This month has wrapped up my convention stuff, so I’m hoping to get more work on art for the rest of the year.
I’ve felt like my schedule has been out of control and my work output has suffered for it. Not only that, but I feel like I do clerical crap more than I draw and while it’s necessary, I hate doing it and I feel like it’s punishment for not doing art.
I made new stickers and restocked on old faves such as the sticker packs, Muffin and Cupcake cats! Along with this, I’m having a Flash Sale of my 2019 Sketchbook! Only a dollar on Etsy with Free Shipping! Stop by my Etsy Store to get them yourself!
From learning pixel art in Procreate I found my efforts limited. With the extra money I had, I invested in Pixaki 4 Pro, a $30 USD app on the Apple App Store. I do most of my pixel artwork for personal and game art in Aseprite. With Pixaki, I want a good portable option that I can trade between the two programs for faster pixel art output.
As of writing this, I have a show at The Gallery Seven on July 23 during Comicopolis 2022! There you can find my traditional ink comic pages framed in Lockport, Illinois. I never thought I’d be able to do this, but I’m glad it’s happening, and I hope you’ll stop by and see my original pages!
This month has been my most successful month of the year saleswise for my art! Anime Central was this month, and it’s a huge one! It’s a good sign that can sunset my time at my day job to take a big plunge into full time art. But I’m sure this is wishful thinking.
As of writing this at the beginning of March 2022, I purchased an iPad Pro for $799.99 USD, an Apple Pencil 2 for $129 USD, and a copy of Procreate for $10 USD. Here’s my review of the first 30 days of using the iPad and the App!
The last time I used any Apple product is when I had an iPod Touch. I dropped them for an Android phone when it became a pain in the butt to transfer my music files from ripped CDs that I had.
The month of March has been mild. The most I can say is that I celebrated my birthday and trudged forward on small art projects.
As of the 3rd of March, I turned 30 years old, and I’m trying not to get crushed by the anxiety of aging. I covered it up by having dinner with my family and buying myself an iPad and Procreate! Now, I can draw on the go! I’m writing an article about my time with Procreate at a later date.
I have a big thing planned in the summer later this year! I’m preparing some of my art for something I’ve never done, before. So, I’ll keep you in the know once everything is arranged!
Writing Blackmask
Most of my art time has been occupied with writing Blackmask as a story. My focus is split between re-editing existing ideas for the demo story and the big narrative of the entire game.
My personal hope for Blackmask’s main quest is that players can choose a level toplayin any order they want, Mega Man style. A connected Metroidvania-style world or an Open World is tougher to design without ballooning the scope even more.
My programmers and I check in on each other in our messages. We’re both doing our best to keep going during our bigger commitments. Adam’s tackling enemy AI next, as there’s not much left to do with Cole’s abilities for now.
Other News
I’ve been doing tiny website tasks to streamline my websites stuff. The Art Page now has all my art on it instead of having separate pages for each category of art I make. If it ends up making loading issues a pain, I change it back, but right now I want my archive front and center
There’s more blog articles in my back burner that I want to finish up, such as my tutorial series on making Incident at the Game Store. There are other articles that I want to write when I make the time.
I’m struggling to keep my focus on one specific art task. I keep dipping so much into different shit that I can’t choose an art direction for myself. My schedule is a loose cloud of “what is currently unfinished that I could finish now?” on my project list.
It doesn’t help that I keep falling into that trap of posting on my socials to say I’m alive on them. My game stuff is in my programmer’s hands. I’m messing about, sketching, and procrastinating on writing a game story. Am I busy or making up meaningless tasks for myself? I need to improve my personal project management skills.
