You can obtain a slot by filling a form on my website:
https://neotheta.fi/commissions/

Thanks for your interest :3
-Neo

Edit: Wheeeh! Lots of cool stuff to come!!

Next commission opening this FRIDAY 15:00 UTC ✨
All types of slots will be available, feel free to ask any questions upfront!

https://neotheta.fi/commissions/

~ ~ ~

I'll also try to post some art backlog soon, I guess the downtime got me a bit paralyzed because I drew quite a lot during it.

~ ~ ~

Also Wednesday streaming today as usual!
https://stream.neotheta.fi/

-Neo

https://neotheta.fi/commissions/

Links to each form:
Neostyle >>>
Painting >>>
Refsheet >>>
Speedling >>>

If you got any questions, feel free to ask!

Update: Closed. Thank you for your interest!!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I've changed my telegram channel status into public, instead of invites.
Why it was more closed previously was to help lower the step to publish my work since at some point it started feeling like a chore, but I've finally gotten past the feeling.

https://t.me/neothetas

-Neo

It's that time again: Opening new commission slots on Monday (21.4) 9:00 UTC.

Check information here: https://neotheta.fi/commissions/

Thanks for your interest :3
-Neo

I've been meaning to write this for a long time now, but I've failed to find myself the moment or how to phrase myself, as usual.

Well.. I did really well at NFC, I mean actually made profit again from dealing! This gives me so much fresh hope for future conventions sales being a good idea again. So I've went and applied for Eurofurence this year again. Well, of course remains to be seen how the global economy goes, but it probably wont be too big of a disaster inside EU.

Onto other news: I got a really bad flu from NFC, which took me down for over a week, I have never been as sick it was terrifying honestly. I literally slept 4 days through and had a fever so high that I hallucinated (though that was actually pretty cool too..xD). And after that the allergy season begun.. my old allergy meds gave me an allergic reaction (lol?), so I tried some new meds that were even worse, I'm left with a chronic cough which is driving me insane. With all this, work piled up a lot and so I've been pretty silent and only focused on the necessary.

I've been up to some stuff: I'm working on a (overtly passionate) fursuit project for my clouded leopard 'sona, hopefully to be a lightweight realistic fullsuit. And I've learned 3D modeling in blender finally, at least some basics.. to print some realistic claws. If I can pull this together, maybe I'll have the suit ready for summer and the mountain conventions... I have a burning need to climb mountains in fursuit no matter how stupid the idea sounds like. I also got another upgrade to my workstation from the local recycle center, a fourth screen! [Click to see photo of my desk, including some art spoilers].

Conventions this year:
- LakeSideFurs
- Furway
- Eurofurence
- Finfur Animus

EF unfortunately overlaps with Tracon, but I've been thinking of applying for finnish Ropecon so I have some place to spread the furry.

I'll post up new dates for commission opening soon too.
Thanks for reading!
-Neo

Heyy, if you ordered Xenia stickers from me and you are from USA, either this month or unrecieved from November batch.

Check your e-mail!

What happened is I got several orders (November batch) bounce back that were sent to USA, this lead me on a quest to learn why it happened, after a week I finally found someone who knew: USA checks that the address and name matches perfectly with some official records, and if it doesn't they'll just bounce a shipment back. It's likely that it has to do with mismatching name in the id.. but might also be a simple typo in the address (they have no error correction!)

-Neo

With the new wave of people migrating from meta's services into fediverse (mastodon and others), I thought I'd write about my own experiences since I've been on there for 2 years now.

What is it?
Fediverse is a network of different social platforms all connected to each other, such as mastodon. You can follow anyone on the fediverse with your one account, the most popular option is to use mastodon to follow others, so you get twitter-like feed updates on other posts like gallery uploads from pixelfed, stream notifications from owncast etc.

The most difficult part to understand is that Fedi is not owned by a company, each instance/server belongs to those who host them and most of the platforms used are FOSS (free and open software) which are funded with non-profits (there are exceptions though!). It exists because it provides value to people being able to connect with people, and that is why there is also no (corporate) ads. Each instance is moderated by themselves, and they also moderate which other instances they will connect with (to block spam or malicious parties). Users can also migrate their accounts to different instances if they're unhappy how their current instance is ran.

Some platforms on the Fedi:
- Mastodon: Micro-blogging
- Pixelfex: Gallery
- Owncast: Streaming, with notifications & chat authentication with fedi
- Peertube: Video sharing
- There are many more for blogs & journals to event planning etc.

Why it's not actually complicated
From user perspective you just make an account, read the rules & follow people you want to follow. Just like you would on any other site on the internet, except you can follow and communicate with all platforms and instances that are connected to the Fediverse, not just the one you're in.

What I've gathered is that people use the word "complicated" because Fedi is by design available & fair to all sorts of different people, similar to how lgbt people are "complicated" to some folks (as in not actually complicated but it's said for entirely different reasons). Fedi is designed in a way that prevents a single or small group of people from controlling or enforcing things on all users. So "being complicated" has nothing to do with the user experience itself.

Furries in the Fediverse
Since everything is hosted by someone, obviously there are a lot of furry instances ran by furries. Many which are open to make an account at, some which you have to ask first. Something you should consider is that if you are making an account to share private posts (only visible to followers) and you care to keep them as private as possible, you should consider if the host is trustworthy (maybe someone you know or someone you know can vouch for), even though almost any furry admin is guaranteed to be more trustworthy than twitter xD But if that's not a concern, just pick any instance that has a relatable name to start with (and read the rules, though most furry instances are very similar).

Here's a list of furry fediverse instances:
https://furryfediverse.org/

Some etiquette
There is a general expectation (from other users) to include alt-text with images, use content warnings on sensitive topics and write an introduction to pin in your profile. Hashtags work as topics, which you can follow & search. Creators are welcome to advertise their crafts, while big corporate advertising is typically blocked as spam. You are also expected to moderate your own experience, there is no algorithm that reads you and no company that's trying to cater to you, filter away topics and words you don't want to see and follow the people you want updates from, ask others for suggestions.

- - - - -

My experience
I've had an overwhelmingly positive experience so far, the place is lively and there's a lot of interesting topics & conversations, perhaps because there's a lot of furries, linux users, demosceners and other interesting people doing crafts, urbex photography, sharing thoughts and other stuff that interests me (probably my bubble here and there's plenty more though). I think the main highlight is that people are free to be themselves and write in their own personal ways, not needing to dodge banned words or topics. I've mainly used Mastodon, but I'm considering to setup a Pixelfed for art posts when I have the time to do it. I also use Owncast to host my own stream now and the integration to share stream notifications, like an authenticate in chat via Fedi is a very fun and useful feature.

Thoughts
I'd like to see furries utilizing the private posting features more like they do on twitter, mastodon allows you to do follow requests and set visibility per post (pm, followers, link-only, public). A lot of things have also changed and improved over the course of two years, especially seeing different new platforms getting made and refined is nice. Also a nice feeling to finally have a setup that has potential to last for a long time and not get enshittified like all the places that are looking to make most money or have most political power, I'm kinda extremely tired of the world situation where everything is just moneymoneymoneyy and obvious far-right leaning changes.

Follow me on the Fediverse
My mastodon: @Neotheta@finfur.net
Stream notifications: @live@stream.neotheta.fi
Stream page: https://stream.neotheta.fi/

If social media is not your thing you don't have to use it though!
-Neo

https://neotheta.fi/commissions/

Limited amount of all types.
Thanks for the interest :3
-Neo

Edit: Closed the forms, thanks!!

Xenia stuff is up for orders!

Ordering window from 14 - 20.1
Sticker-only orders get sent sooner, all t-shirts are pre-orders!

https://neotheta.fi/xenia/

______________

Commission opening date

Opening commissions on the 16th, at 16:00UTC
Limited amount of all types will be available

You can check info, prices and the forms in advance
https://neotheta.fi/commissions/

Thanks for the interest :3
-Neo

Flash sale, taking some Speedling ⚡️ slots in advance for tomorrows stream!

Three slots available, I'll aim to complete them all in stream.
Slots that don't get filled or paid upfront will be available at the stream also.

Fill the form to apply:
https://neotheta.fi/commissions/form/speedling/

Thank you for the interest!
-Neo

Edit: All slots are full now, thank you so much!

Breaking the journal in two subjects:

Part 1: It seems to finally be the end of Twitter. And that's a good thing.

I won't be moving on similar big corpo platforms, because I've learned my lesson about them.
Ironically I sorta "knew" it all along, even before jumping in. The social pressure got and crumbled me, I felt that I "needed to" and I felt fear of being left behind and I saw all the people around me suffer the same feelings with nobody who was able to say no. It happened when I was at a low in life, a good time to make mistakes and fall for overtly flowery promises - I guess it happens to everyone at some point. Over the years I noticed myself simply being more worn out because I wasted my time looking at it instead of doing something actually useful like talking directly with people. I curated my feed harshly, hacked away all influence from algorithms and it never started feeling any different, it is not the algorithm but how the setup itself makes people behave when they are there - distant. You cannot have a "by us for us" community without the "by us" part. Overall I traded a few more quick sales to not having as much energy to do as much work that there would've been available to take on. There's a point where you need to stop doing things "for your career" or because others are pressuring if it's also putting yourself down, because there's no career (or life in general) without yourself to do/live it.

Part 2: It's been a slow decay since the pandemic, it probably wont start getting better for a long time and it might even get really dark too.

But I will continue and get through regardless. Some of the previous days were especially bad but then I just somehow happened to find inspiration, which was finding music that spoke to me like magic at the right moment. It made me realize it's the reason I need to keep creating, because if I can give that experience to someone else through drawings it means they'll have strength to keep going too. Creating things is a pretty lonely process but it has power to speak through distance and time, even if it will reach just one person ever it's what matters. And also what would be the point of life if it wasn't to pursue the thing you have a drive to do?

That being said I have a few personal art ideas to make, which I hope to post sometime soon. And also setup the Xenia stuff for online sales and open announce new dates for commission slots too. And I will also stream this evening too, as usual.
-Neo

I've wanted to write a journal about something for a while, well it's been a year since the last one already. I'm still not completely sure what the something really is but here's some chaotic writing:

A thought I've had going on in my mind recently is that I feel that I've reached the "level" in (drawn) art which I originally pursued for, the goal which I had set for myself like two decades ago (which I didn't know how long it would take to accomplish). It feels really good, but also surprising! Throughout the years pretty much everyone always claimed that "that goal is fake, you will always feel not good enough", which is weird because it never seemed like that to me, and now that claim definitely seems fake if not even outright harmful to say. Sometimes I wish people would've rather cheered on instead of just criticize, the unnecessarily doubt it created was just a hindrance.

Reaching that goal doesn't mean I can't get better anymore - of course I can, nor does it mean that I wouldn't want to - because of course I do. And most probably I will still keep improving even if I wasn't specifically trying to. However: A certain part of myself now feels very content and free. In my experience, you can only really focus on one main passion at a time. And now I am free to be fully passionate about new goals - that is exciting!! Technical skill is not the only interest I've have, but it's been the biggest aspiration for the past over 20 years (I just love it, can't explain why it's so interesting, because it just is). There are many other things I want to pursue also, some more or less related to visual art. Storytelling is one big one. World building, especially settings that you can immerse into (VR or IRL setups). I've also wanted to learn how to make and play music, the only reason I haven't is that I knew already as a teenager that I would not have the energy and attention span to study both of them alone at the same time. Then there's coding demos, wood crafts and building various structures (which kinda goes into the world building again).

I do want to highlight that none of this has anything to do with my job as an artist, and I wont stop drawing ever! I just want to learn and get better at even more things.

Time will tell when I can actually dedicate time into other passions though, life is currently busy and I can't afford anything but bare living. My cat is still not well, and the news is that she wont be, her condition will now decline until the end, and there is no knowing how many years that means.

Well this journal didn't end with very happy words, oh well.
-Neo

Commissions are open 🍂

Info & Ordering forms:
https://neotheta.fi/commissions/

All types of slots available, but there are limited slots overall.

Neostyle: https://neotheta.fi/commissions/form/neostyle
Painting: https://neotheta.fi/commissions/form/painting
Refsheet: https://neotheta.fi/commissions/form/refsheet
Speedling: https://neotheta.fi/commissions/form/speedling

Thank you for your interest :3
-Neo

✨ Commission opening: This Sunday 1.9 UTC 16:00pm 🍂

There will be a smallish batch of each type of commissions available 🐾

Prices, Info & Ordering forms on my website, read them in advance: https://neotheta.fi/commissions/

Thanks for the interest!
-Neo

☀️ Commission are open 🌿

Prices, Info and links to forms:
https://neotheta.fi/commissions/

Small batch:
2-4 Neostyle/Painting/Refsheet
5 Speedlings

Note that these are first come first serve, forms will close when slots are full ⚡️


Thank you for the interest!
-Neo

🌱 Commission opening date: 18.5 (Saturday) at 9:00 UTC ✨

Prices & Info:
https://neotheta.fi/commissions/

Small batch: 2-4 Neostyle/Painting/Refsheet, 5 Speedlings.

-Neo

Good morning! Commissions are now open.
If the form is open, there are still slots remaining of that type.

3 Slots of ✨
Neostyle: https://neotheta.fi/commissions/form/neostyle/
Painting: https://neotheta.fi/commissions/form/painting/

2 Slots of 🎨
Resheet: https://neotheta.fi/commissions/form/refsheet/

5 Slots of 🔥
Speedling: https://neotheta.fi/commissions/form/speedling/

ToS 🍂
https://neotheta.fi/commissions/

Thanks for the interest!
-Neo

Commission opening 13th of Nov (Monday) at 7AM UTC ⚡️ All slot types, limited amount of slots 🎨
Check further info at: https://neotheta.fi/commissions/

_{It's safe to assume that popular slot types will be claimed quickly 1-20minutes (refsheet, neostyle), while there is more time to jump for speedlings and paintings typically. Familiarizing yourself with the form & writing descriptions in advance is a good idea. Also feel free to send me questions beforehand.}

Mark your calendar and thanks for the interest!
-Neo

Ironically the last time I posted a life update I said things had finally gotten better, but as usual the moment I say that things take a dramatic turn to worse. This time was no different and it sure fucking happened again - which is why I've been so inactive. Not with a literal strike of lightning this time but my entire summer has been a battle of health, failures and trying to meet every deadline despite it. In short my cat got ill, my PC died, I've become the designated only driver and several other things.

Light is at the end of the tunnel!

I haven't scheduled more obligations so once September is over I'll have it a bit easier *knocks on wood*. PC got fixed and I also bought a new one from a friend, to arrive in a few days. My cat is also in a stable condition though waiting for the big treatment, but making enough to cover it doesn't seem impossible anymore. It's still going to be a rough month or two and some days it feels like my energy is gone, but so far I've been able to keep the flame going.

Hard times are no stranger and there's also been good things, to me it's important to focus on the good stuff no matter how small it is in comparison. Friendships strengthen when you go through hardships and help each other. Also I've developed a new singing voice which gives me so much joy when I'm by myself. And by the end of this year I would've made my first proper oil paintings, which has been a long dream! Also my new PC is actually going to be really powerful. And and got some new music to listen to (important).

----

The t-shirt's arrived and they're ready to be shipped once I go to the post office. The fox looks SO GOOD (and so do the others). Exciting! I'll also be selling at Tracon this Saturday - see you there?
-Neo

Additionally: I CAN'T WAIT TO DRAW MORE

I wanted to talk about failure because it's something that recently hit hard for myself.

So very recently I got my first (non-school related) art gallery opportunity, for which I was making 3 oil paintings for. A medium which I fancy a lot but because of time and resources has been difficult to focus on, but I finally managed to set aside two months (thanks to one of them being a big commission, right up my alley). Unfortunately little by little more and more sudden life responsibilities came along, one by one my ability to finish each painting in time for the gallery was gone. Two of my friends did try their best to assist me on the piling daily chores to get back some of the lost hours but in the end even more new problems came along, completely unrelated to the previous ones.

I feel like a failure to those who tried to help me, also to myself but even worse and angering feels the belittling from others that I'm lazy and didn't put in enough effort or take in account for possible delays. Of course I could've scheduled even more time on this, however there is always a limit to how many pre-cautions can be made and I definitely didn't dance on the very limit with this - considering how important it was for me.

It's difficult to draw the golden line between scolding myself on not doing enough and understanding that a lot of things in life just happen and it's not our fault. My entire life is full of failures, and it has never been the end of things, the only real end is when you decide to not push through anymore.

- - -

But not only have I been looked down upon for the art thing, but the scenarios with health care have been beyond angering. Perhaps it's because I still look really young, nobody takes anything I say or do seriously. My problems have been belittled and I've been denied care because I seem fine, but because I wasn't fine it's been really hard to fight back, there was a moment where I considered if I can get care faster if I poison myself with painkillers because the non-prescription ones weren't enough to get through without screaming on the floor, how far do you have to go to be taken seriously? There was also another instance where it wasn't ok for me to wait with my partner but it was fine for an elderly couple under the exact same circumstances.

It angers me that most people will belittle others just because it grants them a feeling of superiority.
The world needs more kindness, but also kindness is extremely tough.

-Neo

Taking the last elemental theme slot in today's stream, to be announced later.
This slot will be fullbody or scene only. Claimed in stream chat.

Thanks for your interest!
-Neo

Heya!

Last time I only did Fire & Earth, and I'm wanting to really tackle Lightning/Air and Water/Ice also, so I will be taking 1-2 speedlings in today's stream on those themes. The stream will begin in ~an hour. Slots are claimed in chat.

https://picarto.tv/Neotheta

Prices for Speedlings:
Icon - 50€
Portrait (40-50% of character) - 80€
Showcase - 120€
Scene x1 - 150€
Payment is expected upfront, via paypal.

-Neo

Heya! I've meant to dedicate this month and the next for oil painting, but since my supplies haven't arrived, I'll do a Speedling stream tomorrow, so I have something productive to do. The theme will be elements _{(again, I know, but look on the bright side: it's not exclusive to felines :D)}

- Tomorrow during Wednesday stream, which I will begin much earlier than usual.
- Slots will be first come first serve, each slot is reserved once the previous drawing is finished in the chatroom (Picarto). Unfortunately picarto has yet to restore guest participation so you need to have an account to chat (it annoys the hell out of me too).
- There will be four themes: Fire, Ice/Water, Thunder/Air, Earth/Lifeforce or similar. Each theme can be obtained only once.
- Even if there are four themes, it's unlikely I will have the time to make four drawings in stream, two or three is realistic. Let's see!

Prices for Speedlings:
Icon - 50€
Portrait (40-50% of character) - 80€
Showcase - 120€
Scene x1 - 150€
Payment is expected upfront, via paypal.


Hope to see you there, also just for chattings too.
-Neo

It's been while since I wrote an actual life update here, so here goes!
This might be a bit rough but it's overall positive (in the end).

I think I'm experiencing something that is exiting a "survival mode". Life has been a struggle to stay afloat for years and every glimmer of hope soon crushed in some unexpected turn of events. The old me would've blamed myself for making bad decisions like trusting others even if there wasn't really a different choice to be made, but also I know that given each circumstance I did do my best at the time, which is all there is to do about things. In the process of surviving I lost my ability to dream and desire for anything, all I wanted was to survive and not burden others along the way. Every smallest nice thing I gave to myself I had to explain in the name of enhancing productivity instead of "just because".

Well things took a rather unexpected turn and I met someone who specifically wanted to live with me, and a better part of a year has already passed. My mind is very slow to catch up. I'm no longer in a temporary living setup and the stress of uncertain future is gone. For a long time my head felt kinda empty but also peaceful, I just wanted to rest. Slowly I've had thoughts of wanting to do things just for fun, instead of focusing solely on things that bring immediate profit.

This has led to me thinking more broadly what I want to do with life & my art. There's more to life than just making money to stay alive and hide away and that option is now open to be explored. But this string of thoughts doesn't really lead anywhere specific yet, since those thoughts aren't finalized.

Even though there's no real conclusion here, I wanted to let you know that I've recently felt quite happy.

- - -

Things happening this year:
- I have an upcoming art gallery with my aunt in July at Juupajoki, so I will start working on stuff for that really soon (more about that in a future journal).
- I'm going to Furway, Animus and also considering Flüüfff. I want to attend smaller conventions in the future more and see new places!
- I'll try set aside a month to start my comic project, but the timing is still uncertain (I need to be in clear from things I've already promised to do).


See you at today's stream in an hour?
-Neo

ToS & Live to-do-list
https://neotheta.fi/commissions/

Thank you so much for the interest!!
-Neo