TWAB: Keeping in Touch

Slightly updated way of teasing recently uploaded art - though I'm unsure about it. It does a better job of communicating, but it also uses more space...

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I've been creating a lot of sketch collection posts, which is not inherently a problem, but it's funny that we previously agreed to me only posting once a week (Female Link Friday), with everything else just being a bonus... And yet, there's been a lot of "bonuses" lately!

I only bring this up because I worry about creating too many expectations for it for what is ultimately shallow, albeit plentiful in quantity, filler during the month.

Anyway, I've been feeling pretty tired lately.

Seasonal Artwork

We've had a large number of summer-themed artwork lately, particularly among the weekly illustrations. This trend of themed content allows the month to feel unique, and lets me play with more diverse elements of design for what is otherwise shallow content.

There are a few more months of summer left, but I don't know if we should keep this theme up until the end of September yet, and I don't know what the broader plan for October is. It's one of those months with a lot of potential options.

Nude Variants

The last weekly illustration had a bonus nude variant (which is nothing new), but since Female Link Friday is my biggest source of value, that may be worth doing more often.

I don't want it to become the default expectation because it affords me less freedom, and it can even be double or triple the work for some artworks. Since nude variants require a nude base, that is much harder for images that were designed around more clothing than a bikini - and is counterproductive, as art that takes longer to create is generally less favorable.

It may balance out if the sexy variants are good enough to appeal to consumers, so this may be worth exploring in the near future -- maybe a week or two where that's my only goal.

Improvement

Recent illustrations have been higher in scope than previous ones, with greater use of texture, rendering, and some background. This results in artwork that can be more visually interesting.

Although I don't need every weekly illustration to be of similar quality (and most viewers tend to prefer shallow pinups), I'd like to do more with single images; either with more interesting shapes, colours, story, or context. Since many patrons are interested in story & worldbuilding, this can provide an additional avenue to that end without requiring full comics.

If the scope of my work increases, it may be difficult to manage in a weekly format, but that is a direction I'm thinking about; ways to make my art feel less dull.

Struggles with New Event Idea

I previously talked about introducing a new event themed around Elayne Beaumont as part of our weekly content rotation. The most obvious option is to create a weekly web comic, but I'm unsure if a linear narrative is the best idea for a weekly event.

I think this is the case for a number of reasons: lack of general interest in Elayne as a concept, creating good comics is quite hard, and social media is not ideal for organizing or distributing long-term projects spread across several posts.

Although I could follow the format of Female Link Friday (with pinups), that doesn't lend itself to an environment to meaningfully explore the world or its characters, resulting in pinups of a boring character that most people don't know or care about -- so, not providing much value. We could possibly keep the format very loose, but a lack of direction could make it difficult for viewers to enjoy, and it begs the question whether a "Morning Sun Day" is even worthwhile.

So it seems difficult to design a universally satisfying solution...

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Anyway, that's it for now. It's been a while since the last TWAB, so I'm just keeping in touch. I should technically do this every single week, but I'm lazy and don't always have anything worth saying...

Don't forget to eat & sleep.