Let's not forget the AI Generated Art issue that artists are currently battling. There are currently options that allow people to generate portraits, cartoon-like, anime, painterly style and even manga art. It sucks to be an arist lol. That's why the term "starving artist" exists.
Could not have worded this any better. Being an artist, especially an east asian manhua artist is such a struggle to actually make it a job. It's almost always a hobby, or a side hustle for most of us. The better off bunch which are artist groups like ailu, made it possible to make it a job, but otherwise, it's very exploited, and viewed as a form of entertainment people will absolutely refuse to pay.
after reading that one whole long comment senction about artists struggle to sell their art, I guess it just change my belief that no matter what, art is better off as a form of hobby than selling one. I mean you can sell your art but to make it as the ‘main income’ is nearly impossible because of 1) our society mindset of thinking that arts/commissions are too expensive to be paid in such amount ‘for a picture’ and 2) illegal websites issues and not just mggo or batto but people can put randomly in T i k T o k without credits.