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4 years ago
I feel like I should explain why all of my art in the past 18 months has been UTC-related. With the limited time and energy I've had, I'm focusing on a single project so I can feel like I'm truly accomplishing something and growing as a creator.
I've probably written before about how, mentally, I feel pulled in a dozen directions at once. Hunkering down and declaring "Okay, I'm going to just work on UTC Phase Three until I either run into a major jam or I finish the whole thing" has been, so far, wildly successful. In the past year and a half I've finished 34 comic pages and 2 cover images. That's more progress than I made on UTC in the 3 YEARS before that.
With my job stressing me out and the pandemic being, you know, horrible, there are plenty of weeks when it's really hard to get anything done at all. But I've been trying my best. Truth be told, I'm not very happy with the art quality of most of the pages. But I think where I'm making real strides is in my writing. I'd like to say the art would be better if I gave myself more time to draw each page, but given how little time there is, I'm in a "quantity over quality" mode. It's basically the question "do you want Phase Three finished in 2022, or 2032?"
The knock-on effects that working on UTC has had on other parts of my life are obvious. Although I wasn't doing much socializing due to the pandemic anyway, I've still scaled back my online interactions. My anxiety levels are at a near-constant high thanks to current events, my job, occasional weather-related crises (my furnace just broke AGAIN), and pushing myself to get a page of UTC done each week. I take mental health breaks every so often when I really need one, but if I get too comfortable relying on those, I'm going to slump into another hiatus, so I have to be mindful of a good balance.
At least I know where my emotional breaking point is. Ever since I learned that, I've been careful to limit how much I work, as well as who I talk to and how often, so my little overstimulated introvert brain can recharge its energy. But shutting myself off from the majority of the community hurts in other ways. Especially since conventions can't restart for a while yet, I'm often wanting to contact furries/TF folks and either catch up or just hash out TF ideas. But I don't because I know I'll only be able to hold a half-hour conversation and then I won't say another word for months.
So, yeah, it's going to be mostly UTC stuff for a while longer. I hope that's okay with all of you. I WOULD like to make some one-off TF comics or do another costume series or draw some art for other people. But that's going to have to come as time and energy allows. I've always got IDEAS. Hopefully one day we'll see what can be made from them.
Thank you to everyone leaving comments on UTC. It's always been a love letter to the wonderful TF community and my heart gets a nice boost seeing people are still invested in it after so long. The full archives are, as always, on the website. And my Patreon page is still active and posting pages a day early, if you're into that sort of thing.
I've probably written before about how, mentally, I feel pulled in a dozen directions at once. Hunkering down and declaring "Okay, I'm going to just work on UTC Phase Three until I either run into a major jam or I finish the whole thing" has been, so far, wildly successful. In the past year and a half I've finished 34 comic pages and 2 cover images. That's more progress than I made on UTC in the 3 YEARS before that.
With my job stressing me out and the pandemic being, you know, horrible, there are plenty of weeks when it's really hard to get anything done at all. But I've been trying my best. Truth be told, I'm not very happy with the art quality of most of the pages. But I think where I'm making real strides is in my writing. I'd like to say the art would be better if I gave myself more time to draw each page, but given how little time there is, I'm in a "quantity over quality" mode. It's basically the question "do you want Phase Three finished in 2022, or 2032?"
The knock-on effects that working on UTC has had on other parts of my life are obvious. Although I wasn't doing much socializing due to the pandemic anyway, I've still scaled back my online interactions. My anxiety levels are at a near-constant high thanks to current events, my job, occasional weather-related crises (my furnace just broke AGAIN), and pushing myself to get a page of UTC done each week. I take mental health breaks every so often when I really need one, but if I get too comfortable relying on those, I'm going to slump into another hiatus, so I have to be mindful of a good balance.
At least I know where my emotional breaking point is. Ever since I learned that, I've been careful to limit how much I work, as well as who I talk to and how often, so my little overstimulated introvert brain can recharge its energy. But shutting myself off from the majority of the community hurts in other ways. Especially since conventions can't restart for a while yet, I'm often wanting to contact furries/TF folks and either catch up or just hash out TF ideas. But I don't because I know I'll only be able to hold a half-hour conversation and then I won't say another word for months.
So, yeah, it's going to be mostly UTC stuff for a while longer. I hope that's okay with all of you. I WOULD like to make some one-off TF comics or do another costume series or draw some art for other people. But that's going to have to come as time and energy allows. I've always got IDEAS. Hopefully one day we'll see what can be made from them.
Thank you to everyone leaving comments on UTC. It's always been a love letter to the wonderful TF community and my heart gets a nice boost seeing people are still invested in it after so long. The full archives are, as always, on the website. And my Patreon page is still active and posting pages a day early, if you're into that sort of thing.
but you shouldn't push yourself to do interactions if you feel it'd only go halfway, too. Be your best even when you want to talk with others, don't push too hard or it'll feel forced.