chris | 20s | website | 16+ years old recommended | i don't usually bite!
Hello to the small hobby club-sized population that is my follower base, as well as whoever stumbles upon this post. I just wanted to say I'm still alive and still plan to use this place, I just went a long time without making a decent drawing because of Reasons.
But while I've been absent here, I've been rather active on Dreamwidth. (This is my account, by the way.) I've been so active there that I tried to type that link with HTML xD I'm not super used to Markdown... Which DW has, I just don't use it. Anyways, I can tell you for sure that in about 2 weeks you'll be seeing me again. Why? Because right now on Dreamwidth is Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, where participants try to be more active and make content that isn't to be shared anywhere else. So on my DW blog there is, so far, 2 drawings by me that I won't be sharing until the event is over. Take a look if you want :3 If not, you'll be seeing it soon enough. I haven't been perusing this site in the meantime because I felt bad doing so without any (new) art of my own to share.
What is Dreamwidth? Many people don't know. It's a fork of LiveJournal, which you may have heard of before. It's a journal or blogging site, a staple of web 2.0, which is much quieter these days due to the rise of microblogging (and Tumblr). LiveJournal is still a site you can use, but it's under Russian management now and has LGBT+phobic policies. Dreamwidth was created in response to said changes years ago, and it's still going strong. It's not some new upstart website, it has a fairly long history of 17 years and staff who are very honest about what's going on behind the scenes.
One thing that keeps people from DW is that sharing images isn't easy. There are ways to circumvent this (which I go into detail about in the New to Dreamwidth? post linked in my sticky/"pinned"), but it's a bit more trouble compared to other, sleeker sites, so I imagine it scares many people away. Thus, I'd say a sizeable fraction of DW users are writers and novel enjoyers.
I was thinking about this, and figured there is no way visual artists just suffered until Pixiv and/or Twitter came around. Then I realized that DeviantArt is old as dirt. It's 25 years old, in fact. One year younger than LiveJournal. I don't know if DeviantArt had journals from the start, but if it did that would explain everything. People focused on the visual arts simply used DA as their LJ/DW. And Sheezy.art is an art* community with journals too.
I really like DW for many many reasons, so I'm not going to switch to using Sheezy.art as my main blogging site or anything. But I have to consider recommending it to people who like blogging but are artists, if they consider DW not up to their standard... Just add the ability to share multiple images per upload and we'll be golden. Cara and other sites like that can feel too professional, but this place is pretty chill. It can stay chill if that same yapping energy is brought here too. See, I'm doing it right now. DW has got me used to this sort of thing. Can't do this on Bluesky!!
Well, I'll see you all in a few weeks. Bye now.
*I feel obligated to mention that you can post original literature on this site too.
So hey, I'm new here. I never used the original SheezyArt, and I never really used DeviantArt, although I was a frequent observer. So far I've only habitually shared art on Tumblr, Twitter, and more recently my personal website (I like it most there, very cozy to me, do recommend).
Most everything you could want to know about me or don't want to know about me is on my website, but if there's something you really want to know that you can't find, you can always leave a comment. Things that go unstated there but would be relevant on here are
- I don't draw A Lot because I have many hobbies,
- I mostly draw fanart, although I hope in the future to create more original content in the future, and
- (I feel) I'm too Westerner for Pixiv but too untranslated Japanese media-pilled for Sheezy. tucks my hands into my pockets and looks off into the sunset
But enough about me. The real purpose of this journal entry is to publicly state my intentions for using this site, thus pressuring myself into staying true to them.
Lately, I've been into the web revival movement, or whatever you may call it. I, who used to spend all day scrolling on Twitter, am slashing my social media usage in hopes of reclaiming my attention span, and instead using my time to read longer things that give context and details rather than character-limited seemingly-contextless posts that can only lead to misunderstandings and arguments. I'm also using that time to... create! And share knowledge of my own!
It's worth noting that along with seeing inflammatory posts often, I'd also be bombarded with Art. So much art. Possibly more art than humans past have seen across lifetimes. I'm grateful I have access to it all, but it's also terrible for your self-esteem. It's not natural to be comparing yourself to soooooo. Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many people. The usual advice for this is to get out and share your art with your local area, visit a small art exhibit and such, but that kind of thing isn't an option for me yet.
And this is just a me thing, but I hated making original posts on social media. I always felt like I was embarrassing myself with content no one asked for. ESPECIALLY with art. Like, oh my God Chris, nobody wants to see your 12th shitty-ass Testament drawing in a row.
With all this taken into consideration, I'm happy these days barely using my socials and just surfing the web, or reading, playing video games, coding my websites, etc. BUT! One small problem. Not many people surf through personal sites, and so I get little validation for the things I do. I have fun creating, but it'd be nice to have someone else say they like the things I create too. (Again, you can just show people in real life the things you make for validation, but that isn't an option for me.) Also, we sadly live in a society, and we kind of have to put ourselves out there online for connections unless you lucked out and have some great ones in real life already. Not a problem if you fully intend to be a hobbyist forever, but I have some minor, really small potatoes, art-related aspirations...
And so, here I am. On a site dedicated to art, so hopefully no one complains about seeing my shitty art since you've inherently put yourself at risk to see bad art by coming. Maybe few people here like the things I like, but I might find like-minded people through other means. But, so that this site doesn't completely wreck my mental health and undo the progress I've made, I'm laying down some ground rules.
- It's joining Bluesky, Tumblr, Twitter, etc. in the 45 Minute Club. I can only use these sites 45 min/day. Collectively. After that, my browser blocks them. (On my phone I can't access social media at all, so I can only get blasted with Bad Opinion Particles if I get out of bed to look at them.)
- After I upload something, no lingering about for the sole purpose of waiting for likes or comments. I'll be discouraged from doing this with the timer, since every second I spend loitering here takes away from the other sites I'd at least have some fun being on.
- I'm not going to say "I must comment every time I'm on here." But.... I should. If I have time to be here, and if I have time to be looking around, I certainly have time to leave a "I love this!" if nothing else. One of the things bad about social media these days is that it's barely social - people just consume consume consume, and if they reply to something it's to make a joke. Genuine interaction has become much rarer. So, I want to push back and earnestly respond to more things that I like, preferably with the reasons why I like it too. (If you're a 24/7 lurker, I'm telling you not to underestimate how much one comment can mean to a creator. If you're always silent, you can't be surprised when someone becomes discouraged and stops posting. And do it with pure intentions, not just to try to be their friend or to bring attention to your own art.)
That's really it. I hope this site gets faster and stays up a long while. And I hope I get what I want out of being here. And I hope everyone is so niceys to me forever and ever