Seeing this drawing on tumblr made me think about how, in the eyes of many people, being an artist is the “wrong” profession to choose.
I even saw something similar in a community of artists: a young man was undecided between being an artist and pursuing a military career and asked for advice in a thread.
My own fellow artists advised him to join the military. “It was safer,” said one of them!
Heh, saying a career in military is “safer” is particularly ironic 
, but I suppose the sentiment is that art is a difficult and suboptimal way of living. Perhaps you become a pro artist only if you feel like it is the only thing you can do to stay sane 
I follow many “real” artists, and boy, I can see it is a struggle. Scrambling for commissions, pumping out the content, building up the social accounts, often struggling to stay afloat financially, and improve the skills to land better work opportunities. Yeah… it’s a tough job.
I don’t think I would say to anyone to not do it, but I would definitely say that it may be a tough life, at least until you “make it”.
I was lucky enough to be able to follow an easy path, because I love programming which so happens to be very profitable too 
And so I can do art purely as a hobby, without any stress. Naturally, it’s unlikely I will achieve “artistic greatness”, but I’ll probably be satisfied with much, much more modest little accomplishments.
From my experience being an artist isn’t even seen as a profession at all by many people. The whole misery around AI showed it yet again.
Being a full time artist has become harder than ever, and not for the faint of heart. It also needs a lot of dedication and often enough support from friends and family. If you want job security, you better not go for the arts.
On the other hand it’s now easier than ever to be an independent artist and fund yourself through programs like patreon or ko-fi, if you can manage to get a large enough loyal follower base. That’s when you become somewhat of an entertainer, too, so it’s not for everyone. If these things already had existed when I was about to make that decision, perhaps I would have taken the scenic route and become a artist for a living instead of a software developer.
And I’m not saying it’s easy to become a successful independent artist, just that this possibility didn’t even exist for most artists 20, or even 10 years ago unless you were lucky to have a rich patron or parents or were otherwise rich enough to sustain yourself while not being an employed artist.
But just because being an artist isn’t one’s full time job, that doesn’t mean one can’t still be an artist in addition to whatever one’s doing already.
I always liked the quote, “Nothing is easy to the unwilling” (I’m afraid I don’t know the origin of it). It infers anything will be difficult for someone who doesn’t want to succeed. However, over time, I’ve found people often overlook a key aspect of this idea, when it comes to paid work. For while a person may put every ounce of devotion into their work, their work will only ever be as valuable as another person is willing to pay for it. As Takiro pointed out with AI, many are all too eager to cut a corner to make their lives easier or to get a better deal. So, we’re really left with two questions. Can you be a paid artist if you put in the work and should you try to be a paid artist? But that falls on you. What type of person are you? How much hardship are you willing to put up with, for only a hope of success? Do you care enough about art to make a living off of it, if you could? But then, do you care so much for art, that you wouldn’t want to taint your love of it, by splicing it into your payment woes (in other words, if you do it for a living, would you still be able to turn to it as a means to escape the daily routine)? So… Should you choose art for making your living?
But, also… Who am I to talk about hardships and people wanting free stuff… I’m on a forum dedicated to an open-source art application, after all. Which brings up another quote I’ve always liked. “Victims, aren’t we all” (The Crow - 1994)
@YRH - It is indeed a difficult career. In an interview, an artist from my country said that it was like being a “gangster’s wife”: you want to leave that life, but you end up going back to it.
@Takiro - In my case, support from family or friends didn’t count. Maybe because, apart from me, no one in my family wanted to be an artist, it was something unknown to them…
@Someonesane - To make a living from art, I think it also depends a lot on the type of art you choose. Many artists left traditional art to become tattoo artists… but today this market seems a bit saturated to me.
Family can be complicated. Since art wasn’t an option I went for IT and apparently that wasn’t a real job either, in their opinion. 
It’s funny that they now claim they always supported me when I sometimes not even had paper to draw on but who cares.
I think my point is, it’s better not to care too much about what the family wants.
Ugh, what annoys me the most is when the family members complain that I only draw anime (which isn’t even always the case but whatever). Let me draw what I want! 
@Takiro - They didn’t even consider IT as a job? Complicated, huh? Yes, I agree: it’s not good to care too much about what your family wants when it comes to choosing your profession.
@YRH - Maybe it’s because back then, anime didn’t have as much space as it does today. When I started drawing, there weren’t any books or other material available about it to learn how to draw in that style…
They couldn’t imagine sitting in front of the computer the whole day could be considered a job I guess. They wanted me to become a builder, mechanic, plumber or anything in that direction. But it’s getting off topic.
I listened to a debate(?) between a commercial artist and a painter. The painter called the commercial artist a prostitute, and thought he was somehow above that.
The response was, as you can imagine, “What is the difference? You still want to be paid for your work”.
In my mind, artists and musicians are lucky if they make money at what they do. The term “starving artist” does not come from nowhere.
I own a guitar, but can’t call myself a musician. I own a graphic tablet, and a lot of coloured pencils, but don’t call myself an artist. I enjoy my toys, which is what they are for.
Prostitute? 
I’ve never been called that, but rather "mercenary" when someone asked me for a drawing and I set a price. They felt insulted because they expected me to draw for free!
It’s funny how people don’t really understand the meaning of this word: mercenary. A little over nine years ago I wrote this text on my blog trying to analyze exactly that…
I’d immediately add 10% in damages for the insult!
Michelist
I read the blog post, and the first meaning applies to pretty much the whole world. I am not aware of any place where you can get food, shelter, and clothing without money changing hands at some point.
I don’t live for money, but still need some. Gotta have a place to put my guitar so it doesn’t get wet. I still have to plug my tablet in to use it, and it needs a computer running in order to do anything.
I have done the no fixed address thing, hitchhiking and bumming around. It turns out I would rather be a “mercenary” than a deadbeat.
@ Michelist - I ignored it because the people who called me a mercenary were just self-interested people, not true friends…
@NotBob - What’s worse is that sometimes they don’t even accept paying a symbolic amount. A designer told me that he gave a low price in a quote… and, even so, the person thought it was expensive.
So, he proposed the following: the person could donate to a charity, present the receipt and he would do the service for free, under those conditions. The person said he would do it and… never showed up again!