February Status Update (Patreon)

Hey all. Been about two weeks since last update with no new art, so I thought it's time to post an update.

This is a long post, but I wanted to get all the details out, so you get an idea of what's going on. Unfortunately, it's mostly bad news.  

In the previous update I mentioned health related issues with my arms having swelling and inflammation. It started from my left elbow and then appeared in the wrist area. Initial diagnosis was Erythema Nodosum, a type of infection in the fat tissue under the skin that'll pop up in a few places, caused by an immunological reaction somewhere else in the body. Normally it goes away in about a month and often the true cause is left undetermined. Well, based on how this thing has progressed, I'm starting to think the diagnosis is wrong, and I believe the doctor that I visited last time was thinking the same. Got some more blood tests taken and am waiting on results and what's to come next. I believe they might send me to a doctor that specializes in rheumatology, depending on the blood test results. Should know more next week.

So how is this whole thing affecting my ability to do art? Unfortunately, I now have some inflammation in both of my hands, and swelling in the wrists and on the hands. Trying to draw with a swollen hand is like holding a pen with mittens on. Coordination is harder. Plus I probably shouldn't be putting strain on the wrists as they start hurting pretty easily. I haven't been able to do any art for a week or so, and even before that I could only get about 80% done of a colored work. I also have the same inflammation and swelling in my right ankle, and some swelling in both knees, but those I could live with for a while, as they don't impede drawing. There's one good sign though. The place where the whole thing started, on my left elbow, is primarily healed now, and the areas on the hands with inflammation seem to be progressing very similarly, as in the inflammation spreads slowly to a bigger area, but starts returning to normal from the center where it started, eventually catching up and slowly settling to normal, so with luck, in a week or two I could be seeing improvement in my hands, possibly enabling me to work a bit more again.

All in all this will likely mean February will see very little art. There will be some though. I can definitely finish the artwork I started earlier in the month, and there's some drafts and stuff I could publish (from the ongoing comic), and there's at least one colored work I left unfinished a year or so back that I might be able to finish now. That'll probably be the extent of what I can do this month based on my current situation. Maybe I can provide some Gumroad vouchers or access to older content for those that don't have the stuff yet, to compensate a little. We'll see.

For the $70 and $150 tier folks, I most likely won't be able to do your requests this month, but I'll get to them eventually. Might end up having a request-focused month down the line, doing multiple of your backlogged requests.

Now, I have to stress that in my current situation Patreon income is my lifeline. If I were to lose it, I'd be pretty much screwed financially, so I hope you can put up with a month of less art. I will not blame you if you feel like dropping your pledge though, I'm not the only one juggling with finances, so no hard feelings if you have to do so. 

All in all though, this has been a bit of a depressing time for me. Not being able to work, joints hurting from doing certain things, my income on the line, uncertainty of how long this will continue, etc. So far I've managed to stay positive, but if this drags on for a month longer without any improvement, I dunno... it does worry me a little. For now, it's a waiting game. I'll try to keep you updated a bit more frequently from now on, on a weekly basis or so.

Thank you for reading and your continued support. It means a lot to me.