Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Or, to those who celebrate it, at least.

People say that this is a day to be thankful for what you have.

However, I think we would all be better off if we made the effort to be thankful for what we have every day. Surely, if you look hard enough, there ought to be at least one thing you have to be thankful for. Especially if you have the ability to think about what that could be in the first place.

Though, if this particular day gives people an excuse to be thankful, then so be it. But I feel that in a world that moves so fast, every now and again it's important to stop for a moment and breathe in the world around you; being grateful for what you see. Every moment will become a moment passed. You might miss something you wish you had appreciated if you aren't too careful.

As common a sentiment this may be, this is still what I believe.

But enough with all that. I know what I have to be thankful for right now is the fact that I've gotten User of the Day today!

In fact, around this very same day last year was the first time that my artwork got Front Paged.

A pretty odd coincidence, isn't it? Maybe this season is my lucky Newgrounds lottery-winning grace period or something?

How does that saying go, "If I had a nickel for every time (blah blah blah) happened, I would have two nickels. Which is not a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice"?

The difference between this and the Front Page though is that the Front Page has a degree of human effort to it, whether your art is selected by the moderators or by another user and sent from the Front Page thread. However, whether or not the same thing can be said for User of the Day... I'm not entirely sure!

But I believe the answer is that it's random. Either way, I still have Chance to thank.

Or perhaps Newgrounds itself? So, thank you Newgrounds!

I remember being very happy when this particular artwork had been Front Paged, mostly because of the sacrifices I made while creating it.

This asset you see in the image above--which is my attempt at recreating the texture of the ARK from Sonic Adventure 2--is (technically) unfinished! As I was creating this, the vector graphics file actually got corrupted, and I could no longer make any changes to the asset. By this point, it was locked-in.

What you see in the final artwork is actually an image file, taken from a screenshot of the near-final work.

I remember being upset that I couldn't finish it, but aye, it's good that I got as far as I did, right?

And, since this artwork still ended up doing pretty well, it seems like that sacrifice paid off!

I haven't uploaded too many artworks since then. At least, not as many as I could, especially compared to last year, and especially compared to the year before that. I'll be the first to tell you that I know I haven't been spoiling y'all as much as I would like to. What can I say? The year has had alot to offer, mentally and physically, so I've been pretty busy.

(Man, has it really been a year? I don't know whether that's too short or too long!)

They say "quality over quantity", but something in me always feels like I can somehow do both.

My last blogpost was all the way back in May, after all. For my Newgrounds Anniversary. So many things have happened since then. Good things which I wanted to share, but Reason told me "Ah, but now is not the right time."

So I decided not to. And now, I'm thankful (lol) that I didn't! Especially because on their own, they're not really noteworthy.

But, since we're on the topic, I might as well cram every little "special announcement" I have to be thankful for as its own little footnote at the bottom of this post.

So, to wrap this up:

1. Thank you for 500 fans!

Truly, this number will always daunt me.

I feel like I don't thank you all enough, but thank you for taking time out of your days to appreciate my art and what I love to do. Ever since I started being active on the forums, I feel like this number has gone up way further than I could've expected. Before, if I wanted that to happen, I had to upload Art to the Art Portal, which was a good motivator in itself.

But now I'm at a point where that's going to happen regardless of whether I'm uploading artwork or not! Which feels weird, but I'm still very, very grateful--since I feel like there are much more talented people on this site who deserve what I have way more than I do.

Whether I feel like I deserve it or not, it looks like I'll still have it anyway (which is a hard fact of life I've had to learn, lol).

I don't know how to express my gratitude better than thanking you all and striving to meet (and hopefully surpass!) your expectations.

So, truly, thank you all.

2. I now have an Art Thread!

Ever since I started being active on the forums, most of my posts have been uploaded to my art thread. Here you'll find W.I.Ps, sketches, doodles, and even a bit of some behind-the-scenes insight into my past drawings.

Basically, it's anything I don't deem worthy for a blogpost or for the Art Portal.

Which, as you might can tell, I tend to be pretty picky about that sort of thing.

But, if you ever find yourself wondering "What's dupreedraws drawing?", you can probably find your answer in my super duper cool art thread.

3. I also have a Bluesky Account!

...and a DeviantArt account too, but you might already know that. A friend of mine was kind enough to offer me a BlueSky invite code since I struck off from Twitter (oh yeah, that also happened). So I figured that I might as well strike while the iron was hot, put my boat in the water, etc. etc., all while Bluesky is still in its special-access "Cool Kids Club" phase.

I only have a few posts, but it's better than nothing!

And hey, maybe if you're cool enough and ask nicely, I'll give you the ONE invite code that I have left. I've gotten three so far, but I've given them to two other people who I felt deserved it. So aye, this might be your chance to win a lottery of your very own, the way I feel like I have today.

4. This blogpost is over!

Happy Thanksgiving! Thank you for your time.