It's been brought to my attention that someone out there is impersonating me:

username: phantomocci
Discord Profile ID: 1347285869983174656

I would advise everyone to please be vigilant about not sending money to scammers and that if you have doubts you can send a Note or reach out on Bluesky which is also listed here; I will be happy to verify.

Once more I seem to have survived a year so might as well get a new retrospective journal out, comparing myself to last year and all that.

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I've definitely improved with my skill quality over this past year, getting most sure of myself in with sketching and most optimistically with shading and highlighting. I'm certainly getting a bit faster with certain steps, in fact turnaround time for some of the projects I had this past year were way below what it normally takes me. That being said, I still have some projects that feel like they take months... some of them quite literally do take that amount of time; consistency is most assuredly something I lack. If I had to pick a highlight of this past year, it would be getting 3 projects all ready to ship during July with full shading and highlighting on each of them; I honestly never expected to be able to pull that off but somehow I managed!

My social skills however feel as if they've plateaued, sure I'm still expanding my social circle and meeting new people and artists alike but that has led to some previous relationships being left at the wayside. Communication with me is rough, and if anyone out there is a victim of me just not messaging for weeks at a time I'm so sorry, know it is not my intention to make you feel ignored. I think I will for sure need to work more on strengthening the friendships I have over this next year instead of seeking new potential friends, not to say I'm suddenly against meeting new people but it's not going to be a major motivating factor of mine for a bit. There are too many highlights regarding friends this past year, not to mention listing them out here seems very rude LMAO

To wrap up this journal, some big milestones were hit for me regarding my online presence! Big thanks to all 105 of you who have watched my page at the time of writing, getting over 100 watchers seemed like an unobtainable goal so long ago but here we are!!! I can truly never articulate the feeling of appreciation towards all of you out there who took the time to watch and fav this degenerate dragon, so hopefully a simple thanks will do! Much love and good vibes being sent to all of you, whether you want it or not. Appreciate all of you who took the time to read this~

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-Your local air derg

Thanks so much for everyone applying! The winners have been chosen!

 AquarioDragon is the first winner!

 Drakronem is the second!

I'll be sure to do another one too so don't despair if you didn't win! And once more I appreciate all your support!

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Your Local Air Derg

I have no idea what to say, you all are way to nice supporting me as I develop! There have been a lot of ups and downs over the course of this past year or so since I started seriously uploading my art. When I started I never seriously believed I'd have even 10 people watching me, much less 50 and I have to show my appreciation back to you all somehow! So I'm going to do my first raffle!
If you wish to enter here's what you have to do:
1. Be part of my 50 watchers already! This is to show appreciation for everyone who believed in my early career so it's important to keep it to just them. I always appreciate new Watchers though and will probably do another one of these at 100!

2. If you are part of the 50 watchers, leave a comment on this journal. This comment must include both "I want to be a part of this raffle." and a link to your chosen ref sheet.

Do both of those and you're done and I'll mark you down as a participant!


So you must now be wondering: what's in it for me? Well the winner of this raffle will receive for free from me:
-1 Full Body Piece /w Detailed Background as well as Highlighting and Shading
-1 Optional Half Body Panel
-Optional Added Dialogue
In total, you'd be getting a $67 commission from me for free!


I hope everyone who's Watched me enters! Also, once more I have to thank every one of you from the bottom of my heart and here's to 50 more! You have 1 week to enter before I draw; 11/14/23!

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-Your local air derg

Another hatchday has arrived gracing me with another year older under my belt. I'd like to say a few things here and reflect a little on my progression and goals for the upcoming year, here's hoping having things down in writing will motivate me haha.

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I consider my 25th year a slow start in terms of getting more skillful with my drawing; sketching takes me forever and I'm never 100% happy with what I create... hence why I really seek validation from others. Of course I recognize that progress is progress no matter how slow, but I have a nasty habit of comparing where I am currently with others which honestly dampens my motivation to pick up the drawing tablet sometimes. Let me say though that I've done the best work I've ever accomplished this past year, that fullbody I did of myself fills me with pride having accomplished that, I think I did the best shading so far with the Dracthyr bust I made, and that Noivern piece that was posted back in October of last year was the quickest piece I ever made.... there's even an older version of that Noivern piece that was WAY worse that'll never see the light of day again!!! In terms of what I hope to achieve this next year, I want to finish a short comic and have it turn out well while continuing to try and improve my speed and drawing ability.

Something I'm really happy about myself improving is my social skills, before I was a super introverted lurker scared to reach out to anyone.... Now I have too many friends to manage! I've expanded my network of artist contacts too, which I will forever be grateful for all the help they each provide, and found a couple like minded individuals who share my tastes in subject material. And basically everyone has been super open and kind with me, which I really appreciate. Trying to join a new community is honestly very frightening, I remember physically shaking with adrenaline over sending those first messages or joining that first discord server, but now I can do that with only a small bit of anxiety! You guys made that awkward beginning bit much more bearable, I doubt I'd have even considered working on my art without you. In terms of goals on this front I'd love to be able to make time for everyone, time management is a big problem for me right now and sometimes I forget to message for weeks at a time.... if that's happened to you please forgive me I mean no malice behind it.

Not much more to say here, just for the first time in a long time I have some hope for self improvement, all because of my previous year of good experiences. To all 32 of you who are watching me at the time of writing this know that you are the most absolute real ones a derg like me could ask for. And to the many more that happened to favorite a piece or even simply took the time to check out my profile, know I send much love and amazing vibes your way. Here's hoping next time I do one of these there will be an announcement for a raffle or something at the end of it huh? xP

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-Your local air derg

First of all, thanks to everyone who has watched me or fav'd any of my pieces , it gives me a lot of joy to know that there are people out there who like my art enough to do that! You all are too kind for this world!!! Second: apologies for the lack of any posted art for the last couple of weeks, got hit with a cold and immediately after the flu back in December and it killed my drive for drawing art. I am working on getting back to my previous speed at the very least. I have a lot of projects planned that I sincerely hope will be finished soon: a couple of small comics I want to do, a new self-reference (the first of many more than likely), and some individual pieces I've been meaning to get done.

I hope you all are having a fantastic start to the new year!!~