a cute profile picture of a bearded man, with a pride flag in the back.

In the beginning, there was only me.

A bearded man with a frame around his head. Two hands hold the frame.

I would take care of the profile images. For years, that’s what I did. I used photos, most of the time, and kept the same one for a long time.

A bearded man looks at us, arms folded. Wallpaper behind him with flamingos.

Bearded man holding a toy white bear.

I even tried to design my own, with Procreate for iPhone, when I was learning how to use it. It did not go terribly well, but I guess it was usable. I, however, did not.

About then I saw someone (I believe it was Chris Pederick) with an amazing profile picture. I knew I had to get one of those.

I reached out to the artist, Amrit Pal Singh, and waited for a slot to open. I was lucky, as I got one, just before Amrit pivoted to NFT, and started making a bundle of money with those. He would never return to the business of avatar making. Sad, but there you go. Still, he’s a great artist, happy he’s doing what he likes.

3D profile picture of a bearded man.

That was the first time I paid for this kind of thing. It felt great. Support an artist, and get a cute avatar in return. Brilliant.

After a while, I fell in love with Hey Hey Momo, and the cute art he makes. Adam had commissioned him to do some work for omg.lol. I got on board, as did many others, and commissioned a profile picture from him. This would be one of the last “human” ones he made. After mine, he just makes cute animals and stuff now. Coincidence?

Cute drawing of a bearded man.

I used that one for a while as well, until Andy Carolan showed up on the timeline. People started getting his profile pictures, and I would to. I waited for a spot, and jumped in.

I love it.

Cute profile picture of a bearded man.

Hopefully he’s the one that breaks the spell, and he’ll keep making these for a long time.