Leaving DeviantArt and Tumblr
Well, the day has come. I've come this far, and now it's all ending here.
Hey everyone, supersader9 here. If you've seen my last few drawings, then this is it. After six years of drawing and writing/crossposting fan fictions, it all comes to an end. First off, let me start by saying thank you for the love and support you've been giving out these past six years. I've never gotten this far on my journey without any of you.
With that being said, I'm officially announcing that I'll be retiring as artist for DeviantArt and Tumblr (even if the latter wasn't long).
So, let's cut to the chase: why am I leaving? Could it be AI? Could it be any toxic artists around? Well, it's actually me mainly. To put it simply, I lost all motivation to keep going.
I first started back in 2020. The pandemic was huge and everyone had to quarantine in their homes. Two months into the pandemic, I decided to go from a guest viewer to an actual artist actually creating something I long fantasized to create.
You all remember this well; I started with Total Drama.
That was the main cartoon that got me interested in DeviantArt in the first place. I did say "main" because there weren't any other cartoons of interest at the time. Thinking back, my drawings were probably cringey, but it was still my work and I'm proud of it.
It does introduce my little thing with bondage.😳👀
Total Drama wasn't the only thing I was into. There was Creepypasta, Goosebumps, and Trolls to start with. If I'm correct, Poppy Playtime Chapter 1 did first come out in 2021. In 2023, the pilot for The Amazing Digital Circus came out. However, I wasn't fully invested until 2024 when I first drew Caine. That's a score for indie animation.
It wasn't however that I started drawing Mario art that things change.
When Total Drama had stopped making episodes until 2023, many of its fans have been leaving. I held on until 2024 when a fan made spinoff called Total Eviction ended and I left the fandom. I never put my OCs up for adoption. If anyone wants them, you still can't have them. I'm so sorry.
I've made Mario content since the beginning, but it wasn't until 2022 when I REALLY took off with it. I even wrote my first ever Super Mario fanfiction, and it had wonders for me. I even wrote my first multi-chapter story with it. Of course I've done it before with Total Drama, so it shouldn't be anything much.
Still, I have a place in that fandom.
So through 2024 and 2025, I thrived with Mario content. What really kept me going were the challenges I participated in. I hadn't drawn much weird stuff since then. At least as far as I can tell.
However, nothing lasts forever.
Sure some art that I've favourited started disappearing, and I lose my inspiration sources. That's heartbreaking, but not as heartbreaking as I entered 2026. I started slowing down on my artwork, posting less content as before. I only drew simple DTIYS challenge pictures and posted a few fan fictions, but they weren't much. I also don't know what is trendy nowadays. Every time I try to participate in a trend, I just end up too late.
Every time I try to draw, I would become unmotivated to do so. I just simply transfer everything from mind to canvas/paper. I don't even have fresh ideas myself.
Well, not too much anyways.
Before anyone could say I had a burnout, I did look up the symptoms. I did actually thought I was going to experience a burnout, but that's not the case.
Sure it left me mentally exhausted, but I don't feel that physical or emotional exhaustion. I'm able to go through my emotions just fine, if usual tiredness everyone feels counts, and I'm able to move around just fine. I take walks whenever I need to, and work on adult stuff fine. I'm also able to eat and sleep fine too. Eat three times a day and sleep for 8 hours.
I'm no doctor, but if anyone has a burnout; it should be the following symptoms:
You need to keep proving yourself, work harder (whether at work or hobbies), neglecting needs, make more conflicts with people, revisioning values, denial, withdrawal, behavioural changes, depersonalization, feeling empty and despair, and a total burnout.
Maybe the symptoms I think I'm getting are the first two, distancing myself from real people, and feeling somewhat empty. I could be denying the fact that I'm experiencing a total burnout too.
One thing is for sure, I'm still in good terms with people. How can I be angry when it's hard to?
Point is, this is what I've been feeling when it comes to drawing. I do take breaks to regain inspiration, but only to come back and feel the same. I came so far to have everything done, but it felt like I wouldn't reach the light at the end of the tunnel. My thoughts would even be this: "Just a bit more, then I'm done. I can move on after this."
I no longer had that excitement I used to have for drawing. I couldn't even make closures on some art series as I hoped I would. Heck, how could I make any closures on anything in this state? I couldn't even finish a three part review for crying out loud.
I'm lucky to work through Mermay 2026. It was my saviour, and that resulted in me finally putting my pen, pencil, and pencil crayons down.
Letting go was not the easiest decision I had to make, but something had to be done before it's too late. Now keep in mind, this won't be just DeviantArt. Tumblr too, even after I joined in a few months ago. Funny, I originally came to view more images. They don't allow guest users anymore. Quite sad, isn't it?
While it is sad to leave the site as an artist, it's important I look back on all my accomplishments. I may not have been big, or even had set myself up to be paid to draw, but I still had fun and that's what matters. I mean, come on. deviations?! That's the amount of fun if I've ever seen one.
I also need to take care of myself too. It does make me feel glad I decided to end it there before the burnout really kicked in.
It has been a privilege and an honour to hop on board to DeviantArt throughout these six years, and I hope you understand this isn't a decision I made lightly despite how much it sounded. However, my time on social media isn't over yet. While I've lost my love for drawing, I haven't lost my love for writing. You may even notice I didn't write about leaving Wattpad.
That's because I'll be remaining on Wattpad and continue writing fan fictions there! You'll need an account for this one. There are no guest users to read stories.
Wattpad will have plenty more stories there. There'll be Super Mario content mostly, but there's more to come depending on my imagination.
One more thing to mention before I go. While artists deactivate their accounts until it's gone, that won't be the case for me. I'm keeping my account up for all to see. Who knows? Maybe if I feel like it, I may come back and post something. Maybe. We'll see. I could comment on other peoples' work, or maybe post a story chapter or something. Maybe an occasional drawing if I feel like it? And who knows when that'll be.
With that being said, thank you all again for these six years. It's been fun while it lasted, but all good things must come to an end. I hope you all understand. I'll see you all over on Wattpad. And now for the last time, supersader9 out.