing wouldn’t help sneak up on your prey. It’s about creating something over the top and fun, but whilst still being somewhat believable. I touch on this question in both The Artists Guide to Drawing Manga and Digital Manga also.

Enhancing Old Art

There's nothing wrong with returning to your older artwork and attempting to improve it, right? Sometimes old artwork just needs a little tweak or a few small changes to make it significantly better or more consistent.

I decided to amend and update my previous frog girl illustration to give it a Sugar Skull twist. I also limited the colour palette with some tonal adjustments. It matches some of the other, recent artwork in my gallery a little better. Plus people have told me they're liking my skull related artwork, so now here's another to add to the collection!

Maybe one day I'll figure out how to match this stuff up with the all the various manga styles I like playing with also? Producing a consistent gallery or range of images is always going to be a challenge when you love producing so many different types of art styles.

Decorate your walls

A3 size prints are now available of this one to buy via the site's Shop. I decided to give the option to purchase this new version along with the original no-make-up version plus the marker version I'd create a while back. Do you have a preference?

If you're interested, check of my Traditional Vs Digital: Frog Girl blog post to see some work in progress shots of this one.

New Product Updates in the Shop:

Many of the large / A3 prints in the Shop have now been amended to include Matt, Gloss and a Special Metallic paper finishes. Although the print company I just started using for these is currently closed due to the pandemic lock-down, so frog girl will temporarily remain as Gloss only for the time being. I'll take some photos of the new metallic prints in due course. For now, you'll have to take my word for it but they look fantastic! And managed to put a smile on my face 🙂

There's something really cool about an physical piece of art be it a print or original. You just can't get it looking at it on a screen. Especially these metallic prints which have light bouncing off them as I move them in my hands.

At the time of posting, prices for most of the A3 prints are:

£11.99 for Matt: Satin smooth paper avoids reflections
£12.99 for Gloss: Deep colours with a sheen
£16.99 for Metallic: Special finish for spectacular effect when in the light

Shipping here in the UK is: £3.40 per print. Europe: £5. USA and rest of the world is: £8.

For a limited time I'm running the promo code 10OFFPRINTS at the checkout stage. It allows 10% off when spending over £30 on art print orders.

I'd recently finished binge-watching the first 4 seasons of super-hero anime 'My Hero Academia'. Despite initial reservations after the first episode, I ended up getting into it and really enjoying it. My goal was to create some All Might fan art in a similar style to the Tattooed Goku I'd created a few years back. Here's some work in progress images to show the process:

Who is All Might?

All Might (Toshinori Yagi as he is known in Japan), in the anime and manga series "My Hero Academia," is a symbol of peace and the greatest Pro Hero in the world. His real name is Toshinori Yagi. Possessing immense strength and the ability to transfer his One For All Quirk, a power passed down through generations, All Might has dedicated his life to protecting society from villains. In his hero form, he is an iconic, muscular figure with a distinctive smile that inspires hope. All Might's incredible strength comes with a limitation – a grievous injury that has weakened him over time, making his time as the Symbol of Peace finite.

Beyond his physical prowess, All Might's charismatic and selfless nature has won him the admiration of both heroes and civilians alike. He becomes a mentor to Izuku Midoriya, the protagonist of the series, and plays a crucial role in shaping the young hero's journey. All Might's presence is a beacon of hope and a reminder that, even in a world filled with challenges and villains, true heroes can rise above to bring peace and justice.

Digital Sketching

I started with a digital sketch using reference from bodybuilder Jay Cutler who reminded me of All Might. This was then refined and tidied up, adding his "I am here" catchphrase to the banner- a line he must have used a million times in the My Hero Academia anime!
Time: 7 Hours to draw

Adding Colour

The first image on the left is probably around 60% through the colouring process. It was getting a bit dark, so brightened it up and added colourful background splatters to finish. I'm very happy with how it it turned out- makes a nice little tribute piece to the series 🙂
Time: 10.5 Hours to colour – 17.5 hours total.

Own The Art Print

As the icon of virtue, hope and strength, All Might can remind us to do good, help others and be strong. Would you'd like the symbol of justice to hang on your walls? And would rather display art which looks a little prettier than a copy-and-paste screen capture from the My Hero Academia anime? I've turned it into an A3 print, available to buy on my store.

Buy The T-Shirt

I'd thought about creating and offering shirts featuring this and other designs in my store for some time. There was enough interest to make it happen, so have also now added All Might:

Thanks for supporting my artistic endeavours, and if you're a Hero Academia fan, let me know. See you next time 🙂

I wanted to create a couple of new fan art pieces for fun. This year I decided to take a crack at Bowsette and Boosette (aka Booette)- a couple of spin-off meme creations from Nintendo’s Mario game series. The goal was to go full-on kawaii manga style with these two- huge eyes and small mouths.

Digital Sketching

I started with a digital sketch. Using multiple colours helps prevent getting confused by too many messy lines all over the place. After Bowsette was finished, I used her as a template for creating Boosette.
Time: 16 Hours

Neat Outlines

Then came time to clean up the artwork by digitally inking it. I kept the line work pretty thin for this project and not using thicker, heavier lines for the outside or varying line weighs like I might do in previous images.
Time: 11.5 Hours

Flat tones

The next stage is laying down the flat tones. The process of sketch, ink, flats and then rendering the flats is a technique and workflow I’ve been using in digital artwork since the late 90s. It’s a process that works out great for being able to isolate certain colours and parts of an image, keeping the artwork looking tidy and smooth, while retaining the line art, rather than painting over it.
Time: 1.6 Hours

Colours and Shading

Then it’s time to choose colours and a light source. This time light is coming from the centre/ top left. I start with a two-tone ‘anime cel’ style to figure out how much shadow the put down. I could leave it at this cel stage by sticking with the flat tones, but I’m often too tempted to start rendering and adding smooth gradations to the tones. As much as I love the typical anime aesthetic, I prefer creating a more 3D, airbrushed and rendered artwork.

Finished Artworks

Lots of rendering time later and both are finished. They make a good pair- by having opposing colour schemes- one with red/orange and the other with purple and blue. The artwork is tight and polished, making it suitable for large scale printing with the original image dimensions each being close to 14,000 pixels high!
Total time: 56 Hours – 28 hours each.

What’s next? I love experimenting in different styles, so I’ll probably take a break from the Kawaii manga look for a while and try something else. But this project showed me if I ever want to create more artwork in this style, I know I can nail it successfully 😊

Prints for sale

Print sales both online and at comic conventions have increased this year, which is a definite bonus. I've always been a commission artist; taking on projects for both business and individuals alike, and it was only in recent years I'd made some effort to produce art prints to sell. I'm focusing on A3 size and still keeping them at the lower rate of £11.99 on this website, compared to £15-£16 at other online retailers. They'll continue to be sold for this rate for at least the rest of 2019, so head over to the store for last minute Christmas shopping.

Colouring Book

I've more or less just finished working on a colouring book project. I was commissioned to create it around 3 months ago.

The title is 'Manga Unicorns' - Yep, a combination of Unicorns with manga characters! It will be released next year and will post some more info once it's available. To work on a colouring book had been on my to-do list for a long time. Ever since after the adult colouring book boom started around 2015. But at the time I was still busy to create a colouring book of my own since I was finishing The Artist's Guide to Drawing Manga, whilst working on my tattoo business. Now I've finally got one colouring book under my belt, I'm considering working on at least another for 2020. It'll depends if the publisher and I can work out the details. I'll keep you posted!

Tattoos

Despite this website focusing on my illustration and manga artwork, I'm currently devoting half my work time towards tattooing. I like the mix of both working with a customer in my studio, as well as getting times to lock myself away in front of the graphics tablet for a few hours each day.

My thought right now is finding time to produce some custom flash (tattoo designs) to pitch to potential customers. You might be surprised at how many people like and want tattoos but don't really know what they want. They often end up settling for whatever is fashionable at the time. So, if I can provide an alternative to 'pocket watches' and 'dream catchers', I'll be able to start cultivating a tattoo portfolio showcasing the artwork I'm best at, and would like to produce.

Finding the time

Like with many creative types, I think the tough part is often finding enough time to complete the many projects and ideas floating around in my head, and in that to-do list I mentioned earlier! If artworks like the ones above can take 10-30 hours or more to produce, there's only so many images that can be made each month, alongside the usual tasks of admin, social media management, and client communication. The challenge then becomes trying to narrow down exactly what to work on and when. Taking on new projects is exciting. I just wish there was enough time to turn them all into reality!

Will I make money as an artist?

Years ago I documented my early experiences with 'Print on Demand' Site, Society 6. It was short article, mostly to complain about a few problems I had with S6's platform. This time I'm going in-depth. Addressing my experiences, thoughts and issues with a similar Print on Demand site- Design By Humans (DBH). With so many aspiring artists asking me, "how do I make money online?", this article should give some insight.  It doesn't necessarily point the way to the pot of gold every artist is looking for, but hopefully you'll appreciate an honest, critical perspective.

What is a Print on Demand (POD) site?

There’s now dozens of online stores/platforms which allow artists and designers to create their own store page and upload their artwork, designs and digital assets to be sold on prints, products such as phone cases and apparel such as t-shirts. A royalty or commission then gets paid to the artist after the store sells, prints and post orders which make use your artwork.

It seems like a great idea. You earn a small passive from income your artwork without needing to develop and run the platform from which you sell it on. You just spend a little time putting the art online (which you may have already have created) and then wait for the money to begin rolling in! Or rather, more often than not, then wait for the tumble-weed to go rolling past!

What is Design By Humans?

It's a USA based POD site, born over a decade ago, which specialised in printing T-shirt designs and has now branched out to offer other products in addition such as prints, stickers and mugs. Several years ago when I first joined the site, it was a small artist's hub offering up designs which other artists and customers alike had voted for in a competition-like format. The voting system generally ensured that everything the site printed and sold featured a quality design worthy of being worn in public. A number of years ago the site updated their business model to allow anyone (artists were initially vetted however) to populate the site with their designs without needing votes, in the same way POD sites like Tee Public and Society 6 work. This now meant artists like myself could at least have the opportunity to sell our designs in a more open market system.
However without the voting system, the quality standard across the site has, in my opinion, significantly dropped. Without wanting to sound like I'm blowing my own horn, many of the more professional artists like myself are now firmly in the minority. Both as an artist and consumer, I find this frustrating. The vetting process for designs that DBH now allow is somewhat lacking, which I'll discuss later as it's kind of amusing.

What Does Design By Humans pay?

DBH is one of several POD sites I have experimented with over the years, which does typically earn me at least something each month; even if it's just a couple of bucks. Although it's hard to say whether or not I'd recommend other aspiring artists and designers bothering with it.

To format your designs, upload your work through their 'add a product' system and create the relevant keywords to aid search results takes a long time, like with any POD site. And you may not end up being adequately financially compensated for your efforts. Like all ventures of this nature, there's some risk involved and whether or not you'll succeed on such as site is not a simple answer.

As an example- I might upload a design which takes an hour to format into the correct size PNG file, upload and configure. That design might not make a single penny over the course of years. Other designs might make a few dollars, while others still could generate hundreds of dollars.

Patience required

In my experience, generating hundreds of dollars for a design isn't common for most but with POD sites it's worth noting you're playing the long game; you go to the effort of uploading your designs in the beginning and might have to wait a number of years before seeing a significant financial return.

For example, one of my Sugar Skull Girl designs has currently generated me over $50 total on DBH. The design was uploaded nearly two years ago. So let's say the design is earning me $25 a year. Not much, right? But providing the design carries on selling for 10+ years, that's $250 of passive income. Is that worth it to you? You decide. Keep in mind I use this same design across several other POD sites. Each earning a few bucks here and there. This design also sells on art prints on my own site or through conventions and events I attend. Therefore when you add up the amount of money this one design makes across different platforms and sales channels over the course of a decade, it's considerably more than if I were to instead work solely as a commission artist who charges, say, $250 for a single, one-off artwork or design which I then never derive any further income from.

How much money can I get?

To answer the question of pay-out royalty; DBH currently offers a designer around $3 every time they sell a $25 shirt. DBH state they offer competitive rates, which is true compared to some POD sites which only offer a dollar per sale. As an artist, do I think $3 is fair? No way! The only reason a T-shirt sells is because the customer is buying the design on it. While I appreciate Print-On-Demand / order quantities of 1 are going to carry a higher cost to produce compared to a mass-produced shirt printed in the thousands, I'd imagine the artist isn't getting even a third of the net profit on each sale and without the designs us artists provide POD sites wouldn't exist in the first place.
When it comes to retail, the artist, inventor or original creator taking the smaller share for a sale is nothing new. It can equally be true to say; without the opportunity to sell on their site, us artists would also have nothing. And so the market determines if DBH's rates are profitable enough for them to run their business whilst satisfying the expectations of enough artists who are willing to give it a go and populate their site.

Are POD sites a reliable money earner?

With all POD sites, you should never rely on them as your primary source of income. Some people seem to have found the magic formula to be able to do this- I know of a few people who make thousands of dollars a month from POD sites, But like with a lot of these types of venture, those people make up a very small percentage of total sellers. For most it's a complete dead-end or just a trickle of passive income you could never expect to live off, especially if living in a first-world country.

While a design has the potential to keep generating a passive income for years, maybe decades, it also has the potential to dry up at any time. The business could cease trading, the search algorithm used to find your design could change (either on-site or via external search engines which point to your designs), or your design could get buried under a pile of other designs which come after it.

Also expect dry spells and more active selling times of the year towards x-mas, where sales will suddenly spike compared to previous months.

Too much garbage

So many POD sites have emerged over recent years, and you can understand why. It seems like the perfect business model: You provide a platform then get online designers and artists to populate it with products for you to sell and make a profit from whilst paying the majority of your work-force (us artists) nothing unless the product sells! And even then, the amount they pay seems a little unfair to the artists. Sure, these POD companies advertise their platform which brings customers to their site, but any business needs to do this regardless. So to reiterate, even though it might be worth artists experimenting with POD sites it's also worth noting you'll likely not earn a great deal and the royalty is kinda lousy (even if it is considered the going rate or better for such sites). If any designer out there is making mega bucks and wants to prove me wrong, great! And let me know. I love a success story 🙂

What type of artwork and designs sell?

The fact the pay-outs and earning potential is relatively low for most POD site artists, means many top-end professionals are probably going to avoid bothering with it, and instead it attracts designs from the likes of lazy opportunists, kids, novices or amateurs whose standard of work is pretty bad. Part of DBH's mission statement reads, "Embedded in the culture of Design By Humans is a passion for brilliantly designed tees, detailed illustration and a strong appreciation for all things creative." While we can try to appreciate the 'all things creative' part, there are a lot of tees which are certainly not brilliantly designed or illustrated in detail. You might be thinking, but isn't that a good thing as it means your work will stand out above the competition? Sure, it's always a bonus if a large portion of your competition on a site is producing sub-par work to make your stuff stand out. However it's not so good when such work pushes your designs to the bottom of the pile, effectively banishing them to page 10+ of an on-site search result and otherwise making them difficult to find.

DBH, like many POD sites are a bit of a free-for-all allowing almost anything to be uploaded and sold. I'm putting a lot of time into my art and designs, bumping up the quality, adding the "detail" and trying to produce something which I think might sell and do well on the site. It's not just me, but any competent artist in this position who can generate sales on DBH deserves to have their work more prominently placed in search results, yet this isn't always the case.

While I agree it's fair to give every designer the opportunity to upload their work, it's not necessarily fair to give equal allowances or privileges to artists of lower ability levels or standards when it comes to a design holding it's place at the top of a search result.
If an artist practices their craft for decades, gets pretty good at it, attempts to get eye-balls on their design and thus potentially make a sale, that's fair enough, right? But it is unfair for an amateur or lazy designer's work to get bumped to the top of the pile whilst pushing down the experienced pro's offering just because the amateur happened to be the last person to post or because they have lots of designs to populate search results. Basically I'm all about fairness and rewarding designers on a meritocratic basis.

To some degree this issue could be mitigated during the submissions process. Once upon a time DBH only used to allow artists to open a store if they could prove their artistic worth (perhaps they still do, but people are now lying about their credentials?). But I don't think that's the case any more, and I'll show you what I mean below. Therefore the design submission process needs to be a little stricter in regards to quality control.

Examples:

I did a general search for "anime girl" since I've listed several designs with those keywords and here's some of the not-so-great examples of what came up within the first 10 pages, much of which frustratingly pushes my artworks/products further down the search results list:

Not formatted for a T-shirt

Again, not formatted for a shirt

The emotion is conveyed at least

A poor copy of existing character art?

This style is better suited elsewhere

Not at the commercial level yet

How did this pass quality control?

This seller posted 4 near identical versions of this stolen and poorly optimised art! Why?!

This artist also uses other artist's stolen artwork in their store

Consistent style but...

"But Ben, who are you to judge? Art/beauty is subjective". That argument simply doesn't apply in many cases. The artistic rules such as anatomy, proportion, lighting, rendering, colour theory, composition and style apply regardless. By all means draw, paint and design no-matter your level of experience or ability, but please re-consider attempting to profit from what you're doing if you've never encountered the rules above. On the flip side, there are some worthy designs listed also. Again, searching for the keywords "anime girl". And like I say, if you can't tell the difference between the 10 examples above and the 5 below, you shouldn't be looking to sell your artwork or designs on T-Shirts just yet. Level up your skills and come back when you have something of value to offer. And I'll just take this opportunity to make the point that I don't want to appear conceited about my own abilities. My work is by no means perfect but it's good enough to sell, and does.

Colourful, nicely composed design. Seller: Retkikosmos

This guy's a master of exaggerated proportion and anatomy. Seller: Rafchu 

Art by yours truly: Seller: bomazu

Looks good on a shirt and artist has a consistent style in their store. Seller: Freeminds

This is a cute sticker. Seller: Cayzi

I guess ideally DBH expects you, the artist to direct customers to your unique DBH Store page and bypass the need to use their search engine? Personally, if I'm going to market my designs as well, I'd rather direct customers to my own website and have the designs printed myself, or use a drop-shipping service to do this on my behalf. I expect POD sites to direct traffic to my products if they're taking the lion's share of the profits.

What does DBH get right?

My intention isn't just to hunt down all the flaws with their platform and the site has some benefits over similar sites I've worked with:

No pay-out threshold: Some sites, such as Displate and Zazzle require you to earn $50 before they pay you YOUR money. DBH don't try to unfairly skim off the top from their designers and always pay monthly no matter how much you've earned.
Decent Support: I've contacted the staff on several occasions and they've always been helpful and try to resolve problems.
Quality T-shirts: I've bought a number of shirts from DBH in the past and the quality and fit has always been good.
Less Piracy: Some moderation takes place to limit the number of stolen, infringed designs being sold on their site. There's nothing worse than a huge free-for all POD site such as Red Bubble which is happy to allow art thieves to profit from re-posting art they pull from an internet image search. DBH still has too much of this, but not in such high numbers.
Measures to prevent art thieves: Unfortunately It's not uncommon for artists to upload their design to a POD site, for it to then be stolen/downloaded some time after by an immoral dick-head who re-posts it on another POD site without consent. Luckily DBH used low-res images in their store, making this harder to download and use elsewhere.

Final thoughts

DBH- a nice idea and company filled with lovely staff, I'm sure. It creates opportunities to make money which artists wouldn't otherwise have, but the experience of competing on the site can be frustrating and isn't something you'll ever get rich from. If it's not for the fact you're up against the selection of dominant 'popular designs' (which forever prevent new work getting noticed by ranking top of the search listings,) you're also having to deal with the site's many amateur designers and art thieves unfairly given a place at the table. I'll carry on supporting DBH and using their site, but can't give them a strong recommendation to other artists or designers. Making any money from them is too hit and miss.

For independent reviews of designs, shirt quality and POD sites themselves, Check out Teefetch. I stumbled across them recently and noticed the site had featured some favourable reviews on a couple of my own designs which was cool to see.

And feel free to click here if you want to check out the range of anime or tattoo inspired t-shirts and I have available on DBH which features artwork from yours truly. If you want to purchase one too, I'll greatly appreciate the $3 of royalty!

How do I draw manga hair?

Like with anything you want to draw, it's a case of looking at examples of existing manga characters you can use as reference to figure out how other artists are doing it. Usually it's a case of simplifying and grouping clumps/bangs of hair together into sections or spikes, then considering gravity, wind and how that will effect the direction the hair is moving. If you're a beginner to drawing manga, I'd suggest checking out one of my How-to-Draw books such as 'The Artist's Guide to Drawing Manga'. Read it cover to back, and if you're still having trouble with anything specific, let me know and I'll do my best to answer.