#anyway i’m trying to build my portfolio

[kvvkee]

marcille sticker / keychain :) building portfolio for artist alley!!!!!!!

[saintescuderia]

How To Become A Writer?

Responses will vary. They all won’t answer you.

It happened when I started working full-time.

It’s interesting that — as soon as Teams calls and spreadsheets became a reality, the adjoining tabs open would have Google searches on how to become a writer. 

The very question: how to become a writer? It’s funny to think that Google could’ve provided an answer to something writers themselves has been struggling to answer for the longest time. Every single Paris Review Interview provides a different response — albeit they all share the same trait of being philosophical, artistic and not at all straightforward. 

The only straightforward thing I could find on how to become a writer was the Google-sponsored website of Medium. It seemed like this was the updated version of early 2000s blogging and Wordpress. 

I had tried Wordpress. I had also given up on Wordpress. 

And so I tried Medium. I shortly gave up on Medium. 

It wasn’t due to the same reasons, though. Wordpress was confusing and isolating. Medium was easier and you already had articles to read before you noticed the little button to write your own. However, therein lay the problem: Medium gave me nowhere to hide. Was I fully ready to embrace it? Was I ready for my life to change? Eevery word I put out there has to be perfectly selected and crafted in my own original way that I am changing lives with each paragraph. No matter the fact that I don’t even know what I’m doing or why I’m doing it. I just know that I need to do it. 

The imposter syndrome got to me. No matter the inherent desire to do this — something existing since the days of waking up 5am before school to write fanfiction — I just couldn’t stay consistent. 

During my brief Medium interlude last time, I did see a trend. People would try to build their following through writing consistently for 30 days. 90 days. It didn’t really matter. They ahd set a goal and wrote — and posted — consistently for that alloted amount of days. 

I read some of those posts. They weren’t all life-changing. They weren’t philosophical or even artistic. But they were straightforward. They were here, I did it. It’s not great, but I showed up and did it anyway. If I think about what is missing from this, it’s that very thing. To get just get over myself and write badly because bad writing is inevitable. 

So, here is my own 30 day challenge. I'm documenting this not just on Medium but also on the website that has had my back since the inception of my personality as a whole. Tumblr.

It may be odd to think that I am using Tumblr as a means to post my work and start to build up a portfolio, if you will. Tumblr's day has passed and it gave the likes of Rupi Kaur her platform back in 2010s - we've moved past that!

Sure. Neil Gaiman is still on here.

Also, unlike Wordpress or Wix or any of those other sites, the 10+ years I've spent on this forbidden 'hell-site' means I actually know how to use the damn thing. If we're going to embark on the journey of writing everyday, at least give me the past of least resistance. I know Tumblr.

Because, really, this is all so I can get out of the ivory tower that is every writer’s self-doubts and insecurities. Who knows, maybe I’ll start to figure out just what it is to be a writer. 

(It also helps that F1 is back. That may or may not be a coincidence.)

[littledigits]

I wanted to answer this in a post cuz then I could write more.

 “ I graduated with a degree in animation back in 2020 but kind of fell off the horse due to health issues...I've been trying to get back into the industry but now I'm wondering if I should just give up altogether :(.   just, like, with my age (I'm 28) and the amount of time that has lapsed since then PLUS the current state of the industry 😭 anyway sorry I'm being rude, hugs! 💞💞💞💞 “ @electoons​  NOT RUDE AT ALL. 

It can feel pretty impossible sometimes, but a lot of these things, as sucky as they are- are more reflective of the cycles of industry and life and culture. Animation has gone through major shifts before. Heck , the boom of the VHS changed it as well ! I do think this shift is ..more wide spread and not just in the animation industry - ,but its nothing thats going to outlast the art of visual storytelling. 

Your age is not a factor my friend,and in fact I find the people who enter the industry with a lil more life experience under their belt have a lil bit of an easier time balancing the pressures of the job. I know a lot of people where working in a studio was their FIRST job and it can be easy to sucked into the hustle culture. so no worries on that front.  Its SO GOOD you took time out for your  health too because if anything , being in a stronger spot will allow you to keep the job. Because getting it is just the first step. I know a lot of people who put their health aside for the job and it never pays off. 

I will say that it will be hard to get a job now at the moment. there are a lot of high end industry professionals that are now out of jobs and the competition is going to be rough. But , that doesnt mean give up ! I’d say just use this time to dig into the animation community. join some discords - make some connections - you can still work towards your goals.

one thing i’d keep an eye out on is more specific online courses and or patreons that are in the areas that you are intersted in. As artists find work I imagine a lot of them are going to want to share their skills. I’d put out your portfolio, and try to get industry specific feed back to where you wanna go - and then just make time for building those skills while you wait out this storm. 

And the reality is - this isint an uncommon story. I know a lot of people who have taken a few years to get their foot in the door, and I’ve known people who have gotten a totally different job for a bit and then decided to try for animation again. Theres a lot of verity in the industry and a lot of ways to interact with it. its not as gate keepy as people think it is !  

Ngl my friend, you’ve been dealt a shit hand by the universe. I think a lot of people who graduated in the last 4 years are probably the hardest hit by all this. But - dont let that stop you, its the bleck reality but it just means to be kind to yourself as you keep things going step by step.  I HOPE THIS RAMBLE HELPED IN SOME SMOL WAY FIGHT. WIN. 

edit ps. @crystaldemonhunter​ this ramble is also directed at you cuz IT IS JUST A HARD TIME FOR PEOPLE WHO GRADUATED IN THIS MESS PLEASE DONT GIVE UP WE NEED YOUR TALENT FOR WHEN WE REBUILD BIGGER AND BETTER !  

[light-yaers]

so on a personal note, i applied to a creative writing masters over the past few months. i’ve been so excited for it, and worked on my own novel so hard for the portfolio i ended up submitting. it took a lot of strength but i shared my novel with so many close friends and family which i’ve never done before, but ultimately it was to get me used to that personal critique and feedback which was great.

i had my interview for said masters yesterday. it went terribly. like genuinely awful. the lecturers interviewing me were mean, and cruel, and i’ve honestly never felt worse about myself or my work from it. this isn’t just me saying “it went bad” as a blanket statement; it was honestly disastrous from the get-go, and it made me wonder why they’d even wanted to interview me in the first place from the portfolio they read, and why they’d even seen any semblance of potential within my words. even now i’m wondering why they went to such lengths to ridicule me, and make me feel stupid. surely it would have been easier to deny my application than berate me for 30 whole minutes, huh?

anyway. i knew after the interview that they didn’t like me, and that they were going to reject my application. i was right, and got the email earlier today that they’d decided not to accept me for the course. i am gutted. i am genuinely so upset.

i’ve been writing for 10 years now, just from loving it. i’m self taught, and don’t know shit about processes of publishing, nor the proper way to plan a story and world build. i said that in my personal statement. yet they still decided to go ahead with my work and interview me, so they must have seen some potential, right? i don’t fucking know, but from how those lecturers acted and what they said, it really didn’t fucking seem like it.

TLDR: i applied for a creative writing masters, the interview was awful, and i didn’t get in.

but in hindsight, after sitting on it for these few hours, i think i’m better off not going into an academic environment where those two lecturers didn’t like me or my work. my time and energy and money would not be worth trying to live up to their standards. so maybe this was a blessing in disguise and there are other avenues out there for me instead.

my best friend begged for me not to take this to heart and to keep writing, and i will. this was an awful experience and honestly has swayed me from ever pursuing an academic degree to do with my writing, but that won’t stop me from continuing with my novel, or my works, or anything that brings me joy.

this just fucking sucked, and maybe i’m not as good or passionate as i thought i was, but that won’t stop me. sorry for the long post. just wanted to get it out there. i’m still going to be published one day. i’m still going to write books and things i enjoy. fuck those guys, and fuck that masters degree.

lots of love x

[wigglebox]

i don’t often share my personal art on here just fanart but i’ve had an original art twitter and instagram for this stuff, however i’m making the decision today to just merge the two. 

i like the name wigglebox a lot and i have my signature i put on my art have my initials and my Wigglebox name and I just don’t want to separate it, you know?

I’m currently [while taking commissions and doing bang art] trying to build up pieces for a portfolio so i can make a jump into freelance work, but i don’t want to keep the art unposted bc i put a lot of work into it

so if you see original art from time to time, just letting y’all know what’s what!

i know they don’t get as much attention or aren’t as cared about bc it’s not fanart and i’m not seen as a non-fanart artist but i’m still going to be posting them to here anyway! 

thank you for understanding!  

[nerves-nebula]

was wonderinv who to ask then saw ur poston art school and went . yo!

anyway can i ask hows art school? like . is it worth it?? whats the experience and everything like + do u regret ur decision to go there? (dont feel forced to answer any of these) (for context + incase it wasn’t obvious ive been wanting and thinking of going to one if ever given the chance)

Oh man, where to start. Well first of all some of the main reasons to go to art school are the resources and the connections.

If you wanna get into furniture for example, that’s a lot easier if you have access to a whole workshop with tons of different saws. I’ve learned to use three different book binders as well as done hand binding myself, which is great fun for me but idk how I’ll make money out of that.

The thing is that depending on your major/department, a lot of the stuff you do in art school you could theoretically do on your own as well. So if you think you have enough willpower to make your own schedule and find your own resources then I’d say do that, and work on building your portfolio so you can show it off if you ever get the chance. especially if you don’t really have the money for college (I’m incredibly lucky to have someone help me cuz otherwise I’d be screwed)

If I’m honest, I didn’t really want to go to college at the time of me applying. I was kind of interested in learning how to wrap cars, and I wanted to take a course in that, if you can believe it. but all of my parents kids have to go to college no matter what (as in my mom forced me to apply to college and then sent me off like “I can’t help you pay for college btw good luck!”) so it was inevitable that I was going to go to an art school. which is fine because i've also always kind of wanted to go to a school, i was just stressed about not being able to afford it haha.

THEN there's what kind of art school you're going to. I'm at one of the most prestigious fine arts schools in the USA, because though I got admitted to others, I couldn't afford to go to others. the one I'm at offered the most money, because they could afford to. Idk what I'm gonna do with this degree but im in graphic design rn so I'll probably do something in that field. and it helps that the name of my school is renowned.

but if you, say, want to get into animation you're probably going to NEED to go to an art school. even if you cant get into an animation school specifically, any art school at all is better than none when it comes to animation (I think, idk for sure i'm not interested in animation as a job. my friend is tho so maybe I'll ask him)

now, HOW is art school? WELL. I've heard this isn't uncommon, but the first year was literally actual torture. it was really really bad. it made me more suicidal than I'd been since I was 12 and it ALSO made me start cutting for the first time ever. but I survived it, and the second year was way better! (if still stressful) the first year is for where they try to kill you, and the second year is where they go "haha just kidding ok lets get into what you want to know" at least that's how it is at where I am.

DESPITE the pain, and despite how even now I'm anxious about going back, I don't regret it at all. I really like my classmates and I love my professors. I love a lot of the work I've done and the skills I've learned. I liked living on campus and being so close to all that Art Stuff, even if i was too tired all the time to ever go out to any of the events.

plus on a more personal level, anywhere is better than living with my parents. so even if it was hellish the first year, i'm at least happy that i got things done and i wasn't wasting away at home with my mom.

hope that answers all your questions :)

[whentherewerebicycles]

I love that you can never capture how stunning the mountains look because the camera flattens them and makes them look smaller… every time I photograph them it’s like oh yeah you had to be there for sure. but GOD they were stunning this morning!!!

the meeting with my boss went really well… I was, as you know, super freaked out about it last night but she came into it very clearly trying to make amends for that weird bumpy meeting we had earlier and I think that whatever was going on in that meeting had more to do with her state of mind than anything I did or failed to do? anyway we had a good talk and I was pretty direct about being like, I’m new to this role and I don’t have the deep institutional knowledge you have so I need you to give feedback on my portfolio of projects and to let me know if you think I’m putting my energy into the wrong initiatives or not prioritizing the things you see as most urgent. I find it hard sometimes to pin down her specific asks from me but I just kept steering us back to: these are the concrete things I’m taking away from this talk—is that right? am I missing or misunderstanding anything? etc etc. I also decided that I’m going to carve out an hour or two of sustained synthesis time at the end of every week to write through the following:

what I did that week, what I learned from it, and who I met (and how they can be useful to me moving forward)

how the stuff I focused on or accomplished that week fits into my strategic priorities

what steps I’ll need to take next and what new commitments I made that I’ll need to honor (also how and when I’m going to build in reminders for myself to ensure that I’m keeping the promises I make)

what I didn’t have time to focus on and so might need to intentionally center next week

what small stuff is coming up next week (ie what’s on my radar)

what big stuff is coming up that I need to be aware of or keep an eye on… basically just making myself look up from the day-to-day grind to look at the horizon and make sure that daily work is aligned with the big stuff

I am rapidly becoming a person who has ten million projects on deck at all times and I think that consistently carving out this reflection & planning time each week will help me hold all the pieces in my head so I don’t get so sucked into one project that I forget to make progress on the others! but also I am just loving this learning experience of like, building tracking + reflection systems that help me manage my own portfolio of work + manage the work of the teams who are supporting me on different projects. the first part (managing my own work) is definitely coming more easily to me than the second part so I know I’ll also want to keep thinking about how I can get better at delegating work… and communicating expectations, setting deadlines, reviewing stuff together, etc so I can let go of stuff without worrying that I’m going to need to redo it later. mm okay much to think about but I am running on under six hours of sleep and I have fried my brain for the day so I think it’s time to just veg in bed for a bit and maybe nap before I tackle the next part of the day.

[haley-th]

AAAAAAAA

Hi I’m Haley! I’m returning to tumblr bc it’s gotta be better than Facebook and twitter right? I was on here from like 2010 to 2014 maybe?? Whenever they deleted all the porn. That blog was haleyth or haley_th or smth like that. Anyway I finished college in 2016 with two bachelors degrees in Visual Art: specifically Printmaking, and in Art History.

Right now I work at a small store selling pet food and supplies, with an in-house bakery making decorated cakes and cookies for dogs and cats. One of my best friends from college is the bakery manager and recommended me as her assistant and I’ve been doing that for the last year and a half!

I live with my partner, my cat Mister, and his gsp/heeler Chuck. I’m still obsessed with D&D, and now Lancer RPG. I was brought to tears reading the first into page of the Lancer Core Rule book and was sold then and there. I did a lot of direct action during and after my senior year of college and it spoke to me. I’m working on building a stellar portfolio in hopes of landing a tattooing apprenticeship when my partner finishes his PhD and where he finds his post-doc.

I’m neurodivergent, ADHD, and deal with comorbid depression and anxiety. I try my best and will probably use this as a shit posting blog. I’ll make a new art blog someday.

[hareefaree]

Journal - Howdy! (Intents and blog beginnings)

I’ve been trying to create a sort of art centric space for myself that isn’t instagram, and I haven’t gotten the chance to have that since deviantArt stopped being the sort of community space it once was. I’ve been working on building a portfolio website but also wanted a space in which I could hone in on my process, reflect on and share the skills and ideas I’ve been playing with. I realized tumblr - its journalistic focus and its self-curated experience  - was perfect for that. I’ve had a general tumblr (@hareefaree) that I’ve been using for a while with that intent but It kind of quickly became a space for reblogging rather than posting my own work. So… that’s what I’m doing here!

I’ll be using this space to document the process for my longform projects and also just serve as an archive for my work that may not fit on my professional portfolio (such as fan art, ttrpg OCs, game experiments, not-fully-realized class assignments, etc). Because I’m in the preproduction process for a short film I’ll be shooting over the next semester, I was hoping that would be my first real-time documentation opportunity as I craft my puppets over this break. Anyway, hopefully this ends up being a space I’m proud of! 

Be on the look out for process journals and my commission info, which will live on this blog. Also apologies as I move my work from my gen blog onto here, I’ll probs queue it so it seems less like a barrage of unconnected works and more just ‘oh hey its an occasional archive post :>).’

[bunnycaffeinated]

How does one begin a Tumblr post? I have only ever really lurked in the hellscape, minus a few posts that didn’t get seen. I don’t particularly care to go viral because we ALL know this hell site doesn’t work that way. I am simply going to be rotting here with my writing. By the way, I will be opening up some commissions once I have a good repertoire going for people to sample from. I would prefer to write pieces for furry ocs or fursonas, but generally my writing style likes to dip into more animalistic tendencies. But if you ask me to write a boring as heck piece, I will have to decline, I need to give my brain some exercise. I’m still figuring out how I vibe, but in general I’m trying to find other things to do to earn a little extra cash for some hobbies. Currently my full time job doesn’t pay me enough to do more than live paycheck to paycheck so who knows what I’ll do. My aspiration is to become a dog trainer and to film aesthetic housekeeping videos (preferably in a bunny mask/head, but again, no money at the moment to purchase such things). Idk, I’m rambling at this point lol. Anyways, I’ll probably update this blog every now and again when I remember to. And hopefully work a bit on making sample writing pieces. I wonder if I could convince some people to let me write a piece for them for free to build a portfolio?

[citylawns]

I love how your answers are always elaborate, sincere and thoughtful - they're so much fun to read. also, are you working on your novel?

Thank you so much! I think people take this piss with the things they ask me sometimes but I just try and answer earnestly anyway lol. I’m glad it’s fun to read :’) and yeah I have a couple ideas I’m working on, still in the early stages for both of them and have some things on my plate I need to prioritise first but I’m hoping this week I can do some research for them because I’m with my friend who’s recovering from surgery and doing her PhD. Also I just had the last week of taking extra shifts at my retail job so I’ll finally have 5-6 days to focus on writing, making music, building my creative portfolio, my health and applying for an Irish passport

[angel-milano]

Write your RPer Resolutions for 2024! (What are some goals for yourself as a writer? Improve descriptions? Plot with more members? Etc.)

STOP HOARDING REPLIES!! This is probably my greatest sin as a roleplayer. For some reason there is a worm in my head that is always like “if you can’t do it all at once don’t do it at all.” NO!!! I have to let myself be okay if replies are spaced out or if I only do a handful every day. I don’t know where this bad habit came from but I’m determined to at least try to break it in the new year.

Plot more!! It can be intimidating for me to reach out to others out of nowhere, even if I have ideas. And I have to let the fact that just because not every idea sticks doesn’t mean I shouldn’t continue to reach out in the future. I want to go through everyone’s questionnaire and resolutions and see what plots and connections I can fill in!

Events!! I want to participate more in Discord. It’s really easy for me to say “well, Darius wouldn’t be there”--PUT HIM IN THERE ANYWAY!! No rules, just roleplay!

Kudos!! I admire you all so much and need to express that more openly!

Diversify my portfolio!! We all know I’m picking up Bones, but in general I want to pick up characters that are a) wanted and b) expand who I am able to interact with. Get involved in groups like university, RAS, Muses, natives, etc.

Write at least one resolution, or “goal,” that you have as an RPer for your character(s)

Angel: Get involved, whether through MAFIA or Magick Grand Prix. More likely the former, but maybe her becoming more confident in her magick status will lead to the latter! I’m really enjoying this competitive sporty streak that’s come out and want to lean more into that.

Continue to build relationships! The biggest obstacle for Angel is that she doesn’t have connections, so she’s going to have to make them! It’s already beginning with Tanya and Mim but I want MORE!

Darius: Be Dadrius. He’s already started to wriggle his way into Uncle-ing the Weed Killers and I just think he should continue to do that. And outside of his specific Boiling Isles children, connect with other students as well! Be a mentor! Continue on Caleb’s memory!

But also, make adult friends! Put yourself out there! Be the messy bitch who lives for drama that I know you are!

Luisa: Make friends! Go on dates! Maybe, just MAYBE, be a little introspective and try to improve your life and situation! But probably not that one. She’s got to take the first steps by opening herself up to others, even if that just means making time to go out every once in a while. 

Write at least one resolution IN CHARACTER for your characters. What do THEY want to accomplish or change in the New Year?

Angel: Find out more about her Dad so she can get out of this town (no). Raise the Lionesses to Champion status and/or join a winning team.

Darius: Figure out what’s going on with Hunter and Belos. Get a good grade in teaching, which is both normal to want and possible to achieve.

Luisa: Try to prevent a disaster BEFORE it happens! Learn more about Dungeons and Dragons (she has the Dropout subscription, after all) 

List one or more characters you have never interacted with that you would like to do so

Sammy’s characters: I’M SORRY SAMMY!! I feel like we’re two ships who just keep passing each other in the night, and that is entirely on me. We WILL interact this year. I will make SURE OF IT!!

Merida: I just think she and Angel would be neat. They’re both looking for a family member (though for very different reasons) and I think would play off each other with their personalities.

San: More wolves! San and Angel on the Lionesses together! They have to know the other is a wolf but haven’t said anything yet. I just think it would be neat.

Wolf: I promise this isn’t going to be a list of just werewolves but Wolf is also a born wolf, which I think would be an interesting dynamic!

Shang: He and Angel are both looking for their Dads maybe they can help each other out with that. Idk I just want to interact with the pretty man.

Emira: Phineas is setting Angel up with Edric but I feel like she and Emira would vibe more.

Blights: By extension, Darius should just run into all the Blights more often.

Majke: We’ve already started discussing this but I just think she and Darius would be messy friends.

Maximus: This is another one of those “idk what to do but your face is so pretty and I love you”

Seamus: See the above. Am I shallow wanting to interact with face claims that I personally love lmao

Zero: I’m sorry I keep doing this but also he was one of my fcs when I first joined Swynlake! I think it would be great to come full circle!

Kim: We also started discussing this, but she and Luisa should be friends! I just think it would be neat for them to solve a crime together. Maybe some action scenes??

The Madrigals: This one might be a bit of a cop-out, but I’d love to explore the familial relationships that don’t get showcased in the movie! I still have many that I haven’t interacted with yet and I want to hit up everyone at least once by the end of the year

Toby: I have nothing for this, he just seems like a funny character and I want to interact with him

Talk a bit about your plotting style – what plots are you most drawn to? Do you prefer to come with a fully-formed idea and plot off that, or throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks?

Alright, I feel like I really dug a hole and exposed myself with the above list. Sometimes my plotting can literally just be vibes alone and throwing anything to the wall to see what sticks.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t like fully thought out plots and planned out dynamics! In fact, they are some of my favorites! While it is fun to just throw characters together and see what happens, it’s also just as fun to jump right into a relationship that’s been deeply established through headcanon alone. Giving characters a history and dynamic ahead of time means you can start getting to the fun stuff right away without having to do the “getting to know you” banter over and over again.

As for plots I’m drawn to, I love a mess. I love when characters feel things strongly, are in the wrong, and generally just mess things up. And I love playing all sides of the mess whether it’s the messy person, the person trying to fix it, the bystander, or whatever else. I just think there should be a healthy amount of conflict to keep a plot moving and to kickstart character growth.

Talk a bit about character relationships – what relationships are you most drawn to? How do you prefer to approach shipping (if at all!)? What, specifically, are you looking for right now for your character relationships? 

I love family of all kinds! I love deep friendships. I love rivalries, especially one-sided ones where a character hates another for hardly justifiable reasons. I love messy exes. I love toxic relationships where they bring out the worst in each other. And yes, I do love a good romance.

While chemistry comes first, I am also capable of shipping based on vibes or tropes because generally, if you’re planning it out with someone ahead of time, you’re usually on the same page in terms of what you like/what you want to see/etc. Of course things can and will change! But I’ll admit some of my favorite ships have been ones that were plotted out, and some of my other favorites came completely organically. We have the range.

Plotting Exercise! Pick one of the resolutions/goals in #3 and plan a rough guideline to how you could accomplish it. Here’s an example.

ANGEL wants to get involved with Pride U sports despite not actually being a student.

ANGEL goes to EILONWY to ask about intramural football.

ANGEL finds DOC to get falsified doctor’s notes to play without revealing her Magick status.

TANYA finds out about this and has a fight with ANGEL about how they’re going to blow their cover.

OPEN PLOT CALL to anyone who would be able to suss out what is going on

Perhaps TOBY writes an expose on the werewolf, revealing her to the town

Prejudice and exposure pushes her deeper into MAFIA territory where she connects with KAREN to learn more

Alternatively, approached by CRUZ who offers Magick-friendly sports alternatives

???

Profit (I swear I wrote this before the merm plot dropped lmao)

[sandpaperdaisy]

How did building a fanbase go?

It’s 3 years since I penned what might be one of my most popular articles of all time, “ARE YOU READY TO BUILD A FANBASE? YEAH, ME TOO.” I started it saying that we were in an experiment together, and ended it by saying I would see you all on the other side! Far be it from me to be dishonest with you all, so here’s the results of my experiment.

BEGINNING STATS: 251 people on Twitter, 252 on Facebook, 5 on Patreon. (Something equally petite on Instagram which I did not note down.)

CURRENT STATS: 285 people on Twitter, 322 on Facebook, 7 on Patreon, and a whopping 434 on Instagram.

What a difference three years makes!

…anyway we’re going to go ahead and declare that experiment a F A I L U R E, since those numbers do not constitute what anyone reading my first article hoped to achieve when I wrote the word “fanbase.” I very much did not build a big fanbase. Just at all. Nor did I grow more quickly than before, my pace is still glacial.

THANK GOD.

Now, why would I be relieved and grateful that I’m a big ol’ Loser?

Now, why would I be relieved and grateful that I’m a big ol’ Loser?

The truth is, three years did make a huge difference. The internet became EXTREMELY HOSTILE to artists, with social media algorithms becoming increasingly adversarial to content creators, API’s being torn away from developers, AI generated imagery and AI writing becoming rampant, portfolio websites refusing to protect artist work, industry leaders embracing AI processes in their products that may replace the very artists that are their core customer base, and print on demand websites hobbling certain artists by taking huge percentages of their sales (an example is another 50% on top of the 80% they took in the first place) and withdrawing many basic features of their membership.

In a battle royale situation like this, suddenly the idea of plunging into an extremely large, saturated social media pool and trying to get the attention of thousands of maybe people, maybe bots, seems … unhelpful.

But all of us have been so conditioned into thinking the internet and social media are the only way to go in order to meet new fans, that it’s going to take some doing to explain to you why I no longer think this. Let me begin by going through the experiments in my first fanbase article.

EXPERIMENT ONE: POST EVERYTHING

I did reasonably well on this, making sure to update the aforementioned social media outlets with every new print, drawing and sticker I made (that I was contractually allowed to show anyone).

I intend to keep doing this, actually. I still think it’s a great idea. It made me discard my perfectionism and shame, and I don’t miss them.

I noticed something, however. When you post everything everywhere, you do want other humans to actually look at it. In order to look at it, they have to be shown it. This generally did not happen.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the like have evolved in such a manner that your feed no longer shows you your friends’ posts, in chronological order. Instead, a very tiny portion of your friends and followers will see what you post these days. And this is very often strangled still further if the sites’ algorithms determine that you committed one of these sins:

Sometimes you used too many tags and hence, were seen as spamming.

Maybe you used tags in the body of a post.

Maybe you used “forbidden” tags, which are constantly changing.

Maybe you had a link. Social media sites do not want users to LEAVE, so they dislike this.

Maybe the social media site doesn’t think that what you posted will give viewers a sugar rush and make them stay on their site longer. This is typically done by trolling your followers. You can keep them hooked by showing them a highly curated version of your life, making them experience FOMO and comment with pleas for your secret to success, or you can be purposefully nasty to everyone and invite arguments in the comments. Choosing NOT to do these things, constitutes a sin in social media website owner terms.

Did you crosspost?! How could you!! For SHAME

Did you put the same phrase like “link in bio” at the end of every post? NOT COOL

Maybe you… IT LITERALLY DOES NOT MATTER (IF YOU HAVEN’T FIGURED THAT OUT YET).

Social media can be helpful (I guess), but at the end of the day, the website owners are hoping you will be their unpaid employee constantly trying to game their algorithms by posting things specifically geared to make people stay on that social media site longer, so they will be served more ads. Even better, you can pay the social media site to boost your posts! They would love you to do that.

They certainly don’t want you to direct traffic away from their site to maybe spend money on your art or learn more about your projects. …which was kind of the whole reason your busy, exhausted butt was TRYING to use social media for your art business.

So that’s a problem.

EXPERIMENT 2: POST YOURSELF MAKING IT

I did my best to take WIP shots of stuff and upload them to TikTok and Patreon. This is of course, a fraught endeavor these days since people can now feed your WIP to an AI generator and make a piece that they claim as their own.

But we’ll ignore that for the sake of SCIENCE. To continue:

I don’t have a video setup or the disc space to do screen recorder, but the one time I did break my long suffering computer and storage drives to have a drawing video, nothing came of it. So this one I can’t really say I threw myself into, but again, no matter what I posted, people would have had to have seen it for it to help sooooooooooo.

EXPERIMENT 3: TELL OTHER PEOPLE HOW TO MAKE IT

I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t actually know how to make anything properly, so I didn’t do this experiment much even though I still believe we should pass on what we know. I am however slowly building up a trove of extra linoleum block cutters in case I get the opportunity to teach a lino carving class.

If I were to try and pass on my digital art skills however, we come back to the lil’ wrinkle of everyone and their mom currently being able to mimic digital art somewhat effectively.

As we professional digital artists and designers start hitting the bread line, I don’t think I’m going to be seriously inclined to tell young dewy-eyed artists that they should totally learn to make digital art. At least, not until the current AI insanity blows over or takes a more manageable form.

EXPERIMENT 4: DON’T BE A FAKE FRIEND, EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU SHOULD

I have indeed been making more of an effort to be sincere in all of my interactions. But since I never had the issue where I had too many fans to pay proper attention to, I never had to limit my interactions with them. When you have one comment a week on a platform, you can most certainly read all their comments.

Instead I ended up largely discarding my advice here, and did my best to get to know the couple of followers I DID have because I’m small enough to DO that.

I’m seriously starting to think that getting to know one single person over the years might be leaps and bounds more helpful than having a high follower count or high post “engagement,” because that one single person might tell one other single person about you, away from the computer, out in the world. Then the three of you could start viewing each other in a much more human context than all the internet social media fairyland we’ve been stumbling blindly through for the last decade.

Maybe distance and scheduling mean you do have to use the internet to communicate. But what if the three of you went to a more forum- or chat-like setting where you could talk in long paragraphs, share links, not spend one second thinking abut tags, not get throttled or shadowbanned or buried in a feed, and in general just communicate however you actually want?

So I would alter this to say:

EXPERIMENT 4.5 ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: DON’T BE A FAKE FRIEND, GENUINELY MEET AND GET TO KNOW PEOPLE ONE PERSON AT A TIME.

This is something I can only do because I am extremely small.

When I managed to get into the 2023 Indiana Arts Commission On-Ramp Cohort, my suspicions were confirmed over and over again about how important this granular, personal approach is. I went to an intensive class for three days and met a small cohort of fellow artists as well as some great instructors and other people in the industry. And again and again, I saw how important it was to just take my time to get to know each one of them.

If I continue to get to know them as individual people, taking my time and being helpful when I can, sharing insights and laughs and commiserating with them, who knows how we might enrich each others’ lives.

But you know what I CAN’T DO? I CAN’T deepen these relationships with real people I met out in the world and also be trying to chase down a horde of mythical social media followers!

Can’t do it. I don’t even know who these people are, if they are people and not bots, and if the social media sites will ever show anything I make to them. So how can I spend all my time on that mirage?

EXPERIMENT 5: LET PEOPLE INTERACT WITH YOUR ART

I mean. I’ve done my very best to make my art as accessible as possible to the dozen or so people who see it. And I think this is good! No matter what, I will still be making new art and making it as easy as possible for people to discuss and share, I will always let them know where to see me in person, and of course I will make it as easy as possible for them to buy the art they like.

So I wouldn’t make any changes to this one at all. Since I know my posse well enough to know where they spend their time online, I’m literally just going to do everything with the aim of showing it to these SPECIFIC people. Because they’re REAL and I KNOW I LIKE THEM.

There’s an old saying, “When you grasp at the shadow, you lose the substance.” This has been proven very true in my case. Chasing shadow people has claimed decades of my life.

Wow, shadow people are real dicks! At least there’s only one more experiment.

EXPERIMENT 6: JUST MAKE WHAT YOU WANT (UNLESS PEOPLE PAY YOU I GUESS)

I thought up until a couple of days ago that I was being really good about this one, because the jobs I’ve had recently have just been fabulous. Projects I adored working on. So I’ve definitely reached the point where other humans that I like, hand me money to draw things I like.

But in the last couple of days, I went through my planner books and was horrified to see all of the personal projects I haven’t finished, or in many cases started.

So while my clients gave me what I considered to be reasonable deadlines and gave me subjects I loved, I was still ignoring myself as a client. I was doing lord knows what, off chasing shadow people I suppose. Selling out too. But while my sellout efforts at least gave me some money, the shadow people (the fanbase building) just sapped my time, energy and faith in myself.

So for the first time in my entire art life, I can say with conviction:

I DO NOT WANT TO BUILD A FANBASE AND I AM DONE TRYING.

That was not at all the result I was expecting! In my 3 year fanbase experiment I still met new people and got enough jobs to keep me busy. That puts my results in the net positive, so usually I would conclude, “Hey it’s slow going, but it’s going! And just think, at some point it will snowball and then…”

But that’s not where my path led me after all. Instead, it made me want to GO SMALL OR GO HOME.

Now I want to dictate my social media posts ONLY to the people who want to hear from me.

That would exclude artists I admire and have tried unsuccessfully to cultivate in the past. It would exclude famous or successful people who could publish me or give me “my big chance,” if only they would notice me. It would exclude me from blindly chasing numbers because “If I can just show I have a built-in fanbase of buyers, I can get into that gallery show or find an agent to publish my book no problem!”

In fact it would exclude trying to court or woo anyone human, much less spending any time at all pleasing an algorithm. Instead of today’s social media approach it would be like a chat, or how livejournal or forums used to be.

Back in those days, tags were there to make it easy to cross reference your own posts, not to try and get you seen on clogged feeds. You didn’t worry about an 80/20 rule where you post other people’s things 80% of the time, and then you didn’t turn around and wonder why no one who DID go to your profile never saw anything about your art because your entire feed was other people.

You didn’t worry about some random person leading a mob of opinion against you, because you weren’t trying to reach out to a sea of people you didn’t know in the first place. You also didn’t worry about being doxxed or stalked, because you had the ability to be more anonymous and private while STILL talking to other people. Your personal information wasn’t demanded far and wide just so you would be more efficient to track for marketing purposes.

I think it’s time to admit that for some of us, social media failed. The hits that our self esteem takes coupled with the attack on our sleep are bad enough. Add to that the sapping of our limited time for pursuits that are far more rewarding and enjoyable. Social media sites are designed to suck as much time out of you as possible, and when you play to the algorithms you are aiding and abetting the website in doing this to others.

SO I’VE DONE IT, I’VE COME OUT THE OTHER SIDE.

But instead of coming out the other side from obscurity to fame, I came out the other side from caring deeply about building a fanbase to only caring about supporting those who support me. If we’re meant to be buddies, we’ll find each other! I have faith in us, even if I don’t have faith in social media or a “fanbase” anymore.

I’m off to go live my life, and that’s the way I’ll find people from now on.

See more from the Art Tips series.

[nonetoon]

Was a little scared to say it out loud but not sure why. I’ve talked about wanting to create a graphic novel before, I’ve made short comics for years to build up my portfolio and practice my comic making, I even have a longer story idea I’ve been chipping away at.

Idk, I guess it just seems like a big step up to try to do too fast, but! I love comics! I love reading them and creating them! I can’t imagine trying to do anything else! Even if it doesn’t pan out right away I want to at least try! At least that way I would know!

Anyway I’m not trying to be dramatic about it, I’ve just been thinking about the future a lot. Either way, I’m going to do my best art-wise this year and hopefully I can move forward in doing what I love.

You know before 2023 roles around I think I want to put it out in the world that my really big goals over the next year are to:

-make a graphic novel pitch

-pitch graphic novel to agents

-chill

[whentherewerebicycles]

snuggly little girl is finally allowed back into the bed after several weeks of being banished due to houseguests :) she is very warm and sleepy and happy about it.

it’s an overcast morning and I woke up feeling bleh but I’m trying to acknowledge the feeling and not get stuck in it. I am working from home today and my tasks are a little ill-defined so I do need to make sure I get up, get dressed, and sit at a desk at some point to ensure I actually focus. here’s what I’d like to do:

7:30-8:30 coffee, lounge, work from bed

8:30 get up and get dressed

8:30-11:30 work session

11:30-12:30 shower/get ready

1-2 ND mtg

2-4 windshield appt—second work session. call Cigna while waiting, finish other work tasks, schedule-send emails to four faculty for next week, make a plan for next week

4-5ish wrap up work if needed

walk the dogs… it’s time to get back into it. I have a hockey podcast to listen to and can start with an easy 40-45 min loop

eat leftovers for dinner & make cold brew to steep overnight

finish ninth house (I’m powering through but letting myself skim the boring parts)

bed by 10 (I’m slowly trying to reset my sleep/wake times to 9:15pm/5:30 or 6am)

okay. I also am open to doing some work over the weekend if 1) it’s fun, and 2) it consoles me (as it often does lol). but here are the things I want to prioritize in today’s work sessions:

review makerspace brainstorming notes and distill conversation into a core list of ideas

organize list by priorities (immediate, academic year, future/aspirational)

figure out some way of annotating priority list. I want to identify the big steps each one would take to research/create/implement, note who on the team we could delegate specific pieces of the work to, and identify the other people or units on campus we’d want to partner with. this will be so fun.

JG asked if I could give an overview of my big priorities for my program next year so he could better understand how this initiative fits into those priorities. I think that’s a great ask and a great opportunity for me to sit down and synthesize what I’ve learned in my first month in the role. one big amorphous thing I’m tasked with is increasing the number of faculty who are incorporating research into their courses, and I was thinking the other day that instead of trying to do this across all majors in a scattershot way, I could use this makerspace access initiative as a focusing lens for that work this year. and then since that project is naturally STEM + business-leaning, maybe I can look for a manageably sized humanities initiative to take on next year too, so there’s a good balance within my portfolio of projects. anyway I think I’m at the point where I have talked to enough people and said yes or tentatively yes to enough things that I am ready to sit down and start drawing up a summer + academic year plan. also I’m not quite there yet but I might almost be ready to start mapping out the calendar so I can do some initial thinking in that direction today if I feel like it. oh and I want to make a note for myself to look for specific areas where I can consult or bring in the person in our office who was handling aspects of my job for a long time before I started… I feel like I can bulldoze a bit when I’m enthusiastic about an idea or project and I don’t want her to feel like I’m undoing all the work she put into building programming etc. so I want to really consciously build in checkpoints where I’m asking for her feedback or drawing on her expertise in a substantive/meaningful way so she doesn’t feel like I swept in and changed everything to fit my own vision.

meet with ND to gather info about student employee development redesign (then spend time updating my earlier notes)

I don’t think I’ll get much deeper into the student worker redesign project today but it might be a thing I block off time for this weekend or next week.

schedule four emails to faculty/staff (should include YP, DH, MK, and maybe BW?)

I think that’s good!! wow and just working on a work plan for today has already put me in a much better & more hopeful mood. time to get started!

[linafication]

‘I’m just having a really hard month for art’ I say, having made absolutely zero artistic progress in approximately one year