February 2025 Blogs

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2/27/25 | 9 Years on DeviantArt

Damn I was gonna write more blogs this month but I was out of ideas. 💀

Anyway my DeviantArt account just turned 9 years old today. It's weird. I literally grew up on this website, and I wouldn't be the person/artist I am today without it. But DeviantArt is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, I found many cool and talented artists and communities that heavily influenced my art style and character design choices. (I follow many of them on other socials to this day.) And on the other, I had too many weird experiences when I was a minor on that website- Too many creeps and unflagged fetish content on there.

I'll talk about the good first. The most obvious thing being that this site shaped my art style and creative choices. Most of the artists I followed made original characters, mostly ones that were furries or their own made-up species. A lot of them had flashy colors and cool patterns, which intrigued my younger self. Almost all of the art I made was colorful OC content since I was inspired by others.

Another part of the site that I enjoyed back in middle school were closed species. Remember those??? Sure most of them were very toxic and getekeepy, but I thought a lot of them had pretty neat lore and design traits. I was really into Bagbeans/Griffia and Strudel Cafe the most. Some other big ones I remember pretty well include Sushidogs, Waterdogs, Cinnadogs, Cccats, Chimereons, Dainties, Arcanus, Guumi, Impims, and Grem2's. (hope I spelled these right it's been several years 😭) If any of these names ring a bell, then congrats. Consider yourself old. 👍

I even made some of my own closed species and their own worlds when I was younger. (My worlds Musa and Mixia are my main ones, but I've thought of other worlds that aren't as developed.) Obviously I never ran any groups for them since I was just a child, but I still had fun coming up with ideas for them. I still draw some of those characters to this day. But I don't care for CS anymore so all my species are open now. :)

And now onto the ugly side of being on DeviantArt... yay.

DEVIANTART IS A FREAKY ASS WEBSITE AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT. Its reputation is absolute dogwater for a reason. Everywhere you go, every corner you turn, there's some sort of weird fetish content. It's inescapable. It's a staple of DeviantArt. New rule of the internet: If it exists, someone on DeviantArt has a fetish for it.

Anyway I don't condone kinkshaming (unless it's actually something that harms people). A lot of the stuff I've come across isn't my cup of tea, but you do you. But I couldn't even search for my favorite piece of media without getting flashbanged by weird kink shit. FLAG YOUR POSTS PEOPLE. THE MATURE CONTENT FILTER EXISTS!!! I got exposed to plenty of strange stuff that I shouldn't have seen at a young age. I'm not traumatized by it or anything. (Most of that sort of art was laughably bad anyway.) I just think it's kinda funny to look back on. However if any parents are reading this for some reason, KEEP YOUR KIDS OFF DEVIANTART.

And now here's the worst part of my dA experience: Too many creep encounters. (Pretty much only when I was underage too. Ugh) The site had a lot of pedophiles, groomers, and general "lolcows", which it was also pretty infamous for. I remember seeing many callout posts for users who would make fetish art of characters that were depicted as children. Shit was wild.

Some weirdoes have unfortunately targeted me before. People would ask me inapproproate questions in my DMs, request fetish art, try to solicit nudes, and HAVE ACTUALLY SENT ME NUDES. One user also regularly commissioned me for fetish art when I was 15/16. (I knew it was gross at the time but was too scared to break the mutual.) Another also did an art trade for someone who wanted bondage art years ago, and NO their severe autism doesn't excuse this shit. Also I'm ONE HUNDRED PERCENT sure these people knew my age btw. They can all rot in hell.

Once again, I'm not horrifically traumatized by these experiences, but I'm disgusted that they even happened. (I might go more in depth about them in the future because it's something I'd like to talk about more.) Once again, don't let your kids use DeviantArt. And also monitor their socials!!! I'd hate to see more kids end up having similar experiences. :(

In conclusion, I have a love/hate relationship with DeviantArt. (My parents probably made a mistake by letting me make a DeviantArt account at 11 years old, but as mentioned above I would be a totally different artist if it wasn't for this site.) It's sad that it basically imploded after they changed their whole layout and embraced Gen AI more. I miss all the niche creative communities and pointless drama that I'd get invested in. I know that some closed species communities still exist, but I've since lost interest, and it's just not the same without dA. ALSO PROFILE CUSTOMIZATION. I MISS THAT SO MUCH. THEIR NEW LAYOUT IS SO SOULLESS AND BORING NOW. Thank god for Neocities.

I still use DeviantArt to this day, but only for posting new art. I don't really engage with people anymore unless they comment on my posts. Most of my old art is on there too. I like keeping it up to show the progression over the years. (I wanna archive all my stuff on the Gallery page, but that would literally take forever since it's 6K+ posts spanning back 9 years. 😭)

I'm gonna end this blog with a simple happy anniversary to my DeviantArt page!! 🎉 Can't believe it's been nearly a decade since I joined!

2/7/25 | Wicked is Awesome Guys

Just popping in to say you should watch Wicked. I saw it for the first time yesterday and OMG IT'S SO GOOD 💚💗 IT DESERVES ALL THE HYPE IT GOT

also glinda and elphaba should've made out sloppy style