A Post-Inktober post and some personal thoughts (Patreon)

Hey, what’s up, guys.

First of all, I want to say thank you to all my patrons who are supporting me on Patreon, your support really means a lot, even if you’re supporting for only one dollar. Your help cheers me up to keep working on my art.

And I really want to say thanks to the following patrons:

Alan Smithee, Alan Snow, Anonymous2018, Brandon Guy, Courtney Toler, David JW, Electric Song, ImperfectXIII, Jakub Janecki, JohnDoe117, Jon Fawkes, Juan Fernando Reyes, Junstorm, lost357able, Lupe Strap, MALayhee700, Maverick Sutherland, MetalMario90, Nathaniel, no1lives4ever, Remus Scryer, rezo55555, SNEEDHAM, solusjbj, Someone you do not know, Tab, Tarbtano, Tchutch, Tim, Todd, Tremayne Jenkins, Victor Hinz, Zachary Evans.

And of course, my two new patrons from October, Tim and Zachary Evans, welcome and thank you for your support, I really appreciate it.

Well, Inktober is finally over, for me in my case (some artist in the community are still making awesome arts), and comparing the last two Inktobers that I participate (2015 and 2018) this was really challenging because I force myself to try new techniques with my new tools of art/ Like my ink brush and the Kurotake Ink that I bought last year in December, and try again my Deleter pens, you know, the ones that the mangakas use to ink. But more than this, this was the season to meet new artists and reconnect to some of my old art partners who had done this challenge before, and some of them had already done it for years since the first one in 2008.

But, this post is not about the Inktober itself, but to tell something that I was hearing during the challenge while I was making the arts each day. You see, when I was inking, I took the time to listen to podcasts and watching videos of other artists who are making the Inktober challenge. And some of those videos really made me think a lot about my life.

This could be a long post, so if you’re too lazy to read it, you can stop now. No hard feelings. But, if you do want to keep reading, well, just go and grab something to drink and eat and get comfy, because I’m becoming a little philosophical.

But, the truth is, I’m a little scared to write this post because here I’m writing my feelings and my worries that I didn’t want to because I may sound like a drama queen or something. But, I need to do this, I need to bend out. You don’t have to read this if you don’t want to.

Anyway, up to the post.

So, where to start? Welp, for starters, I was watching videos and hearing podcasts about artist life and the things that have been done during the years in their careers, their struggles, their worries, what and how they achieve their goals, and what are they looking for in the future. But, the thing that makes me thing, and worries to myself, is that every artist, whether you’re a freelancer or a full-time employee, must have a project. And the importance of having your own project is that you’re making something that you really love to make, even if you don’t get paid or don’t get the money for that. But the real thing about having a project and finish it is that you feel relief that you make something and move on to the next one. It doesn't have to be perfect, just finished, just like Jake Parker said in one of his videos.

Now, just because I mention this, it’s not that I never had a project before. I did have a long time ago, once. An adult hentai webcomic called The Wicked Adventures of Michelle Lavender, about an assassin woman for hired who kills her victims and then had fun with their corpses… Yeah, kind of like a necrophilia story or something... Don’t mind looking for that on the internet, that website is down a long time ago. But I stop continue it a long time ago because, well, a lot of reasons like “I was not good at that time”, “I didn’t have the time to work on that”, and in the worst case, “I lost interest in that story”. And I’m not thinking of making it again in the future.

After stop making that webcomic, I didn’t make another project in ages. And that’s because in those times I lack the knowledge and the practice that I have right now. On top of that, I was too busy with other things in life like work, freelance work and family, and other things that made me stop for long periods of time.

I know I have been working with the awesome Sneedham with his short webcomics of the Quickstrike girls and for me, it’s a very fun collaborative job to work with him and I don’t complain. Still, love those hot girls he has in his stories. But, there are days that I look at a mirror and said: “I should be making my own project, too”.

Another thing that I want to talk about is social media. I’m mentioning this because I feel that I’m not using my social media sites like I thought I did. Some of you have realized that I’m not a social media guy or an artist who likes to talk over in a speed paint video o appears in a vlog. Or and artists who post every day in their Instagram account. I want to try that, but editing videos is too much work and takes a lot of time for me. All in all,  I’m a solopreneur in this market, I have to do a lot of stuff and I don’t have people who can help me with that. And post every day for me is too overwhelming for me. I’m not that fast like those guys! How the heck they do that?!

Let me see what I have: I have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, deviantArt, Pixiv, Hentai-Foundry, YouTube, Picarto, and Patreon. I realized that I’m not using these sites like the way I wanted.

For example, YouTube: I haven’t uploaded a new speed paint video ever since, due to the NSFW content that I used to draw. And Picarto, I don’t know when it’s the right time to make a stream for one hour.

Perhaps it is time to change the way I’m working with my sites. I need to figure out what I want with these social media sites. It’s time to manage my time in the right way. I stress out every month to figure out what to draw, I have to remember that every artist has its own pace, and I have mine. And perhaps this is the time for me to work on my projects for real. I have a lot of ideas to work with, some are fan webcomics, and others that are personal.

I think I need to take it slow and enjoy the ride. Not to think about money all the time, just make good art for the love of it. I have to find a way to figure out how can I make all this work.

I don’t know why I started to write this post, to be honest. Maybe this is my last month. This 22 of November is my birthday and I’m turning 40 years old. Maybe I have reached the middle of the road called life and I’m starting to think about my future as an artist. I’m scared to think of turning 50 and haven’t accomplished anything for myself in my life.

That’s all I have to say.