State of the Channel

I've been brooding over things for a while, and I suppose I might as well finally write it out in a wall of text so people know what's going on.

I have not had a job in nearly a year and a half and I've been relying on my art as my sole source of revenue while I try to find a place willing to hire me. Art-wise, things have been pretty stagnant for months. Follower counts have barely moved on Twitter, and engagement seems low. I've seen slight declines in monthly Patreon subscriber count/revenue for 3 months straight. Things have also been flat with DA and FA for a while now, though those sites are not as relevant in 2022 and don't get as much traffic. Expansions into other venues (NG, Etsy, Gumroad, etc) didn't yield much enthusiasm or results, and have been placed on the backburner for now.

Though I have at times spoke out against Twitter and its dreaded "algorithm" working against me every step of the way, I don't think that's really the issue. There's plenty of anthro artists out there who face off against the same algorithm and post work that is far more NSFW than mine, and see consistent growth and engagement on the platform. I've watched new accounts with no established name post their anthro art and surpass my follower count in a month or less. Using Twitter as a scapegoat is just deflection and isn't going to help me. The company has over $30 billion in market cap, and I am merely an expendable pawn in their hierarchy of over 300 million active monthly users. Trying to fight Twitter is only going to hurt myself, as I'm hardly a blip on their radar.

All of these observations have progressively steered me towards one conclusion: The fault lies with me, and I'm not doing a good enough job with making and/or presenting my work.

Trying to diagnose the underlying issue is difficult. I have been challenging myself to draw better anatomy, more dramatic angles, new characters, multiple characters, integrating more complicated objects into the background like cars or even mechs, but none of these changes have led to considerable growth. Don't get the wrong idea; trying new things was a personal challenge that I wanted to do, and I have enjoyed working outside of my comfort zone. I wanted to prove that I'm capable of producing work beyond flat-angled pinups of wide-eyed gals with "A"-shaped mouths and gravity-defying, balloon-shaped breasts. Appealing to a wider audience because of challenging myself would have been nice (and killing two birds with one stone), but that hasn't really been the case. Does that mean people  just want to see the same kind of thing from me, over and over again?

I don't think regressing to my old workflow and style of art is the answer. However, my current workflow is unsustainable as well, with the numbers I currently have. I can't just keep hoping that the next picture is the one that will get some momentum started. Therefore, in the coming weeks, I will try some new and different approaches:

• Style changes: I will try to focus more on the overall presentation of the image and how it reads, and be less concerned about specific details. I could probably shed a few hours from my production time without much difference in the final product. I think some of my work has suffered from being "in the oven too long".
• Post frequency increase: I tend to either post a fully-rendered image or nothing at all. These days, that doesn't work so well when you have a bunch of artists posting content left and right and individual posts can easily fall between the cracks. Not every picture needs to be fully rendered for it to be considered "finished". For some of my pictures, I will take them to flats or basic shading, give them a simple background and call it done. These flat-colored pictures will be intermixed with my normal fully-rendered work, and it will help boost my post frequency. Also, I could always go back and fully render those pictures later if they are popular (or put them in Patreon polls).
• Sharing studies/doodles: I want to continue improving my craft so I will be looking at tutorials and partaking in art studies and "warm-up sketches". I've seen other artists sharing this kind of content on Twitter lately and garnering a lot of attention from it, so that could possibly work for me as well. Even if it doesn't yield any numbers, the practice and education will still benefit my art overall.
• Comics/animation: Comics and animation are hot tickets right now and they would be a good way to expand on my OCs, and keep people engaged and interested in my work. A short comic centered around Cassandra and a camshow is still being worked out.

Hopefully, these changes will yield some measurable growth and get my numbers back on track. If not, well... we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Regardless, thanks to all of my patrons who have been sticking with me!