Changes: A New Avatar

I’ve been using one of these images from Magic Knight Rayearth as my avatar on various forums and social media sites for more than 20 years, just about half my life at this point:

While I’m still a big fan of Japanese animation, there’s been an unfortunate trend in communities outside of anime fandom itself over the last several years of users with anime character avatars being considered (sometimes justifiably) some of the most toxic people online and therefore not worth interacting with. In several cases, I’ve seen them get completely dismissed (“anime avatar, not even going to respond”) or worse, blocked on sight.

Some of this is completely understandable - I’ve watched some of the people I follow online have severely ugly interactions with incredibly terrible users that have avatars from a recent popular series, so I’m not going to say they’re completely in the wrong.

But at the same time, it was making me worry about how I was being seen online - am I being lumped in with this group of horrible people just because I also have an anime character as my profile picture?

So I decided I wanted to change my avatar, at least for where I interact with people outside the anime community. At the same time, I didn’t want to use a photo of myself - that felt like going too far in the other direction, plus I always think I look awful in photos. So as a medium step, inspired by some of the webcomic artists I follow online, I decided to commission a drawn portrait of myself.

I wanted a cartoony style, but not explicitly anime-styled, and I wanted it drawn by a real artist. I have a burning hatred of generative AI slop and refuse to support it.

Shortly after I decided to start looking for an artist, Granite State Comic Con was happening nearby - I’d never been before, but I knew it had a large Artist Alley, so I bought a one-day ticket to the con and wandered through the booths. While I did buy some comics I liked, I didn’t find anyone with a style that fit the feel I was looking for.

So my next stop was Etsy. There were a lot of AI producers I had to wade through in my searches, but eventually I stumbled on a listing for BananaRoseArt, who had a style that I liked and wasn’t AI-generated. I provided a few photos of myself I’d taken using my good DSLR camera and a self-timer, and after a quick conversation about timing (we both had upcoming trips where we’d be unavailable to respond), she provided the amazing artwork I’m using now.

My general thought right now is to use this one for a couple years, then commission another one. But I’m also really slow to change things like this - I used the Lantis images forever, after all - so I guess I’ll see how I feel a few years from now.