January Pinup: Rise + State of the Patreon Update (Patreon)

TLDR: Down but not out.

Welcome, for better or worse, to 2026.

Last year (well, still this year as I’m typing this) was a rough one for me. There’s been what seems to be the usual parade of setbacks, but the thing that is most relevant to this audience is that I’ve been increasingly struggling artistically. I’m finding I just don’t enjoy drawing like I used to. The motivation is just not there on many days. The last few days notwithstanding, you’ve surely noticed a decrease in output, including zero progress on the two seasonal sequences you chose (Meg for Halloween and Tifa for Xmas) and slower turnaround on commissions. To be perfectly honest, there have been many times I’ve wished I could walk away from this. There are many factors contributing to this which I won’t go into here because I don’t want to bore you with excuses (and also because I know you don’t come here for politics). The only other thing I’ll say about this is that if you’ve noticed things have been off, you’re right, and thank you for sticking with me. The biggest issue is that this has become an indispensable part of our household’s income, and with expenses rising rapidly (as they are for many people) it’s not something I can just stop.

That said, let’s talk about the image above. While there have struggles this last year, the drawing above is by no means meant to be a representation of the challenges I’m facing. Instead, it’s a reminder for me that there are millions of people in this country and this world who are facing unimaginable hardships and keep getting back up, just like CiCi is doing here. And if they can, how can I consider doing anything else? As tempting as it may be, giving up cannot be an option, especially when there are still people I care about who depend on me.

While I’ll try to keep the usual monthly features going (pinup, sketch TF, color TF), the next few months will be focused on examining what I do here and see how I can rework my approach to renew my interest in drawing while keeping content coming that is of interest to you. Expect some polls along those lines in the coming weeks.

Think I’ll end this here for now. Thanks for reading if you made it this far, and thanks for your continued support. Wishing you a sane and safe 2026.

SAS