Rounds: May 2023 (Patreon)

Hey again everyone!  Here we go again!

This month officially marks a full year since I started doing Rounds as a means to update everyone about the ins and outs of my art process thoughts and IRL happenings.  

And I've once again dropped the ball updating.  So, I'm sure you're all wondering this time WTF has been happening?  XD

First of all, I had a lovely birthday / Valentine's Day back in February.  An absolutely delicious dinner, coupled with some actual serious rounds of FF: Crystal Chronicles!  My kids are finally old enough to play with me, and I've been having fun getting to play 4 players in the game for the first time!  It makes me regret how badly Square fucked up the remaster.  I absolutely would've bought it if they hadn't botched it so badly.

And then, because life refuses to let me have time to myself for 5 minutes, we had my daughter's 14th birthday, Easter, and the madness in between.  

My daughter's birthday was nice enough.  She had her two best friends over for a night of bentos and Demon Slayer, so she was very content.  Just very wholesome!

Aaaaaand my sister had to come the week after and just....she's a whirlwind.  Long story very short, she's burned some bridges with people, some due to her and some to the other person in question.  But she spent the week crashed on my couch basically.  I feel bad, don't get me wrong, but this, coupled with later events in April, kind of lead to a point where she's done some things to herself, and I can't humor that.  Especially for a week.  On my couch.  Where I gotta do work and get kids to school etc.

With this, we decided Easter would be for us.  We had literally not had a single weekend or holiday to ourselves, not even my birthday, without work, relatives, mandatory responsibilities, etc. getting in the way since basically October.  And it was truly just bliss.  I miss those days.  =O=  To summarize, mostly (as I know y'all don't wanna hear me bitch the whole time), I have since Easter had:  A weekend of clean up with the hubs at his mother's house which was hard because it was his dad's things and he mostly had to be the one sorting whilst I watched screaming children that weren't mine; A week long organizing of my youngest brother graduating university, in which he had no fucking clue when or where he himself was graduating except the day, meaning I had to find out all the info, and then finesse 4 other adults into getting their shit together and not kill each other long enough to come to it; organizing the insurance and repair of our roof that had been damaged from severe hail last October (hence the net being out); a week of my older younger brother staying in my house because he's moving to my state and was interviewing for jobs so here he is, in my space; and a week of musical theater which is exciting for my daughter, but exhausting for us because of the tight schedule.
Guys, this final sprint to the end of the school year is killing me.  Bring me summer picnics and swimming please!  Good vibes, give me strength and some time to myself.  =O=

That being all said, I've been very pleased with my artwork lately!  On some better good news (but also adding to my stress), I'm once again going to Banzai!  Hooray!  I'm nervous, because they're cramming all of us in with the vendors for the first time and there's a curtain separating us from the video games.  So noisy and slammed.  But, out of 200+ applicants I'm one of the only 50 taken, so...they must not hate me yet. XD  My joy is that this happened faster than usual, meaning I'll actually have time to make things this time!  And in fact, I've already started and finished two pieces! 

The best part of getting to work on my own stuff a bit, is I can take new things I learn and the experimentation there and apply it to commission work.  I've already gotten faster, and been trying some new stuff in the commissions that I've been very pleased with.  It also both stresses, but destresses at the same time, getting to focus on completely new and different things.  I've decided, after so many years of going, that my stuff I'm taking this year is some mostly older things that I don't see.  Every time I have taken things like that, they fly out of my booth--my Lupin print goes every year, and Eva did really well last year.  So, this year my goal is: Gintama (done), Berserk (done), Trigun, Akira, Chainsaw Man.  If I can get these done for my larger prints, I'll be happy.  If I get more done?  Even better.

For the end this time for rounds guys, I have just a little bit of housekeeping.  First, I did do the verification for 18+ creators on Patreon.  So yeah, the lewd stuff's staying.  

I just got the announcement that stretch goals are ending this month.  They'll no longer be visible, nor usable by me on this page.  But Aby, what does this mean for the goals then?  Well, I think I'll continue to do an illustration exclusive for Patreon each month.  I think I'll keep sketches more loose from now on, but I like to do something big for everyone, and it's good for the merch slots too.  I think this is the course I'll stay for now.  I'd like to still bring in more exclusive things for Patreon (other than just the Discord role), but as you can see from the above, my year has been fucking insane.  I'm hoping the calm of summer, and the looser schedules for my kids means I'll have more wiggle room.  

Thank you so much everyone, for being so amazing and patient.  You are all incredible, and I'm always grateful that everyone supports me, especially when I've been so quiet.  As an introvert, the extra people and activities in my space drains my batteries.  It is so difficult to interact with others for me, so everyone's understanding of my situation means a lot to me.  Thank you.

Everyone take care, and let's make that final stretch to summer!  I wanna swim so bad! 

~Abysmal0