2022 in Review and 2023 in my sights! (Patreon)

This whole post got way longer than I expected so the TL:DR is

"So that’s basically it. 2022 wasn’t too bad. The best year for my artistic growth so far. More art is coming, and a server is also on the way."

But there's a lot more to say so if you do have the time, thanks in advance for reading <3

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What a year right?

Ever since I started doing TF art as “DangerCat” in 2014, I try to make it a tradition to review the past year. To talk about the things that happened, how they affected me and what I wanted to do for the next year. I called last year the “most surprising year for me personally” because of all the unexpected things that happened to me.

This year doesn’t have quite as clear of a definition for me. No sweeping theme could be tracked across the last 360 days. There’s been ups and there’s been downs and not much else to say about it. But the most impactful thing that has happened was obviously my Patreon, which I have to give a big thanks to all of you for <3

With the exception of 2013, this year has probably been the most impactful for my artistic growth and I owe it all to committing myself to drawing professionally for this crowdfunding endeavor. For as long as I can remember, my artistic journey has always been marred by a weird lack of direction. I’ve always had a lot of ideas in my head for things to draw but it’s always been difficult for me to sit down and just draw them because I don’t really work well when I don’t have someone else to tell me to do it. I can’t be my own boss because I know the woman who dishes out punishments for failure and she can’t be arsed to fulfill her responsibilities either. But this Patreon campain has managed to keep me in line better than anything else so far.

This newfound source of direction that you all are giving me has helped me stay on track, keep me productive and has even helped me finally realize how I should define my artstyle. For the longest time, I’ve always looked at my style and thought that it was just painfully bland and uninspired. With the pressure put upon me by deadlines and responsibility, I’ve managed to reflect over what I like in other people’s art and gauge whether it’s worth my time to try and appropriate their ideas. And the same goes for what I draw, I’ve been able to look over the things I draw with a critical eye and tell myself “That looks bad, here are the solutions.”

So yeah, I’m ever grateful for the help you guys, gals and non-binary pals are providing me <3

I should also just apologize for the slowness of December. I know my productivity has gone kinda downhill since this summer when I produced 5 pages a month and December is likely to only see 2. It’s my fault, to be sure. December is a crazy month in terms of what you need to do for the holidays and working in retail during peak flu season doesn’t help. I should have expected that and planned ahead so yeah, chalk that one up to me just not gauging the situation realistically. Sorry about that.

That being said, here’s what’s about to happen next year.

More art. Obviously.

Specifically, this patreon has grown pretty fast during December which I take as a good sign. Hitting my first stretch goal will allow me to cut my hours at my survival job down by half which will mean more frequent uploads. And right now we’re at 19% so I hope that we’ll be able to hit that first stretch goal pretty soon!

Comics-wise, A Flame Is Lit is nearing its intended ending with only 3 more pages until I end Chapter 1. And yes, you read that right! Chapter 1.

A Flame Is Lit was always intended to just be an expanded, extended and improved remake of an old TFTG comic I drew years ago. So when I was writing it in September, I expanded on a lot of things and added even more things that were never in the original, leading it to be around 17 pages long. But I had to do a small rewrite in the final 4 pages which shifted a lot of things around and I’m now looking at the script for a comic that’s probably going to end up around 30+ pages.

That’s not what you signed up for when I put this comic up for a vote in August, I promised a 15-ish pages long remake and then a new poll for what my next comic should be. Not that I’d high-jack the patreon with a comic that’s way longer than I originally promised. So instead, I’m gonna hold another poll in January to figure out what the plan should be.

Should I just continue A Flame Is Lit till completion?

Should I take a break with a different comic and then go back to A Flame Is Lit?

Or should I just call it with A Flame Is Lit once chapter 1 is finished and do a proper and fair poll where A Flame is just one of the options?

Or something along those lines. Personally I would love to take a small break from A Flame Is Lit and draw some other comic (preferably something with fewer detailed backgrounds, lol) for a few weeks and then go back. But that’ll be up to you all later in January :)

Another thing I want to try, and this is also going to be up to a vote, is drawing a Choose Your Own TF thing that so many other cool artists do. I don’t have any concrete plans for how to do this thing right now, but I hope to have some kind of game plan ready next month.

And finally, and I know how this sounds after just apologizing for the slowness of December, but I’m going to take a little bit of a break in January. In particular I’m nixing January’s Second Pinup so that I can try to finish Divide By Hero parts 2&3, A Flame Is Lit and "It's A +2 Trans Sword." So really, the quantity of art should be more or less the same as if I didn’t nix it. Also, my birthday is one of the days in January so I just know that I’ll be busy for at least a handful of days.

There’s one more thing I need to mention and that is the Discord Server I’ve been picking away at this month. I’ve always been against making a server of my own because I don’t really like how fractured the Transformation community gets when there’s like a million different servers to join and be active in. Which I know because I’m probably a member in 90% of all TF servers right now.

The server I’m planning on launching is not going to be a massive community space with tonnes of people and channels with different specific topics. The server I’ve been setting up is intended to function mainly as a back-up in case Patreon decides that they’re not cool with hosting adult-oriented art anymore. Which is always a possibility with big corporations these days. So the server is intended to serve as a secondary host for nudes and lewds in case that happens.

So that’s basically it. 2022 wasn’t too bad. The best year for my artistic growth so far. More art is coming, and a server is also on the way.

Thank you all for a great year and I hope you have a wonderful 2023 <3

- Kim.