So, I've been browsing sum of dat DA lately - cuz I'm sick and off work (yeah, expect some sketch art to come by) - and stumbled upon a thing that pisses me off greatly.
One "popular" Warhammer 40k artist - aww, you all know who that is - once again goes on and on about "haters". Naturally implying that "haters make them popular" and that these nasty hypocritical people are still looking at his "crappy" (but undoubtely POPULAR and COOL) art anyways.

That's a damn load of quotemarks right there. Of course, I'm sarcastic, because this artist does draw really bad, and yeah, has a lot of haters with good taste that can actually evaluate visual art, but the point is next - no, dear friends, haters don't make you popular. No, fans don't do either. Moreso, when you begin thinking that you have either, fans or haters, you're on a slippery road to becoming a giant and unapologetic piece of shit that spends too much time on the internet.
This is a real plague among dA. People, good artists, or bad ones with too much of an unhealthy ego, suddenly realizing that the internet doesn't consist solely of ass-lickers. And having inadequate reactions about it.

I think I'll be honest here. I know a lot of artists that piss me off, either with their attitude, or their art. I never hide the feeling unless these fuckfaces happen to be my friends friends, so I clench my teeth and just become venomously sarcastic. Doesn't make me jelly, tho - especially when I can paint circles around em. I dislike, hate, use whatever adjective you like people like TomPreston, Humon, these fox artists, Pokemonfags, etc. I just do. I can even draw hate art about it. I make fun of raging warhammer nerds, the kind that have a special love for the ubiquitous SPESS MEHREEN BALD, or Inquisitior Mary Sues, I make fun of animal artists, and other people I don't like and subjects I find overdone. That, my friends, is a normal human reaction. I don't think I make these people more or less popular tho. I just need to express my opinion, same way I express my opinion on multiculturalism or liberalism.
A good lesson to learn is that you can't appease everyone. Someone will of course hate stuff you do, simply due to taste. I for example, think that 20-year old people who play Legend of Zelda should be shoved in the Army and get a bite of reality. Or at least get some sort of a job. Someone, on the other hand, thinks that as a Nazi, I should completely stop playing computer games, and lead the masses to a bright NS future. Well, derp. So what?

What I'm saying, is that people who hate stuff look at it not because they secretly like it and are in the closet about it, but because well, hate is a nice feeling to er, feel, and in order to feel it, you need to feed the feeling.
But anyway. My point is - stop whining about haters, people. You don't have them. You don't have fans, either. You either have friends, or watchers, but not fans. Pop stars have fans, musicians and movie actors. But not you, with your shitty - or awesome - scribbles. People would note me and ask how do I deal with "haters". I go - wtf, I've none. Sure, there are people with a burning dislike for what I am or do. Sure, there are creepy stalkerish 14-year olds that do odd and unflattering "fanart", or people who try their baby-troll-tooth on me, but that's just a matter of public display. PEOPLE DISLIKE SHIT. People LIKE shit. But none of these make you more important. I guess, when a good amount of people does tell you to stop drawing crappy Sonic fanart you DO have to stop and think about what you're doing. I guess, sometimes the whole "I'm gonna be me" and "reach for my dream" and "This is for fun" Hollywood-encouraging mindset does backfire and rob certain persons of adequate self-evaluation.

But in the end, haters don't exist. Or rather, they exist only in your mind. The moment you realize you have "haters", and not just random people on the internet disliking what you do for their or objective reasons, you're forefeit. You enter the subspace of GIANT SELF-IMPORTANT ASSHOLE. I mean, HOW DARE THEY NOT REALIZE THE BRILLIANCE THAT IS I, LORD COMMANDER DOUCHE!

Geez, this shit drives me mad. People blocking trolls and critics because they can't take some heat. People making fanclubs for themselves. People just loosing any kind of common sense.

I think this comes from internal insecurity. It's like there's only two extremeties on the artistic spectrum - absolutely insecure about themselves fucks, or overly inflated egomaniacs who think they shit sparkles and roses. Where's the in-between people who can chillax and just do their thing, while making the best out of offered constructive critisizm? WHERE? I mean I know some, but these are rare examples of sanity.

In the end - you don't have haters, haters are not gonna hate and make you famous, all your fans just want you to draw free requests for them, and jeezus, this is just an online art community.