Hey ya, Heya here, Happy new year!
I want to start 2023's first blog post by saying: Thank you so much, really.
For what you may ask? Well, to put it very simply, for being around.
Last year, on March 13 I tweeted this image:
I make 100% of the things that are on my account, but do I like what I do?
Before I get to my point, allow me to go back in time and talk about how misguided I was when it came to understanding why I made art in the first place.
Story time:
A lot of times I would see artists saying they were "having fun" with the art they were making and giving advice like "oh don't care about the likes" while having thousands of followers. Younger me was so confused by these tips, I would just tell myself "of course they don't care about likes and engagement, because it's easy for them", and the only conclusion I could reach was that all they had was luck and found the right fandom.
My course of action? Only draw things people already know and want to see! Eventually things will work out. But this philosophy is what led me to feel like every post was a chore and in turn it got me feeling super burnt out when it came to drawing.
Now, don't get me wrong, I genuinely like the things I made art about, and I still make some fanart from time to time, but at that time only making fanart to feel more validated was the wrong answer to the wrong question, and it took me almost 4 years living online to finally understand that.
Art is not a chore. You don't have to be more marketable, more charismatic, more popular, you just need to do more of the damn thing you want to do, think that this art is being made by you to yourself, a bizarre love letter that only you can understand and once you post it, you can only hope someone else will like it too.
In the end, the artists I so relentelessly avoided every tip from... They were right, you really don't have to care about those cursed numbers, and you can in fact have fun creating your art.
So now what?
The wisdom I leave you with today is: No one owes you anything on the internet and this art you made already had its begining, middle and end by the time you finished creating it. Enjoy the process and move on.
So, now, at the beginning of 2023 I can finally say, I really like what I do, and yes, I would follow my own account.
So now I turn this question to you, my fellow artists, would you follow yourself?
If you found this little story somewhat relatable, remember that you are not alone, there is no secret formula to feeling better about your creations, but I hope this gave you some insight. Anyways, that's what I had to say, goodbye and...
See ya in the near future!
