State of the Patreon, January 2024 (Patreon)

Hi everyone, here's the private half of this recap post :)

Happy New Year! I hope you're enjoying all that fresh-start energy while still hibernating and eating copious amounts of jellybeans that you just found today at the end of your stocking (just me?)

So, what can you all look forward to here? 

In 2024, this Patreon will be focused on Skuttleboat Cove! 

I like the idea of this Patreon being just a contained little space where I can be accountable and walk forward towards making a cute little comic. I like comics! I think I'm going to cull a few other projects in the service of making that one happen faster (Goodbye for now, Good Bones, and Moat Method). Maybe I'll pick them up again later if I get in a better flow, but for now I'd rather focus.

In the next few months I will be tweaking things on Patreon to better align with this goal. No major changes! Mostly just image and copy tweaks so new people who arrive can get a clearer understanding.

December Updates...

I crossed a big bureaucratic hurdle in the last few days, finishing the setup of a brand new business account and credit card, moving all of the automatic deposits and bills to that account, and setting up quickbooks. This is all very boring, but I am excited about it! It's starting 2023 on a much stronger financial footing, and it's giving me confidence to move forwards towards building an "actual business".

I want my comics work to be free of market constraints. 

I want to make the weird shit that I am passionate about. I want my work to speak its truth. I will fund it by any means necessary, from any combination of personal savings and what it can fund-raise on its own merits. I will work on my comic regardless of whether it's a "financial success". I want it to be a creative success (finding an audience, resonating with people, helping me grow as an artist/writer...) but if it never made a single dollar, that would be ok to me.

The messages and themes of that work are important to me. I think the world needs an optimistic story like this, and I want to do my part in service of bringing forth a future more like the one we'll see portrayed in Skuttleboat Cove.

As I was thinking about ways I could accelerate the work of making Skuttleboat Cove, it always comes back to money and time. My body needs to be protected and nourished, and I need to defend the time and creative energy I use towards making comics. In today's context, money is what enables that for me. But time is becoming the stickier point.

So far I have mostly funded my creative practice with a day job as an engineer (and your generosity as a Patron!). Being an engineer has been an incredibly positive force in my life. I love the work that I do. I love the industry I am in. I work with really good people, and this engineering career has enabled the lifestyle I have wanted. But as I look at the trajectory upwards in that career path, what I see is:

• Building more and more niche technical expertise
• Limited possibility of escaping the 9-5 schedule
• More responsibility and stress.

If I'm going to be taking on more responsibility and stress... I want to own the fruits of my successes (and failures, obviously). But to be honest, the biggest thing for me is the 9-5, 5x/week office culture. I don't operate very well in the mornings. I don't operate very well in an "office environment". Sometimes I just have really off days where I need to do something different to recharge, but I'm locked in to this schedule and environment. Two days isn't always enough to recover, and I keep sliding back into burnout. I can survive this work context, but I'm not thriving. Conforming to what a day job needs is sapping a disproportionate amount of my energy.

Niche expertise is great, but I'm kind of a jack of all trades at heart. I haven't yet found that magic engineering skillset where I can consult back to large companies and have infinite work. And I'm not cut out to be a manager (lol).

So as I look at my own career... striking out on my own somehow is what's next on my bucket list :) I'm curious what would happen if I could create a context where I'm free to follow my flow. More time for me means more time for the Cove >:) And I have a feeling that entrepreneurship is a space where I can truly excel.

What will the business be...? Well, I have lots of ideas but the big thing is testing them. Whereas the Cove will continue at its own pace with or without financial success, money will absolutely be the success metric for testing "business ideas".

So far I know that I want the business to involve creating a space where anyone's creativity can thrive. It will take some experimentation to discover the best way to support that with products and/or services. I'll start out somewhere in the stationery space. 

(I've been making little goodies to go along with the Career Zine to test things out :) )

The technical comics are another really interesting path I'm cultivating, but it's hard to get off the ground, and I think if a large portion of my business were service and contract-oriented, I would become even more exhausted than I would during a 9-5. But I'm pursuing it! My pen doesn't necessarily need to be a limiting factor in a business like that.

I'll update here on Patreon about how that's going, but it'll be more like a season recap than the play by play. It'll be chaotic! And probably mostly boring!

And in the meantime, full steam ahead on Skuttleboat Cove!

toot toot!

Be free, my weird little project! Freee! Freeeeeee! Frolic in the internet!

Jam IRL....

I largely spent my holiday getting set up in my new place. I unpacked all the boxes (even if some of the things only got unpacked into smaller boxes). I installed shelves. I organized cupboards. I hung a bunch of art. I finally feel like I can live here now :)

I got my cintiq and shortcut remote to cooperate (after soooo many driver reinstalls haha). I cleaned out all the unused assets in Clip Studio, and got my basic brushes in there. I reinstalled all my fonts. It's not perfect, but it is working. It's in a place where I can get something done, at least.

A new Flitzybon pngtuber avatar to play with :)

I got my OBS up and running again in time for the Stanley Parable stream. Over the last few days I've ported over to "Streamlabs OBS" (which is different, apparently) and have been working on getting alerts and notifications working. I also got my capture card sort of working so it can read from my little retro game thing. I can't quite explain what's drawing me to livestreaming lately but I am excited to put on little puppet shows for people. I think I will be experimenting more with this in the new year. Trust, there's a method to this madness...

Alright, onwards to the year of the dragon!!! 2024 baybeeee~~~