August 10: Vacation? (Patreon)

Hey everyone! I hope your August is progressing well. September is nearly here and I'm... not ready haha.

Since the last blog, I got real busy with kickstarter fulfillment! I've been trying to keep steady track on my progress. I don't know if I'll be able to hit that August goal like I'd hoped, but I'm still aiming for it! Like the last post said, I’ve got school and another gig starting up, so I’d like to get as much done as possible before September.

Speaking of tracking progress, I started using an app called Notion for project tracking! It’s been very helpful for managing multiple projects at once. It looks like it was made more for app design or coding teams, but I’ve gotten a lot of use out of it. And it works on mobile and desktop.

Last we week, we got invited to stay with some family at a cottage out of the city. It came at the perfect time, because as I was working on a Godslave vacation buffer, I pulled my shoulder.

It was just serious enough that I couldn’t draw without pain, so I unfortunately had to abandon the buffer and just give it what it needed: extreme rest. So for the first time... ever? I took a week off from drawing and work.

It was the longest I’d ever gone without drawing or work. It was hard, I still thought about work a lot, but I also got to read, get a big sun burn and relax. Really relax. It was great, and helped me return home with a real hunger to make art again.

That being said, I bought some books for our train ride up that were both about business haha. I picked up Bounce Back by Susan Kahn, which is all about adjusting how you process failure with work and how turn it into something constructive. If you’ve ever used CBT therapy, you’ll be familiar with some of the language it uses.

I also picked up The Passion Economy by Adam Davidson. It teaches about how if you’re starting a small business, how it can be helpful to go super niche with your passion product/service and to cull out whatever is unnecessary or takes away from that core passion. Because the more niche and skilled you are at it, the harder it is for someone bigger than you to replicate it.

So despite being on vacation, I still spent a lot of time thinking about work haha. But it was nice to have that time of reflection and to take a step back.

Now we’re back home, I’m ready to dive back into Kickstarter fulfillment, and this week I start my new colouring gig!