I post these every once in a while!
I hope I can reactivate my social media handles this year. Maybe not all of them, but at least some, depending on how many I can manage at once / what works for me and what doesn't. The anxiety that stood in my way for the past decade is mostly gone - I have to thank my therapy and job for that. As I began dealing with strangers and speaking in front of an audience, my shyness and lack of confidence gradually faded away. And I was the last person to believe that I could ever change in such direction. It's like I'm experiencing life from a completely new perspective now. All of this has reignited my willingness to share my personal doodles and thoughts with the world... again!
Here's a list of sites that I use or used with my opinions and plans for them:
1. Twitter. Certainly not a favourite of mine. Stressful, loaded with aggression, full of extremists, with graphic porn at every corner. But all of my friends use it, all of my favourite artists use it (some of which also overlap with my friends), so that's a huge pull factor for me. I have to admit that Twitter is very convenient in some aspects and seems to encourage interaction, which is something I like. I want to give that site another chance, though I'll probably reserve it for drawings and occasional thoughts or cautious opinions as I don't want to be dragged into any pointless fights.
2. Tumblr. Tumblr has won me over once it stopped allowing NSFW content. I enjoy it for a number of reasons and I definitely want to bring my ask blog back to life - especially since I have questions waiting in my inbox! This is where I want to keep most of the stuff related to my personal characters, both in form of text and pictures. Maybe there will be comics too? I wish that commenting on Tumblr was much easier than it is, but I can live without that.
3. FurAffinity. I'm torn about this one. I thought about leaving it for good when I'm done with owed work. On the one hand, I don't have much interest in furry art and I don't want furries to be my main audience, I don't identify with their subculture. On the other hand, I met some of the nicest people there and they seem to genuinely enjoy my content ;__; Plus I'm not gonna lie, I like some of the art that I stumble upon on FurAffinity. It's a tough decision! I'll keep using it for now; if there's a significant drop in interest once I move on from posting drawings for others, then I'll quietly retreat.
4. DeviantArt. Used to be my main place and I still have good memories of it. This site kind of shaped me, made me realise that there's an audience for what I do and encouraged me to learn English. This is where I found both of my best friends and we're still kickin' after all those years! But DeviantArt has changed over time. I find the new layout to be very jarring and clunky. Somehow a lot of the promoted or most recent art feels even weirder than what you usually see on FurAffinity. Though I might give it another try regardless of that and see what happens next.
5. Flickr. There isn't much to be said about this one, it serves me as a doodle archive. I like it, it does exactly what I want it to do. I've been neglecting it for quite a while, but I want to reactivate and update it at some point.
6. Ko-fi. A nifty little donation site that I enjoy and trust. I think I will be comfortable accepting tips again once my artistic output becomes more stable/regular. I dunno whether I'm going to keep uploading doodles there, maybe occasionally. I'd prefer to step away from providing Ko-fi rewards, but it's always difficult for me to accept money without giving anything in return. I think I should be more strict and only offer such rewards for bigger donations.
7. Toyhou.se. I think about this one quite often even though I never did anything on it after creating my account... over 3 years ago, whoops! I definitely want to use it. It's pretty barren and makes me wish I knew how to code, but otherwise it's perfectly okay. None of my existing characters have ever had any reference sheets, so I believe that Toyhou.se is a good place to start. (though I still miss good ol' Charahub)
8. Mastodon. Likewise, I made an account and never did anything with it. But I'm quite fond of it, I believe it's a good (and much calmer) alternative for Twitter. Maybe I'll use it if I decide that the big blue bird site is not for me? I'm not sure yet!
As for this blog, nothing changes. I'm going to continue using it as a mixed bag of content and update it whenever I want to share something with a very limited, trusted audience. It's still one of my favourite spaces online and I don't think I'll ever feel the need to post the link to it anywhere else. It's good as it is!
