Hi, if you haven't already seen, I posted a new cartoon the other day, a Vinesauce Animated, done to a bit in a recent stream where Vinny talks about all the different jobs Mario's had.

Firstly let me say, thanks so much for the Daily 4th, and I'm humbled by the kind comments everyone has left, both on here specifically and elsewhere across the internet. I had been wanting to do one of these for many years now and just was never confident enough or never gelled enough with any bits that could have worked as animations. It's also really the first proper cartoon I've made in ~15 years now (unless you count the itemLabel Halloween video from a few months back, but that was cutout animation and had no dialogue so it wasn't quite the same experience as the old days). So I was pretty nervous, and I know it's not like amazingly animated or anything, but I really had a good time making this, and it's fun to me to do more simplistic, "limited" animation, especially for something of this style. I hope to try and ride this high and continue doing more animated stuff, even if it's just something really simple and short. Because as intimidating as it has felt in my mind for so long, once I'm doing it, I remember how much I love it.

I actually drew a LOT this year, definitely my most productive year in a long time, and I'm pretty happy about that to be frank. It genuinely feels really good. And instead of doing the standard kind of year-end art summary of an image that shows a piece for each month, I threw together a quick little rapid-fire video that shows (nearly) every Melody & Liz piece I did in 2024 (I think it came out to 123 by the end). You can watch it here on Bluesky or on Youtube if you want (didn't upload it here because it's not really like a whole new creation or anything, just a small little supplemental thing).

On top of everything shown in that, there was also plenty of other art unrelated to my own characters totaling nearly 200 individual works over the course of the year, including the most animating I've done in many, many years now. I'd like to highlight a few of my personal favorites below, if you don't mind.

Illustrations:

(Still very flattered by the unexpected Frontpage on this one, thank you!)

Animated:

As well, as two movie uploads, albeit small, but the first on this account since...2006 apparently lol

So I'd say it's been a pretty good year art-wise! I'd like to thank everyone on here and elsewhere around the web for all the support and enthusiasm for my art and characters. It means so much and has definitely motivated me to do more and do better. I don't really have any specific goals for the new year other than to just try to continue keeping this pace because I've really started to enjoy and feel good about drawing again for the first time in a long while (and it's been good escapism from the rest of the world tbh, it's kind of all I got).

Thanks and have a happy new year!

Well, I've had an account over on Bluesky for a little over a year now, but until recently I was pretty much just mirroring any art and other posts from Twitter because there wasn't much going on. And yet now, within just the past couple of weeks, it has not only become much more active, but I've also completely deleted all my (15 years worth of) tweets and moved on, pretty much sealing this site as the replacement. And it's been pretty chill! That won't last forever I'm sure, but it's definitely been a welcome breath of fresh air, and I'll try and keep it pretty lax on my end as long as I can. So yeah, if you're among the people migrating over there from Twitter, I'm there as well if you want to follow, and hopefully I can lead you to some other artists you might enjoy too. Oh, AND, my handle there is my domain here on Newgrounds, which is a neat thing you can utilize as a supporter if you wanna ditch the "bsky.social" part of your username. Hope to see you there!

Follow here: https://bsky.app/profile/nikoanesti.newgrounds.com

Some other little things...

• I'd like to create a playlist/collection on here for Melody & Liz artwork other people have drawn for me so it can be easily accessed at any time, instead of just getting buried on social media and stuff. So if you've drawn me something in the past, upload it and let me know, you could just link to it in the comments here, or @ me in your upload or tag it with "melody-and-liz" if you want and I'll start building the list.
• Astute observers might notice the return of some very old cartoons of mine that were posted here many many years ago after being hidden for a while. I figured they should be available for the sake of making my gallery here as comprehensive as possible, since this is generally where I direct people to see my full body of work. Btw we're like a month away from the 20-year anniversary of that first upload. Man...
• I don't really need a "landing page" or anything these days, but I made one of those strawpage things cuz I saw other people doing it and it looked fun. I just threw it together, so I'll probably either try to spruce it up a bit with more unique elements, or forget about it entirely, idk. But there's a little drawing box thing on there you can use to doodle something for me if you want and I'll share it.

That's it for now I guess. Bye!

Today I've posted a new little cartoon that I made kind of out of nowhere as an entry to a Halloween contest by itemLabel. Please check it out if you have the chance!

You'll see it's decidedly different from anything else in my gallery. It's mostly cutout style animation which I've never actually done before, but it was quick and easy to do with such a short time till the deadline (I managed to get it all done in about 3 days), and fun as well! I had just been thinking about trying something like this not long ago too, so it worked out. The main character and some others are all itemLabel products I own and photographed for this, because I wanted it to have a bit of a personal touch, as much as I could (I'll show the originals down below). If you're unfamiliar with the creatures in the video but think they're cute, you can buy them at itemLabel.com. I'm not associated with them, I just think they're neat.

By the way, this is the first actual cartoon of some sort I've made since like 2010, I believe. Like yeah, I've done some little animations and stuff in the meantime, but nothing that actually was to tell any kind of sequential story. Feels weird though. I don't think you should expect much else for the time being though, and certainly not in this style, but I definitely do want to make more when I can. In the meantime though, I still draw frequently, so check out my gallery if you want, and there'll be plenty more to come.

Ok thanks, later!

I started this account literally half of my life ago and barely used it. I've been a quiet, sideline fan and supporter of Newgrounds over that time, but as I reflect on what I want to create and what inspires me, I get very nostalgic for that time, 15 years ago, when I was first starting out and everything was just for fun. I want to capture that feeling again because I think it would get my momentum moving, and I think this is the place to do it. I'm not a terribly social person, I'm very nervous and shy, but I'd like to branch out and get involved because keeping to myself is also keeping my ideas very stagnant. And I just wanna make cartoons again.

I had a number of cartoons on here from over the years, but I've hidden them all and started fresh as I do not like them, nor do I feel they are representative of what I create today. But that's just what happens. Sorry to anyone reading this who actually knows me and wants to see that stuff, but it's all still out there elsewhere if you really need that, but I don't recommend looking into it, it's not worth it. Look to the future. I hope the incoming new decade will bring some new things after a long time of being dormant.

For the time being, I am just posting some art from the past few months to fill things in, and will post certain new art as it comes, but I must admit I am intimidated, and animating is where I really want to get back to again. Thank you to those following me (here and elsewhere), your support is what's still keeping me going; I just wish I could offer more in return.