Waking From A Dream (Patreon)

As we near the end of April 2018, I'm finally ready to announce that Meatier Showers will go on an indefinite hiatus and all comic production on my Patreon will cease this month. This has been a difficult decision for me, which is why it's taken me 2 months to mull over before arriving at a conclusion. I will try my best to explain my choices below,   

TLDR Summary

Starting May 2018, I will be switching gears and turning my attention towards furry art commissions and streaming - all of the exclusive content such as work-in-progress illustrations and warm-up sketches from streams will be made available only here on my Patreon, for just a dollar each month. For those of you who have been asking me for commissions, I will be opening up slots mid-May.

A Little Backstory

With the completion of Meatier Showers: SUPERSIZE back in February 2018, some of you may have noticed that I've since been gradually scaling down on production. Mid February, on Chinese New Year, I woke up with an ocular migraine, which I only learned this year was a thing. It was like having fireworks go off in my eyes and I couldn't see shit. While the doctor couldn't pinpoint the cause, I do suspect it was the stress around this period that resulting in the visual scare. Stress surrounding my unstable future, my financials and general lack of prospects.

Reality is Relentless

Ever since moving to my current place, the weight of monthly rent has made my Patreon income unsustainable. It is barely enough to pay off the rent, with no savings and not much for survival. Since August last year, I've been tapping straight into my reserves (from previous book sales) to tide through the first 6 months. It is not pleasant and not practical for the long run, because book sales do eventually decline overtime.

It became clear, with the monthly rent in play, that a more stable source of income was required to cover the base cost of living. I started sending out job applications to an industry bubble that had already popped. I'd been to most of the major local animation companies and there were only so few left, which was why in 2015 I attempted retail, and in 2017 tried the hotel industry. I literally had no idea what I wanted to do, or what I could do long enough to make a living out of.

Come August this year, I will be 35, which is the legal age for Singaporean singles to apply for their own housing (married couples can make their applications when they're 28.) More so than ever, I need to get my financial status in order and looking good on paper. The day job goes a long way to not only helping cope with the monthly rent, but adds money to my CPF which can be tapped into for housing funds.

Basically I have to be an actual adult even if I don't want to or am not honestly ready, because that's how life works.

Calculated Transition

After the ocular migraine incident, I was fortunate enough to land on a job interview that worked out. By the end of February, I had signed my employment contract and begun making all the necessary preparations, such as scaling down reward tiers and trying to release my comic on Gumroad before work started.

I had to break down my original comic production schedule into a more modular form. Instead of working on Meatier Showers 7 days a week, it was wedged in the 2 day weekend that I could only afford. Those of you who have been following my past updates will know that I've been struggling to maintain this impractical setup. For most of the work week, I spend 12 hours outside, with 3 hours at home if I get back on time. By Saturday I'm usually in a state where I just want to power down and not think a whole lot. Sunday is the only time I have with my partner.

Comics Is A Full Time Job

And I say this on the assumption that we're working on a long format, proper book. Even with daily strips, it requires a lot of prepared material to sustain on a regular basis. I've been sustaining my comic production through Patreon over the past 3 years, and at least based on my skill level and experiences, if you really commit to a comic project, you are at it almost all the time.

It is incredibly difficult to work on a comic project if you don't have continuity for your thought processes, can't afford the safe space to make mistakes and experiment, or find time to quickly dive back into your work when a sudden breakthrough hits you.

Even when you're on breaks, you're figuring out how to move plot points forward, or make the story structure work, or watching how characters behave in your mind's eye. The process is highly iterative and constant changes and amendments take place, even towards the end where you're editing dialogues and text. 

I've been working on my projects even before Patreon, and I know what works best for my process and why I've been arguably consistent enough.

My New Direction

For the past 2 months since my job has started, I've been experimenting with my schedule and trying to figure out how I can endeavor to maintain production capability. And I've experimented with different workloads to see what sorts of projects I can undertake while working my new day job.

Last week, I posted a poll on Twitter to get a better sense of what my audiences are looking for in general, outside of Patreon's paywall. From the results above, and my current circumstances, it's become apparent where I need to go next. While I still care a lot for my comics and characters, as of this juncture in life, can only undertake short term projects that do not require a sustained, ongoing amounts of commitment.

What will become of my Patreon project is that, not only will it serve as a 3-year archive of comic production content from my previous projects, it will also double as a "sketch dump" to compile all my stream sketches. For those of you who've visited my streams, I normally start the stream with warm up sketches, most of which I don't upload since they aren't "complete". What's going to happen (if I survive my new job's 3-month probation phase) is that I'll be ramping up my stream efforts on Saturdays, and start taking 3 commissions per month. The commission preview sketches will also be exclusively available here and I will try to post my process (from sketch, to inks, to color) here - the frequency of which I've yet to determine.

Next Month

I'll be sharing the thumbnails and story outline of what was meant to be Meatier Showers: LIGHT SHOW and talk about the long term goals I had for the series and its characters. I'll also be setting up a new framework for taking in commissions mid May. Stream sketches will be compiled throughout the month of May and released on the 25 of each month.

Again, and as always, thank you so much for your continued support and patience. It means a lot to me that you guys have made it possible over the course of the past 3 years for me to realize my dreams. Being able to do what I love and care about most, on my own terms, has been the greatest form of success to me. For now, I have to divert my energies towards my day job if I'm to prove my worth over the probation phase, as well as to secure a better future for myself. Perhaps then, when I have a home I can call my own, I will be able to resume my love for producing comics again.

Snares,
Apr 2018