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Posted a year agoLooking back on it now, that last journal was more of a pity party than I'm comfortable with. I regret writing it for that reason. I guess this is the benefit of journaling, seeing your thoughts from another time and maybe thinking “wow, I’m in a very different frame of mind from how I was then” in a tangible way. So, I want to apologize for the tone of it if it came across as self-absorbed or accusatory. I’ve never been all that great at putting my best foot forward when it comes to a having a public face on the internet, but I’m trying to get better at it. I’m actually trying to be a better person in most respects all the time, heavy emphasis on ‘trying’.
Still here, everything’s fine, more art to come. I’ll figure out what to do about the username thing. Pardon my impropriety, and thanks to you all for your continued support over the years.
Still here, everything’s fine, more art to come. I’ll figure out what to do about the username thing. Pardon my impropriety, and thanks to you all for your continued support over the years.
Let's Talk, Shall We...
Posted 2 years agoHey folks. Happy New Year. I hope it brings peace and prosperity to you as much as it can.
I want to have a really frank talk about some things, and it might get a bit personal.
Over the past few years as I've settled into my almost-40s, I've found my life gradually getting more and more expensive. There are more vital expenses in my life that are just unavoidable, that I never had to deal with as a tiny diaper baby in her mid-20s. This has been creeping up on me and I haven't wanted to acknowledge it because it's depressing.
It's been many years now since I gave up doing regular commissions for income. The fact is, I was changing as a person, my interests were shifting, and I burnt out on drawing what people wanted to see from me, wanted to pay me for, HARD. I apologized and excused myself, then didn't draw for like a year. My passion had gone from a joy, to a job, to a hated chore.
My personality and my interests have continued to shift and change over time. I'm not the person I was in 2010, or even 2020. Even as this has happened, I've felt the... weight of my art from 10, 15 years ago pulling on me. The more time passes, the less that art is an accurate representation of what people can expect from me NOW. And it begins to feel like False Advertisement, just keeping the same name. So I made a decision. I would start publishing all my new art as "Animatronikki", a new name that feels like Me Now and doesn't feel connected to a lot of stuff I've lost interest in. Feels more representative of a lot of my output.
While a small core of dedicated fans and friends have followed me (to my Telegram Art Channel and to my BlueSky account), for which I am deeply grateful, it seems the vast majority of my audience has not taken to it. The subjects I draw now just don't have the same broad appeal. My ongoing stories I tell via my Tumblr blogs and via art I post on my channel don't seem to hook folks like my 2008-2016ish output. I have essentially chosen a path of vastly diminished audience, and that, too, is a depressing fact to acknowledge.
What this is all working up to is the realization that I may have to start doing commission work again to help pay for things. And I'm worried that advertising that solely through my Animatronikki accounts will not reach enough people to get the business. I haven't landed on a solid plan of action, but I am considering advertising commissions via places like this FA page, or even starting up a Ribnose account on BlueSky. In the past this has usually meant fielding a lot of commission requests for subjects I do not want to draw, and I don't relish that prospect, but I may not have much other choice. Business is business, and demand is what it is. There are only so many people out there who want an animatronic or a Sonic character, and there are vastly many more who would like a more traditional anthropomorphic character drawn, the sort people have come to associate with Ribnose as a name.
I'll say more in the future, and I'll let people know where I land on this, but for now I wanted to give a heads up about my potential plans, so people know I'm considering opening up for commissions here and hopefully drum up some interest.
Because I am *trash* at running commission work as a business, I do not have a handy-dandy Commission Info Sheet like artists tend to use these days. I may have to make one.
Thanks for your time and attention. I realize this comes off as very "woe is me" but I've been struggling with this, it truly is not easy to look back at my career as an artist and not know what I ought to do going forwards. I am doing my best! And thank you for your continued support. I couldn't do this without you.
I want to have a really frank talk about some things, and it might get a bit personal.
Over the past few years as I've settled into my almost-40s, I've found my life gradually getting more and more expensive. There are more vital expenses in my life that are just unavoidable, that I never had to deal with as a tiny diaper baby in her mid-20s. This has been creeping up on me and I haven't wanted to acknowledge it because it's depressing.
It's been many years now since I gave up doing regular commissions for income. The fact is, I was changing as a person, my interests were shifting, and I burnt out on drawing what people wanted to see from me, wanted to pay me for, HARD. I apologized and excused myself, then didn't draw for like a year. My passion had gone from a joy, to a job, to a hated chore.
My personality and my interests have continued to shift and change over time. I'm not the person I was in 2010, or even 2020. Even as this has happened, I've felt the... weight of my art from 10, 15 years ago pulling on me. The more time passes, the less that art is an accurate representation of what people can expect from me NOW. And it begins to feel like False Advertisement, just keeping the same name. So I made a decision. I would start publishing all my new art as "Animatronikki", a new name that feels like Me Now and doesn't feel connected to a lot of stuff I've lost interest in. Feels more representative of a lot of my output.
While a small core of dedicated fans and friends have followed me (to my Telegram Art Channel and to my BlueSky account), for which I am deeply grateful, it seems the vast majority of my audience has not taken to it. The subjects I draw now just don't have the same broad appeal. My ongoing stories I tell via my Tumblr blogs and via art I post on my channel don't seem to hook folks like my 2008-2016ish output. I have essentially chosen a path of vastly diminished audience, and that, too, is a depressing fact to acknowledge.
What this is all working up to is the realization that I may have to start doing commission work again to help pay for things. And I'm worried that advertising that solely through my Animatronikki accounts will not reach enough people to get the business. I haven't landed on a solid plan of action, but I am considering advertising commissions via places like this FA page, or even starting up a Ribnose account on BlueSky. In the past this has usually meant fielding a lot of commission requests for subjects I do not want to draw, and I don't relish that prospect, but I may not have much other choice. Business is business, and demand is what it is. There are only so many people out there who want an animatronic or a Sonic character, and there are vastly many more who would like a more traditional anthropomorphic character drawn, the sort people have come to associate with Ribnose as a name.
I'll say more in the future, and I'll let people know where I land on this, but for now I wanted to give a heads up about my potential plans, so people know I'm considering opening up for commissions here and hopefully drum up some interest.
Because I am *trash* at running commission work as a business, I do not have a handy-dandy Commission Info Sheet like artists tend to use these days. I may have to make one.
Thanks for your time and attention. I realize this comes off as very "woe is me" but I've been struggling with this, it truly is not easy to look back at my career as an artist and not know what I ought to do going forwards. I am doing my best! And thank you for your continued support. I couldn't do this without you.
