Udon Art

“If you really plan to stay off of Tumblr, why didn’t you delete your art blog?”

Because I don’t want anyone else to use my domain name. UdonArt is the brand name that I chose for myself, and I don’t want it to be used by someone else in case someone looks for me here. I want them to see the links to my active media sites. 

“There are other artists posting on here, and their stuff is showing in the tags! Won’t you consider coming back?”

This may be true for those artists. However it is important to me to include links to my other social media in my art posts, and as of right now Tumblr still auto-censors posts in the tags with links attached. Some of you may have seen my posts ranting about Tumblr’s broken tag system in the past. I have had problems getting my posts to show in the tags for years - long before the mass-censoring began. I researched all the possible reasons that my art wasn’t showing up in the tags and followed all the advice. I even wrote a letter to the support staff asking for help - they responded with the same list of things that I’d explicitly stated I’d already tried... Then they closed the ticket as if it was fixed. Tumblr is fundamentally broken and inconsistent in many ways. 

“You said you moved to Pillowfort, but you almost never post on there.”

Correct. There’s a few reasons why... Pillowfort is still a fledgling website and as such it does not have the same capacity for image file size or number of images you can put in a single post. As a result, a lot of my art literally can’t be posted on that website because 1) The files are too big, or 2) It’s a comic that has more than 3 panels (you can only post 3 images in one post). 

Going off of this, I currently don’t have a desktop website that I can comfortably call home for my art. But if I find one in the future, I’ll be sure to let you guys on here know about it. 

“You’re really active on Instagram, but I don’t have/want Instagram because it’s too easy for people to steal your art on there.”

It’s true - reposters are all over Instagram. But the fact of the matter is, my art was being stolen and reposted onto Instagram long before I even made an account on there. Now that I’ve built a presence on there, more people are recognizing my work as mine - in fact, people alert me when they see my work reposted without credit. I have also started watermarking my work, which helps. 

Tumblr’s system of reblogging is great because it keeps the op as the source, but as I said earlier... this site is broken in so many other ways. I’ll be lucky if people even see my work at all! 

For those of you who might say that’s not true, I have the numbers to back it up:

I started this art blog at the exact same time as my art Instagram. It’s been a little over a year since then, and here’s the facts: My art Instagram got 3 times the number of followers as my art Tumblr. A post on my Instagram was consistently getting 6 to 10 times the number of notes as the exact same art post on my Tumblr. 

I repeat: Tumblr is broken.

On the topic of Instagram, some of you have said you don’t like it because it’s too small for you to look at my art on your phones. You can view my Instagram on your computer as well. Just go to Instagram’s website and search for me - you’ll be able to see all my stuff!

“It sounds like all you care about is the numbers... That’s kind of selfish.” (My own brain supplied this one - no one sent me an ask like this)

Every single like, reblog, comment, and message is cherished. The ONLY thing that made it hard for me to leave Tumblr was all of you! Your devotion and support for me touches my heart and I’m eternally grateful for it! The problem is not you guys - it’s Tumblr as a platform. I’m trying to grow myself as a brand, and exposure is important. And while our community was lovely, it really wasn’t growing. All of your encouraging comments about my art are so so appreciated, and I would never take those for granted. But it’s frustrating as an artist to post your art knowing that it won’t reach nearly the number of people that it should. At the end of the day, maybe it is selfish... But I’ve honestly been sick of this website for quite a while. I barely even use my personal blog anymore. Tumblr is great in theory... But this website is managed so poorly that it’s ruined. 

To all you Anons that sent me goodbyes and well-wishes:

I nearly cried reading some of your messages. I’m sorry that I didn’t take the time to answer each one individually - I just didn’t want to sound like a broken record saying that I’m thankful over and over again. Thank you so so much for your devotion! It really touches my heart!

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     Lastly, I would like to request something of you all. Please don’t send me more messages asking me to come back. It breaks my heart every time I receive a message like this, but I’m trying to stay strong to what I’ve decided. It honestly breaks my heart to even ask this of you guys, but I’m asking it as favor to me. If you really love my art, please go check out my other platforms on Instagram and Twitter. Please remember that I love all of you, and you’re welcome to message me anytime to chat or catch up!