Updates!

Hey there everyone! Sorry I haven't been that active on here as of late. I've been busy with my regular job (working long nights well into overtime) as well as dealing with my Mother's health issues to boot. I had some car troubles on top of that, but everything seems to be calming down now. We've got a few topics to cover, so without further delay, let's get to the rundown. 

Commissions
I'm pretty sure a lot of you are wondering what the status is on the commissions. To be frank, I've been a tad lazy with them for the last few weeks due to the aforementioned issues with my car. I would get home from work, deal with the car troubles, and just feel exhausted once any free time would crop up. I know it's not a good excuse to not get the work I owe done, but it's the truth. I'm also just an insanely slow artist, and for that I'm sincerely sorry. Everyone so far has been incredibly understanding in the matter, and for that I'm very thankful. You guys are the best for being as patient as you've all been.

I am making progress on them, but most of them are still in the sketching phase yet. I don't really feel comfortable with sharing the sketches right now either, mostly due to the fact that I don't think they look like $100.00 pieces right now. They're very messy, and some of them I'm not going to stick with. I'm the sort of guy who will seriously run through fifty concepts before going with one. You guys paid me good money for good work, and dammit, you're going to get the best I can do! I know I say it on here every time, but trust me when I say that you WILL get your pieces come hell or high water! 

Where is the Money Going?
Seeing as how my hospital bill got dissolved back in February, I've been contemplating on purchasing a new computer with the acquired funds. Even though there is a bill for my surgeon that I'm still paying, I haven't touched any of the money yet, just in case someone/anyone wants a refund. I can swing paying my surgeon due to that bill not having any interest rate to speak of, and it's not as grand as the $2,000 bill I was looking at initially when I opened up the list.

If anything else though I'll be looking to make the purchase for the comp come the beginning of summer, or maybe by my birthday. I want to get something that is fairly powerful, so that I can use it to not only increase my artistic output, but maybe even break into something like livestreams, and tutorials. I've heard that a lot of people like those sort of things, and I think it would be cool to share my knowledge with those willing to watch/listen. There has even been talks between a few of my artist friends and I about doing a podcast, and a more powerful rig would certainly help in setting that sort of thing up. Nothing is set in stone at the moment. but they are things I'm thinking about doing.

Possible Patreon?
One of the things a lot of my artist friends have been telling me to do is start up a Patreon. Right now I'm still on the fence about it, but I figured that I'd throw out the line to you guys and see what you think. If I did do a Patreon, what sort of things would you want to see me do? I've been leaning towards doing the tutorials through Patreon, or doing something like art-packs, but nothing is definite. Frankly I don't think I have enough fans/followers to really justify a Patreon. let alone do I have consistent enough turn-out, but then again, it may help to get me into more of a routine.

What do you guys think? Is it something I should consider more seriously? 

Push for a Friend
One of my best friends, Joe Silver, has recently decided to post videos of his ink works on youtube. I'm pretty sure he would appreciate any views/comments on his work as much as the next artist would. He too is considering the jump to something like Patreon, but unlike myself, he is a very productive artist who inks professionally for the likes of DC comics.

Future/Other Projects
Along with working on the commissions, I've been writing away on my blog. I post reviews and editorials there for anyone who may be curious as to my thoughts on things other than the pretty pictures I post here. I also put up high-res files of my art there, so anyone who's been hankering for some high-res pics, there you go! I'm also looking to ramp up my output on there as well, but things are moving pretty slowly there too. One of my next big projects for the blog is to post the replays of a Maid RPG I ran for my artist/writer friends. We had a lot of fun playing that game, and I can only hope everyone likes reading about our exploits in that game, as much as we had fun playing it.

Another thing that's been on the plate is writing for other projects that I'm involved in. I'm not at liberty to detail all of them (due to some of them not exactly being ready for publicity yet) but a couple of them are already up and running. If anything else, I'd simply like to say that they're comic projects, and while I could just always draw them myself, I just don't have the time for it, so I've been talking with a couple artists I know to see about having them drawn through them. I don't want to say just yet who they are, but trust me when I say that they're absolutely phenomenal artists who I'm overjoyed to be working with for the foreseeable future. I can say though, for those who are fans of Shonuff44, I'm one of his writers for his Squeek and Shred comic! The first chapter to that is already up on his DA page, and the other writers and I are very happy with the chapter we wrote, and even more happy with the overall reception we got. There is more fun coming down the pipeline with that title, and frankly I can't wait to see how you guys react next!

I'm also announcing here my involvement with an upcoming Kickstarter campaign known as Roan!

What is Roan? It's a My LIttle Pony themed tabletop RPG, and I'm one of the artist who will be showcased in it! Currently I've designed the title/logo for the game, and everyone seems to be digging it so far. We're looking to launch come Bronycon, and any spreading of the word would be much appreciated. If you consider yourself a fan of MLP along with 1920's era pulp action, this is the game for you! Any further inquires about the project though should be directed to my good friend as he is the brains/writer behind the whole thing.

Conventions
I will be looking to attend Otakon once more this year, but sadly I missed out on acquiring a table in the Artist Alley. I'm gonna shoot for getting a table come the Saturday of the con like I did last year, but we'll see where that goes. On the other hand I will be attending Bronycon as an artist, promoting the aforementioned Roan game. There is going to be a few other artists attached to the game there helping to promote as well, so if you consider yourself a brony, come on out and see us!

That about does it as far as updates go. Sorry for the wall of text, but a lot has been happening to me in the last few months. While I feel terrible about not having those commissions done yet, I do want to show you guys that I haven't been sitting around doing nothing, or putting your money to poor use. Hopefully with the purchase of a new computer, and with some of these projects moving forward, I can get the time/funds necessary to open up my schedule, and dedicate more time to my art. Til next time guys, thanks for your patience and understanding, and I'll see you all on the flip side!