Public Service Announcement
Reading Time: 4 Mins. 20 Secs.
Hey, fantastic people! I wanted to write a new blog as it’s been a while to give an update on what’s going on in my neck of the woods. So, without further ado…
Art Hiatus Has Ended!
First off, I needed to take a short hiatus from making art for mental health reasons, to recuperate and reassess my plans and goals for the future, and to simply use it as time to relax and spend time with loved ones. After all, I’m a human being. So, I had to remember to be one as I tend to have workaholic tendencies and attract internet drama for simply minding my business; a combination of dealing with all of the above haphazardly will result in poor results.
I sent out a newsletter in March earlier this year stating that production on the Syrup Mixbook was also part of the aforementioned hiatus, but I’m continuing wrapping it up now that I’m back in a stable position to continue creating. A lot has been going on this year, obviously, so it’s been good using the time to catch up with family and make sure they’re also doing well as I’ve been away from home in Chicago for quite some time.
Most importantly, I wanted to thank each and everyone who exercised extreme patience regarding the hiatus! I didn’t receive a single request to cancel a Syrup preorder in that timeframe, so it means so much to me that everyone considerately waiting are willing to do so! I’m happy you all know I’m just a human too at the end of the day, as cool as it’d be being an AI construct.
Syrup Hardcover PREVIEW
As I move on and close in on the mixbook’s completion, I wanted to share a preview of the Hardcover variant’s cover spread illo I’ve been working on:
Xarope’s Served Drizzled~
This is the rough sketch of the Hardcover that I have planned for the book’s design layout. As you may already be aware, the Hardcover is much larger than the softcover version, at 11.8 inches, so opening it up will showcase a near 2-foot spread of Xarope. The Softcover version is smaller, at 8.5 inches, and will have the “booty shot” illustration you’ve already seen.
Funny fact: I had a weird synchronicity a couple months back. My mom brought up a story during dinner of one of my uncles getting in trouble with my grandma for bringing in the Ohio Players’ “Honey” record in her house. My own mother doesn’t even know that my own cover for this mixbook has the exact same vibe, lol. But I totally didn’t even use the “Honey” album cover as any reference or influence; it’s pure coincidence.
Needless to say, “Sweet Sticky Thing” has been on my playlist during the rest of the book’s creation, hahaha.
As I’ve stated before, the theme of my first self-published Mixbook is hardcore pinup art of my own fictional sexy ladies I’ve created for the explicit purpose of titillating and captivating their viewers (with a nice side of cheesecake included). I’ve been placing lots of care and attention into the interior content and design (again it’s 112 pages worth of new art!) and I’m sure you all will love what I’ve been cooking up! In this day and age of generative AI taking over, rest assured that all of my art content has been created from scratch by my own hand. As most of my enthusiasts know, I love studying and drawing anatomy, so I’ve put my best efforts on display within.
As these next few months continue before the book’s release (as of which, I’m dead set on finishing next year), I will share more example illustrations from the interiors. Exciting times once again! (FINALLY.)
Future Plans
Like getting rid of Twitter in 2022, I deleted my Instagram last month. Feels great to only have one place to focus on now.
There’s been a bevy of hiccups and setbacks on my journey to self-publish my own books and content. I’m no longer using social media in general for my artistic business pursuits, which means that the meat and potatoes of my art content henceforth will only be found in various physical media. I don’t want to go on a rant here about the effect of social media on professional artists and society as a whole; there are enough YouTube videos covering that topic. But, I did want to say that having no social media has zero effect on my sales and website traffic. I don’t know why I was lambasted by unaware people online stating how I’m shooting myself in the foot by deleting my social accounts… I guess they really had zero clue about my internet reach from posting a ton of art online for nearly 20 years, lol.
Thankfully, there has been so much growth in production companies and vendors making way for creators to be even more independent as of late. To be able to do everything completely solo without the need to work with industry publishers or sellers has been one of my life goals, and I’ve never been happier to be able to live in an era where this is possible for me and many other creators.
Resuming creative work means that I will also continue to drop brand new merchandise as well. It’s been an entire year where I haven’t really released anything new, due to the hiatus and work on the book. Not only do I have the upcoming Syrup to release next year and new sticker products in store for this holiday season on Teknakolor, but I’ll be dropping brand new seasonal items I’ve never done before thanks to the vendors I use expanding their overall product base. And in the future, there will be no more need to do preorders for items as everything will be available and ship day one.
Ultimately, all the work I do regarding selling merch and such goes towards the end goal of developing my larger format game projects, like Cryamore. It’s been a long challenging road, but now I’m at a level where I can simply use my art sales to funnel it back into the project without any negative cost and overhead. And it’s with the overwhelming support of my real fanbase that I’m even able to do so. Again, I thank everyone who’s been a faithful supporter by buying and collecting my art and merch through the years from the bottom of my heart. I couldn’t do this without you.
I don’t want to continue and make this too long-winded, but just to give a little “heads up display” so you know that I’m not slacking and haven’t left y’all high and dry. I’m extremely eager to get back to creating and sharing more of what I have in store!
Also, if you want to show your support further, my Discord server (which is basically my own personal “Patreon”) is still open. It’s a very quaint, laid back community where we talk about art topics, share work and discuss art, and help each other improve our craft. Again, all support I receive goes towards creating new content in the products I release.
Until the next time!✨
