Into the New Year

It was a weird start to the year, with Patreon having had a glitch appear after a code upgrade which threw a wrench into things for a few days.  It looks like it's largely fixed now, so kudos for the fast turn-around.

That said, I'm hoping to wander into the new year with a little more focus than last.  Most of 2015 was my poking around and figuring out what exactly I wanted to do with Patreon.  While I got more art done in the last year - in great part due to Patreon - It was also a little disjointed.  I admit I was learning a lot at the time as well, and experimenting with artistic things that I haven't done in the past to any big degree, like tonal paintings and comics, now that I actually have a tenuous grasp on how to do both, I'm going to try and focus my efforts a little.

So, in the next year I'm hoping to do the following:

1 - Concept Art for Felwroth:  I've been wanting to flesh out the world a lot more over the last few months.  I'd like to not only do some character concepts to show people, cultures, clothing, bits of wood, bits of not-wood and everything in between, but also do more 'slice of life' style paintings.  Showing events, environments, people's lives, what they might do with bits of wood, and so-on.  All of this is dependent on how much extra work I take on, which brings me to..

2 - Commissions:  I plan on doing commission work, offering up slots first to people supporting me here.  Slots can be nabbed for friends, neighbors, or yourself.  I'm working on a more solid info page about commissions, everything from rates to what can be included.  I'm still not sure how I'll go about offering them or where to post about slots being open or not.  An excellent suggestion was to introduce a tier on Patreon that are limited, but that people could grab once per 'cycle', but that doesn't take into account the fact that the $10 and $5 tiers both get discounts on any commissions.  But I'll figure out a good system yet.  Hopefully one that is fair all around.

3 - Tides Comic (and beyond):  I was cruising along really well on the Tides comic until I hit some turbulence this last September.  Some Family life things needed to be dealt with as well as a work-related injury (I guess hunching over a tablet for 10+ hours a day is not exactly a smart thing to do for weeks on end).  With a bit of re-working of my work-space as well as some free time I'm finally able to get back to writing and drawing out pages of the Tides comic.

That said, I've also been toying with another idea for when the current comic issue(s) are done.  Tides isn't slated to become a crazy-long series, unless I get requests for continuation or come up with some bonkers ideas for the storyline that takes me beyond what is planned.  While Tides is set on tropical islands and lovely sands, the second idea takes place in a slightly more grim setting of snow, dealing more with the peoples of the area known as the Aegencald.

4 - Suggestions:  I'll be open to suggestions as well.  I'm still figuring out the whole 'art for an audience' thing, and am happy to add rewards to tiers if they are possible.  You've all been pretty darn excellent so far, so if there's anything I can add (that doesn't add another 10hrs of work a day ;) ) I'm more than happy to hear it.

More than anything I hope I keep learning as the year progresses.  I honestly wish I had something like this years ago that would have kicked me into a fit of learning and improving.  Or at least given me some goals to strive towards.  But here's to the future.

I hope you all have an amazing new year.  I personally only hope for a peaceful one.  The trumpets and car-crash sounds of 2015 are still ringing in my ears.

Cheers, folks.

-T.J.