It might seem unearned, and maybe a little bit ridiculous, to do a 2023 recap considering I only joined Newgrounds roughly two-thirds into the year. But then again, I treat my news posts as a digital diary, an archive of my presence on the site that I can return to when I wish and note all the milestones that happened along the way. So, it makes sense to round off the year with an entry summarizing what I consider the highlights of my journey so far.
All in all, I posted 12 pieces since joining in late August, and I am humbled by the fact that two of them made it to the front page of the art portal.
The first was my entry to the Sweet Sixteen Comic Contest, the first (and hopefully not the last) contest I took part in. I’m incredibly proud of my little spider guy for getting me my first frontpage, gathering plenty of ratings and favorites, and earning some wonderful comments that I still reread from time to time.
The second was Mateja’s coming out, and this comic getting featured means more to me than I can put in words. It was an interesting road getting there: when I joined Newgrounds, the art portal update was still waiting in the wings, so I had to post all the pages separately. Once multi-art posts became a thing, I started considering re-posting the whole thing as a single entry, which I finally did in late November. Then, practically on a whim, I posted it in a forum thread for art that has less than five votes to give it some more exposure. This led to it being noticed, suggested in the frontpage thread, getting featured, and becoming my most viewed piece by far. All from a spur-of-the-moment decision! If you’ve read the (long) description of this comic, you already know how much it means to me, so having it be my most successful art portal entry so far just feels so right for lack of a better word. If you’ve read, reviewed, or favorited either of these two comics, thank you so much!
I’m also slowly peeking out from the shell I carry over my back like a good little introvert and giving collaborations a try. This year I joined my first collab – The Pokémon Mystery Lovers Collab – which will be going live in February 2024. Creating my entry was a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to joining other collabs if they tickle my fancy.
Right now, I still feel like I’m slowly building up my own distinct identity as an artist. There are a lot of different tendencies that are pulling in their own directions. I love the natural world and sciences in general, but I also love exploring every aspect of the gay male experience. Sometimes I want to make stuff that is very introspective and personal, sometimes I just want to do NSFW stuff. I like making longer stories with more elaborate plots, I like making very short comics or stand-alone illustrations. I feel like some of these interests are starting to coalesce into a more unified whole, something that more clearly says “that’s me!” in an artistic sense. I’m pretty sure I’m still a long way off from getting there though, but I’m still excited to see where that road takes me.
To all of you who have followed me, reviewed my work, left comments on my news posts, sent encouraging DMs, added me as a friend, suggested my stuff be featured, or interacted with me in the forums: I deeply appreciate you, and I’m not just saying that. You’ve literally been one of the most rewarding parts of my experience so far. Being quite shy and lacking self-confidence, I never really managed to find my own niche in most online communities. I was part of them, but never truly felt I belonged in them. Something about Newgrounds feels different, and it makes me hopeful about my future on this site.
To round this post off, here’s a screengrab of my profile stats at the time of this writing:
I don’t know what’s waiting around the corner, but my wish is to stick around on NG long enough to make another one of these posts next year. To take another screenshot of my profile stats, compare it to the one above, and be able to say: “It was a good year, wasn’t it?”
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading this, and happy holidays!
vlsrb