Amalia-Illios

Hello my countless delightful deviants,

sometimes you need to bite the bullet and keep traditions going, even if it's against all odds.

What. A. Year.

As if the pandemic wasn't bad enough, decided to shove "Eclipse" down our throats, resulting in some serious disenchantment with the platform for me and, seemingly, quite a few others. While the initial slump has tapered off it seems, interaction still doesn't feel like it is back to previous levels. Oh well. Not much you can do about that, I suppose.

So without further ado, here are the customary Top 5 pictures, once again ranked in ascending order of the number of favourites they managed to snag from all of you.

#5: Look What I Found!

Those of you who have followed my inanities for a while know that I do have a penchant for extremes. I make a point of staying at least close to the realistic side of things, but enjoy laying it on thick, like I did in this picture. Seems y'all liked my idea of introducing Miss Superfloofy to a corset right out of Ethel Granger's wardrobe and a pair of platforms that were no doubt originally made for Lady Gaga.

#4: Happy Valentine's Day!

As I suggested with #5, you really do seem to share my delight in the extreme (and shiny red), so you graced this follow-up with plenty of your faves as well. Even more so, no doubt owing to the added bondage it depicts. Well, I'd be the last person to not enjoy a good mmmph-y struggle, so thank you ever so much!

#3:Sitting It Out

Speaking of extremes ... something I do revisit from time to time is the "Heavy Rubber" theme. In reality, I am somewhat ambivalent when it comes to hoods and masks. But I can understand the attraction and enjoy some of their aspects. And the concept of "social distancing" certainly was an excellent one for this theme!

#2: Are You Having Fun Yet?

Sometimes the costumes and bondage is all that is needed, I guess. Originally taken as just another snapshot, I decided it would be a fun one to share with all of you. It shows me just having grabbed all of @snidleywhiplash6's keys. And yes, I was certainly having fun!

#1: Failed Experiment

And indeed last but by no means least, it seems ... the surprise winner. It seems you really like this one. Just posted it last week and it went right through the roof. 100 of you decided to fave it within the first 24 hours. I mean, I know another pink picture was long overdue, but that was ... unexpected. Thank you all so much for spoiling me with your attention!

Speaking of that, I am feeling quite elated that you keep sticking with me even as I struggle with the changes in the platform. I really appreciate each and every , and comment of yours, even if I don't react to all of them explicitly any more.

But for now, may all of you enjoy a delightful time in bringing this year to a close, holiday or not. Fingers crossed that the only way is up from here on out.

Love,

Lia

Hello again dear fellow deviants,

well, I suspected this would happen, as much as I tried to keep an open mind about the "new" deviantART user interface so fondly known as "Eclipse".

While I have gotten "used" to it in the sense that I pretty much know how to do the things I want to do, there is simply no getting around the fact that it is clunky and seriously inefficient.

Using deviantart essentially has become a chore for me. It holds about as much appeal and enjoyment as using Atlassian Confluence or JIRA at work. Just catching up with what is going on takes so much time and energy that once I'm done with it, I lack the energy of commenting and even thanking people for watching.

From what I can tell, I am far from the only one who feels that way. While faves and watches are still quite abundant -- and thank you all for that -- comments have seriously dwindled. And I am not blaming you folks for it.

So please forgive me if I will be more quiet in the future and if new artwork will only appear here with delays, way after I put them up in my private gallery or on twitter.

Love,

Lia.