September Updates (Patreon)

Uhhhhhhhh wuuuut? It's September? What even. HOW even. WHEN even.

If you were to ask me to do a retro for the month of August, all I would be able to say is, "Wow". It really was a hell of a return-to-work month for me, and I am sincerely so grateful to all the people on Twitch, Discord, and especially you, glorious patrons, for being so supportive and welcoming me back the way you did. It gave me the energy and drive to continue on, and to do even more going forward. At a healthier pace though, of course. 🙃 Don't wanna burn out again so soon, yeah?

So before we get to the rambling, here are some old landscapes that I did, roughly in chronological order so you can kinda see the progression. I was on a huge aurora kick, and not gonna lie, I still love it. Maybe I will do another one soon just to see how I've come along since then. Anyway, blather incoming! ⬇️

I guess the biggest thing top of mind is the fact that live-streaming has really grown for me, and it's both exciting yet terrifying, which is probably a good...sign? It makes me think of a meditation that I really enjoy and actually come back to quite often (one for a future Mindful Monday, perhaps 😄) that talks about what essentially comes down to "growing pains". After all, if we only ever stay in our comfort zones, we're not really growing, right? So even though this is not something I had imagined my "art career" (whatever that is lol) taking this direction, that's not a bad thing and I'm trying to remind myself of that every day.

So what direction do I actually wanna take things from here? Still unsure, but I do feel like this is a time when I am going to have to experiment a little, try things out, see what sticks, and all that jazz. That said, please do bear with me if things aren't really consistent in the coming month or so. But I still will make sure that I give all of you, my magnanimous patrons, plenty of content that I hopefully is up to standard.

There are obviously a few things that I still want to tackle outside of the streaming though, including adding more things to the shop and other goodies. Only issue with that is that it requires a little bit more upfront costs which is obviously kind of tricky, and with the fact that cost of living is just continuously going up around the world and all that fun shit, I need to be a bit more strategic about finances. 🙄 That said, I do have some ideas that I'm quite excited about so keep an eye out for those! 

On that front, at the beginning of last month, I mentioned that I would start looking into some freelance options in tech once again. I've had a couple leads (thanks Mike!) but haven't made as much progress in that area as I feel like I should have. So maybe I will dive a little harder into that in the next months, and hopefully that can provide me a little more structure and a bit more of a financial boost to tide me over for a while. But of course, whatever I do in that area, I still want to make sure I leave plenty of time for my own endeavours because that's the point of being self-employed, right?!

And lastly, of course, I have plenty of more interactive things in plan because one of the best things about having such a growing network of online friends and community that is so supportive of each other is actually feeling a part of something again. I used to be in a couple online artist communities but for various reasons no longer am and I miss those days a lot. I've toyed with the idea of joining some Discord servers for artists and writers (technically still am, just haven't looked at it in ages), joining a subreddit for artists, and some other things, but none have really gotten me feeling as amped up, y'know? 

Along with the upcoming Learn Squad session, I've been thinking of also doing some "Procreate Tips & Tricks" and other sessions over on the Discord. Hopefully. Maybe. I still have those thoughts that I'm just not good enough to teach anybody how to draw and that I'm not a good teacher anyway, but I'm trying to think of it more as my sharing what little I do know, because I don't want to ever use knowledge as a weapon against people. Knowledge sharing is a core value of mine that I really try to live my life by, so why the hell not, right?

Wishing you all the best in September. Thank you all once again for being here with me now and in the future. 💖