Ziegelzeig
I announced the Christmas Event i will be organizing this year. The post is public on my Patreon page, so anyone can read it and participate :
https://www.patreon.com/posts/75206424?pr=true
I hope to see you numerous to join, there is ton of arts to get... and win!
I have to admit i was very suprised these last weeks to see there was definitly still a good bunch of activity on DeviantArt. I thought that Eclipse would have... eclipsed... everyone in a few time, but it seems i was wrong. Even if i still can't stand this new design and how the site is working now, i'm trying more and more to surpass my disgust to interact again with you in the comments section, and i wanted to thank you for still being here, presents, supportive, with your likes and comments. I'm deeply touched.
It's also a good occasion for me to remind you that i have a patreon page, on which you can support me if you want, to help me to live of my passion : drawing and writing stories (through comics). Being a freelance artist is really hard. Convincing people to trust you enough to donate and help supporting you financially is also very hard. Making a living of it and being able to have a somewhat comfortable life is EXTREMLY hard. Some months are better than other, sure, but some are just... freaking nightmares. But yep, it's the way of life i chose, and i'm not here to complain about it but to propose you to support my activity with casual or monthly donations.
Being a patron on my Patreon page, even at the lower pledge ($1) already give you a lot of advantages : reduced price for commissions, easiest and fastest access to commissions, opportunity to discover my arts between 6 months and one year before their public release. With a little bit more of money ($5), you have the opportunity to see the process of creation (i often share my drafts, my lines, the steps of my colorisation on many arts). It also gives you the opportunity to participate more easily to the different kind of events i often organized (you may have seen the result of some of them here, with "Halloweek", "Miss OC", "Halloween Parade", "SummerMonth" etc.). And there is many other advantages in the higher pledges that you can unlock (like the fidelity card, that allows you to grant points over time, and that you can later exchange against exclusive arts you can't get in another way, like Chibi Stickers, Cute Plushies, or my Fullbody Chibis of the character of your choice).
Here is a little link to my Patreon page, please take a look : https://www.patreon.com/Ziegelzeig
I know it may sounds weird to support an artist monthly to help him to make a living of his work, but artists over the centuries always had to be supported by patrons to be able to create. Without the generosity of these patrons, we would sadly have been private of many great pieces of art. $1 or $5 a month isn't that much after all, the price of a coffee (or a bit more). I don't necesserly need to have a few of high donators, but a lot of little ones could totally change my life for the better. And after all, i'm a content creator, just like your usual youtubers or streamers. I'm here to create funny experiences and make you happy with my creativity, bringing your ideas to life. So if you're able to subscribe to a streamer and to offer him donations, why wouldn't you also lend a hand to a graphic artist?
New interests?
I've found some intriging persons to follow today. Obviously not here, since i'm not really active on DA anymore. I hope you're not mad at me because of that ^^"
Just fooling around lol
UwU
At the end of May, if DeviantArt still decide to make Eclipse mandatory and impose it on us, i will leave the website. I will not close my page, but I will not update it anymore, and don't post new arts on it.
Don't think it's an easy thing to do for me. I've met the love of my life on this website. I've grown up as an artist and become known thanks to this website. I've build my community on this website.
At this hour, i've more than 3500 followers, and 420 000+ views. Not to bargain, but to my eyes, it's a lot. I've never had that much success on any of the other platforms i'm using, and i fear it will certainly never happen again.
But I can't accept the behaviour of the staff of DeviantArt and let them force me to keep going with what they want to IMPOSE to me.
You certainly know what's the problem, right? => Eclipse.
I suppose DeviantArt's staff think that the money they spent in the creation and development of this so-called "new and superior" version of the website is a good reason to force all of their users to switch to it, instead of what they previously have.
Don't get me wrong, i've technically nothing against Eclipse (even if I think it's a very bad product, full of bugs, uneasy to use, ugly, and lacking of 90% of the functions that I think are necessary as an artist here), and I totally understand that some people may like it, and even want to use it.
No, what's really getting on my nerves is the fact that they force us to use it. Why not letting those who don't want Eclipse keep going with the actual version of the website? It's a mistery for me, since the switching function between the two versions of the site exists, and works since several months now.
I don't know where all of this will leads, but i'm sure DeviantArt will lose A LOT of artists and users because of this really bad and agressive move. Agressive, yes, because they didn't even asked to their users what they were thinking about Eclipse, if they really wanted it to become the new face of DeviantArt ; we never have been consulted in any way... And yet since the announcement of Eclipse becoming the one and only interface of DeviantArt, a lot of people are protesting, making petitions and actions that are followed by an impressive number of people, DeviantArt's staff just played it blind and deaf and don't react at all. So I think they will just keep going and do whatever they want, even if it has to cause a lot of colateral damages.
It's a way of acting that i can't accept, and that i refuse to support. I will not just shut up and deal with it, even if i'm on this website since 12 years now and that i have a lot of love for it (or rather for what it was).
I will be here until they make the final move and force Eclipse on us, but when this day will come (if it comes, but i'm 99% sure it will happen), i'm out of here.
But don't worry, if you want to keep following me when this sad turn of events will happen, I will not disappear.
My FurAffinity account will become my main posting platform. Here is the link : www.furaffinity.net/user/ziege…
It's clearly only focusing on anthro / furry arts, so you will certainly lose the diversity we could find on DeviantArt, but it's like that. Doesn't changes a lot of things for me, since i'm an artist specialized in anthro stuff, but well... At least, FurAffinity provides lot of similar tools that i'm using here, and that i will lost when Eclipse will become mandatory. If you create an account on FurAffinity to keep following my work (and the work of other ones) but you don't like NSFW stuff (FurAffinity counts a lot of NSFW artists -and i also post all my NSFW arts there-, so it can be a problem), don't forget to switch the website in the "SFW" mode, so you will not see anything you want to avoid. I would gladly appreciate if all of you, around here, who are seriously following my work and want to keep going, stay in contact, and support me with favs and comments, follow me on FurAffinity if you already have an account, or take the time to create one to start this new (and sadly kinda forces) experience.
I also advise all anthro artists who are against the way DeviantArt's staff is holding its stuff to switch to this platform, especially if you are a writer. Yep, Eclipse will clearly kill and kick out writers artists, but FurAffinity has a lot of nice tools for this specific topic, so well... Be welcome ^^
You can also follow my activity on my Twitter page : twitter.com/Ziegelzeig
I also have an official facebook page, but for an unknown reason, DeviantArt don't let me put the link here.
Sadly, both of these platforms are more a "showing stage" than anything else, so if you really want to keep a "DeviantArt-similar" vibes between us, i really advise you to follow me on FurAffinity.
And of course, if you really want to have the closest interactions with me and lose nothing about my art production, while financially supporting my work, i also have a very active Patreon page where i post almost every day : www.patreon.com/Ziegelzeig
Well, to finish on this already way to long journal entry, i also want to let you know that i will participate on the #soundofsilence movement, that will start tomorrow as a form of contestation against the way DeviantArt is treating its community right now. So, from the 1st of May to the 4th, i will be totally disconnected of DeviantArt. I will logout before midnight tonight, and will not reconnect before the 5th. That means I will not be active here, no publication, no comments, absolutly nothing. So if you have to contact me for something, please do it on the other platforms i've linked before. If you want to support the cause, even if you're not a creator, i sincerly encourage you to do just the same, and to shut down your account for four days.
And if you want to support the contestation even more, you can also sign this petition : www.change.org/p/deviantart-te…
Still in the hope that DeviantArt'staff suddenly becomes more rationnal in the following weeks and change their mind... But I know it's a sort of vaporous and candid hope.
I wish you a great day,
See you soon,
Zieg'
ZiegRydia is now on Utip !!
Great news everyone!
OceRydia and I got an access to the Utip platform as creators : utip.io/ziegrydia
Here you can watch some publicities, and we will gain a bit of money (mostly cents) thanks to the time you will lose for us. It doesn't cost anything, except a bit of your time, and could help us A LOT if a good bunch of you, amazing people and dear watchers, are making this for us.
You will see that Utip is limitating the number of publicities you can watch in a row, but try to go on it everyday and to watch as much publicities as possible. It will never take you more than 4 or 5 minutes, and could really change our lives and allow us to live of our arts.
Thank you for your time and your support!
And of course, if you want to support us even more, you can also subscribe to our patreons page, and gain some nice rewards in return :
Ziegelzeig's patreon : www.patreon.com/Ziegelzeig
OceRydia's patreon : www.patreon.com/ocerydia/posts