Behind the Scenes Update (Patreon)

Hey guys, a lot has been happening, so it’s time for an update.

Moving Back Home

There was a studio/warehouse where I was renting space for a year or so called The Secret Vault. It was a worthwhile experiment, but I put an end to it a couple months back. That meant moving the whole business back into my home studio and letting go of my assistant Jasper. So far, it definitely feels like it’s been the right move.

The lessons I learned managing the shipping business from afar has allowed me to streamline the whole thing down to a fraction of its previous work. Currently, it takes me about 20 minutes per day to keep it running. It’s actually been kind of nice to have my hands on the orders again and personally addressing any issues that crop up.

A New Team Member

Instead of hiring someone to do shipping and emails on my behalf, I’ve hired someone to take over a more skilled roll. For the past 2 months, Joseph Zhou has been handling my social media, marketing and website administration. He’s been working to progressively upgrade Angelarium.net, collect more accurate traffic data and ensure that all the content is updated regularly.

Joseph's new job also involves posting artwork to all of Angelarium’s content feeds like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Deviantart, Artstation and others. All the content is still coming from me, but he's taking over the day to day operation of that stuff. Having Joseph handle it all means that content is posted on a regular schedule and questions are answered quickly.

Special sales or events used to take up a tremendous amount of time for me. Running one always meant an influx of new sales but it ended up slowing down my art production a lot. Since Joseph has taken over, I fon't feel like I need to make that trade off anymore. My involvement in the online sales side of things has been stripped down to a 1 hour weekly meeting. More than that, I’m convinced keeping a healthy distance from social media has helped me reserve more mental energy for artwork.

Finishing The Book of Watchers

Above all else, my priority recently has been to complete The Book of Watchers. It's over 2 years late at this point and I know lots of people are doubting it will ever be finished. I wish this update was to announce its done, but I’ve got something close. As of right now, I’m wrapping up the final piece of art for the book.

After adjusting my work schedule and responsibilities, I’ve been producing artwork much faster. Faster than I’ve been publicly letting on. I've continued to make it look like I’m finishing one new painting each month, but that’s actually not the whole truth.

Despite some serious delays due to conventions and the studio moving I’ve still been finishing about 2 paintings each month. The extra ones are being banked away for future release so I can focus on the next steps to complete Book of Watchers. With the art being wrapped up, I’m now going to switch my focus to writing, editing and layout. Considering that I’ve already completed all the art that will be released up through January 2019, there is now nothing standing between me and finishing this whole project.

The last main change to the Book of Watchers was to cut a lot of the content that was slowing me down in favor of adding several more paintings. Now that those paintings are done, I believe that's just about it. After finalizing the last painting, I'm going to take inventory of what I have an push forwards to completion.

Wish me luck!

Much love,

-Pete