life update #420 (Patreon)

So, a few weeks ago I went on a bit of a rant on Twitter regarding how I feel about what I'm doing with my art. I've been a bit dissatisfied with what I've been doing, mostly because I don't feel I've experienced any significant growth in a long while. And when I talk about growth, I mean in multiple different ways.

I feel I'm stagnating in my art, in my audience, and in my finances. A lot of it stems, I feel, from a lack of time legitimately dedicated to the growth of myself. I've grown in significantly shorter steps when I focus on "art as my job" and truth be told the commissioning cycle has worn on me a lot quicker than the request cycles were back when they were still a thing.

I'm making more money, which is good, but I'm finding myself dissatisfied with my process and have never felt good when a paid product isn't delivered as best as I can make it. I feel that's a sign that I need to focus on myself, but finding the time to focus on learning is very difficult when I then balance it with "art as my social life."

Within the short spans of time I have between commissions and starting a new cycle, it's a lot more mentally rewarding to just make art for anything else I do in between. It could be my OCs, it could be a shitpost, it could be art I do for my friends regardless of any money. Something just has to give so I can focus on "art as my career."

Art as my career means I'm doing things that matter to me. Not things that matter to anyone else, not things that necessarily make me money, not things that strictly involve people in what I make, it's art I make for me and for my own enjoyment. Other artists will talk about this a lot. I think about this a lot, and I'm finally coming around to accepting that I simply don't do this. I'm always "one commission away" or "one friend art I want to do away" from working on what I want to do, and I'm frankly tired that I keep letting these things get in my way.

So what's that mean to you, dear Patreon supporter?

Probably nothing, if I'm gonna be honest lmao.

My posted content has already been drifting into nothing but commissions and a big OC art collection at the end of the month, all this really means is that I'm gonna be doing less commissions and more art I personally want to do.

Which.
Frankly.
If you weren't here supporting me for that by this point, I'd actually be pretty surprised.

Here's what I'd like to do from here:

-Crash Buster

I don't want to commit into any sort of scheduled work or scheduled progress checks or anything, but one of the things I've been wanting to focus on is Crash Buster. I've been tossing around ideas and planning for the oneshot I'd like to make of her, and from there I'd like to start properly planning for the full comic series I've been building in my head for the last four years. That plan has gone nowhere since I started the Patreon, because I've exclusively been trying to play the money field this entire time. No more of that!

You might be asking yourself "Why don't you just start the comic? Why do a one shot?" And the answer to that is that comics are hard! I've seen countless webcomics start and die because they weren't properly planned out, or had enthusiasm killed because the creator needed to take a giga hiatus to get their shit together. I do not want to be that creator.

-More One Shots

I have a lot of OC ideas, and I cannot keep being the guy who has a million OC ideas that he never does anything with. I'd like to explore stories I can tell with these OC ideas, and maybe some of them will develop further into more things I make. Maybe one of them has the potential to surpass Crash Buster as my main passion project. I'd rather that not happen, but it could happen lmao.

I'd like to write a few one shot chapters involving Shizuka, the moon martial artist and Kiki, the ninja monkey among some of my OCs. I'll be planning that out, and maybe you guys can help me choose where I place my focus.

Additionally, on the NSFW side of things, I'd like to make a few original comics involving the Valentina sisters, Senya the succubus, and a space delivery romance I've had floating in my head recently. I'll probably make posts about that as I go along.

-Ko-fi Sketch Commissions

I'm not entirely abandoning commissions because I am very poor and do not make nearly enough from my current real job to save for the future I desire lol. I've been putting off focusing more on myself entirely because of this reason. However, I will continue to offer sketches through ko-fi at $45. More details will come when that cycle begins, but Patreon supporters will continue to have commissions discounted and be informed first of new slots opening. The style will most likely resemble pieces like these:

Commissions will not be on a monthly cycle, and I will not guarantee they come out within that month. They're sketch commissions though, with the requesting criteria being significantly pulled back, so hopefully turnaround is quick enough. I won't stress and lament getting them done really quick like I have for the last two years, though. That leads to them becoming my whole priority, and I want to avoid that.

-Fanart Prints/NSFW Sets

This was one of the ideas I had a few months ago when I was restructuring the Patreon again, but every now then I'd like to focus on making big pieces for the things I like. Some of it might time with seasonal releases, some of them might just be because I want to get some awareness of a series out into the air. I can say with certainty I've wanted to do a Kamen Rider series of prints that would definitely make me happy if nothing else lol.

With more free time to myself as well, I'd like to also wrap up some NSFW image sets I have as WIPs, as well as let myself go a little berserk on things that interest me more often. Expect to see a Mario characters set come out in the near future, because I've had that one baking for a couple months now lol.

-STUDIES

The big BIG reason behind why I'm even shifting my priorities around. I need to study art more. I need to comprehend how things work in greater depth. Every year I say I'll work on my backgrounds, and every year I find reasons not to (most of them being related to the growth rut I've been in). So I'll be practicing my backgrounds and scenes more, I'll be experimenting with color and my color theory, studying prop and character design, and I might dip my toes into 3d. We'll see! But backgrounds are top priority improvement for me.

And that's pretty much it. As I said, the Patreon itself isn't changing much again, I'm just moving with more certainty as to what I'll be working on and posting. I'm very grateful to Patrons who have stuck around all this time, because it is definitely now more than ever that I really need the support to do what I want to do haha.