Just logged in to delete my gallery. Left in 2021, did not get better in 2022. Short answer: AI art. Will still be orchidkitty on Artfol, Pixiv, Animexx. Twitter, well, we will see, eh?
In a nutshell: I will be inactive here, I won't upload art anymore, but I won't delete my account or my gallery.
I will mainly be on pixiv, Tumblr, artstation.
https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/27615916
https://www.artstation.com/orchidkitty
https://orchidkittyart.tumblr.com
The longer version:
I simply noticed over the past two years that I have no fun being on this site. It became incredibly tedious to search for specific kinds of art, because keywords never fit (e.g. I search for photos of landscapes and get paintings instead.)
The next point is not deviantarts fault: It's the watch for watch culture.
During the past two years I gained and lost followers again and again. Meaning these were only new watchers, no favs, no comments, leaving again after a few days.
I am very grateful for the few that stayed and were interested in my art, not in my watch back.
I also found myself watching less and less people, simply because all my favorite artists left this site, too.
Only for nostalgia reasons I cannot bring myself to truly delete my account.
Goodbye.