This week with Anubi 1: Starting (and maintaining) new Projects/Series, 6 months on Linux and The Journey to make Art profitable
Welcome to The first edition of This Week with Anubi! In this series I'll talk about multiple topics I have in my mind each week in a shorter form, that way I don't get these stuck on writing hell. The plan was to do these every mondays, but I've had some doubts yesterday, which is why today's edition is being shared on Tuesday instead.
Topic 1: Starting (and maintaining) New Projects/Series
Since this is the first edition of this new project, I thought it seemed fitting to cover this topic.
I always try to start new projects and/or series when it comes to the things I do, it's what gives me a focus with my creative outlets and even motivates me to do things sometimes. For the first one of them I always try to give them my best shot, yet it always feels like that spark I had for these fades away very quickly after that.
I've had this happen with a few projects, my Youtube/Twitch channels multiple times, Pixi World and Pixi Tales, Eating my Friends Art-Styles, you name it, and I feel the main reason for that is that I lead myself to be guided by how well these perform on social media, in which case if they do bad or poorly, it feels like every effort I've put into it goes in vain.
I've fought against this feeling multiple times before, and every time I feel like I've gotten over it, it slowly comes back up. I feel like lots of projects and series that had potential die away because of this (Hell I scrapped another project very recently because I was scared of all that big effort going to waste). It feels like the only project/series I've made that had big success were the redraw series, but I've done way too many of them and I don't want to go back into that content pumping machine every single time, I want to do Projects and Series that speak to me, that have purpose, and yet it feels like all that is not worth it when I eventually share them.
Because of this, and a few other reasons, I've decided to just, not focus on the Arts only in 3 out of my 4 main social medias (which is crazy for someone literally named AnubiArts on every place she's in). I want to enjoy social medias and the internet, and not treat it like a job, because every time I treat something like a job it loses all the fun for me, and I started doing Art and posting it online because it's fun for me. I don't wanna kill off all the joy from it by doing exclusively that and nothing else. (2 out of those social medias liked this new perspective, we don't talk about the other 2).
That last paragraph is why I have hopes that this new blog idea won't be dropped after the first edition, I don't feel like I'm tied to a "every post I do must do well" mentality anymore because I've gotten rid of the roots of that, as much as 2 out of those 4 social medias may not like this.
Topic 2: 6 Months on Linux
Around 6 months ago I've made the full switch to Linux, coming from a Windows 10 PC that couldn't (and still cannot) upgrade to Windows 11. And honestly? it's been lots of fun!
The customization it allows for, how much lightweight it can be, how you have a lot of options to get just what you want, it's all things I enjoy a lot ever since I've made the switch. Hell, I've barely had to open the terminal in these past few months (Most of that being taken by the Fedora Post-Install setups) and it was easy to understand.
Now sure, some things just don't work as well or at all in Linux (such as Adobe or Office, or for the GameJolt folks reading this, games with kernel level anti-cheat such as Fortnite, most EA online games and Call of Duty), but it's a sacrifice I was willing to make, hell you usually need to sacrifice one thing or another when you change from an OS to another (desktops, phones and consoles among others all suffer from this) so it didn't affect me much.
If you're on Windows 10 while it's on its last months of support, and can't or don't want to upgrade to Windows 11 for any reason, consider giving Linux a try, if a noobi like I could do it, then why can't you too? I personally recommend Linux Mint as it's the most simple to understand out of most linux distributions (distribution/distro being basically like an OS in very simple terms), once you understand how it all works you can jump towards other options if you so prefer.
Topic 3: The journey to make art profitable
As stated on the last blogpost, I've been kinda struggling to keep doing art because it turned into a soulless job where I need to earn money to survive for the next month. Since then I've took some steps to make it more fun (like not treating social media as one, as mentioned before), but the big question is making my art profitable, and to be honest, there's a long journey to achieve this.
Now technically my art is already profitable, but just for the necessary things I do and only if I post very frequently, I cannot spare myself much room for other things, which is what I've been trying to find a solution for.
Right now I'm looking at options to expand my Ko-Fi more, one I've tried is Adoptables, where you basically buy a character from someone else to own it. This... Didn't go well at all, as none of them sold yet, and by the looks of it it doesn't feel like it'll be the case still, so that option ain't it.
Another thing I'm considering is expanding my GameJolt shop specifically, adding actual custom things in there rather than just stickers, but I feel like barely anyone will get them if they're static and not animated (I lack the expertise in Animation so that's my only realistic option here)
I'm also looking at adding more YCH options for my commissions, even if these will be cheaper than most other commissions I offer (because of the bases).
I gotta act fast on these before my money eventually runs out though, so I'll see if I can put these for sale soon.
Even then, this is a long journey in a way, I just gotta keep coming up with new ways to earn money and see what sticks. I would do some things I've done before (such as memberships), but they never really panned out whenever I tried them, and something tells me that'll still be the case, which is sad, but true.
I think that's all I wanted to cover for today, I'm happy with what I wrote for this one as a starter. Expect the next ones in Mondays going forward. Also, this doesn't mean that normal blogs will go away, I still plan to write them!
See y'all later.
-AnubiArts, never stops talking.