[Patron-Only Feed] Steadily rising, but is it enough? (Patreon)

This last week has been a bit lightweight as far as frequency goes, but these recent finished illustrations do take a bit more energy out of me, so I suppose it probably evens out. Also, you end up with a more refined illustration; we trade quantity for quality. Though I'm not sure just how many people that makes happy beyond myself.

I don't know if the recent "high-quality" illustrations are going to do as well on social media compared to my rougher, softer watercolour sketches. My recent Elayne Beaumont post is not faring too well, but it might be the subject matter and lack of NSFW content. Perhaps I should see how a NSFW piece of similar quality does on social media to be sure.

Anyway, we've seen a lot of $3 Illustration posts this month, so I think the following week is going to focus on $10 NSFW Sketch Suggestions, as well as creating the $7 Concept Art Discussion (still have to come up with a compelling concept).

Metal Brell Rising: Patreon Earnings Eater

We've fortunately seen a good rise in my earnings, though given the volatility that comes with crowdfunding (and past experience), I should expect another drop.

The green bars & lines are representative of my total earnings, so they're what we're paying attention to. We saw my earnings peak at the end of July 2018, only to drastically drop and fluctuate in the following months. Only recently have we reached a value that goes beyond what it was in July.

But, as I said, I should probably expect to see this value drop.

I should make better efforts to earn money to ensure a greater sense of financial security.

Commissions may be the most reliable direction (though I don't know just how reliable), but I've previously expressed how nervous commissions make me. So it might be hard to make commissions too regular an occurrence in my work. 

My recent brellocomic has done well on twitter compared to the Elayne tweet I shared earlier (as of currently). Whether this is because people enjoy it visually much more or because of the subject matter itself is unclear. Some further research may need to be done.

We should probably see how a few more brellocomics fare. If they seem to do consistently well, they may be something to consider making a regular occurrence, and they're fairly low investment by comparison.

Rub a Dub Dub, Question Duck is Clean in the tub

As I entered 2019, I resolved to clean my environment a little bit each day (perhaps you remember that), but I have since fallen back on it. It's hard to actively clean up and not get distracted by work. I've recently started cleaning, however - I had an entire garbage bag worth of stuff to discard within a few hours. Nice.

I'm hoping to better utilize my available space and storage while simultaneously discarding useless crap and garbage that has managed to stick around...

I'm a Computer

After my recent Skyrim modding, I've come to the realization... That I want a stronger computer. I've always found shopping for pre-builts difficult, and the prospect of building one from scratch appeals to me in theory, but not in practice. I simply do not trust myself to build a computer with my current level of income.

So I've been looking into the prospect of having a computer built to my specifications.

iBuyPower has an amazing level of customization, but I hear their customer service leaves a bit to be desired. So I'm leaning towards NZXT's BLD service, which seems to be much more convenient, albeit less customizable. I hear they're great with customer service though.

Here's an example of what BLD looks like. It's very easy to understand, and they give you a nice overview, as well as projected FPS for games of your choice.

That being said, I still have to devote a good chunk of money towards food & bills, and I'm still paying off student loans. Given how expensive a more powerful computer is to make (as you can see in the example image above), it is probably not happening any time soon.

RIP Heavily Modded Skyrim.

I think it'd be cool to have a major upgrade like that. I imagine I could make a habit of streaming games a lot more often with something like that too.

On the Greater Subject of Creative Direction...

I recently discovered that Lizardcube's Wonder Boy remake has a built-in editor. It's really cool, although a bit unwieldy. It has me feeling inspired though, so perhaps I will try my hand at game development again.

The entirety of my last Elayne Beaumont build is gone, I think... Having been lost when my HDD failed a few months ago. That means I'll have to rebuild it from scratch, but that's okay, because I probably could've built it better anyway. Those stairs took a long time to program, however... I don't remember EXACTLY how I did it, so that'll be a chore.

I've been thinking about comics...

If I do embark on larger comic projects, I wonder if I should give patrons access to a folder in the Dropbox Archive so they can drop in and see progress updated in real time. That way, I don't have a make a spectacle of every ounce of progress and devote a post to each step of the development.

That does seem better suited towards the idea of bringing you closer to my work and I, but it probably feels like a slower Patreon experience because, much like the Dropbox Archive, it requires your own initiative to take a look.

Of course, I don't think I have any comic ideas that are thought-out enough to warrant it...

It's tough because I don't have a lot of Elayne Beaumont stuff written. The premise is still just "hot lady with a whip kills baddies" and there's no real sense of narrative direction. If I want to have an adequate amount of depth, I'm not sure I could reliably do so without having a massive amount of content already written... I'd also probably have to make a website for it.

But at the same time, I really feel like I need to start working on SOMETHING. But... Perhaps I should just prioritize creating NSFW artwork and pornographic illustrations.

Anyway, this is where my thoughts currently lie.

Satellite 9 recently showed off some of her drawings of the coat-clad hunter counterpart to Elayne Beaumont. Here that is.

Don't forget to eat & sleep.