Art Summary 2025

Farewell 2025! Mixed bag year certainly, but not a total let-down like I first assumed. I had a sit down and actually looked back at the year and through all the trouble and despair there were still a lot of highlights. Highlights mainly brought on by friends, neighbours, forum-fellows, and mutuals. There was a lot of good work done by others that encouraged me to do the same... or at least try!

So, here's a small run-down of all things related to the creative stuff I have going on. 

Best Art Piece Of The Year

I finished very little art this year... there's not a lot to pick from. It was a good year specifically for mermaid art for some reason. So it's between my Mermay characters and the mermaid quiz art. I would have to say it goes to the mermaid quiz and my fave from the series is probably the Coral Mermaid. Something went really right with the colours. 

Best Web Thing Of The Year

'Tis was a good year for my site! Since I officially returned in 2024, I've been able to add a bunch of new pages... little by little of course. I made my collective this year, changed up the look of my blogs, made a whole load of fanlistings and quizzes. For some reason my first ever fanlisting, for the band Elliott, is what I think may be my best so far.

Best Event Of The Year 

Here's all that I partook in or tried to partake in in 2025: Fairyary, A-Z blogging, Mermay, Artfight, Blaugust, and my own Digital Advent. Not many were a success by the regular standards but I still felt all where worth my time and a chance to do it better next year. I think Blaugust excited me most because I'm already planning what I'll do in 2026! So I think while my own posts may have not been that great, reading what others were writing and chatting with fellow bloggers on 32Bit was awesome!

Biggest Achievement Of The Year

The CDwORLD inrpint zine! Still feels surreal it ever got done. It was a real behemoth but it turned out pretty great, it had a lot of contributors, and lots of people seemed to enjoy it upon it's release. I think it's the biggest project I put out this year and it was awesome!

Most Popular Post On The Blog  

My most popular post of the year is actually pretty recent and is a masterpost, makes sense. It's the Digital Advent masterpost, where some nice folk even left me comments. It was a pretty neat idea and I finished it too! 

Favourite Post On The Blog 

My favourite post was probably my summary/reflection on a project I started during Inktober 2022, I think. It's a pixel horror visual novel with a huge cast of strange characters. It's nowhere near development now but I really thought that the idea was solid and I'd really like to do something with it in the future. 

And that's about it for 2025. Check out my '2026 project/creative goals' post on the blog to see what I'll be doing next year. I'll probably even set up some kind of a calendar for when exactly I'll be doing certain things. Well, thanks for reading, it's been a ride! 

☆ Finny ★  

2025 Digital Advent #24: Silent Suburbia

Hurrah! It's the last day of the advent. So, although I am late and was multiple times during this shebang, I did make it to the end. Round of applause, just some polite clapping, please. I only barely made it past the finish line. In honor of the end of this advent, I would like to present one of my all time faves but sadly currently inactive sites: Chris of silentsuburbia.neocities.org!

How did I find this website?

Chris and I go way back... I think. I'm pretty sure they joined my first rendition of CDwORLD back in the day and we bonded over our love of cool sites and cool bands, especially Incubus. I was really taken with their site, both the first and second edition. I was actually inspired by Chris to put Eurostile all over my site.

Check this website out if you like...

Chris covers many areas on their site: design, art, photography, awesome mixes often themed around road trips and beaches, and surfing! The surfing page is incredible, it looks so cool, like an ad for Quicksilver or something. Just pure awesome. I don't even like Empire Records but the music page themed around the movie is also stellar. There's also so many links! Lots of cool resources and old archived webpages.

My favourite page on the website is...

My fave page probably has to be the surfing page just because it's so, so cool. I also obviously love the main layout and that the sections are themed around rooms and that the header changes accordingly. I really miss Chris' updates so I hope they will one day make a return.

☆ Finny ★ 

2025 Digital Advent #23: Camo93

Greetings! So late... but still here! It's officially the second-to-last day of the advent and we're two sites closer to Christmas for those that celebrate. Today I will take you to a website that's both cabin-cozy and Twin Peaks off putting (best combo!) that's got art and blogging. It's Moby of camo93.neocities.org!

How did I find this website?

I recall Moby and I becoming mutuals some time during my big update in 2024 but I may be wrong. Though their layout may seem simple it's full of charm, I haven't seen that many camo and sort-of hunter themed sites before on Neo so it was a really cool look.

Check this website out if you like...

Moby has a webcomic that is currently being re-made called 'Quinn'. It's full of unsavory types (about whom you can read on their OC pages) which is perfect for some very tense narrative. I'm excited to see where the comic keeps going because I was really curious after reading about the OCs. Also, Moby has a pretty lengthy blog that updates monthly or so and it's got stuff about projects, art, photos, and more.

My favourite page on the website is...

I'm really excited to see where the comic will be going so so far I've really enjoyed the OC pages and the gallery. Though the home page is probably the biggest pearl of the site, it's just so neat. 

☆ Finny ★ 

2025 Digital Advent #22: Kidwiththechemicalz.net

Hey, fellas. I have been playing a lot of old games this month: yeah, just in December I finished Halo 2 and Jade Empire which both rocked my socks off! So, in connection to that... here's a website that isn't all gaming but is a lot of gaming, and it weaves all sort of old-school cool into the style and look of the pages! It's Iván of kidwiththechemicalz.net!

How did I find this website?

I followed Iván sometime this year, his site is also very compact with excellent font, header background, and graphics choices. It all looks very cool and grunge-y together. There's sick little animations on hover over a lot of buttons, there's flashing banners, and the cool CRT effect. The site is just awesome!

Check this website out if you like...

So there's a lot of music and games that Iván likes that I like too so all the pages related to his interests are fun to browse. If you like anything Valve definitely look at his site! Iván also has a blog that not only looks cool but often covers a variety of interesting topics, the latest one about being an artist on the web really resonated with me. There's a shrine/fansite for Король и Шут (I have a cousin who was really into them) and one more coming for Russian music in general. Iván's link page is very lengthy and impressive, especially for those new to browsing certain sites... with a bottle of rum. 

My favourite page on the website is...

My favourite page is definitely the blog page, it looks awesome, there's some very good writing there. I'm excited to see what else Iván will write in the future.

☆ Finny ★

2025 Digital Advent #21: Cyberstheb

Hey everyone, here come the last days of the advent. Then it's Christmas for all those who celebrate and before we know it, 2026 will be the year! Wild. Today's entry is a long-time mutual of mine, Sthefanny/Sbefy/Stheb/Befy of cyberstheb.neocities.org! I will be referring to her as Befy throughout this post for ease.

How did I find this website?

So, as I re-call (though now I'm worried I re-call everything pretty poorly...) me and Befy became mutuals on Neocities quite a while ago! Probably even sometime before my big site update of November 2024. Either way, the bright and stark look of Befy's site was so good. It's technically monochormatic (with a very vivid and popping pink, delicious!) but has graphics with a variety of colours. It's a very cool look.

Check this website out if you like...

Befy is an artist and has both beautiful watercolour works and digital art too. There are some really awesome shrines: one for Ghost Princess from One Piece, one for Grimes, and one for the 2010's web. There seems to be a fourth in the works too. There is also a neat links apge from which I discovered the retro TV sites which are a lot of fun. Befy is also a part of some cliques (you guys know I love a clique) so there's great collected pixels and those she made herself.

My favourite page on the website is...

I love the collections page, just lots of cute graphics but my fave has to be the 2010's web shrine. It's very chaotic and crazy but that truly was the attitude of that time. I probably started using the web around 2008 but only got my first social media accounts and such in the early 2010s. Just such a fun page, I hope I can come across such pages more often, it feels like a lot of love went into it.

☆ Finny ★      

2025 Digital Advent #20: Subtopia

We're really close to Christmas and also really close to the end of this advent. Crazy! And the year will end... Time goes much too quickly. So lets use what time we have left on this planet to appreciate some sites. Today I bring you an artist's incredible website (and as usual, there is art but there is also more!). It's J/James of subtopia.neocities.org!

How did I find this website?

 

I found James' site when they submitted an application to join my music of the 2000s fanlisting, they also joined my Deftones fanlisting, actually. Their art was somehow very familiar and totally new to me, either way it was very beautiful and exactly the kind of illustration style I really love.

Check this website out if you like...

If you enjoy beautiful art and illustration, very cool compositing of photos, art, and graphics, and animated website components, James' site is for you! There is a lot that is still in the works on the site but James has an archive that displays their many designs of their home, about, gallery pages and more. Always great to see the style evolution of a website! There is also an dark and moody fanlisting collective page and one fanlisting for the album, Shed by Title Fight. I love collectives and I love James' style. There's a shrine to Homestuck though it is incomplete, I picked the Aradia theme because she was my fave. The 'extras' page is also amazing, it's one of the few bright pages and it's very cute.

My favourite page on the website is...

My favourite page is probably the art blog. Duh! This is an art blog! But James has monthly logs of their art that I really love to look at. I just really enjoy their art and can't wait to see more of that on their site. I also love the character on the archive page a lot!

☆ Finny ★