#cryptid chronicles

And I at some point thought my 2-month absences were long. Anyway, I'm coming back to this blog! And with some thoughts, and with a new PFP to represent a change in them.

I've still been lurking around of course, but some incidental stretch of silence somehow put a sense of weight on whatever my next post would be, or simply made me forget what it was like to take a minute to reblog things. Recently though for whatever reason, searching for a particular post, I went back through my whole older archive. I found myself delighted reading all of the tag whispers of past me, using the subjects of posts I share as prompting to express the full extent of my mildly-relevant thoughts. Then, even the silent reblogs speak to whatever was on my mind at the time, whatever I wanted to keep close or show off...

Damnit, I miss that! I do want to come back! Not only the art of collecting, but to work of my own; Making original posts that aren't just drawn-out updates on myself like this, but little words of the day that don't have to come attached to someone else's.

After playing it safe as a silent observer of the internet for so long (as I should've in my youngest years), it tends to escape me the fact that I can have a voice. That I'm capable of commenting on or writing my own posts, of sending asks to and interacting with creators, of showing creations myself. I have a strange relationship with publicity I suppose; I like to know that theoretically I could be being seen, whilst also treading so so lightly around the weight of potentially getting actual attention. It's spectacularly intimidating, and I still do NOT have to capacity to truly cultivate an audience at the stage I'm in.

So what do I mean by saying all this? I'm going to go on with using this blog as my public scrapbook of art and interests, while so giving it some room to grow in new directions at my leisure; I won't fool myself and take on the pressure of regular "content creation", but I might as well take stabs at original posts linked to my interests. Sharing not just art, but edits, videos, unconcealed outpourings of thoughts like this, and even simpler little reactions to what's going on around my spheres. This is a nice enough place to do that. I need the practice.

Especially because, I did in fact make a sideblog some time ago. I just. Psyched myself out of starting to post anything on there yet, because I wanted to make an illustration for an intro post and never finished it. I aimed to spur myself into making more art as a whole, but I see need to take baby steps here. Soon, the Nieblab will open it's doors... Probably.

In actuality, I'm at a very eventful stage in my life. I can't overload myself getting swept up in the storm that is social media. However, the places where I can find calm, I think I can make something for myself that I'll enjoy, and that perhaps someone else will too. But the latter is secondary. I'll just do what comes to me, alright?

A year ago (but not today — maybe a month ago, give or take), I survived something. Something not quite real. Where two worlds met at the threshold — one life, one death. In fair Verona do we lay our scene? No. It was Western Virginia. Close enough.

There I was, Mountain Mama-in-training, just a severed head rolling down Country Roads — back to the place I allegedly belong. Jack fell down. Lost his crown. I came tumbling after. Except I lived.

And in the wreckage, the mists parted. Locals emerged like ancient spirits, murmuring something about “blessed be” and “you should be dead.” That’s when the Cryptid was born.

Maybe I was supposed to die. Maybe the prophecy got lost in transit. Maybe my soul got flagged for a random audit.

Either way — on the anniversary of that wreck, I gave a eulogy for my old name. I handed theme park tickets (won by a fluke at work) to a teenager at a fast food joint. Because hope is expensive. And kids should know what it feels like to win something weird and dumb in this capitalist hellscape.

I got chicken. It slapped. I had a plastic bag.

And on the rainy highway off-ramp, there was Franklin — a turtle on a suicide mission across four lanes of existential dread. I used the bag, scooped him up, and carried him to the other side like some weird highway Valkyrie.

And maybe that’s why I lived. Not because of fate. Not because I changed my name. But because a green guy needed help getting home, and I was there.

In line with my changes of habit, I wasn't really that active last year. But, it was a great year for me, I got to take a lot of time for myself. And I got to do much more with drawing.

I am thinking about doing a liiittle bit more with this blog. I will not beholden myself to anything though. At the very least I ought to clean up the Archive's search tags...

So... I'm doing Artfight again!

Not as much big fanfare needed this time. Thanks to my experience last year, I'm quite a bit more comfortable this time around. Artfight 2023 was invaluable in boosting my confidence and I'm hoping to make this one even better!

But before anything else, I've got to finish the one goal I established at the end of last Artfight and get a full reference piece ready for the 2nd and last D&D character that I wanted to use to expand my lineup; my dear sorcerer boy Asher who I've referenced in tags several times but who I've only ever shown as a single doodle posted back when I tried and immediately resigned on doing a different month-long art challenge (daily prompts are not my thing I've found)... I'm sure I'll make up for it this time.

Lots of important changes going on at the home-stretch of this year, which means I no longer had the energy to continue posting or looking at Tumblr at all. I could've sworn I was gone for much longer, probably due to the first two-week hiatus in the middle of October, but nope only two months!

I really needed this detox though, to finally undo my self-imposed obligation to keep up with everything from my followed blogs. Looking back I... do not know how I managed that. In this week it's been much nicer just skimming through each artist's archive as I run into them, and I think that's going to be how I operate from now on.

And well, haven't really done much here have I? A grand total of... 11 original posts? Eh, but that's no measure of the value I've gotten from being here. I sure do see a lot after all, with my 200+ followed blogs that overload my dashboard if I don't go through it twice daily. It's weird to think that I've been doing so for this long, that it's gotten this far and still become such a regular part of my day-to-day. Yet, I wouldn't have it any other way, or in any other place (especially not right now. Still salty over twitter's sudden immovable login wall among everything else). Though, I do think it's time that I shave the top off once more; switching out a few main blogs for art-only alts and unfollowing my most constant reblog accounts. Hmm... To be fair I am also an indistinct reblog account, and that makes me think about what reason I've given anyone else to keep up with my grabbag of content over another. Then I remember that there is no deliberate reason, because this blog is catered to me alone. I just make an extensive exhibit of everything that resonates with me, and if it resonates with you too, then that's a happy coincidence. I'll keep doing what I'm doing, and hopefully get another bit better and quicker about it then last year.

Even then, I did feel a change of scenery was in order. My previous profile picture and banner and titles worked for what I had at the time, but later on I felt more and more like it was a vague and "trying to be formal" impression than I didn't want to give off. I never settled on what I wanted to swap it out with, and so I never did until now when I tried to draw myself my own pfp yesterday, using the simplified design of my "persona" idea that I'm still experimenting with. Maybe I'll decide soon that I don't like it/don't want to show it off, but it's what I got now. The only other step after that was changing the header, only to find that my first idea took me too long to get a candidate for and then still didn't look good. I went looking to other nondescript blogs for inspiration and fell back on the manga of (what currently stands as) my most favorite recent anime; I like to think the image itself matches well. Imagine this blog as a singular, selective newsboard plastered with posts of art pieces and points of interest from the local source that is my dashboard. (by the way this is only for the dashboard/mobile version. I still like the website theme I have too much to replace it)

Sooo I'm joining Art Fight (Partially)

It was around this time of year that I first delved into Tumblr, and so this event wound up becoming a big contributor to this blog's "formative period". Quite a few of the earliest artists that I still follow now, I found through Art Fight, and it was my first time getting to see what the event itself was all about. The idea of witnessing it again from here feels nostalgic in a weirdly specific way...

And so I am reinstilling the novelty by getting a little bit closer to the action! Yet, it is highly unlikely that I will be properly participating. Don't get me wrong, I've gotten to see for myself through some of the users I've run into that the event is very much beginner friendly! It's only that I... don't have any art of my own characters to display. I made the decision to register last minute. Just maybe, there's a chance that I can put two or three ref sheets together by the final week so that I can make at least one attack, but that's a pipe dream of a plan. My main purpose for making an account was to keep better track of the event and to find inspiration for personal practice.

Less than 40 minutes until the games commence! I wish for victory for the Vampires and a friendly competition for all! Happy Art Fight!