Hello all. This is something that has been a long time coming and I had been wondering about when to bring this up, but it feels like now is the right time. Many of you have wondered where I've been in the last few years. I had been around, but was mostly on Deviantart. At the time I turned 19 I started to explore more original works of art and creation such as my Comic Book Retrograde and my Music (My band: Defiled Conscience). I wanted less of the stigma of being a Sonic Fan, and more the label of "Artist" as a general identity. I explored this in writing over 9 albums of songs (Lyrically) and creating all the artwork for it. It also made me realize I wanted to sing and record them, perform them. I grew to love heavy metal music, specifically screamer vocals. I learned the techniques to do them effectively and safely but do to unknown reasons suffered from much mucus and breathing problems. Doctors couldn't seem to diagnose it at all, and while I have many other health conditions (some of them quite rare) they were not the cause and for years I suffered. In this time I had also made artwork for my comic book (Retrograde) and did character designs and honed my skills as an artist. I did not really disappear, but my activity slowed down do to my health. I was still on Skype when most people moved to Discord do to my previous computer being unable to handle it. In this time I had also gotten Married, helped many other people emotionally, financially and often at the expense of my own time and health. In the end I was not always appreciated, and even abandoned. I still have a very supportive family in my parents, sister, and my wife though. And in coming back it is with good news and bad news. I have come back to Newgrounds as well and made a Twitter account. I do this to get reacquainted with my community of artists, friends and fans and even after this long decade of my changes, my work and my health, to thank you for all your support and dedication to my works and am glad to know the positive impacts it has made on all or anyone of you. In this last year I recently got over a bad case of Lyme Disease that went undetected for an unknown amount of time but my breathing and lung function has improved significantly (not enough to record my music yet, but still good progress).
However, I have one last piece of the puzzle that has dramatically altered my life and what is to come; and while I am optimistic it is not without it's struggles. All this time, all these years of my slowed productivity has been linked to one health issue.
Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome: (CFIDS) it is a health condition caused by certain viruses being present in the body and much information can be found and read about it on:
http://www.ncf-net.org/
Or just google: Dr. Teitelbaum
https://www.healthrising.org/blog/2014/04/21/dr-teitelbaum-talks-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-fibromyalgia/
I was working as a Manager for 3 years in a retail store and had to leave do to my health and being mistreated by my supervisor. I am not able to work normal jobs and thus have shifted my career goals.
1. I am in the process of drawing some remaining images/examples to get up a price guide for art commissions
2. I am going to be starting a twitch stream soon (just need to finish making some animated gifs of my own for the stream)
3. and my wife and I are starting a podcast which will be streamed on Twitch and uploaded to YouTube. I am just waiting on a music track to be finished that we had commissioned for the intro and I will be animating a small opening of it and create the logo for our podcast.
While I have strong dedication, aspirations and passions to work on my comic Retrograde and do my music (Defiled Conscience) and try and spread a positive message as i enjoy making people think and educating others, plus make DoD back into a rebooted comic, the 3 above aforementioned projects must be started and will be stated very soon. I plan to have at least one of them up and ready to go within the next couple of months if not 2 of them.
I give you this update to keep you all informed and to thank you for the years of support and hope you will all continue to support me going forward as this is not only my passions and my talents, but will now be, becoming my bread and butter, my lively hood. I can be found and reached on the following platforms and I hope that you will all follow me as I have much great content to produce for you all coming soon:
https://www.deviantart.com/shadefalcon
https://shadefalcon.newgrounds.com/
https://twitter.com/shadefalcon1
And my Discord I.D. -- shadefalcon#2559
Sincerely, shadefalcon (Tony)