You may have known be a different name. Or perhaps a few. I ask that you not refer to me by those names any longer. Nor any of the usernames or nicknames derived from them. Those aren't me anymore. So allow me to re-introduce myself.
Hi! My name's Orion! I'm a queer, trans artist who mostly draws OCs. I mostly use he/him pronouns, but I'm okay with a bit of they/them sometimes.
I left this account nearly 8 years ago. I had just started my transition and such an old account so strongly tied to who I used to be was too much to handle. I tried making a new account but that didn't go so well. I eventually drifted off to other platforms.
I eventually moved, got a job, lost a job, started school, moved again, dropped out of school moved a few times, started school, dropped out of school, got a job, lost a job due to the pandemic, started school again. It's been a roller coaster, that's for sure. First I studied set design, which I loved. But a few factors pulled the rug out from under my feet and I lost some good opportunities. Then I studied architecture, but my life rather abruptly fell apart. When you're a grown adult, you don't really expect to come home to find the parent you were living with having packed up and moved out, leaving you just a note saying it was the only way.
It took a couple years to get back on my feet. Somewhere along the way I started turning the story with Crawford and Dane into a proper thing. First a novel, but my writing skills weren't quite what they needed to be. Then a comic. I got about 100 pages in before I had to take a break.
That break was due to my latest and nearly complete attempt at school. In a few weeks, I graduate with a degree in web development. Not just with honors, but with the best teacher in the whole program telling me he's proud of me for what I do. When I got discouraged due to other classes (not taught by him) falling short of my expectations and not teaching enough, he nudged me toward Harvard's free classes through EdX. I've since finished 2 courses and I'm nearly finished with a 3rd.
But it's not just web design that I've learned. I've learned actual programming. Python and C and C# and JavaScript.
I'm thinking of pivoting my methods and instead of continuing the comic making it into a game instead. It would bring together all of my skills, and force me to tackle the one area I've been skirting around--animation. Because along the way I also learned things like perspective! My background skills have seriously leveled up.
Also, AI "art" can suck a fat rock. I'll be heavily watermarking any art that I do post here because of it.