Author: Angela S.

Ang’s Year in Art 2023 Summary [Video + Blog Post]

It’s time for one of my favorite things – rounding up the art for a year-end retrospective!  This year, I wanted to do something different, however, so in addition to this little round-up blog post, I’ve also narrated a video for your enjoyment!  For those who don’t have 15+ mins to listen to my longer form rambling, you can skim the major talking points here instead.

Enjoy and let me know what your favorite piece of mine was from this year!  Is there anything you’d like to see me do more of in 2024?

My Month-to-Month Summary

A better look at each piece, plus extra art I couldn’t fit into the month-to-month format.

How Was My Year?

It was honestly a rough one!  From my existential dread dealing with generative AI replacing Illustrators to a significant cancer scare that derailed all my best laid plans, I’ve come out the other side with the best outcome of a benign tumor.  In spite of the dark cloud of looming disasters, I managed to complete my Birthstone Goddesses collection after 6 years of toil!  It may not have gotten the big finish I wanted for that project, but I’m happy to free up my muse and attention for other exciting endeavors on the horizon.

My Level-Up Piece

The piece that taught me the most and helped improve my skills – “The Lamb”

I chose this as my Level Up piece because I was able to find a balance within it that brought me a step closer to a Tarot-inspired art style I’ve been nurturing of late.  I used line art to accentuate the form and bring in very subtle hatchwork, while also letting the image be painterly. It’s a hard balance to strike, but this image was my “Eureka” moment for how to combine my love of lines and painterliness!

My Personal Favorite

The piece that I loved the most out of the rest I made – “Leaping River Orchid”

Things just ‘clicked’ with this piece.  Despite being quite loose, this image still has a good sense of character and mood.  In trying to emulate the Arcane animated series art style, I unlocked something between that space of loose lines and color that makes for a very appealing visual look.  Perhaps it’s merely her cool hat that makes this my favorite?  Either way, I hope I can use what I learned from painting Orchid for future pieces like it!

2024 Art Goals

  • Make more videos & streams – While I’ve been dipping my toe into sharing more videos this year, I’d like to really up the ante in 2024. I’m hoping to create more narrated videos and be more present as a person in them to remind folks I’m a human, not an art machine. I also want more face to face time with you all by streaming! Now, I just need to learn how to stick to a streaming schedule which I’ve had a terrible track record at.
  • Learn Clip Studio Paint – I feel like I’ve stagnated the past couple of years because I’ve avoided complex images with multiple figures and architectural elements. I’m hoping to teach myself Clip Studio Paint so I can start using 3D models to create reference materials for complex elements so painting them will be easier.
  • Re-invest in myself and my artistic voice/stories! – For years, I’ve always intended to write more, but my Art Muse has always dominated my time.  With AI now intruding into all creative fields, I want to push my work to be more about my voice, which I hope will stand out from the increase in AI material that’s bound to happen in the next few years. I have something to say with my work and now I finally have the freedom to pursue this endeavor with full attention thanks to our newfound stability!

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2023 was tough, but I’m stoked for 2024!  I feel like I’ve finally been able to slow down and heal in 2023 after literal years of health disasters, medical debt, house moves, and uncertainty.  Now, I’m able to approach a new branching path in my artistic direction in 2024.  I can’t wait to share it with you all!  I’ll be talking about the new and decidedly different work I’ll be sharing on this Patreon in the next entry.

Till then, onwards to 2024!  Thanks for sticking with me on this eteneral roller coaster of a ride.

– Ang

[Art] Exalted Character of the Week Vol 1: Rainbows, Abyssals, and Big Hats

You all know I’m a nerd for the tabletop game, Exalted from Onyx Path Publishing (and if not, SURPRISE! Prepare yourself for my weebness).  I help run a Discord server for fans who like to create art, writing, etc. for this particular TTRPG community.  Recently, we started up a community activity where we roll a die to choose a character from a member to create arts inspired by them.  This little collection features characters from our first rounds.

This activity has been an excellent opportunity for me to practice different styles, so strap yourself in for a ride through the colorful characters and styles of my first Exalted Character of the Week collection!

(My gal, Kalara, was chosen for the first round, but that’s a whole other art feature collection for later).

Theo for Jen

Theodotus is a bombastic Zenith Caste who beams rainbows from his heroic anima.  The energetic style of the Hades video game seemed like a perfect fit for him. I absolutely adore this style and always wanted to try it myself!  This style involves clean line work and bold highlighting for a signature look. I definitely want to play with it more, as it suited my own proclivity for line art and elegance very well.

  • Watch a timelapse of Theo’s creation here.

Orchid for MissSunnySweden

Next, we have Leaping River Orchid, a demure noblewoman Twilight Caste who hides her Anathema nature from the noble house she was born into.  She prefers to charm rather than combat and seemed a good fit for testing out a style inspired by the Arcane animated series with her elegant costume.

I’m particularly happy with how this one came out. Despite how rough it is, it feels polished in the right places, which is a valuable lesson to me on balancing detail and value in a composition so I can plan my time and effort with pieces better.

  • Watch a timelapse of Orchid’s portrait here.

Thrice-Fallen Affections for Raefen

Finally, we have the Abyssal, Thrice-Fallen Affections, who serves the Deathlord, The Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears.  Thrice-fallen Affections has some rather risque tastes in formal clothing in the skeleton themes of the Underworld.

  • See the uncensored version and watch the full view timelapse of this piece here.  Artistic nudity warning (bare breasts in a non-sexual context) for any who do decide to click through.

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It’s my hope that by experimenting with different styles, I refill my creative well a bit, as well as learn about what makes MY style “me” by figuring out what it is I like and don’t like, what feels right to me, and how I want my work to look in the future.  Most of all, it’s just nice to take a break from serious years-long projects to have some fun with casual art!  I have been emulating Mucha for so long with the Birthstone Goddesses series that it’s nice to break out of my shell a bit.

The Exalted Character of the Week Challenge is going to be an ongoing activity in the future, so I’ll probably share quarterly collections from the event from here on out.  It’s been fun to let loose with styles and fashion exploration with all the colorful character possibilities that Exalted has to offer thus far.

Next up, I hope to have a very special bit of fan art inspired by my favorite TV series of 2023 – Blue Eye Samurai!  Granted I can get it done by next Thursday.  We shall see!

Till then, I hope you enjoyed the art dump!

– Ang

Comic + WIPs – Carbon 2185: Parablepsia – “Unintentional Ninja”

I teased that I’d be cooling down after the big project milestone with fun exploratory art and part of that carefree fun art has been brushing up on my sequential art (comics) skillset.  I enjoy taking little scenes from our tabletop campaigns and turning them into one-shots like this for a lark.

Comics also make excellent drawing practice for anatomy, perspective, storytelling, the works!  So I thought you all might enjoy a peek at this one-page comic plus some WIPs I didn’t share on social media.

Programs Used – Procreate for the lines and colors, Clip Studio Paint EX for the Word Balloons, FX, and Text.

The Premise:  Welcome to the Cyberpunk setting of Carbon 2185!  Parablepsia is the name of our campaign featuring a disparate band of street runners who wake up in a morgue to find themselves embroiled in a corporate war for power and technology.

Then there’s Nightingale (Gale for short), the character I play who is a synthetic humanoid singer who believes she has no business being caught up in this mess.  Little does she know that she’s been programmed with ninja skills without her knowledge!

Making of the Comic

It all starts with the rough sketch and scribbling in the dialogue so I know that the dialogue will fit in the panel.  The expressions are also pretty abstract since I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this while I figure out the positioning of all the various elements.

I also didn’t know how Gale looks since I hadn’t drawn her before this comic, so I ended up going through a few variations trying to nail down her look.  Which one’s your favorite?  I tried to channel feather shapes like her songbird theme.

I had a good laugh making expressions into my camera trying to nail down Gale’s various shocked expressions in this comic and how silly, yet accurate the rough drawings of her face were to the emotions she was expressing.

The final comic:

  • Watch a timelapse here.  My process is absolute chaos, but it’s kinda fun to watch a story emerge from the scribbles!

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Will I share more comics here?  We’ll see!  It’s something I haven’t done with consistency because it’s difficult and time-consuming, but it’s also a lot of fun.  It’s very satisfying when those expressions work and the comedy lands!

I’m still learning how to use software, brush up the written script on longer stories, etc. which has been my hobby time fun lately.  I’ve been sharing more of this exploration over in my Discord server, which is open to both my Patrons and the public. Patrons can connect their accounts for access to my Secret Sketchbook there, while free fans can join the public areas here.

For now, I hope you all enjoyed this errant one shot!  Stay tuned for more character portraits and a painting over the next few posts.  Meanwhile, I hope you all enjoy the end of the year.  Stay toasty and warm!

– Ang

Health Update + Year End Wrap-Up

Hello, it’s my face!  I just wanted to give you all a sign of life after my last posts.  I am alive and well!  For those who didn’t catch the great news on social media, my latest scans say that my kidney lump is STABLE!  This is such a huge relief.  I was very much preparing for life to go a different way this year, considering my family’s history with this malady.  We’ll have to keep an eye on things for the future, but for now, what I have is slow-growing and generally benign. It’s really the best news in my case!

This year has been a challenging and introspective one. I had to simplify my life knowing that treatments might be a possibility, which meant I had to abandon my Kickstarter ambitions this year.   Never-the-less, your support here has helped me accomplish quite a lot!

With your support from Patreon this year, we’ve:

  • Kept my Etsy ads going through a year with failing social media reach
  • Helped me invest in a Canvas lamp for better lighting and for recording video
  • Upgrade my copy of Clip Studio Paint from the basic to the EX version for more helpful features
  • Launched my exclusive Patreon Merch as a special reward
  • Allowed me to purchase a few storage racks to help organize the new studio space
  • Helped cover part of my usual expenses, like my website, shop bills, etc.
  • Helped me survive a nearly year-long semi-hiatus due to shoulder surgery and rehab AND further medical challenges this year
  • Allowed me to go on a REAL vacation outside of the house for the first time in years

(The beginnings of the great studio re-organization!)

Honestly, this Patreon has been such a consistent source of succor for my husband and myself, so thank you once again from the bottom of our hearts!

Featured Posts from This Year

Here were some of my posts moments that I got to share with you all this year:

What’s next?

For now, I’m queuing up the traditional Year in Art Summary for a look back on what I’ve created this year, my favorites and lessons, etc.  I also have a few pieces in the pipeline I plan to share in a few errant art posts by the end of the year.  Mostly, I’ve been focusing on some frivilous fun pieces to wind down the end of the year with and enjoy this slow project time before I dive into the next big ambitious thing.

Till then, I hope you all enjoy the holidays and the end of the year!

– Ang

The Woven Path Tarot Deck + 20% Off Holiday Sale!

The time has come, my dears!  I’m full of happy news today to announce that the beautiful gilded deck that I worked on alongside my talented colleagues at the Changeling Artist Collective has arrived to my shop just in time for my yearly holiday sale.  

It’s so beautiful!  The cards are weighty and gorgeous with 2 foil colors.

You can watch a flipthru of the tarot deck here.

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I was responsible for the Temperance card of the Major Arcana (which I shared more Behind the Scenes about its creation here).  This card’s themes of balancing and tempering one’s strengths and weaknesses appeals to my ongoing journey as an artist seeking self-discovery and improvement.

The rest of the deck is also full of gorgeous art inspired by medieval tapestry, making it a unique collaborative deck.

These decks were independently printed, so they are extremely limited!  They will only be available from the participating artists.  I have only 7 left as of this writing!  Snag a deck here.

The Spirits of Winter Return

For those who love the glitz and shine of holiday themes, my Spirits of Winter art series has also returned to my shop for a limited time (till the end of January).  I’ve also made sure to stock the Christmas cards and prints for those who enjoy spreading the holiday cheer!

I’ve also made sure to stock a few sketch originals for those looking for small one of a kind gifts under $100 that won’t break the bank.

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  • Find my Fine Art shop here
  • And if you fancy more of my Kushiel’s Legacy and ttrpg/geeky art, find my Fantasy Art shop here.  The holiday sale also extends to this shop!

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As ever, I’m grateful to anyone who shops small this year!  Times have been rough for artists and every little bit helps my lil one-person biz out.

In the meanwhile, I hope everyone enjoys a bit of time to relax, reflect, and have some good food!  I’m going to do my best not to set any rum glaze on fire this year.  Stay happy and healthy and I’ll be returning soon with more art musings!

– Ang

Unveiling the Birthstone Goddesses 2024 Calendar!

This collection has been years in the making and after hours of inking, painting, and toil, I have finally completed “The Final Goddess”, the 13th Goddess in the Birthstone Goddesses series!

The turning of the year ends. The cycle begins anew. Her delicate touch brings the frost. Her delicate touch brings the first blooms. Birth, Death, Grief, Healing. Turn, turn, turn.

She is all of these Goddesses and none, the Lady of Eternity, The First and Final Goddess.

I’m so pleased to introduce the calendar!  There were many unforseen challenges along the way, from a pandemic to printing woes, but with the help of new technologies in print on demand, I’m able to bring these calendars directly to you all from a printing partner!

Where to get a Calendar

  • The calendar is available in my Etsy shop here.
  • You can also find a print of the cover here.

Journey of Creation

If you missed the Behind the Scenes look at the calendar’s journey of creation I wrote for Patrons, be sure to catch up here:

“The Final Goddess” Original Painting

Watch a timelapse of this painting’s creation here. That’s 10+ hours of work condensed into 1 minute!  I hope to upload a longer narrated version of this painting and the others in the Birthstone Goddesses slowly, but surely, as they take a lot of time to edit and record.

The cover painting was created with india ink pens and watercolor with accents of white gel pen and measures 8×20 inches.  The original is available for any interested parties!  I’ll be accepting offers from Patrons for a week (till Fri. Nov 10th) before she goes live in my Fine Art shop for the general public.

She can be yours for $2700 unmatted or have me choose a mat, frame, and proper glass for her for $3240, with free shipping within the US and Canada. Patrons will also be eligible to use their 15%-25% discounts on this original as well! The discount is dependent on what tier you’re supporting at.

If interested in adding this painting to your collection, drop me a private message here via Patreon.

Help Support the Calendar!

As this calendar is a homegrown project, your word of mouth really helps me out!  Please feel free to share these social media posts and help spread the word about my calendar.  The biggest time to share is now, since the calendar will be less in-demand once 2024 begins:

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This has been quite the journey and I’m still reeling being at this bittersweet end!  I’ve prepared a retrospective look at all of the work I’ve created for the Birthstone Goddesses over the years for the next post that will go live next week. It’s been a joy to look back at all my favorites, especially as it’s easy to forget everything I’ve made after this long, ha!  It has been a flurry of artistic creation.

Till then, it is time for much-needed rest and celebration!

I hope you all had a lovely Halloween and that this calendar will be a light of beauty and inspiration throughout your 2024.

– Ang

The Birthstone Goddesses Collection, A Retrospective + Future of the Project?

It’s the end of an era for me with the Birthstone Goddesses wrapping up!  I thought it only proper to send the project off with a look back at how it evolved over the years I spent on it.  This journey started as a simple set of 12 paintings for a calendar and ended up being so much more!

The Birthstone Goddesses

These paintings started it all!  Lady of December was the original first entry into the series in 2014 as a gift to my mother inspired by Alphonse Mucha’s Precious Stones series.  A couple of years later, the idea to continue with a series of similar paintings came to me.

The Birthstone Goddesses Masquerade

At the start of the series, I was also invested in leathercrafting as a hobby and wanted to explore the themes of flowers and birthstones via masks as well.  Each one of these is a limited edition of 10 per mask, some adorned with crystals and all hand-tooled and painted.  With the way the movement of Art Nouveau also extends beyond 2D art into jewelry, textiles, etc., I found masks to be a poetic addition to the Birthstone Goddesses’ growing ouevre.  (There are still a few masks left in my Artisan shop for anyone seeking a unique cosplay or display piece.)

(The masks were photographed by the talented Winter Wolf Studios).

The Visage Collection

Over the course of creating the paintings, I also started thinking about the prospect of creating a book, which I thought would look lovely if I started each section with a thematic banner of each Goddess.  And thus the Visage collection was born! Inspired by the gorgeous hand mirrors and cameo necklaaces from the Art Nouveau movement.

The Enamel Pin Designs

Once again, I was tempted to explore more wearable art forms by enamel pins, which I also thought would make a beautiful collectible item that would work with Goddess-themed gift sets.  The form of these pins were inspired by the cameo jewelry of Art Nouveau.  These designs were also used for stickers.

Ink & Gold Drawings

These drawings were created to promote the enamel pin designs as luxury tiers for the pins’ Kickstarters, stripping down the pin designs into elegant ink and gold.

Embellished Mats

I created these hand-drawn mats accented with gold leaf especially for display at cons. Several of them were sold before I had a chance to photograph them, as I created the full set of 12, one for each Lady.

The Little Gem Goddesses

During the coloring book’s Kickstarter, one of the stretch goals was the fun idea to do chibi versions of the Birthstone Goddesses.  Luckily they were unlocked and thus the Little Gems were born!  They’re a fun addition to this otherwise very serious series.

The Fashion Illustrations

Each Goddess’ painting was meticulously researched, planned, and rendered, including a fashion sketch on a croquis form to sort out the Goddess’ visual themes and dress.  All of these originals are still available in my shop with the exception of Lady of January’s sketch.

The Goddesses’ Windows

Each painting in the series also called for thematic mandala designs for their ‘windows’ that appear behind their heads in the main series’ paintings.  At some point, I’d like to do more with these designs to let the non-figural designs shine in all their intricate elegance.

Birthstone Goddesses Amulets

These designs were made as stickers for my Patreon Patrons, as well as what I hope will be enamel amulet necklaces I’ll be crowdfunding in the future.

Books & Misc

At the beginning of this journey, it was always my intent to create a wall calendar.  A coloring book and Lady of Eternity themed products arrived later as Patreon exclusives.  The Lady of Eternity enamel pin based on the drawing on the limited edition print is still an exclusive badge of honor for those Patrons who supported this series early on.

The Final Tally

125 creations, not including unique designs re-arranged for product designs like totes, pouches, etc.

  • 14 Paintings
  • 72 Drawings
  • 25 Pin and Amulet Designs
  • 12 Mask Designs
  • 6 Kickstarter projects
  • 1 book
  • 1 calendar

The Future of the Goddesses?

While I’m wrapping up the Birthstone Goddesses collection for now, it was always my intent that I could return to the wider Gemstone Goddesses theme and explore other gem-related Goddesses.  It’d be a chance for me to break away from the Mucha style and try other visual approaches.  I also feel that I have a few more ideas for additional paintings involving some of the Birthstone Goddess characters that I’d love to include in a prospective Birthstone Goddesses art book collecting all of the images you see here.

However, after 6 years, I desperately need some space before I take on creating a book collection for them.  I want to allow myself some creative freedom and a chance to thoroughly rest before I try anything else.

It’s strange to think what’s happened in my life during this 6 year span as well. I’ve gotten married, moved 4 times, helped my husband through his fight with lymphoma, heart failure, and job loss, had several surgeries, and so much more.  Life has been coming at us sideways for so long, I’m happy to be at an ending now that I can savor and appreciate!

It’s been quite the journey and I’m so grateful for those who provided encouragement and support along the way!  Thanks to everyone who pitched into my Patreon, supported my Kickstarters for this project, and left a kind word of encouragement in the years I’ve been doing this.  It helped my husband and I survive during rough times, as well as let me focus more on the art that helped the Birthstone Goddesses happen.

This entry is already long enough, so I’m going to leave off here!  I have some thoughts and feelings about the future of this Patreon and what art I’ll be sharing here that I’ll discuss in a later entry.  For now, let us bask and enjoy this moment of accomplishment!

– Ang

New Art! Cult of the Lamb

The Tiefling known now only as “The Lamb” rose from her would-be death as a sacrifice to become a Warlock of an Ancient One set on a quest for revenge for her slaying!

Or she would if I took the story of the adorably evil video game, Cult of the Lamb, and combined it with Dungeons & Dragons, which was the first thing my geek brain did when I played the game.  I enjoyed the straightforward story for the game’s premise so much, alongside all of the mechanics.  I had never played anything quite like it before!

According to my husband, I made quite a terrifying Lamb. Mua ha ha ha!

This was just a fun, silly mashup idea that came to me when I first played this game that made for excellent art practice.  Also a hint of the kind of art I’m moving towards, as it was also an experiment in nurturing a more painterly dark style inspired by Tarot (specifically the Klimt-esque aesthetic brought to the Dragon Age Tarot cards).

Hope you all enjoy my quirky little style experiment!  Painted in Procreate.

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  • Watch a 1 min timelapse for this piece here.

If y’all feel like supporting this art on social media, you can find this piece at the links.  Every share gives an artist wings!

A Big Career Shakeup + Where to Find Me Online

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.

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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.

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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