Hey! Once again, I forgot what day of the week it was in regards to blogging. I considered posting this tomorrow, given my schedule for the day, but I have something I want to talk about. I have been enjoying having more drawing in my daily life, and I want to keep that going. In fact, I’d like to find ways to insert more drawing into my day. As I think about the different things I want to do and feel overwhelmed by it, I get antsier and reach out to games and social media scrolling more often to destress (if a losing streak in Marvel Snap and Facebook count as “destressing”). I want to find a way to reintroduce doodling into my routine. I’m better at drawing with purpose, even if I still get freaked by it, but I also want drawing without purpose, because I think it’s fun and I want to find a way to interact with it purely as fun. Maybe art overall will feel less daunting if I have it with no intention to show it off or look good.
At the same time, I am becoming increasingly worried about what could happen with my art before my career even takes off the ground. Meta is going to steal all the art posted on its platforms to train their AI, on top of general scraping concerns. I’ve also been wondering about how I’ve been putting myself out there and how effective my strategy is. It’s not like I don’t get any attention, but I’m not having luck with building a dedicated audience, either. It’s a long process to go through, and I’m still early in it. If I ever get to any notoriety, I’ll have a bunch of art already out there to sampled by the platforms I’m using to gain that notoriety, as well as by any other AI system.
Long story short, I’m thinking of cutting back on how much and what I post to social media. I may share doodles I like or gesture drawings, things that don’t risk me exposing the heart of my art style to AI scraping. As I understand it, video of a picture is currently safer to post than a still image, so I may post videos showing art (until and unless that becomes dangerous). I have made a Cara account, which I’ll try to use as a primary way to put up finished work. I haven’t posted anything yet, so I’m still unclear of details, but I think I can share out from there; if so, I could share glazed work from Cara to other platforms. I guess I’ll also have to consider taking down art from this site, glazing it, and reposting what I want to show off here.
Moreover, I may stop posting to social media everyday. I know I can keep up with drawing on a day to day basis, even if it’s just a little some days since I have a job. I also want a different attitude towards my art. Chasing social media clout and attention is not great for my mental health, so taking the daily “ME ME ME!” out of the equation sounds really nice. I mean, I’m not good at that sort of thing in the first place. If posting on a daily basis hasn’t been getting me followers because it’s not the pretty art the theft platforms like to show people, then maybe it’s not worth doing in the first place. If it’s not going to be treated as empty internet content, then why should I post it like it is? So I think I’ll focus on other avenues in places where I have a measure more protection from bad actors.
Anyway, this week, I finished up that dancing WIP and did various kinds of style experimentation and practice before starting on a large illustration that I’m excited for. I’m also thinking about multiple stories and how I want to proceed. I think I have a fair idea of what to focus on. It’s all still hazy for me — I don’t know how to plan out career things — but I think I know what makes sense as a “right now” project, before moving into anything for which I’d ask money.
Life in the Gutters 