#countask

[countandra]

I just want you to know that your grown up Boo and Randall from MI is so big brained and cool!

You're too kind. Seeing @greykolla-art 's art reignited a strong desire to see these two interact. If Pixar prefers a more grounded kind of storytelling nowadays, go for punk young ladies and steve buscemi lizardmen.

[countandra]

The comic in which you thanked Chima was meaningful to me. When I was a teen, something in him inspired my first character, which opened up my world to a whole new kind of creativity. My character has changed loads in the years since, but he is still relevant and meaningful in my life. So I just think it's special that even as you outgrow characters, their impacts on others remain, evolve, and bring joy. Thank you, and thank you to Chima from me, as well.

I have relayed your kindness to the kook, to confounding results befitting his unnecessary vagueness.

Truly, your words mean a lot and I feel are a touching reminder to keep creating. Your character will and has inspired others as well. Creativity inspires creativity, from insipid jokes to grand projects - as well as little wackos from the brain.

Thank you so much for this dear message.

[countandra]

Hi, love your works! Say, do you have an advice about how to get people interact with your works more, especially if one has not the time to be super active on social media? You still seem to get a lot of traffic on your posts, even if you don't post weekly. Do you have certain days/times when you post or specific tags? Thank you so much in adcance!

You are so kind. This is a fun question!

In all seriousness now, many years ago I was told to post during the afternoons in my timezone due to the general public getting off work around that time; the time to cool off and blog, to craft and socialize online. 7PM has been a lucky hour for me, personally. And post on weekdays, friend! Not weekends! Please just trust me on that one, weekends we tend to be scattered. Fanart also has wide reach, if you'd like a leg up!

So: weekdays during afternoons tend to be lively. So give it a go! [Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays ESPECIALLY tend to have dice, personally]. Fanart makes for bonus interest. And reblog your own art too, if you have the option! Fresh eyes!

But in truth, amigo, most of it boils down to luck.

Soapbox warning:

I do not post often for I tend to be chronically exhausted - too exhausted for personal work while too exhausted for work work while too exhausted to give a damn about posting frequently.

Algorithms, content creation, machinery, followers, even aesthetics are in a constant cycle in the realm of social media and the cycle tends to pick up on what is hot at the time.

Most of my work in my blog dont reach beyond 50 notes, which is a beloved number but still minor compared to my more popular stuff - and I'll tell you the honest truth, 10 times out of 10 I could never predict how certain posts blow up the way they do.

Some are obvious, as fan work has so much more reach and so much to explore in pre-created worlds. Of course fan work can triumph in numbers over originals as they've already secured an audience, while originals need to build. Its nothing unfair, it is simply the math that most will respond to something familiar.

What I'm barely managing to say is: create and post, but at your own pace.

You can stay up for many nights racking your brains about what time you should post, about who would be watching, about WHAT you should post, but one will never truly grasp the machine that cycles all of this - algorithms in social media, the death blight of creativity and an idiot machine made for idiot reasons.

Put value in your craft, not value in what you want it to achieve in the eyes of others. Love your hands, love your mind, love your work - I know for a fact you already do, and its precious.

Just keep posting and sharing, even if spread months apart. Artists are being rapidly burned out due to the stress of frequent posting.

The historical artists we grew up researching would throw up blood if they had to do what today's illustrators feel they have to do.

The artists that take YEARS to craft a single project, imagine them trying to navigate this inhumane "Make and share art every chance you get on time or else you'll dissipate Thanos-style" tactic so widespread.

Fuck that.

Your moment will come if you keep alight your creative soul but at your own pace, for that light can snuff out when you overcharge yourself to post on a constant basis.

You a creator or a musky cog for some faceless A.I?

C'mon, you ain't the latter. Let's be real. The latter is where frequent posting can get you.

I understand the desire to connect, to share your art far and wide.

You just won't know when your moment will arrive, but thats the enigmatic nature of sharing your art with the world; just know it will touch a human soul. And thats incredible.

[countandra]

they leaked the tadc finale 🙃

[countandra]

Man i am super excited to see how the cast of decembersville is now. Ive seen you say a few characters have been changed already and im jsut vibrating with excitement for this story and characters.

Ive been a fan since middle school and im 25 now and i just absolutely adore all of your characters!!

Messages like this always touch me deeply. Thank you so much for your kind words.

It is difficult to share custody with my own mind regarding nostalgia - always in hypothetical arguments with myself over what details are now too different and what details have overstayed their welcome.

Then I remember to shut the hell up and just make things. So I really thank you for sticking around this long.

Have a Meowsician.

[countandra]

It's a stretch, but why not draw your other older characters?

[countandra]

I just discovered you and im already obsessed 😋

You have such an interesting style! I think It would look really cool in a comic :)

Love it. Thank you for your kind words and thank you for sharing.

[countandra]

How you been, Count? Hope you been healthy. Obsessed with any games or shows lately?

Evening friendo. Um, games or shows?

Got back from Backrooms last night - bloody wonderful. It was a beautiful surprise.

Um... going to The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act this week in theaters. That'll be fun. Like leaping into a river full of angry coked up piranhas.

And I'll wake up from my coma in time for Blue Eye Samurai season 2.

Still ruminating on how great Silksong is.

I have also come to the recent epiphany that I have a shrill addiction to pineapple.