RUDY TUESDAY FOREVER
RUDYTUES.DAY IS ONE YEAR OLD! i can hardly believe it. an absolutely immeasurable amount of work has gone into its creation and i have a lot to say about it so here's the brick:
i began construction this site upon realizing that the current social media landscape is not viable for a long-term online presence. i had a vague list of things i wanted: a home for my webcomics, a gallery and an art log, much needed link aggregation, my own newsletter; but above all, something that was wholly mine and could not be taken from me. something sleek, sexy, intimidating, professional, demanding your submission to engage with it, with my signature whimsical touch. i realized too that my skill level was the limit, and if i really, really wanted to, i could do anything a computer can do.
so i got to work.
i poured countless hours into self-education and spent every spare second building or thinking about building this site, ever aware that i only had more work ahead of me. i dedicated myself to this project, this last, desperate effort to survive, unlike anything else i had ever invested myself in. it changed me. i became smarter, more clever, more confident, more autonomous, more certain than ever that i could do more than just survive: i could flourish and become eternal. i could and i have.
this site will never truly be finished. i will touch and tweak and wrestle with it until my body quits. it is a living, breathing thing, constantly growing, constantly developing, becoming more and more refined, like me. it is a testament to myself alone and the work i have done to make it exist. i couldn't be happier.
there are 22 of you here now receiving and sometimes opening these newsletters. i can't put into words how much i appreciate you all joining me on this journey. i have so many blessings to count and people to thank but this has already become miserably long-winded, so here's the actual news:
MOST NOTABLY
- started construction on my comics and toybox subdomains. the first has a new display font, a blurb, landing pages for the symposium and WRATH, and two unfinished character bios. the second in its current state is a bunch of assorted pages. both need a lot more work but are coming along very nicely!
- pushed a big fucking commit. i don't have any plans at the moment to make the repo public but i'm hoping to push commits every time i send out a newsletter at the very least so i can keep better track of my changes.
- filled out my gallery including works dating as far back as 2014. i also broke sketches and studies up into separate tabs with sections for digital and traditional art.
SOME LIGHT HOUSEKEEPING
- moved mailing list to buttondown which is an alternative mailing list service that allows you to write your newsletters (like the one you are reading) in markdown. there are tons of other features included in paid plans so at some point i'm hoping play around with it a bit more, but for the time being you can check it out here.
- created an official logo. this should appear in the header on tablet and desktop and soon everywhere you look.
- restyled the news section and added an archive link. i forgot to send out the last newsletter so i encourage you to click here and scroll down a bit if you wanted to read it.
- replaced twitter sidebar link with bluesky. their moderation is more restrictive than twitter's so i mostly stick to web development but you are welcome to follow me there. as always you can find my art and darbyposting on the fediverse.
- lots and lots and lots of code clean up, little cosmetic changes and bug fixes you can't see. things now work mostly!
PROJECT UPDATES
- my money laundering scheme is in its final stages! my entire art career has lead up to this! the yearly income i anticipate is negligible, even in recouping the costs, but isn't this the cutest thing you've ever seen? you'll be the first to agree.
- i am putting a hiatus on art log updates until i get around to the astro rebuild. unfortunately i have no timeframe on this.
AS FOR NOW
i started a new job that will be much heavier on my time and i'm unsure what my creative output is going to look like until i adjust. at this point i am hoping to move more towards developing my user experiences now that i have a solid foundation to build on.
if you have read this far, god help you, i cannot understate how critical your support has been throughout this entire endeavor. this has been an intense, chaotic and liberating experience, one i would never wish on anyone, and i only have more work ahead of me. i hope you can stomach it.