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Well, you got me again guys. Already delivered the news before the next news roundup (which has been only a few days ago). I appreciate the engagement into the thread though, anyone is welcome to leave some thought here.

Sure, it might be something different, but I really wished to share it here as I wanted to relieve all my thoughts in one go. I actually may question a little bit the "aren't doing it for money". From what I have seen (yeah, I did have to do some "research"), various captions for their art mention either the fac they were commissions, or art produced t be sold at Comiket (especially for the more lewd content, drawings or doujins). Fair enough. However, at least on a personal note, I would either gradually start to diversify what I am doing, maybe do something like cross-overs, or make the transition as smooth as possible from one series to another. I have seen people posting to their communities about wishing to take a break from x series or y subject and do something new, which is usually well received since people at least know clearly what is going on and what are the motivations of the artist. But again, that is just how I would personally do it. Perhaps I am little more sarcastic or skeptic in my nature, so I may say the main driver for jumping into the bandwagon of the most recent trend would be caused simply by the income one could get from commissions. Since one series is very popular, that means there would also be a high demand for art depicting that series and people wishing to commission art of that thing (even if I have a strange fixation of pointing fingers towards those who are horny "in #general-chat" and commission lewd art, all I can say is that at the en of the day, i guess it is honest work on the side of the artist since they get paid for a service after all). But yeah, it is always nice to see high quality art of a series you enjoy. Maybe it would not have been so bad had gacha games not been, well, gacha games - predatory games that trick you into paying lots of money and draining your soul in the search for 2D waifu JPEGs in scanty clothes. It is just that you see these series everywhere, and nothing else. Just as if nothing else existend besides these titles. Are these games or series even any good? Or they are just average bait for horny fans and even hornier fan artists? This is probably the amazing part about Touhou. I don't know what is more amazing: the series still not having become mainstream after over 20 years despite the massive fandom it has, or the fact we have such a massive and dedicated (even with all the stereotypes regarding the "average Touhou fan") community that will drawn the internet in Touhou-related content based on a niche bullet hell game coming from just as niche of a game genre. In this instance, I really did not rely on r/touhou and "#OC-art". If there is one tool for me to look for Touhou fanart daily, that would be through Danbooru. But if you mean specifically only just fanart made in the western community, then yeah, probably Reddit is the place where I see most of the stuff I 100% am sure came from the west. However, given the nature of Pixiv, I can't really tell if an artist is from the west, or they are just another one from Japan. I would definitely love to see some of these examples you were talking about though. I would have definitely like to write a longer reply. However, I am feeling very tired after a long day in college, so I think I may soon go to sleep. Good night, and see you tomorrow.

I feel like this point is an almost entirely different problem. While yes, deleting old art is pretty wrong imo, and I too do not have a lot of respect for those who simply switch to waifu simulator game drawings (thanks kancolle) I think that they do not have to pay mind to what the fans want them to draw, especially if they arent doing it for money. Sometimes interest in a series can wane, and you will instead become interested in a different series. Say, for instance, you in particular. You become big on posting topics on warhammer or something, and it gets a good amount of people to like you and follow you to see your discussion boards or videos you make on the series (i admit this point is a bit of a stretch but hear me out). Suddenly, warhammer has lost some of the luster it had before, and you see this bright shiny newer series called "touhou project". all of your attention shifts suddenly to tuhu lore and tuhuposting, making touhou videos instead of the previous warhammer ones. the fans can become confused by the change, but wouldnt you still be in your right to move to a different form of enjoyment, even if it disappointed other people? I definitly agree though it can be super annoying to find someone who suddenly stops doing touhou stuff ;-; On the topic of them being mercenaries, i mean yeah kind of. a lot of them either genuinely enjoy the flavour of the week anime, or rely on commisions to gain income, and fortunately people enjoy seeing high quality art of the anime they enjoy. That is part of the issue with touhou being less mainstream, is that by logic it should be getting much less than we have already gotten, but fans are just so miraculously dedicated and talented that we have already gotten a lot more high quality art than other niche fandoms. some of the problems with finding high quality art feels more like an issue on the western/english speaking side of the fandom personally, as most reddit posts dont really fall into the "high quality" style you brought up, yet every other pixiv post i come across from touhou has a TON of detail put into it, its insane. if you wanna be able to see more high quality stuff i would check out pixiv directly as thats usually where the good stuff is. Sorry if i sound kinda dumb, I'm not used to making big posts like this yet! ;-;

Personally, I have been looking at this thing from another point of view. Think of an artist (or any sort of creator) that builds up a fanbase around them. The people gather as they like the art of the person, or they like the topic they are drawing. After a long time of familiarizing your fanbase with one thing, you are all of a sudden switching to a completely different franchise, without any warning or explanation. In some of the cases, the artist may even delete their works related to the previous franchise. Those who have been around since the artist used to draw what they used to enjoy are now confused, not really understanding why the change (bonus points if they never address again the previous franchise they used to draw from). While the new topic may gather new fans, you have the chance of also losing the ones that really appreciated your art for what it used to depict. Some of the details in here are very specific because way too many times I have met the situation, even in our fandom. Artist draws cool Touhou stuff, then suddenly switched to another series (bonus points if it's a gacha game series/any other series with easy to lewd waifus). Yo find their old Touhou art on an image platform like Danbooru or Zerochan, want to see the original upload on Pixiv/DeviantArt/Twitter/whatever other platform, but you see a "this post has been deleted". You go back to the image board, see the artist has more Touhou stuff. This time, you just want to check their Pixiv/DeviantArt/Twitter/whatever account as a whole. And to your surprise, there is no more Touhou pictures there - everything was deleted. Personally, I believe deleting your old art is a bit of a sin. Not only do you leave a false impression be not showing any great artist started from low, but you also erase a part of your artist identity and past. Just like when trying to erase parts of history just because they do not fir your agenda anymore. To me, they (this kind of artists) are basically just mercenaries nowadays, switching from one series to another together with the trend. Latest anime series, this flavor of the month game, you name it. Whenever something falls out of fashion, the artist will also switch to the next big thing. Also why call them "mercenaries"? In the past, mercenaries used to be those professional soldiers who used to fight for the one who could pay them the highest. Nowadays, I would call artists as such since they are also can get paid a lot by milking popular franchises of the week/month, as well as these series giving them basically infinite resources to lewd - let's be honest, a lot of the designs from the series listed below in the spoiler area basically have a big sign next to them saying "pervert me" - totally on purpose because of the original game design for that characters - that, and people being horny after ship girls, gender-swap historical figures and CCP Chinese gacha game (all hail Zhong Xina!). Overall, I just feel the idea Touhou fanart is rather low(er) in quality than what those mercenaries are producing nowadays for other franchises and their fandoms. But I think the element of Touhou fanart that has a special spot in my hear is the great variety of people it brings together, everyone with their own style. "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." is a rather pertinent idea for presenting our fandom, so unique in its way of being and creating their content.

I want to cry I want Chimata My seal cubes fell down to 5 last week because of Pache HELP

Its positive for them, as It is always a good thing to be able to change and enjoy other things, but on the other it does make touhou look a bit more barren. i dont see the series fans dying off anytime soon (considering the fangames have gotten less frequent yet higher quality in recent years), but I can see that there has been a noticeable decline in the amount of fan manga and doujin being produced/translated than there was in the early days. it makes me a little bit sad as i quite enjoy reading them, but as long as the artists are able to enjoy what they are doing its for the positive. I forgot about the second option, i guess i would prefer to keep a tie, especially since there are some newer high quality touhous to draw too (chimata, virtually anyone from 17 arc). idk i just wanna see more chimata