I haven’t been as active online as I used to be and I wanted to discuss that with you all here.  This year started with medical challenges and a house move which set me back a good deal.  Alongside all of that life chaos came a lot of external change in the world at the same time.  Generative AI arrived en masse and it’s given artists like myself a lot to contend with.

In a short span, I’ve found the entirety of my art from DeviantART and ArtStation fed into generative AI databases without my consent.  I’ve seen cover art, card deck illustrations, and TTRPG resources created by AI instead of hiring artists.  It all adds up to my conclusion that even if generative AI becomes ethically sourced, my prospects as an artist have (and will) drastically shrink as time goes on.

I haven’t been as active because I have been reconsidering everything about my career and whether being an illustrator was viable anymore.  It’s been a time of mourning and, frankly, paralyzing depression, as social media platforms fall apart around me at the same time, the reach and communities I lovingly built for years crumble due to ownership changes and the embracing of unregulated tech.

Thankfully, it’s not all doom and gloom.  My husband and I have been blessed with the help of Patreon and my husband’s work that now allows me to be choosier about my jobs and that has led me to my current decision to pursue projects that only align with my personal tastes and to focus mainly on my own personal projects from here on out.  It’s taken years to gain this freedom and honestly that’s been overwhelming as well!

I’ve wanted to be a lot of things in my time. Illustrator, comic artist, concept artist, etc.  There have always been a million tempting paths.  With my own mortality hovering so much over my head lately, I want to dedicate the rest of my life to telling those stories that live inside me that only I can tell while I still have time to do so.  Now, it’s a matter of wrapping up old projects and forging ahead with the new!  I’m currently preparing for all that positive change, which I’ll talk more about later.

Where to Find Me on Social Media

With all the aforementioned chaos, I’ve left many social media platforms and art communities that plan to use my art for AI training without my consent or that have changed for the worse and I wanted to keep you all up to date about where to find me.

Find me now on:

• BlueSky instead of Twitter/X – If you need an invite, let me know and I can most likely pass you a code when I get new ones each week!  You can still find all of my art brand accounts on Twitter for now, but as soon as BlueSky comes out of beta, I’ll be leaving Twitter permanently.
• Instagram / Facebook – I’m still on Meta platforms for now, as it is one of my oldest communities, but their plan to train their own AI on user posts worries me. Currently, I’m hoping they will clarify their uses of my art more adequately or I may be looking for an alternative for these platforms as well or leaving them entirely for Discord, but that big decision’s a ways off yet since FB is still very core to my art biz.
• Discord – This has become where I spend the most time lately!  I frequently hangout on my personal art server, which is open to all of my fans, with a special private section for Patreon Patrons.  If you aren’t already connected through Patreon where you can claim your Patreon server role, you can join as a regular member with this invite.

  I also curate a Video Game server and an Exalted RPG Artists server, so feel free to join up and hang out there as well!

Where to Find Me on Art Communities

I’ve also had to leave places like ArtStation and DeviantART, my main haunts for going on 20 years now, for other sites that are more staunchly against unethical AI.  This has been another blow losing the communities I felt a part of for years, but I’m hopeful we can all make new connections and rebuild in these new, more supportive spaces!

Cara.app – A replacement for ArtStation with a lot of amazing artists from the game and TTRPG industry there.

Inkblot – A replacement for DeviantART showcasing lots of different media, from art to comics and more.

—-

Have any of you found new interesting places to be online?  Tell me about it!  I’m currently looking for new places to be that are more supportive of artists with strong anti-AI stances.

—-

That was a LOT, but it feels good to all these thoughts out somewhere.  Thanks for sticking with me through all of my chaos lately.  The advantage of having to start over in new places is that I can celebrate my new work and rebuild myself more efficiently, which is proving to be exciting!  With my long-term projects wrapping up after the Goddess calendar, I am very keen to show you all what I’ve been plotting in the meanwhile.

Stay strong, arty friends!  See you folks around the interwebs.

♥ Ang