Both styles have their place I'd say. The realistic anatomy is very nice, but big eyes are nice now and then, and colorful or dark depends on the composition and mood you're trying to convey :)

If you ask me, this is just another stage in your development as an artist, testing new things, learning, experimenting and the like. I think eventually you'll reach a happy medium and mix everything you've learnt.

I just see some artists who ere once great, and then they started to heavily degrade at a point; I really don't want to be like that. And before this, I always got only compliments on my progress, now I get a lot more "I like your old paintings more" messages :/ it worries me.

your old painting are happier
while your newer ones are a bit darker

Funny thing, I was a lot more depressed back then D:

I feel the same way, I've been getting a lot of er, bad comments lately. Always privately thankfully, but still PX

I'm just a sucker for darker/more realistic styles, but my style preferences vary a lot so -wiggly hand movements-

Thank you!
I like monochrome characters a lot! : 3

I like both styles. I find your work beautiful and instructive, particularly now I'm trying to draw more detailed stuff, (even if I don't post responses to pieces).

I wanted to vote potato!

I have to go with other people, and say that I enjoy both of your styles. ^^
Your older style looks really cheer and colorful.
But at the same time I like how you have added more contrast in the new ones.
Haha, you should try to make a mashup of those two styles! I am sure it would be epic and interesting. c:

You'll keep getting better ahead, man. :)

Both styles are beautiful and although I enjoy them both, your current style is my fav pick :3
The problem is when people have a problem or something negative to say, those sort of comments will always plant that nagging seed of doubt. You clearly have skill and a great eye for detail and atmosphere, so just remember that for every unhappy person who messages you there would be a tonne more who really like your work and appreciate it quietly. I'm generally pretty quiet on the comment front but I always love everything you draw, you're one of the artists I look to for inspiration while I practice my own digital painting, something I'm still terrible at and never post haha
Keep it up and don't ever let negative nancy's get you down :3

The darker style on the right looks better to me because with your improvements they are more sophisticated and impacting artworks. For style alone however, I like both equally depending on the context of the image.

Shiny things, bright lights and glowy effects will please every furry. That's the charm of that style.

The darker ones are heading towards a more classical art form to me and would please the advanced artists/people with more critical eyes much more.

The improvement in a year is pretty awesome!

Ahh I always like seeing side by side images like this, you've definitely improved in leaps and bounds, especially with anatomy and general color theory! I'd definitely say since you're happy with the new style stick with that. I mean, continue to develop it of course but if YOU like it and YOU think it looks better than that's all that really matters. Style changes are always going to cause a few lost watchers, but when you have a style that's more uniquely you I guarantee you'll get them back.

I do have one critique though if that's not too forward? Feel free to completely ignore this if it is.

You have the older art listed as "low contrast" but actually for the most part they're higher contrast than a lot of your newer work (the second, third, and last examples in particular) Since you're going for a darker style it makes sense that you'd leave behind the super sparkly shiny effect but I think you'd still benefit from having a range of values (even in just small areas), and particularly some more color in the reflected light. The first example is almost there, but could probably use a little sharper of a highlight on the chest of that turquoise-white. This is done REALLY well on the orange dragon, the highlights around its snout add a lot greater sense of depth. It also helps I think to have a very saturated highlight like that when you're working with very dark, muted palettes to keep the image from feeling too muddy. Oh and the picture for Pogo is absolutely perfect! Even though it's one of the simpler examples I think it might be your strongest piece value wise.

But other than that I definitely think your newer style is better! I love the sense of drama that large areas of black or almost black give and it looks like you're giving way more thought to how your colors work together than in your previous style. Just altogether really great! Ah and again, sorry if I was unable to explain myself properly, or if this was entirely unwanted.

Oh and since you asked about other people's experiences- I had almost the exact opposite experience where I started out realistically and gradually grew more towards a simpler more graphic style much to the horror of every art teacher I've ever had haha. But it made me WAY happier with my art (even though there's still many things I'm unsatisfied with) and I've gotten considerably more followers since the style change so I think when you enjoy your style it does come across in your art, and there will ALWAYS be an audience for whatever style you go with. So y'know do what you like and follow your dreams and all that stuff I guess.