The state of things [Current Plans + Rant] (Patreon)

UPDATE ON IRL WORK

First I would like to start with the update of the project: It seems like it's done, at least what was being worked on had all issues fixed, the customer still sends few mails asking for some questions, but I am not the right person to answer them. These past week or 2 I haven't been bothered by IRL work as much, which likely means I can finally focus on art and other stuff. (I actually have been working more on comms these past few weeks, but have taken quite the amount of big orders which I kind of needed because money -w-)

SHORT TERM PLANS

I need a break, been wanting to take some time to properly rest, however, first things first and I intend to finish few commissions I have at hand. as well as do Patreon rewards (Sketchorama and the tuned up drawing) I Hope I can finish this week. 

After that I'll likely take a week off, mainly to play games (Mainly see if I can finish Fire Emblem three houses) and draw my own stuff (One being Wrong Destination, a Hololive comic and hopefully few other stuff), I have lots of ideas I haven't tackled because I want to tackle comms first >_>'

I also want to tackle the requests from months ago, as well as give more focus to the art studies.

For December I do plan to try to work the first 2 weeks on art, tackle as many commissions as I can. I'll be visiting family for Christmas tho, so I'll likely be unavailable around from the 22nd -27th

NOW THE RANTS

(This can be a bit depressing, so can skip the rest, thanks for reading)

Summary of events up to this point

As you know, IRL work REALLY Fucked me up this year. As I said before, 2021 I had half year with half pay but same amount of work, which lead to me having a burnout. This year I quit my almost 8 year work to focus on Art and learning new things, but a friend wanted me to help him with his projects, I agreed, but both projects ended up being far more stressing and one ended taking 6 months, with a total of 7 months lost from my plans. IRL project called me at times and came up with sudden issues that I couldn't properly focus on my own things as comfortable. To me is hard to relax/draw if something might come up in few hours. To make things worse, sadly, I'm not the type of person who can say "Fuck this shit!" and quit. So basically had 10 months with me wanting to do my thing, and something chaining me. So we have 10 months of stress, plus basically the previous year of being fucked up.

Old work still owes me a month of pay and the paycheck for all I amounted, and current work didn't paid September nor October, which add that stress of me trying to compensate on those ends.

(Current) Boss contacted me few days ago to ask about the payment, (that's why I think IRL work is done by now), but not sure if they will pay today, this Friday or by the end of the month.

As of late, I've been able to work on commissions from few friends, but they took longer, in part because I'm a bit rusted (Again, I need a so much needed break), and in part, either IRL work pestered, and/or Family came to visit (which ended in a way with the cats sleeping in my room, interrupting my sleep and so making me be less efficient at work overall.

The stress over hobbies (Games and IA Art)

    Part 1- Videogames

I don't listen/read IRL news, normally are accidents, incidents with drug dealers, death, corruption from government, a good for nothing presidents who always have "other facts", etc. It's so stressing and I don't have the mental sanity nor fortitude to keep up with it. 

I would like to say the only frustration over games is "I have many games to play and little time to do so" or "Nintendo stole my wallet this year :'V" But sadly, it's not. I listen to videogame news, and sadly a current trends are NFTs, Play to earn games, companies that release unfinished games with a promise to add content in a future date, companies that steal art, fuck up their employees, make massive lay offs while directives keep their positions.

I normally try to put news channels from videogames like Spawnwave, Player Essence and RGT85 (Among other pop culture stuff), since tend to be less dramatic and stressful, but in the end, this type of news comes out more frequently as of late, and sadly, it can be quite depressing.

    Part 2- AI ART

I don't think AI art is bad when used as a tool. To help to come up with references, ideas or get a small stroke of inspiration. 

But, as far as I know, These AI Art tools were fed with art without asking permission to the creators, so that's a bad start, AI Art tools end goal is to replace the artist. That's the nature of it, they don't care about those who create, here is a video sparking in more detail about the situation, It also tackles the points of "Oh, but it will never replace an artist" not now, but who knows in the future, it's a rather depressing thought because now that I want to focus on Art, there is the thing that can potentially replace me, and do things better.

The term "AI Artist" is something that pisses me off. People profiting from something that uses other's work and this people pride like if they put some effort or skill. Take off the computer from many of us, just use paper and some pencils, erasers and/or pen (and colors for some), we still can create stuff, maybe not as nice as with digital art, but the skill and power to create is there. There is knowledge, There is effort, There are years of experience. behind an artist! And these machines steal whatever they find on sites. to mush up things and many dare to pass it as their work.  

Anyways, It's frustrating as I want to live from my art, not just drawing, but also learn to do some more things like 3D modeling + Animation as well as 2D animation. And with these tools looming over one, I can't say I have much confidence in my future.

For the time being, I don't have any plans of dropping the art side of things, I hope that for the time being I can manage with the stories and art I want to share.

Thanks for the continuous support and if you read all this depressing rant, thank you for reading as well.