I NEED TO TALK ABOUT SOME STUFF... (Patreon)

WALLTEXT ALERT (It's actually important stuff but feel free to skip this post if you don't have the time. I'll try to pick up this topic again with less text in a future post.)START:Heyo there!

I'd like discuss about a few minor problems that have been happening around for some time.

Most of what I'm going to talk about today are things regarding my content and the delivery time issues around it. These thoughts that have been sitting on my mind for quite a while now but I think I can now give you guys a decent and objective analysis about the topic.

#1: CONTENT CREATION AND DELIVERY FREQUENCY:

This is a recurrent problem I've been constantly bumping into and I've been trying to figure out how to solve it. After several months I found out it's not just one but a combination of several factors that come into play.

- MANAGEMENT OF ILLUST COLLECTIONS:

I recently noticed I'm managing these wrong. It sums to the problem of having +200 layers to browse around per work. I tend to add too many last minute stuff or unnecessary minor details/alts (such as having too many face expression ones) that contribute few to none of value to the overall illust collection in general.

Sometimes less is more and this applies to lots of things/areas in art.

- PIXEL PERFECT OBSESSION:

I usually tend to zoom in x100 to draw and "fix" pretty much anything most of the time. I have a habit of revisiting tiny details over and over instead of focusing on the bigger picture, the composition and overall readability of the whole illustration.

Easy to describe... a bit harder to work with.

- CONTENT PRODUCTION PACE:

I sometimes get carried away by adding more ideas inbetween or near the completion of illustrations, which ends up stacking more work for me than I can realistically handle at that moment.

This clashes directly with my "PIXEL PERFECT OBSESSION" problem and my current skill level.

I'm not including unpredictable physical or mental health factors here, since those type of situations are much harder to have control of.

#2: FROZEN SERVER AND ALL OF MY ORIGINAL CONTENT IN PERMA HIATUS:

Having a "lively" server isn't exactly an easy task to achieve, and having long gaps between posts across my platforms certainly doesn't help either.

A lot of the things I mentioned earlier naturally carry over into this as well, though this topic has a few other additional reasons behind it.

- MAKING ROOM FOR ORIGINAL CONTENT:

Aside from character poll monthly rewards, usually most of my time is occupied by external commissions and me trying to create ONLY things "I think" people would enjoy or would be interested in.

- UNCERTAINTY ABOUT WHAT DIRECTION TO TAKE:

I'm sometimes kinda worried about spending time and effort on original content that may not reach the audience or engagement I'd hope for. I still feel like I'm figuring out what my niche really is nowadays.

- CREATIVE FATIGUE:

By the time I finally find a small window to create things "for fun" I'm already on "low batt" mode.

OKAY, OKAY... SO WHAT'S THIS POST ALL ABOUT AND WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING TO DO? I'M KIND OF LOST HERE ALREADY...

If you've made it through all of my walltext (thankyoubtw-w-Uu), you might be wondering what I actually plan to do so things can gradually start moving in a better direction.

Alright, let's go through things one by one:

PLANS TO MAKE A CHANGE (AND CHANGES YOU CAN EXPECT)

#1: CONTENT CREATION AND DELIVERY FREQUENCY:

- MANAGEMENT OF ILLUST COLLECTIONS:

Perhaps I'll be reducing the number of alts (including txt alts) whenever I consider there aren't major or meaningful changes that really justify exporting a whole separate illustration file.

- PIXEL PERFECT OBSESSION:

This one will probably take me some time trying to make a shift in mindset.

But tbh I really think I'll learn better from making and accepting errors on an illustration and quickly moving forward onto next one rather than spending entire days on a single illustration trying to achieve the perfect line, shading, rendering or lighting every single time.

- CONTENT PRODUCTION PACE:

I'll be setting more realistic limits based on my current skill level and the pace I'm able to work at, so bringing you new content doesn't end up taking ages.

#2: FROZEN SERVER AND ALL OF MY ORIGINAL CONTENT IN PERMA HIATUS:

- MAKING ROOM FOR ORIGINAL CONTENT:

I believe this can gradually improve if I'm able to put the plans mentioned above into practice. Simply put: I need to revise and optimize my creative process.

- UNCERTAINTY ABOUT WHAT DIRECTION TO TAKE:

This is another area where I think a different mindset would really help. Not giving something a chance to perform guarantees it will never get the opportunity to grow.

- CREATIVE FATIGUE:

This is more or less the sum of everything mentioned above that needs to be properly attended.

QUESTIONS THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN LEFT INTO THE AIR:

Q: SO, ARE YOU TELLING ME YOU'RE REDUCING THE QUALITY OF YOUR WORK? ...THE QUANTITY? ...BOTH?

A: I'm trying to find a way to work smarter, not harder while also trying to improve my workflow, art skill level and quality of life all alongside.

Q: WHAT HAPPENED TO CHAR POLLS? HAVEN'T SEEN ANY LATELY...

A: I decided to pause these temporarily bc I don't want to overdo myself as I'm busy right now with some pending commissioned work. This doesn't mean there not going to be any rewards through this month. This is also why I'm doing all this "rethinking" session of how I should approach things more effectively from a different perspective.

This concludes the checklist of things I wanted to discuss for this post.

I will create a separate post from this one at a later time, as there is another important matter I would like to talk about I think is worth mentioning...

-AVIIS-