...OCs of mine who don't have art, instead just having dollmaker images and/or my own rough doodles? I know that might sound like a silly question, but hear me out here. As a creator, it's of course my priority to show off my stuff, and having people look at it is really meaningful to me even if it's a silent fav or just a vote on a poll on a bulletin about an OC which means that maybe they looked at them!

Because of my thirst for validation, though, it leads to me to stressing out a lot about art. Toyhouse is a very art-oriented website, and things go by so quickly that if your OC doesn't catch someone's eye it makes it THAT much harder to get someone to read your profiles. But I've noticed characters who lack art or who only have dollmaker images tend to get very little attention; I don't think I've ever seen one with more than, like, 3 favs, and one of those favs is probably from me since I'm biased toward validating people whose struggle I feel... and if you don't have any images at all, much less an avatar? Oof.

It's not like I don't get it - if I like the look of a stranger's character's avatar of course I'm gonna be more likely to click on them - but it kinda sucks!!! I've never seen a character with a dollmaker avatar or no avatar up on the featured page before, and I know a lot of my friends even hesitate to use the site at all if they don't have art for their OCs even though it's not like they're gonna get run out of town for having the default TH avatar. But a lot of these characters are really awesome and have some seriously sick profiles and end up getting swept under the rug because having no or a "generic" avatar makes them less intriguing. Again, I get it, and I'm not trying to shame anyone here who favs characters purely for the art/design! Toyhouse was made by the adopt community for the adopt community, and there's nothing wrong with caring about art/design over profile content! It's just rough for those who struggle with art/can't afford commissions to get their cool OCs some attention.

So, we arrive at my dilemma! Over the years I've spent a lot of money on commissions; back in ye olden days of 2016 I'm pretty sure I was spending more than I was making! Not to mention it feels like every time I order one I end up waiting for months (even over a year in several cases,) I'm working on moving out so I'll have a lot of expenses soon, my art isn't the best and unclear refs lead to results that aren't always true to the design/character... it's a struggle!! And I hate having to spend so much money just so I can upload an important character I've had for 10 years!!! I really do!!!!! And while if I spend some effort I can sometimes make art of certain OCs I find acceptable as avatars, drawing takes me an excruciatingly long time even for simple stuff. Even shabby doodles can take over a half hour and I'm guaranteed not to be too happy with those.

This means I utilize dollmakers like DreamSelfy, Rinmaru, Kisekae to have some kind of visual representation of my OCs, sometimes settling for hasty sketches just so I can make an avatar of them for RP purposes. I'm not exactly short on these; according to my storage account I have 414 characters with some kind of image, and I just realized I forgot to upload two more people whose DreamSelfies I made recently! The number of OCs I have who are adopts/have fancy art is maybe a quarter of that, and there are still plenty OCs of mine who have 0 visual representations at all (mostly the poor saps with the misfortune to be nonhuman or have a body type that doesn't fit into most dollmakers.)

Basically, I have a lot of OCs who I'm really passionate about, who are important, who are overdue for a profile, and/or who I could write up a profile for quickly... but under normal circumstances this requires having the spoons and spending the time it takes to make a ref, then spending money on a commission, waiting, and praying it comes out right so I don't have to buy another one and wait for THAT to be completed, all just so I can feel comfortable uploading a character. Look at my newest-uploaded friends alone, I could crank out half of their profiles in 5 minutes because I'm in such a mood for them right now!! It's torture!!!!!

I'm just at a point where I'm wondering if I should stop caring about images and write the profiles I feel like writing when I feel like writing them, even if I only have a dollmaker image or a sketchy mess to represent them. It would be kinda liberating, but at the same time I don't know how much of the clicks I get from my followers are based on art/design. I don't want to make people less willing to follow me because I stop uploading as much neat art, and likewise I don't want to spend hours working on profiles that no one will give the time of day.

So, basically, do you think I should start uploading whatever I want whenever I want to work on them? Or do you think it's in my best interests to wait until I can grab some art to advertise my OCs with? Are you disinterested in OCs who just have dollmaker images? Do you care if avatars are sketchy/sloppy? Do you relate to my problem and/or are having the same struggle? Have you had success with getting your dollmaker-made OCs some attention?

Be honest with your votes/comments; I'm not going to be offended if everyone's like "yeah sorry I probably won't click on your OC if they're just some DreamSelfy." Like I said, I get it! It's like with food: you taste with your eyes first, so if you don't like what you see of course you're not gonna be too eager to dig in. It's better that you let me know that than lying and watching me sob quietly and I never get a fav on anything ever again.

Likewise, again I want to emphasize it's okay to just fav OCs because you like their design/art, I don't want to come off as some elitist who thinks your OCs are trash if they don't have a 100k word profile or that you're shallow if you don't read profiles before faving! i'm paranoid alright i've seen people get aggressive about this kind of thing from both sides and i am just a small baby

Note that either way this probably won't have too much of an impact on my profile-uploading speed; aside from generally not wanting to put out more than one profile per day as part of my Sick Stratz To Make People Look At My Donuts(tm), I'm still pretty busy and also lazy. I probably would more often because I could do more profiles spur of the moment, but you know how spoons can be. Furthermore, it's not like I have any shortage of OCs who DO have art that I want to work on... my adoptable waiting room profile is still pretty stuffed! So it's not like by saying no you're dooming me to never upload anything again, nor are you bullying me into spending my hard-earned money on Sweet Toyhouse Clickz(tm) or something.

also some unrelated things:

• i forgot to link to the song that inspired me to write morning, check it out, the space dandy ost is phenomenal: https://toyhou.se/~literature/737.morning
• the "i want to see a character who" thread has a shiny new op now and clearer rules and stuff, check it out: https://toyhou.se/~forums/5865.forum-games/13724.i-want-to-see-a-character-who-?page=0
  
• we're having tacos tonight and i'm pretty amped about that
  
• tomorrow's the last day of my hell job and i'm pretty amped about that (but i still need another job and who knows if that'll be hell until it's too late... i Fear)
  

that's all!!! make the votes and pray for art fight to function so i can actually fight people #teamcoffee (disclaimer i do not like coffee or even tea actually. a lot of scandalous content in this bulletin, i know)