Weekly Update - 84

First I want to thank Zephyr for subscribing at Landlord tier!!!  Just... AAAAHHHH!!!  I don't know what I've done to deserve such love.  Also their character is awesome and I'm really looking forward to learning more so I can draw her with confidence.  :3

I like to keep these weekly previews mostly spoiler free... but showing any part of The Next Page might be a little too spoilery for my liking.  So instead, here, have a Riley.  I like this image a lot, so I'll probably be posting it as a sketch too.  When I'm done telling Kiva's story, or maybe when I need to take a short break from it, I still fully intend to do a comic starring Riley as the main character, a few years after the events of Kiva's story.  I have a very interesting idea for how to present it and I am eager to explore it.

It's been awhile since I've taken a week off, and seeing as how I pulled ahead of schedule somehow and have been feeling a little burnt out lately, I've been taking it relatively easy this past week.  You might have noticed I didn't post anything this Friday.  I still drew some things, but I just didn't end up streaming or posting them.  I was taking a break, I admit, kind of unplugging is all.

So there'll be a comic posted this week, but I will probably take next week off, as is my usual thing when I end a chapter.

Comic This Week:  Yes

Next Week?:  Nah.  This was a really long chapter anyway.

Drawing: General sketching and practicing for upcoming pages.

Playing: Cyberpunk 2077

GMing: Cyberpunk Red, session 3?

Ramble:

On the topic of burn-out and work-life balance, I guess.

Some of you know, I worked in the video games industry for ten years.  The video games industry is one where passion is often a substitute for fair pay and fair schedules.  And I can't say that I think it is any kind of consciously malicious effort from management or the executives to keep their employees underpaid and overworked, but I do blame them for benefitting from the situation while not giving any attention to the human element and not trying to do more to fix it.  Ten years is well beyond the average three it takes for most people to burn out in that industry, and yeah, working there for 10 years left me with a little PTSD by the time I was done.  Particularly in regards to overtime and not getting enough time off.

But this ramble isn't about the games industry.  When I started drawing again and decided that this would be my career, there are still times where it feels like work, and times when I still get burnt out.  Sure, I like the part where I'm actually drawing, that's fun for me.  But trying to be self-motivating all the time, fretting over whether or not these whacky ideas of mine will make any sense to anyone else, knowing that nothing is getting done if I'm not the one doing it, trying to promote myself and not sound like some kind of gross salesman while also trying to hype people up to read my comic (not too much hype, though, lest those who come to read the comic be disappointed by what they find), worrying over whether I'm doing enough to keep those who HAVE subscribed feeling like their donations are worth it, those things all carry differing and varying amounts of stress.  And every once in awhile it piles up and wears me out.  Every once in awhile I need to step back and reset.

Anyway, have a good week, everyone, and I hope you enjoy the upcoming end of Chapter 7!