Post Turkey Day, Home Stretch!

Hello all! It's been another small writing hiatus. Mostly because of this guy.

Lil poop monster. 

It's also been due to health reasons. Woo, health.

I am honestly surprised (but mostly pleased) that slowly, locally at least, word has been getting around about the comic. I got a DM from an old professor of mine (probably one of the reasons I still thought doing a comic was viable even though I seemed to pass the phase that a lot of folks got into it at.) He asked me what the message in my twitter "about me" meant.

To be fair, it used to say "Webcomic: Jan 2014." Hard to believe I'm the byproduct of two English teachers.

I shot a little bit back and forth with him where he offered his help with building my site. While I do have a site up, I honestly am not one to say no to help. I've wanted to talk to him about it for the longest time, but somewhere between my anxiety, worried about bothering him because it's been a few years, and everything else under the sun, I wanted to wait until he mentioned it to me.

Sound logic, I know. (If you're reading this, oh man, I'm sorry. ((It'd also be awesome to just hang and chatup webcomic stuff if you're ever in the mood for it.)))

Despite everything, I have been working on the comic still - trying a full all-out with inking and sketching up pages while I'm getting used to a dog in the house. I also have a late WIP that I've been testing my blending skills on because I got hit with a little nostalgia. Though...I suppose it's not quite nostalgia if I've never watched him before.

Paul McGaan, Night of the Doctor

Busted Wrists, Distractedness.

So, I know about a month ago I said I'd start posting more regularly again. Time has a funny way of slipping out from under you and slapping you on the face as a parting gift. To attempt to make up for this, I figure, I'll try to do a bit of a recap of this year so far (since a few of you are indeed, folks who kind of know me.)

Earlier this year the bf and I had a conversation that basically ran like this -

Boyfriend: Man, rent's going to go up when we renew our lease again this year.

Self: With the way rent and utilities are, hell, we could probably afford a mortgage on a decent house.

Boyfriend: .....

Self: .....

Self: I'll start looking.....

Fast forward to April and we've closed in on this lovely ranch-style home that I'm currently sitting in. There's still bits and pieces to the place that need to be fixed up. (Bathrooms, deck, downstairs, etc) But so much of it is cosmetic adjustments that we've been happy with so far. Hell, three months down and I've gotten settled in here nicely, myself. Just sometimes feels a bit...empty. We're working on fixing that. If any of you know of a (reputable) Pembroke Welsh Corgi breeder in the Midwest States, I'd be happy to hear of it. We've already gotten scammed once. I should've figured out beforehand but the idiots wanted us to pay in Bitcoin. Bit. Fucking. Coin.

Anyway. There have been enough personal changes in my life that started me thinking about trying to publish my own work. I got serious about it, as opposed to sitting back and worrying that my art/writing/etc isn't good enough to put something out there for the world to see. It's been two years since graduating Bradley University, and I can definitely say that my work has gone up leaps and bounds since then. Plus, it seems like that's the advice I keep seeing from several artists: Keep doing what you love, the work will come to you. Or something similar. I know I'm chasing down leads as fast as I get them, but in the meantime, I'm pushing to launch my comic and it's website by the end of the year. If I can get it out sooner, well, the more's the merrier for me.

I've started working with a couple of local groups, Start-up Peoria and Dr. Ardonaut's Lab, on some various projects. If even a singular one sees the light of day, I'll be delighted. I'm hoping that with the locality of each group I'll see some responsibility taken on all ends - the last few projects I was asked to work on left me incredibly jaded about pro-bono work, to the point where I think the only way I'd consider it is if everyone had an equal stake/amount to lose in the process. That and I have extensive knowledge of the person. Too many times it's been a start and stop - on my part too, admittedly - and several times I've produced a few pieces for a group only to have the people involved stop returning my e-mails.

As of late, I've had a carpal tunnel flare-up in my right wrist, so things have been somewhat slower. Even though I'm left-handed, the medication they gave me is incredibly draining. I will be posting commission prices within the next month for things inbetween comic pages, so be on the look out!

From the Artist, Life Happens.

So yes, it's been a little over a month or so since I updated. I had gotten really good at keeping this posted with a bunch of stuff I've been working on, but a few things have happened in the meantime. Mostly part-time jobs and one hell of a recovery timeframe. I am glad to start updating this once again because of a few ideas that I've come up with, that I hope will work. Sad to say a lot of my self-publishing ideas usually fall through, but I think it's a matter of finding something that sticks.

Lately I've been working in my spare time (re: those boring moments where no customers show up) and writing together a little idea for a comic. I hope to use this as a springboard mostly to try to help my skills expand with completing backgrounds, writing, and composition. Plus I'm a sucker for trying to craft new characters and my brain has suffered a woeful drought as of late.

This is a rare text post among pictures, so I will gather up my mess from the last month and have at it!