First blog post for Hive. It’s been more than a year since my last blog and that was way back on another blockchain. A lot of stuff happened in real life that was enough to keep me occupied. It was a mix of career and burning out from using the platform that got me to abruptly stop. For a reintroduction, I’m @adamada, a hobby illustrator from the Philippines.
The images here are previous works I have posted on another blockchain. The only new one is the thumbnail you see. It's a redraw of my first work shared here. It was made for the purpose of testing out my rusty hands. It's been more than a year since I used a pencil or a graphics tab to do art.
Blogging on the previous blockchain became an option after a friend recommended it to me. They noticed my drafting skills during those rare times when I felt like sharing my work on social media. My social media account doesn’t contain a lot of my works. Everyone in my social circle knows I draw but never really got the chance to see the portfolio I built while pursuing the hobby. I would occasionally get commissions but these transactions happen discretely.
It’s a combination of not having enough confidence to showcase my works and getting a lot of unwanted attention for the works. I get pressured by peers to create illustrations for them whether for free or for commissions. The demands pile up and the need to please them also limits my creative freedom until I got sick of the routine and just kept the hobby low-key. Thus, the choice to be an anon became natural when I entered the platform. There's also the issue of giving out to the world your personal information then cry invasion of privacy when you just handed out the info online freely.
| Random Circles and Forms | Bakunawa Inspired | Red Riding Hood Inspired |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
I made the mistake of not documenting my old works. I have a habit of giving away hard copies of my illustrations (tattoo designs mostly). You may notice some of my previous posts having blank thumbnails where an image used to be. The server that hosted those images ceased operations and the backups I have got screwed after my laptop required some reformat. I pictured my return post would contain those missing images but that’s just my luck.
It was a few days after starting my blogs when I realized the value of being transparent affects how community curators contribute to your posting rewards here. I agree. Being transparent about your identity does give more confidence to curators that they are supporting an artist rather than a plagiarist. This also got me involved into the anti-abuse community efforts out of curiosity at first. The idea that plagiarist and tracers are rewarded for stealing other people’s work became an instant pet peeve. The downvote tool is one of the best tools implemented on the platform.
It would be a lie to say I don’t appreciate the monetary rewards for interacting with the platform. Blogging is a hobby and my interest in art is a passion. Blogging here will never be a life line and it’s only a hobby that I could potentially earn from. The amount of money I could earn in the service of the sick can keep me be financially stable but that toxic reality is the reason why I need to invest in leisure activities.
| Dragon Inspired | Ms. Parasol | Octodoodle |
|---|---|---|
content1 | content2 |  |
I created other social media accounts as an extension for my art blogs but Hive will be the base platform to showcase art and written content. I haven't started filling up those social media accounts yet. I just wanted Hive to be the first platform to get started back on blogging again. I’d have to thank three people that motivated me to come back to the platform instead of focusing on those other art accounts that have yet to be filled.
A short mention of appreciation for these three:
@jazzhero for being the first follower that took the time to engage with my first few posts on the platform. He didn’t gave me the generic nice post, follow me follow you crap. This guy complemented my works when I didn’t have the confidence to bother further. He also motivated me to improve on how I format my posts and other stuff that helped me get passed the steep learning curve of the blockchain. I came back because we planned on creating a game based on the blockchain as a dream hobby. The plans are underway but I don't want to make promises yet.
@enforcer48 for keeping in contact with me even when I’m inactive on the blockchain. I appreciated the effort of maintaining the social connection. My talks with him made me realize that engaging with other people on the blockchain can have social impacts in ways I did not foresee. I just thought that everything ends as soon as I become inactive for a few weeks. He filled me in on what happened since I was away and that helped me catch up with the current events. When I left the Steem Blockchain, I gave about 95% of what I accumulated to him because I know he would use it to downvote the shits that do harm on the Hive blockchain. No regrets here.
@romeskie for nagging me to come back. Though I know she has her regrets of doing so after the occasional chaos I raise within the hiveph community. All the stuff I learned to maximize income on the platform I have imparted to her. I’m an advocate of financial literacy, the traditional one but I’m learning to be financially literate on cryptofinance. There’s a lot of work to do when it comes to educating new users about ways to earn without compromising the value of the platform.
Yep, these three motivated me to come back to blogging again and pursue growth on other platforms. I realized that Hive is a small place and anyone can be easily noticed if they gave enough time to engage and contribute value to the platform. If I wasn’t blogging on Hive, I would be filling up my portfolio on other social media platforms until I reached the satisfactory level of skill to commit to freelance digital illustration. My digital art skills are crap from stagnating through months of doing something unrelated to the passion.
I'll get back on doing some daily practices so art posting may not be a frequent thing anytime soon. If I wasn’t a doctor, I’d be somewhere out there doing computer or business related work but still have the time to learn digital art illustration. The blockchain gave me a confidence boost and that was enough to convince me to pursue the dream.
Art would be my usual content but other random stuff can come up like doing reviews, progress to financial literacy, and maybe some rants when inspired by a rough day. Hope you have a nice day!
A hobby illustrator