The Anaether

I definitely haven’t been updating this blog as much as I used to, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been active with this project. Most of my frequent updates have been on Patreon for patrons. I’m still pretty active on Twitter but mostly just spend time reposting old work to try to continue growing my audience and support the art community.

I switched out my video card on my work desktop and I was so afraid it wouldn’t go well. It was like 7 or 8 years old, and some newer games were getting pretty glitchy with their graphics. But then the new video card didn’t have the old DVI port, so I swapped the cable from my personal desktop to my work desktop to make sure I have dual screens. I could swap it back and forth but I’m too lazy, so I ordered another DisplayPort cable for my personal computer so that I can continue using my 2nd monitor. I feel weird and boxed in while working on only one monitor. But it’s only for like another day since the cable should be coming in within the next day.

I’d say I’m currently about halfway through page 74 of the Prototype chapter. Hoping to get page 75 done by the end of this week. I probably won’t do some Halloween illustration for this year, but I really ought to because then I can recycle seasonal images every year. I thought of doing something cute for Syf and something super smutty for Vas and Sem.

I have this feeling I could totally finish the prototype chapter before Thanksgiving, but I also have a feeling I just won’t. Hopefully at the latest, by Christmas. Right after that I really want to make a proper, seamless looping smutty animation of Vas and Sem, fully colored with a sort of detailed painted background. I feel like I’d take a month to do it. Well, this is what I feel like doing right now anyway.

I forget if I mentioned this before, but I thought about printing a bunch of Anaether art books that included the prototype chapter and the concept art I have so far. At least to have on my own bookshelf. It’d be awesome if I could get it in hard cover too. But it feels too early right now to do something like that since I don’t really have that many fans yet who would actually shell out real money to make it worth the time and resources. I do have a bunch of followers on Twitter right now, but usually the amount of people who would be willing to put in money is probably less than 1% of the total amount of followers/subscribers. But I’m not even sure what number I’d be looking for before I decide to run a crowdfunding campaign for getting this thing printed and shipped out to fans. I have a feeling I need at least a few tens of thousands of Twitter followers, probably. I’d also need to gauge the density of dedicated followers.

People have been truly kind so far, it’s actually been quite nice. Literally in the beginning of 2020, I was beginning to think people just really didn’t like my work and that Vas and the pairing with Vas and Sem was just way too weird. I then thought to myself “that can’t possibly be it. The internet’s full of all kinds of people, I probably just need to find my target audience out there.” It’s true, I really did just need to figure out how to get more exposure, and Twitter has helped a ton.

I just realized I have a lot of work ahead of me between now and Christmas. I just got commissioned for an animation and I have assigned myself a handful of gift art projects to do for family for the holidays which I want to finish before Thanksgiving so that I can order them to get printed on merchandise and shipped out for Christmas. I’ve been hearing from the news that due to supply chain issues, it’s supposedly “too late” to be shopping for gifts now. Like, we were supposed to be shopping last month and this month for Christmas.

Meh, I could always just tell people they’ll get the stuff later. It’ll stretch out the holiday festivities and keep things cheery for a bit longer after New Year’s.

I really want to do a Twitch stream of me creating some Anaether stuff, but I’m conflicted between being productive and allowing people to get closer to me. I’d get socially anxious, but I’d be happy to show people my process. I actually briefly watched a pretty sizeable artist on Twitter stream on Twitch, and I got so anxious during their stream because they were working so slowly, or at least not nearly as fast as I would be. I’m pretty sure that’s just my anxiety. I should just be in control and not feel like anyone, including myself, is rushing me. I hope I’d get some stuff done during streams, but I’m pretty sure I’m less likely to since I’d also be socializing. I really ought to be more okay with that. Maybe around the holidays I’ll try streaming.