'Bout time I said something here since coming home from Anthrocon

So today, maybe late yesterday (it's around half-past 1am EST as I write this), one of my pics has reached five thousand pageviews. That pic would be Patrol Leader Training, where my Tina and  preppymarshmousee's Penny as Mud Scout leaders, find themselves shoulder-deep in the slop as they explore some boggy wetlands for a future hike for their 'recruits'. They didn't intend to place themselves in such an extreme predicament, but thanks to their trusty manual, they're able to nonchalantly discuss the methods by which they'll extract themselves.

I do periodically eyeball the pageviews of my "top performers" so I knew this was coming around 50 pageviews ago. I even had an idea to make up a commemorative depicting the duo as they extract themselves from the mire, thoroughly coated from the shoulders down. But alas, the constraints on my time after work, and the presence of a leftover commission from AC that is proving to be much tougher than I'd expected, well above the degree of work that its price would seem to dictate (and my stance of not releasing personal artwork while a pre-paid commission is still outstanding) has led to an interruption of my usual monthly release "schedule" (I don't actually adhere to a schedule, my limited free time plus the compulsion to release mostly fully-rendered color pics just makes new projects reach completion roughly every 30 days).

Still, this is a noteworthy plateau to reach, as it's relatively uncommon for G-rated images to accumulate this many views (even though it took five years so do so), since as we all know, NSFW pics from some very in-demand artists can garner that many hits in a couple of days. I should add that it should be no secret that I also aspire to produce NSFW artwork someday, though I don't have any expectation of ever pulling anywhere near those kinds of numbers with them -- I know well that the makeup of my existing audience doesn't support that level of activity. The new OC's I have yet to formally introduce are fully compatible with X-rated action (three of them are adaptations of characters I found in hentai manga), even though if history is any guide their capabilities will be "all talk" until they induce someone to actually commission me to depict them doing the nasty with whomever.

But in the meanwhile, I do take breaks from the aforementioned commission, doing sketches of the new OC's to keep in practice, as well as tweaking aspects of their design in advance of their formal introduction. Having a stylus-equippped Samsung Tab S6 Lite tablet (and it's larger S7 FE cousin) along with the android version of Krita (which looks and works exactly like its Windows counterpart) has allowed me to do impromptu sketches of them even as I'm lying in bed (as my new Steam Deck looks on wondering when it's getting some attention), especially since discovering the full-screen button that hides the usual Android Back/Home/Switch buttons so they don't get triggered by the heel of my drawing hand. Most of these sketches probably won't see release anytime soon, but the ease of moving them to a desktop instance of Krita means that the best of the lot may one day see completion to a post-able state.

But in the meantime, I remain a participant here on FA, and lurk the few Discord servers I'm a part of, surfacing when I can offer something relevant (same for Picarto), and making some small steps toward eventually resuming making material for my dormant YouTube channel (i.e. running trains around the living room). And still saying nope to the notion of even thinking of establishing a presence on that nuclear dumpster fire Elon "Space Daddy" Musk just bought.