Phronemophobia 2025-02-22 15:58:10

Not sure what the context for "not at all confident in my art right now" is about.

If it's about not being confident to share your recent art with others, you have the one amazing benefit of being a small, relatively-unknown artist on this site - posting unpolished and/or experimental stuff without the fear of several users criticizing it. There's no high expectations right now. It's the best time to really toss out all you got and see what sort of reactions you receive (if any). What's the worst that can happen? Either positive and negative reviews help direct you towards improvement that much faster or you receive no feedback and it all stays neutral. Win-win.

If it's merely personal confidence, then what you do is create a separate self... a second you. You then ask yourself why you shouldn't feel confident about your art. Your second self will then probably explain a reasonable and detailed list of concerns pertaining to your current level of talent. Then, you nod in agreement, thank yourself, and lead them to a "Thank You" room where you graciously offer them cakes and lots of money you pulled out of your brain bank of big bucks. Once they step in, you lock the door, laugh maniacally, then go back to creating whatever the heck makes you happy without a single concern for how it will turn out in the end. The second you will be fine. They can have a piece of cake while you have peace of mind. Every version of you is happy now.

Moving on from the bit about confidence... I adore Coppersand already. He has such a simple, straightforward design, but it won't matter if you have him expressing himself with his entire body like that. A strong personality beats out any visual decoration one might add to an original character. Hoping to see more of him in the future. Also, is it wrong that I imagine hearing Foghorn Leghorn's voice coming from this guy? I can already imagine Coppersand walking up to Toggle from that 'suffocation in confusion' sketch and greeting him with, "Boy, I say, boy, what is that you are carrying? A battle axe?! You don't need to be swingin' that thing around, son! Besides, you might hurt someone with that thing (more importantly, you might hurt me with it). *grabs the axe and casually tosses it out of the picture* Now, I know it's important to protect yourself from harm, but let me share with you a tip for how to properly deal with others (pick your head up when I'm talking to you, kid. this is important). The trick is to become their friend before they can become your enemy. You get what I'm telling ya, boy? A true friend would never want to cause you pain, so if you refuse to let anyone become your enemies, then you won't need to carry around that axe anymore (and I'll sleep better at night, too)."

Toggle needs some positivity in his life and Copper seems like the perfect bird for the job. That's my initial impression of him, at least.

Phronemophobia 2025-02-23 02:36:14

"it isn't good enough for the art portal"

If it was easy to become part of the Art Portal, it would not feel special. If you take a gander at the "Undiscovered Artists" under the Latest section of the portal, you'll notice there are a lot of folk uploading their work. Each time they do so, they are taking one step forward towards that goal of being scouted. Rather than worrying about whether or not your drawings are good enough right now, think of each piece as a random encounter in an standard RPG. You gain a little experience each time, your party gradually levels up, and you eventually reach that point where you become so overpowered that not only do you gain access to the Art Portal, but you also end up garnering a large following of viewers who start creating fan art of your OCs. It's a long road and not everyone can afford a car, yet... wait. What? I think I was making an analogy, but I'm half asleep and listening to a video about Lazy Town, so my brain is distracted. You probably get what I mean already. The point is you have to follow the recipe to make a pretty cake or else it'll end up crazy.

"it would take years to explain"

Would it take longer than one of my typical comments? Have you actually read these things? I haven't. They're too boring to finish. Seriously, I type so much yet I provide so little. Could you possibly be more boring than I? I can't imagine that. I won't imagine that. I dare you! I challenge you to be more boring than myself with your years-long explanation art! I bet it won't even take one day to explain. Hmph! Hmph, I say!

"it makes me wonder why i have any social media account at all sometimes"

Outside of networking/advertising one's craft or business or whatever, which I strongly recommend for any creator to do, I sometimes wonder why anyone has social media accounts. They all either perish or become insufferable. My only social account is Mastodon and I almost never visit it because I rather be here on Newgrounds, the only site that still works towards feeling as fun as it did two and a half decades ago.

"my self-confidence is fleeting, interactions terrify me"

Me too, TD. Me too, but you're better at drawing, so you can interact through your art and avoid socializing directly. My only options are to either post a singular smiling emoticon response to everything I see or provide a lengthy, excessive post that ultimately says nothing and the reader wastes almost as much time as I did typing it out. You'll never guess which option I choose most of the time.