I'm about to go to bed, so this will sound rather slapdash/unprofessional:
As far as I understand it, and as depressing as this may sound, most artists work a boring/annoying day job to pay/help with the bills. Some look into jobs in advertising (which is both unpopular 'and' still hard to find any kind of employment in). Others flip burgers or wash dishes. On your skill level I would have expected that commissions do some numbers, but apparently that isn't going too well for you right now.
On that note: Most artist who offer commissions on NG make a News Post outlining their conditions and prices, which they link to from their sidebar. The Collab system is also sometimes used to look for work.
Search for "I am looking for a [specific kind of artist] to work with me on an upcoming project." here for links and my thoughts on that system:
Yatsufusa's Frequently Given Replies
https://yatsufusa.newgrounds.com/news/post/1487260
You should also look into getting a Subscribestar account to run parallel to Patreon. Both as a means to cater to people who have had it with Patreon as well as a 'safety net'. (Search for "I was kicked from Patreon. What now?" in the News Post I linked to above.)
From the general impression I've been getting:
- Keep Tumblr, even if you don't use it a lot.
- Check if you're shadowbanned on Twitter/"X".
- Steer clear of DeviantArt.
- As for Instagram, you might want to read this if you're still using your account there: https://guardias.newgrounds.com/news/post/1463479
Services such as linktr.ee or carrd.co can help you to share all of your links around in places that limit the number of 'profile-links' to other sites.
Consider being on more sites that focus on an NSFW-crowd. Hentai-foundry.com comes to mind, but I haven't been there in years.
The free program 'PostyBirb' can help with uploading to multiple accounts. (Search for "Juggling all of those websites is too much for me, so I'm quitting NG." in the News Post I linked first.)
Here's some generic 'Self-Publishing Advice':
https://www.newgrounds.com/collection/367279/self-publishing-advice
Lastly: Ask other artists in the NG Art Forum ( https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/forum/14 ). They know your struggle better than any rando who will see this post. Like me. ;)
I'll try to remember to look at this post again tomorrow, but I'm not confident that I will. I'm juggling a lot of stuff.
dadeaner
I have no experience in the struggle and I haven't created anything outside of my job in years so take this with a grain-of-salt...
I have seen some artist grow their work by collaborating with each other. Maybe one person draws a pin-up and the other creates an idle animation loop from it. While you would have to share the credit and commission, this would get more eyes on you and demonstrate greater value in your portfolio. You can take an older piece and make something simple like ( https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/sirlenward/the-edds ) or a more ambitions animation like ( https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/prywinko/professor-garlick-animation ). I've been busy myself, but I would be happy to create a free example for you sometime; However, my focus is only 2D tweening and effects ( https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/dadeaner/carmelita-fox-2-animation ).
Apologies if I missed you mentioning it, but I have also found a lot of new artist who post to specific subreddits. You may find some like-minded regulars in smaller forums and discords. There's a ton of niche communities for smaller Streamers and YouTubers. Fan Art shared in these communities an be carried pretty far. V-Tubers typically have a high demand for art to use in thumbnails, social posts, merch, emotes and stream assets. That may be a good place to look.
If you want to sell your own work, I would reach out to artists like Sabtastic ( https://sabtastic.newgrounds.com/ ) who attend conventions and artist alleys to sell their own merch. Though I believe they have a full-time job outside of art. Most artist who attend these sell fan art for mass appeal like REIQtv.
Other people to reach out to include Jim Lee and Dave Greco who are both industry veterans with decades of insight on the struggle.
Some artists stream their work/commissions on twitch and picarto so you may be able to get more insight on how they're managing. Some of these artists (especially on picarto and artists' discords) have multi-streams with open mic and chat if you need more interaction in your day-to-day.
You do good work that absolutely should be seen and I wish you the best :)
RoastedWitch
You actually have a very good idea going on, idle animations are quite visual, tho I would need to make some different processes in order to make them work, maybe... But thank you so much!
Another question, do you use Live 2D for those mechanics? or you use any more "traditional" program like photoshop or clip?