Lessons Learned and New Projects (Patreon)

Hello, everyone!  Happy (end of) December!

Musings and Resolutions

It's been roughly 7 months since I became a full-time freelance artist.  I've learned a lot since then, which should make my journey a bit easier.

Here are a few things I've learned since then:
1.  Scheduling out your day.  Otherwise, you won't know what to do.  It's similar to procrastination for schoolwork.
2.  Advertising yourself.  It felt really weird in the beginning, and still does now.  I always feel like I'm being too annoying or pushy, but it's pretty normal since I see many other artists doing the same.
3.  Drawing for fun!  It's easy to get burnt out from work and commitments.  So, it's good to take a break occasionally and do something for yourself.

There's a couple other things I should have there, but I can't remember them at the moment, hah.

Anyhow, since the new year is also coming upon us, here are a few New Year Resolutions for myself!
1.  Draw something every day, if possible!
2.  Do one complete drawing every week, not counting commissions or Patreon works.
3.  Commit to studies!  Improve on one aspect of drawing (anatomy, environments, composition, color, etc.) per month.
4.  Organize my time better.  Try to fully schedule out my week in advance!
5.  Continue to be an artist, and continue to become a better one.

I should also look back through my past journals in January to see what I've kept up with and what I haven't.  I'll try to talk about it in my January journal!

Art Book

So, as most of you know, I finished up my Fire Emblem art book.  I didn't break even, but it was a very fun experience overall!  I wasn't expecting to make a profit anyway since the project was mainly for me to know that I could finish something that I started.

I want to do something similar in the future!  Probably not specifically Fire Emblem related, so it might just be a general art book for my own art.  But I'm glad to say that there are a lot of things I learned which will help me a lot when I do this again.  A lot of them tie into what I said earlier, but...

1.  Schedule out EVERYTHING.  Put everything on a calendar, take a look at your progress, and see what you need to do.
2.  Get a good idea of how many people want to purchase your product.  I did do a single poll early on, but I should've done it again midway after showing off some progress.  You also can't completely trust how many people respond, since situations may change or people change their minds afterwards.  It also helps to gauge interest after putting the prices out there.
3.  Merchandise is EXPENSIVE.  I lost most of my money in the merchandise outside of the book!  The biggest expense was the acrylic pin, since those are pretty expensive to produce.  Truthfully, no one purchased the merchandise bundle but I still created them since I promised them to people here.  :)
4.  Advertise.  ADVERTISE!  I didn't advertise as much as I should've.  Honestly, I was really embarrassed to even post the weekly previews on my Twitter.  It's a mixture of not wanting to seem so annoying and a lack of confidence.  Sometimes, you just gotta go with it and push yourself, which is something I'm still having trouble with.  (Also, my boyfriend pushed me to advertise more, but like I said, I was really embarrassed and not confident!)

Those are the major things I've learned, I think.  It should help me again in the future, and it'll possibly help out any other artists (or creators) out there!

New Projects

In terms of projects, `I spoke a little about it before!  From that list, I'll be focusing on the otome dating sim as my main project, and the fantasy war comic/visual novel as my personal project.  I'll start on 'em in January, so expect some updates for these around then!

Otome visual novel (title in progress)

It's something that I worked on for SuNoFes 2015.  The story itself has changed quite a bit, and I've finally settled on making it more lighthearted rather than the darker story I initially thought of.

It's about a girl (the player) who studies at a well-known school focused on magic.  The structure was created to be one of the guarding towers for the country, but evolved into a school to train future guardians.  She meets several people there who help shape her future.

"Dreams of a Blackbird" - Fantasy war (previously: The Witching Hour, name may be changed)

This is something that I've been working on for a little bit longer--possibly around 2012!  The story actually hasn't changed much overall, but the innards are quite different.  It's meant to be told by different characters to give a better understanding from both sides.

It begins with two countries, Helitan and Manituk, that have a very shaky relationship.  Thanks to the current rulers, the two countries are close to achieving a union through marriage.  However, the strong, centuries long history between the two cause the kingdoms to go at war.  It's a little bit more complicated than that, but I can't really explain more without making the summary more convoluted, hah.

I originally planned on making it into a visual novel, but I may instead work on a comic version while transcribing it into a visual novel script.

Patreon Changes

I created an upgraded version of the $5-$20 tiers with limits.  The only upgrade is an art request, whereas the normal tiers do not have this.  The reason why I added this in is 'cause I don't have enough time to do more requests than what I had before.

If you think I could add any other improvements to my page or the tiers, feel free to comment or message me about 'em!

Conclusion

All right, that's about all I wanted to write in this journal entry.  ...Which is a lot, since I should've written it a week or two ago!  Anyway, Merry Christmas, and have a Happy New Year!