Non-professional artist here with a few commissions under her belt. I'll answer from that POV.
- I mostly draw for fun so I definitely don't expect money for it. And you definitely can't expect money right when you're starting out. However, I know some people who draw as their primary source of income, which leads to most of the art they produce being for income.
- It honestly can be either a side hustle or a full job, depending on the demand, your speed and your prices. It doesn't have to be exhausting as a side hustle because you can adjust how much you do it considering your income doesn't depend on it (unless your actual job barely keeps you afloat in the first place, in which case it could become a second job, which definitely can be exhausting).
- Again, your salary depends on your demand, speed and prices. I don't have personal experience on this because I rarely take commissions. Though even a semi-well-known artist who can work with relatively niche needs can make a few thousand (USD) a month.
- Considering art is a luxury item, your job security will depend on the financial situation of your clients. If things like, say, a global pandemic happen and a lot of people are left struggling, you're likely going to be struggling as well since people will of course prioritise things they actually need.
- I feel like both "get lucky" and "get noticed" apply here. Furry art is a very saturated market these days so if you can garner an audience, you're already in a very good place. If you get lucky by being, say, one of the first furry artists on a platform that ends up becoming popular among furries, you're going to be noticed just because you were there before the platform got saturated. I've also noticed that if you can and are comfortable drawing niche art (in my case, transformation), that gets noticed a lot easier. I'd say that if you have something unique to offer (e.g. a really unique style), you're also more likely to be noticed among the mass.
- Fun or work, it varies. Artist friends who have made this their primary source of income say it's fun for them. For me, it felt stressful to draw for money. Then again, I underpriced my commissions way too much when I did them so that may have been a factor (amount of work compared to amount of money didn't feel worth it).
In conclusion, it's a market with a lot of options for clients. I recommend, for any budding artists, to not think of art as a source of income first and foremost and just doing it because you love to create. If you can make some money or even your income from it eventually, that's definitely an added bonus. c:
I ended up just disabling the alias I use to receive emails from LinkedIn. Since I noticed I just kept deleting those emails without ever reading them, I figured I'd just opt to not receive any emails. :D