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DannyPhoenix0013

I cant seem to sleep at night
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Yes, you read the title correctly. As of today this account will be going dark. There’s a lot of reasons as to why I’ve made this decision but for those of you who just don’t care, I’ll be dropping all of my links for the sites/platforms that you can expect to see me use from now on.

If you’d like to continue seeing my art consider checking out my other accounts

Twitter/X (Where I will be posting general art and random thoughts)

Pixiv (For exclusively art) Newgrounds (For More Art)

Youtube (For other stuff)

Patreon (If you’d like to support me and get early access to all of my projects in development)


So, for those of you that stuck around or are just curious, here’s what’s going on.

To begin with, ever since Wix bought DA, I’ve been of the general opinion that the site has gotten worse. Design changes, removal of features, newly introduced features. Almost everything they did felt completely polarizing. Like they didn’t understand the user base or what we used this space for. Frankly the site has been a lot less fun to use for years now. Engagement has dropped to an all time low, even for really popular artists who can struggle to get any real feedback. It’s been pretty sad.

Then there was the AI debacle. And I want to say, whatever stance you take on AI, whether you support it or don’t, you should agree that the way they implemented it was in the worst possible way. Every single account on the platform automatically having every piece ever created opted into their AI training. No consent given, no permission given, no warning, and no way to OPT OUT. Without going through every post you had ever made and manually hitting a check box. It was incredibly stupid, and while yes, they DID fix this. It doesn’t change the first hand look we all got into how the people who run this place view their users. As just tools. Whether we were dead, not active or still using the site and spending money on it, they treated us all as a tool to train their AI. It’s no wonder the whole thing resulted in a mass exodus from the platform, including quite literally all of my close friends leaving.

But I stuck around, because this space was still important to me. It’s been a big part of my life. It’s where I have so many treasured memories of my youth. It’s where I started my career in art. It’s where I met life long friends, and even someone incredibly special that I had the chance to fall in love with. But none of those memories are worth sticking around for anymore.

The reason I’m leaving boils down to one thing, and one thing only, that I refuse to stand by or support. The current peace for Israel banner is frankly a disgusting, vile and misleading article that serves to promote islamophobia and villainize the oppressed people of Palestine. And I’m not going to sit here and argue facts with anyone. If you want to know the truth, it’s not hard to find. The videos I’ve seen will haunt me for the rest of my life, and I can not stomach to be on this site and see that banner every time I log in. This is war where thousands of innocents are dying, and to justify any sides actions as “right” or “wrong” is not something a simple art site should be trying to do. This place should be an escape for it’s users. I can’t imagine being an artist of Palestinian descent and having to see that every day, knowing that Israel’s bombings have wiped out entire family trees off the face of the earth. No one is justified in that level of retaliation ever. A genocide is happening before our very eyes, whether you choose to look or not. And that’s really just it. I can’t support this place anymore, and I won’t. And I know not everyone will agree with my stance, or understand it. Maybe even some of my watchers will hate me from now on. But I don’t really care. This is something I feel strongly about. And for me, this is now something that I have to do.

So if I see you around on my other platforms, let’s continue to support one another. And if not, then I guess this is goodbye. Thanks for all your support over the years. I wouldn’t be where I am today without you. See ya.

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Now that everything's been properly announced I can actually talk about the new Checkmate project. However, before we get into any real details or reveals, there's one important question that I have to get out of the way first. A question that's a little scary to answer for me.


The question is, "What is Jackpot edition?" I think most people have caught on that it doesn't sound like the title of a sequel. And that's because it isn't.


If you read my webcomic, and especially the afterwords, then I'm sure you saw that my opinion of the story got worse and worse over time. At it's core, it just wasn't the story I ever meant to tell. After the success of Snow White and Rose Red, which I never dreamed would be even HALF as successful as it was, I made a choice to rewrite Checkmate. I rewrote it to be more of a proper sequel to Snow White and Rose Red, despite the fact that it was never structured to work that way. On top of that, since I was posting on webtoons, I ruined my own pacing by poorly converting my pages to webtoons format. I censored myself to try and stay within webtoons content guidelines, eliminating sexual, violent, and other dark content.


I watered down the story to the point where it felt soulless to me. When it was done, I honestly was left feeling mostly regretful about my own choices. That's not to say that it was all bad. I met a lot of awesome people thanks to this comic. Some of my best friends, some of the coolest supporters, people that I rely on. There's been a lot of great stuff that came out of this. But I know that I can do better. And I want to do better. Maybe it won't be better for you, or anyone else, and that's okay. Maybe people really won't like this version. Maybe it'll be too dark. Maybe the content will cross lines. But it'll be the story I wanted to tell. It'll say the things that I wanted it to say. It'll have the soul that it should have had. And if I do that, then I know, no matter if 100 people read it, or just one. That I'll be proud of it this time. And that's all that matters.


But yeah, I don't have anything firm to really share just yet. I've written out several chapters in script format already. The new chapter 1's rough draft is nearly complete. But I'm not gonna set a date for myself on this just yet. I want to take my time with it. But rest assured I'll be sharing a bunch now that I can talk about it. Thanks for sticking with me and all my crazy projects.

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Because my life wasn't stressful enough, my health insurance has decided NOT to cover any of my cardiologist visits leaving me with a bill for around $800 and no way out of it. So I'm opening some emergency commissions to help cover my medical expenses. If you'd like to help, there are several ways you can do so. 1) Share this journal, or my emergency commissions deviation. 2) Order an emergency slot 3) Support me on Patreon 4) Buy me a Kofi Doing ANY of the above would help me greatly. For those ordering commissions, payment is accepted via Kofi. Payments are to be made in ADVANCE or upon approval of the concept sketch. NSFW content is 100% okay and does NOT cost extra. Simple backgrounds are FREE. If you want to help but commissions are too expensive for you, consider supporting me on patreon, just $3 gives you access to a mountain of back log content as well as NSFW art, patreon exclusive art, and polls where you can vote on future art or things I make. Alternatively you can simply make a donation of however much you'd like via Kofi. Any amount would really help me out right now. Thank you to everyone who supports me through this. Things I wont do: -Gore -Excessive content (Anything overtly problematic. If you're unsure if your idea is too much, simply ask me for clarification.) -Mecha

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I said I would give everyone an update about this one, but there ended up being some crazy delays for all my medical testing. That being said, all tests are completed and so I figured I'd give you a proper update regarding my health. We ran several tests to figure out why my heart was beating faster than it should. On the positive side of things, I have no issue with my thyroid, no issues with my kidneys, and no actual defects or abnormalities with my heart itself. The negative side is that while hooked up to heart monitor for 24 hours, my heart beat never once fell down into the normal range of 60-100 bpm. Even while I slept it continued to beat at an irregularly high pace. Now I don't say this next bit to scare anyone, and I will preface by saying that I really do feel fine. This has had no physical impact on me what so ever. I can still chase after my niece and run around with her and go to work and live my life like nothing is wrong what so ever. But, if we do nothing, and continue to let my heart over work itself, it WILL cause long term side effects, and it will damage itself. So to prevent this I've been put on medication that should lower my heart beat. If all goes well, I will see my cardiologist again in 3 months to check how everything is going, but until then nothing to really do but wait. I want to reiterate again, I FEEL fine. For the most part, I AM fine. I passed all of my tests with flying colors as far as it goes for the cause of my high BPM. So it's beating fast and we simply do not know why. Which yes, is a little scary, but if the medication does its thing, hopefully everything will be fine.

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YCH's [CLOSED]

1 min read

I have YCH's open! To claim a slot, check out the linked deviation, and either leave a comment or send me a note directly.

YCH [OPEN]

There are 3 individual poses you can choose from, and each pose has 3 slots available for purchase. Claimed slots must be paid for in advance, and each slot will cost $20. Purchases will be made via my Kofi page.

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Featured

Why Im Leaving Deviantart by DannyPhoenix0013, journal

What is Checkmate: Jackpot edition? by DannyPhoenix0013, journal

An Update about my Heart by DannyPhoenix0013, journal

YCH's [CLOSED] by DannyPhoenix0013, journal

Health/Life Update by DannyPhoenix0013, journal