Adulting in 2018 (Patreon)

This is more of a personal journal entry than anything else, to keep my fans and followers updated on my current situation. Long story short, I'm into my third week of work at a new job, which is relatively amazing considering my history of chronic job hopping and awful career hookups.

A Series of Blind Dates

Just last year alone, in fit of sheer desperation, I had applied for the position of a front office service assistant at a hotel and barely lasted 2 weeks. This wasn't because I couldn't do the work (I learned how to use Opera OS while on the job, without any prior training in the relevant industries), but more so because I couldn't see myself doing it for even 3 months. There was a calling deep within me, and this wasn't my place. Based on what I had experienced, this was a job I could still fallback on later in my life, but it wasn't meant for now.

I had undertaken that job opportunity primarily on the basis that I had just gotten into a new relationship, needed to get my finances and paper trail in order to apply for housing and the fact that our local animation industry (which I have an actual diploma for) had already gone to hell awhile back.

The reality was that I was completely out of my element and the haphazard nature of shift work made it incredibly challenging, if not impossible to maintain my Patreon projects, which for the most part is what I currently deem to be my core business and ikigai.

Story What?

Coming back to the present, I've been fortunate enough, with the help of a friend who notified me of the job position, found myself back in the animation industry. What's even more unexpected is seeing the job title, "Story Artist" which is incredibly rare in this part of the world. At the very best, commercial storyboard artists do exist, but the very notion of storyboard is that anyone who draws can storyboard, tends to muddle how incredibly specific and specialized the skill set really is. "Story Artist" is something you would generally hear about in L.A., where the major animation studios are. It's basically being a specialized storyboard artist, if storyboarding wasn't already exclusive enough.

My current job requires me to create storyboards for a 1-minute short every week. I have only 1 day to complete the boards, the second day for revisions and a third to pitch to the director. The other 2 days are spent in a room strapped to a seat where we have to come up with at least 5 new ideas per week to put into production for the following week. It may sound easy to come up with 5, entertaining 1-minute shorts on a weekly basis but it's really intense, if not brutal, especially if you have to keep them fresh and engaging.

Commuting is a Bitch

The shift from self-employment back to full-time work has been challenging, but i'm managing better with each passing week. There has been and still is a fair amount of inertia involved in the lifestyle change. On most days as a self-sustaining artist, I would commit 3-6 hours per day, working full-time on my comic projects. This creates a very focused daily routine, and makes it more conducive to work on long-format creative projects like a comic. If you've ever actually worked on a comic book with the full works, you'll know how tricky the process is.

Right now, I'm pretty much working a 9 to 6 job. I spend a good 9 hours at the office, working on the company's projects. Commuting takes an hour to get to the office, and another hour to get home. Then another hour goes to just getting my meal, showering and whatever self-care things I need to do. My schedule is a lot tighter now, and usually after work, I only get to choose one "main activity" to focus on for the night, then it's bed time. I rarely game anymore these days, save for Hearthstone (Snares#6623) which mostly helps to make commuting a little more tolerable.

Patreon Scheduling

What this all means is that the nature of my updates will be severely affected by my full-time day job. I can only commit Saturdays to my Patreon project at this point, and Sunday is my only rest day. My production speed will be less consistent and notably slower, and I do hope you can bear with this necessary change. It is my goal to get Meatier Showers: Light Show up and running, although instead of the usual 3-month preproduction, 9-month production cycles (the past 2 years), I am looking at something that might span longer, possibly even rolling into 2020, who knows?

My Patreon will continue to offer 2 reward tiers, the specifics of which I'll address in another post, later, when I have more material to share. Since the completion of Supersized, I have been debating with myself what the best approach would be for my Patreon 2018, and may have arrived at something satisfactory.

All About the Money

Those of you who have been following me since last year, you may remember that my art studio / home is no more, and my current rent has since quadrupled, straining my Patreon earnings. 2017 was a bit of a crazy year and I was 2 weeks away from being homeless. Now that I have hot showers, wifi, and a proper bed, I generally would like to be in a position where I can maintain my accommodations, while saving up for my actual home when I become of legal age to apply for one in Singapore - which means I need to get my ducks in a row by August 2018 if I'm to you know, get this adulting shit done right, especially here.

Here's the current budgeting I've worked out for my new monthly salary:

• 25% - goes to rent (for current month)
• 25% - goes to rent (for the following month)
• 35% - goes to monthly spending and daily necessities (including bills)
• 15% - goes to savings account

Patreon will continue to serve as my core business, and the funds received will be diverted as follows:

• 50% - goes to savings account
• 50% - goes to travel budget account

That said, I've worked out that by 6 months, I should be able to pay off rent for an entire year, and continue saving enough to cover the application period for my own housing which is expected to take (2-3 years of waiting and processing at best). 

So that's the general gist of it. A lot of blabber and uninteresting stuff, but that is where I currently am now in life, trying to figure out how to, not just survive, but actually have a life worth living. More updates later this month.

Snares
Mar 2018