Bark Bark Bark!

Boozers Galore! 

I’ve been making some $15 animated Boozin’ icons lately! Here are the first two batches. 

I’ve heard it a lot. “It gets better!”

I wont give you that cliché because I care for you too much to do so.

 I’ve seen too many journals, too many tweets, and too many commentsfrom some very unhappy and some very lost people in this fandom.

 And I want you to know that I care about you. I really do!

Even if I’ve never met you before in my life, even if our paths never crossed in this crazy world, you are still a fellow person and I care for you.

You’re hurting and I know you’re hurting. You’re one of many that fight this fight against yourself, but that doesn’t invalidate your feelings.

I know how hard it is to get out of bed sometimes.

I know how much it hurts to see the world under a wash of grey, and this is coming from a grey and light grey Wuffsky! I like grey! Grey is usually good.

I know how tired you must feel of alternating between crying, feeling the world crash down around you, and at times, feeling nothing.

I know how frustrated you might feel when people just don’t understand. When people tell you to just snap out of it. When people call you things like “emo” and invalidate your condition.  There are people in the world who just do not understand what a mental illness is.

I know.

I understand.

Two years ago, today, I attempted to take my own life.

I won’t go into detail but those who knew me then knew that I was in a very bad place.

Obviously it didn’t work. There are days that I absolutely question why, I’m sure as many survivors do; but in the end, my story wasn’t ready to end.

You are not your mental illness. You are not these feelings. You are a wonderful, incredible person, and I care about you a lot. I'm sure many others care for you too. You are loved and the world wouldn't be the same without you. 

If you feel like no one is behind you, that no one cares, remember that a silly wolfdog is cheering for you right now with a big ole foam finger or pompoms! Whatever will put a smile on your face.

I bet you’re smiling right now.

 Feels good, doesn’t it?

 Smile when you can, even if it’s at the stupidest thing. Even if it’s at some TV show that you’re binge watching on Netflix about the Dad from Malcolm in the Middle cooking meth.

I won’t say “it gets better.” If it gets better, it won’t be right away and it won’t be without some work from you.

What I will say is that you’ll become stronger.  You’ll become so much stronger. You’ll learn coping methods. You’ll learn that these are just thoughts and that there is no weight to them.  You’ll learn to break through that grey wash and see the world for what it is. You’ll cry less and less. You’ll start felling emotions again, and it’s a wild ride when they start flowing back. You’ll start finding your interests again, and maybe some new ones. You’ll find people who love you regardless and you need to hold onto that unconditional love

There will be days when that will be the one thing you can grab onto.

You’ll have bad days. You’ll have good days. The biggest lesson I learned that it’s okay to not be happy. If there are days where you’re not spiraling down into a pit of despair and you just exist, this is okay!

This is one of the many lessons I’ve learned.

My biggest piece of advice is to get help. Don’t do this battle alone because it’ll wear you out very quickly. Trust me on this one. As much as you want to isolate yourself, don’t. Friends, professional help, family members, doctors, the Crisis Hotline, just reach out to someone. Imagine it in this scenario.  Say you broke your leg. Would you keep walking on it, potentially breaking it more and making your life hell? No! You’d go to the doctor! You’d get help! Shouldn’t you give your mind the same sort of respect?

 The next is to remember that recovery takes time. Things don’t change overnight. I’ve been in recovery for two years now and no way will I ever say that I’m cured of my mental illness. I am a lot better now than I was then but I still have a long way to go. There are good days and there are bad days and there are days where I just exist and that’s okay!

You’re going to be okay. I promise you this. You’re going to make it through the storm and find your way again. A big, talking wolfdog just promised you this so you know it’s true. Don’t argue. You can do it! I believe in you a lot and I care for you a great deal.

It may not get better, but it’ll get easier. You'll become stronger. 

I promise. 

Oh hey, BoJack! What did you do on your vacation?

O..Oh!

One big lesson that I learned in this fandom is to do things you. Whatever your interests are, whatever your hobbies are, whatever keeps you here in this strange little fandom filled with amazing people, do it for you. 

Yes, I realize that this sounds incredibly selfish, but let me explain. 

If you want to make a thing, make a thing! If you want to dance, dance! If you want to draw, draw! If you want to build fursuits, build fursuits! If you want to write a book, write a book! If you want to just run around at conventions as a fluffy critter, do it! 

Do it for your passion. Do it for your interests! 

If people toss money at you for it, awesome! If not, there's no need to guilt them over it. Really. There isn't. If you start threatening that you won't make something or do something anymore because you don't have a certain amount of money flowing in because of it, then I think you might want to reevaluate why you are doing it in the first place.*

Don't do something for watches/faves/retweets/popularity/followers. Don't do something for numbers. 

You're most likely not going to find happiness that way. 

There's ALWAYS going to be someone more popular than you are. There is always going to be someone more talented than you. 

That's okay! 

That's life!

You can only strive to be the very best YOU! 

Now you can do a couple of things with this information. You can either accept it, give a big shrug, appreciate your friends and fans that do love you and admire your creativity, and use that as your drive

or 

You can complain about how you're not popular enough and put a lot of wasted energy into seething jealousy. How dare so-and-so be better than me, how dare so-and-so draw better than me, why are you giving so-and-so your money and not me, how dare so-and-so dance better than me, this contest is rigged, this site is rigged, this community hates me, screw this convention, screw that convention, I'm leaving.

That's not the way to go about it. It's exhausting, it fills you with negativity, and you're going to end up hating the fandom pretty quickly. 

It is possible to break out of that cycle, though.

Jealousy and envy, while toxic, can end up being a tool to your advantage. Once you realize you're envious of someone else (by the fact that you're admiring something they have or do that you do not), you can use that to work on strengthening your weaknesses. If someone draws better than you, see what you can do to improve your drawing. If someone dances better than you, maybe see how you can improve. If someone performs better than you, maybe see if you can chat with them and see if they'll be willing to give you some tips. 

Change your perspective! It's not easy, but it's absolutely worth it.

Just don't let the small things in life get you down. Don't do things for numbers. Do it for the joy you bring out in others. 

Hey, I'm Dakota! 

I'm a Wuffsky who likes to draw in their spare time but I really don't post the bulk of my sketches or even WiPs! 

Since people have mentioned to me that they dig these things, I've decided to make a little Tumblr where I'll be posting all of my art. This ranges from sketches and WiPs, to maybe a few finished pieces here and there. 

My goal is to have a place where I can actually see my skills grow and where I need improvement. I really love critiques. Constructive criticism is great. "Perhaps you should try xyz" or "I like abc, but maybe try to strengthen jkl by doing this" is wonderful! Being a jerk is not wonderful "YOUR ART SUCKS GO DIE IN AN ASSFIRE" is not great. 

So, please feel free to chime in :D.

Not sure what else to say here besides, ENJOY!

Most Huggable Fruit

I don't know about you all but I think that Jackfruits are super huggable. I never saw one in person before I moved out to California but, gosh, as soon as I saw one, the first thing I wanted to do was pick it up and give it a big ole hug. 

They're like cuddly fruit pillows! 

Twitter Watercolour Sketches Part 1

Today I asked my Twitter followers to send me some references and I would dive in to some watercolor sketchy head shots. This was one for Sarakazi of her ice lioness that goes by the same name and I absolutely love how it came out.