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Feb 12: Future Plans & My TMI DIY Cosmetic Surgery Tale
13 years ago
General
|█████|BODY
| █████|MIND
| █████|SOUL
█ I'm busy, busy, busy, buuuuusy. In my line of work that's a good thing I guess. I honestly do enjoy what is now my job of drawing art, and it's a healthy level of stress (for the most part) but it's getting a bit towards the unhealthy levels. I'm doing my best to manage it, and this is still mostly trial and error, learning as I go and all that.
First off, there's no way I'm going to be able to get all the S.A.D. commissions done before the 14-15th. I'll try to get most of them done, but advance apologies to those I can't get done in time for these arbitrary dates with or without meaning to people.
I believe I'm getting a better handle at how I want to take commissions and how I want to go forward with them. Mostly in that I can probably get around 14 "single" commissions done a week, which means when I open up single commissions I'll probably open them on a weekly or a bi-weekly basis with 14-28 'slots' to be taken up.
When it comes to sequences/comics, I'm probably going to have to create a guide for people to help setup scenarios and make the process a bit more streamlined. I can do about four 'pages' a week, so I'd probably create a sequence commission journal around the same format as singles with 4-8 slots to be taken up on a weekly/bi-weekly basis. I'll probably charge more for the sequences and let people decide if they want a sequence done over a longer timer period via doing single commissions over the course of a month or two, or get the sequence done quickly but pay a bit more and have it done in a day or within a week. It's mostly about the numbers, because people who want sequences and comics end up taking more of my time; which means I don't get to serve as many customers. I do enjoy the sequence work, but I'd rather be more of an accessible artist overall.
█ I'm also contemplating trying to host a "comic RPG" in a more faster flowing fashion, in that I wouldn't put too much time in cleaning up the comic as much as I would maybe try to do a black and white (or flat colored) event; but would try to get through the events in a single 8 hour sitting. In my head it sounds interesting, but I don't know how well it would end up being executed. This is something still percolating in my head, and something I won't try until I'm done the current sequence work and the rest of the S.A.D. commissions. I don't know if I'll charge anything for it since it'll be something I'll do for fun on a 'personal' day, in theory.
█ Still feeling good overall, so art from me should be a regular occurrence. I also feel like I should probably swap themes every week or bi-weekly certainly; it gets a bit tough to keep the same theme interesting for longer than that considering the amount of art I put out per week.
█ TMI Section Starts Now!
I'm not really one to 'blog' about useless trivial personal bits about myself, but I'm going to make an exception in this case because it's a little bit about facing one's fears. Long story short, there was something on my face and I took care of it myself. Read onwards if you want to know the details due to morbid curiosity.
This particular story starts a few months ago when I got a zit on my nose, that wasn't something that's uncommon for me; but the location was very inconvenient as it was on a part that had a rather sharp curve. As such after extracting the mass the wound left behind didn't heal over normally as it would otherwise, and it healed outwardly instead of flatly. This created a lump that I would find myself often picking at, this would usually lead to it bleeding as I ripped off the scab and whatever skin was growing out as a lump. (I have a bit of an OCD when it comes to lumps, as I tend to pop pimples when they get large enough to do so.)
Needless to say this lumpy poorly healed skin growth was a pretty frequent distraction, and it would usually end up red from the picking and or rubbing that I would do to it. More so if it started bleeding of course. Leaving it alone wasn't exactly going to shrink it, so I sorta knew that I would have to do something about it. I suppose the 'sane' thing would have been to see and epidemiologist and have them freeze it off, laser it off, or cut it off by a professional; but I suppose I'm not all that sane to start with, and I decided to do it myself.
Let me tell you this: There is no better person to scare you than yourself. A lot of thoughts crossed my head when figuring out how I would go about this, and it ranged from actual crazy things like using a razor blade or a knife to chop off the offending lump; when the sane rational solution was to use some nail clippers (or in my case toenail clippers). The mind likes to go "this is going to hurt like crazy, or if not going to sting really really bad" along with "When you picked it out it bled like crazy, this is going to be worse!" with some additional thoughts of "When you're pinching it with your fingernails it stings a bit, this is going to hurt if you go through with this!"
Still in the end I pushed those fears aside and decided I would attempt it. I mean yes I could mangle myself and make things worse, but I figured my odds of it working as opposed to failing as largely in my favor. I did a couple of practice 'clips' on the good side of my nose, and noted that I wasn't accidentally cutting or pinching myself since the surface was smooth there, and figured that even if I horribly messed it up I would only end up clipping the top layer of the skin anyways. So hopefully with adequately clean clippers and some wadded up toilet paper I took a deep breath and braced myself. I placed the clippers around the offending lump, squeezing it a bit with the edges to make sure I had it were I wanted it. I closed my eyes, held my breath and squeezed down on the clippers fast and hard.
I didn't feel anything. It was probably similar to when you discover a cut somewhere on your body that you didn't notice and then you go to yourself later "when did that happen?" course I was no fool, I applied pressure to my nose immediately because I knew it would be bleeding shortly; even though I felt nothing. It only started stinging a bit lightly after 5 minutes of applying pressure, but I expected it. It took about 10-15 minutes before the bleeding stopped and after I was able to look at my success or failure of what I did. I would say it was a success (so far) the levelness of the skin is pretty smooth now, but I will have to see how it heals over before I can say it's a complete success. The extracted lump of skin measures at about 2 mm in diameter, and 1.5 mm in height. Aside from seeing how it heals over is to make sure that the area doesn't become infected I guess, though I'm sure I'll know soon enough if it did or not.
I'm not a vain person, and I didn't do this self cosmetic surgery to look better; rather I did it because it was it was something that was distracting me. I had already decided that I needed to do it myself or have an epidemiologist do it due to how much it was bugging me, and well I figured it was within my capabilities as a person with a brain to do it myself without killing myself (If I was dumb enough to kill myself with toenail clippers, I think I'd probably deserve to die).
EDIT: In about three days the clipped flesh healed fully, and almost perfectly as well. I had expected a little bit of scarring, but it's virtually invisible save for a slight change of tone in skin colour.
| █████|MIND
| █████|SOUL
█ I'm busy, busy, busy, buuuuusy. In my line of work that's a good thing I guess. I honestly do enjoy what is now my job of drawing art, and it's a healthy level of stress (for the most part) but it's getting a bit towards the unhealthy levels. I'm doing my best to manage it, and this is still mostly trial and error, learning as I go and all that.
First off, there's no way I'm going to be able to get all the S.A.D. commissions done before the 14-15th. I'll try to get most of them done, but advance apologies to those I can't get done in time for these arbitrary dates with or without meaning to people.
I believe I'm getting a better handle at how I want to take commissions and how I want to go forward with them. Mostly in that I can probably get around 14 "single" commissions done a week, which means when I open up single commissions I'll probably open them on a weekly or a bi-weekly basis with 14-28 'slots' to be taken up.
When it comes to sequences/comics, I'm probably going to have to create a guide for people to help setup scenarios and make the process a bit more streamlined. I can do about four 'pages' a week, so I'd probably create a sequence commission journal around the same format as singles with 4-8 slots to be taken up on a weekly/bi-weekly basis. I'll probably charge more for the sequences and let people decide if they want a sequence done over a longer timer period via doing single commissions over the course of a month or two, or get the sequence done quickly but pay a bit more and have it done in a day or within a week. It's mostly about the numbers, because people who want sequences and comics end up taking more of my time; which means I don't get to serve as many customers. I do enjoy the sequence work, but I'd rather be more of an accessible artist overall.
█ I'm also contemplating trying to host a "comic RPG" in a more faster flowing fashion, in that I wouldn't put too much time in cleaning up the comic as much as I would maybe try to do a black and white (or flat colored) event; but would try to get through the events in a single 8 hour sitting. In my head it sounds interesting, but I don't know how well it would end up being executed. This is something still percolating in my head, and something I won't try until I'm done the current sequence work and the rest of the S.A.D. commissions. I don't know if I'll charge anything for it since it'll be something I'll do for fun on a 'personal' day, in theory.
█ Still feeling good overall, so art from me should be a regular occurrence. I also feel like I should probably swap themes every week or bi-weekly certainly; it gets a bit tough to keep the same theme interesting for longer than that considering the amount of art I put out per week.
█ TMI Section Starts Now!
I'm not really one to 'blog' about useless trivial personal bits about myself, but I'm going to make an exception in this case because it's a little bit about facing one's fears. Long story short, there was something on my face and I took care of it myself. Read onwards if you want to know the details due to morbid curiosity.
This particular story starts a few months ago when I got a zit on my nose, that wasn't something that's uncommon for me; but the location was very inconvenient as it was on a part that had a rather sharp curve. As such after extracting the mass the wound left behind didn't heal over normally as it would otherwise, and it healed outwardly instead of flatly. This created a lump that I would find myself often picking at, this would usually lead to it bleeding as I ripped off the scab and whatever skin was growing out as a lump. (I have a bit of an OCD when it comes to lumps, as I tend to pop pimples when they get large enough to do so.)
Needless to say this lumpy poorly healed skin growth was a pretty frequent distraction, and it would usually end up red from the picking and or rubbing that I would do to it. More so if it started bleeding of course. Leaving it alone wasn't exactly going to shrink it, so I sorta knew that I would have to do something about it. I suppose the 'sane' thing would have been to see and epidemiologist and have them freeze it off, laser it off, or cut it off by a professional; but I suppose I'm not all that sane to start with, and I decided to do it myself.
Let me tell you this: There is no better person to scare you than yourself. A lot of thoughts crossed my head when figuring out how I would go about this, and it ranged from actual crazy things like using a razor blade or a knife to chop off the offending lump; when the sane rational solution was to use some nail clippers (or in my case toenail clippers). The mind likes to go "this is going to hurt like crazy, or if not going to sting really really bad" along with "When you picked it out it bled like crazy, this is going to be worse!" with some additional thoughts of "When you're pinching it with your fingernails it stings a bit, this is going to hurt if you go through with this!"
Still in the end I pushed those fears aside and decided I would attempt it. I mean yes I could mangle myself and make things worse, but I figured my odds of it working as opposed to failing as largely in my favor. I did a couple of practice 'clips' on the good side of my nose, and noted that I wasn't accidentally cutting or pinching myself since the surface was smooth there, and figured that even if I horribly messed it up I would only end up clipping the top layer of the skin anyways. So hopefully with adequately clean clippers and some wadded up toilet paper I took a deep breath and braced myself. I placed the clippers around the offending lump, squeezing it a bit with the edges to make sure I had it were I wanted it. I closed my eyes, held my breath and squeezed down on the clippers fast and hard.
I didn't feel anything. It was probably similar to when you discover a cut somewhere on your body that you didn't notice and then you go to yourself later "when did that happen?" course I was no fool, I applied pressure to my nose immediately because I knew it would be bleeding shortly; even though I felt nothing. It only started stinging a bit lightly after 5 minutes of applying pressure, but I expected it. It took about 10-15 minutes before the bleeding stopped and after I was able to look at my success or failure of what I did. I would say it was a success (so far) the levelness of the skin is pretty smooth now, but I will have to see how it heals over before I can say it's a complete success. The extracted lump of skin measures at about 2 mm in diameter, and 1.5 mm in height. Aside from seeing how it heals over is to make sure that the area doesn't become infected I guess, though I'm sure I'll know soon enough if it did or not.
I'm not a vain person, and I didn't do this self cosmetic surgery to look better; rather I did it because it was it was something that was distracting me. I had already decided that I needed to do it myself or have an epidemiologist do it due to how much it was bugging me, and well I figured it was within my capabilities as a person with a brain to do it myself without killing myself (If I was dumb enough to kill myself with toenail clippers, I think I'd probably deserve to die).
EDIT: In about three days the clipped flesh healed fully, and almost perfectly as well. I had expected a little bit of scarring, but it's virtually invisible save for a slight change of tone in skin colour.
Haven't had to do any stitching on my own thankfully, but lancing and snipping stuff? Yep. Though killing yourself with nail clippers...that's a hell of a darwin award...
'Course, I've also been mangled bad enough by metal objects to know what real damage is, so I suppose it's a different frame of reference.
If it was a wart, make sure you got the nucleus. Else it'll just come back.
I'd imagine most people whom might miss getting their S.A.D. suit will understand but you might wanna see if there are any "priority" ones remaining, ie people that plan on giving that image to someone on the 14th. Although if that's the case, I'd imagine they'll let you know. Hopefully.
Comic idea sounds fantastic. You should consider it, for sure. Keeping it simple is smart, and if you find you really fancy one of them quite a bit, you could always touch it up later. Also I'd think at least one participant would love to have a go at coloring it. That said, a project like this would greatly increase stress levels, especially if you end up doing them very regularly. So don't forget to take breaks in between doing those, doubly so as it seems like your commission list will always be much closer to full as long as your taken them. The comics would hopefully though allow you to play around with ideas that you might not be able to exercise normally and if the deluge of commissions after the ant comic is any indication, will also help ensure a steady flow of commissions. Always good if your planning on this for a primary source of income.
AND DON'T PICK AT THE WOUND AS IT HEALS FROM YOU CUTTING OFF THAT LUMP XD god that'd be even worse x3 haha!
But at least the bad lump has been taken care of ^.^
Of course, you'll have to wait to make sure things don't get infected or something, but still, as I said before, I'm impressed.
On the topic of the first part of the journal, glad to hear things are going well. I don't have much to say on that because I'm not an artist, so I don't know the work and effort that goes into doing art.
Also about the zit you got, I know they're a pain in the ass to get rid of >.> but I hope you can get it taken care of ^^
My spouse has a similar picking problem, so I know how it can be.. x-x Good luck!
on another note i pretty much agree with everything you said about you and your act. i mean time is money as they say. even though i hope it not all about money.