Serica Updates & Aang's Rants

OK. This is in letter form to the person in question. It's someone on one of the many pet sites I play on, not someone here on VPL. You're all awesome. If you don't want to read the whole thing, read the tl;dr at the bottom. My one line summary of what I want to say in this massively long rant XD

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Hey. You. I got something to tell you. -.-

You started out with adoptables. Bought a base because you can't draw. Colored them crappily 'cause you didn't know how. Gave up 'cause you couldn't sell them.

So you moved on to pixels, but you didn't know how to shade at all. And the two or three things you had pixelled were directly copied off of better pixel artists on the site. How original. So you asked for tips but none of the amazing pixel artists on the site were online at the time, so you picked me to ask.

So now, you ask me where I learned how to dither. I didn't like you from the start but that doesn't mean I'm going to ignore you or tell you no. I'm a better person than that, and you have the right to use dithering to shade your pixels. So I show you the (FREE) tutorial I used and give you some tips on my style of pixels.

You sell them, you say "pick your own price," but when someone DOES pick their own price, you bitch that it's not enough for your OMG PERFECT 8DDDD pixels and nobody knows what your art is really worth and they tried to rip you off for the work you put into it. Yes because half an hours' work is worth over 25k in site currency. I put in HOURS sometimes on what I sell, and I'm happy if it hits double digit thousands. 10k maybe, 15k...it's awesome for me.

But then, OH HELL NO, GOD FORBID, someone else pixels a bottle and it becomes a fad on the forums to pixel your own potions/bottles. You come in and make a WHOLE THREAD start in on everyone: "OMG EVERYONE COPIED ME JEEZ WHY CAN'T PEOPLE COME UP WITH THEIR OWN IDEAS?!?!!!!!!!!!!!! *angry rant*" and try to say that people should be crediting you for their potion bottles. But not me, because you fucking idolize me. So I'm OK to keep making my bottles and all. But I don't appreciate you ripping into the other pixel artists on the forum just the same because you can copyright your actual pixel but not the idea of a potion bottle in general.

Suddenly, you're bored and you sell the rights to your pixels and disappear for a few days, saying you quit.

A while later, cue you being 7.5mill in the hole to your best friend (site currency of course), so you start pixelling again. Your pixels did get better but they're still not...brilliant like some of the artists on the site (before anyone says anything, I admit my own are not up to par, but this girl....ughugh). You still think you are the Pixel Goddess on the site, so you start charging 500k-1mill for tutorials on how to pixel. Tutorials I could find on sites like dA and post for free. And you assume you'll get 250k+ each for your little "orbs" with bad animations.

Cue boredom part 2. You sell off your pixel linearts and such again and go on your merry way. Oh wait. Nope. Now you're making signatures. But honestly, your signatures ARE. NOT. THAT. AMAZING. Again, you're charging 200k+ for a tutorial most people could find for free on dA or from one of the better artists on the forums. And wondering why your shit doesn't sell. Oh look, you're pixelling too. But you won't make avatars "because people won't pay high enough for them".

Honey, you need to get over yourself. You're only making art for the payment. You don't enjoy it one bit, you're such a crab to your partners (when you have them) and you bitch and moan when none of your ...okayish... art sells. You act like it's a hassle when you put your pixels up for customs and nobody replies, but you also act like it's a hassle when someone DOES request something. You bitch and moan that a pixel that took upside of 10 minutes to make (say, a recolor or something really simple like that) is worth more than the (already higher than necessary) offer you got for it. You lead into the custom pixel threads with "I need money to pay back my friend/get a new pet" as if that's going to make someone offer more for your pixels, then whine and fuss if you don't get offered so much for them.

If you enjoyed any of the art you try to make, it would look AND sell 1000x (okay I exaggerate but you get the meaning) better. You're only hindering yourself when you bitch at the people who want you to make them something or when you put off making what someone wants for days on end because you can't be bothered. You're online 4-5 hours a day whining about it, why not spend 3? or so of those hours filling the orders you do get?

Or if art is that much of a hassle for you, find a new hobby that you do enjoy and use that as your cash cow. Write something. Restock. Quest. Maybe give up on the money for a while and try getting off the internets and read a book or socialize with another human being without a screen between you.

tl;dr STOP BEING A WHINY, SELFISH LITTLE BITCH ABOUT YOUR ART AND TRY GETTING SOME ENJOYMENT OUT OF IT. THE PRICE IT SELLS FOR WOULD BOTHER YOU SO MUCH LESS IF YOU ACTUALLY STOPPED BEING A GRUMP AND HAD FUN WITH IT INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING ALL THE TIME.

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