Okay, I’m not saying I’m burnt out, but there’s some definite smouldering going on right now…
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to get Fifth Ace Comics work done in between the day job and social obligations; even when I do get a free moment, I’m more likely to just try and take a breather. The day job is picking up as more people come out of the holiday malaise, and with the installation of inverters, soon there will be no more taking advantage of the load shedding hours; I’m having to squeeze in artwork wherever I can while attempting not to overdo things. Despite coming across as fairly simple, the day job can sometimes require a lot of concentration (especially when certain people can’t communicate properly), and during the busier parts of the day it gets pretty stressful.
I do plan on taking a break soon, but to maintain the update schedule, I have to keep going uninterrupted through February; that will bring Issue #3 of the Fifth Ace Showcase to a close, and I’d rather not leave it unfinished. I’m ever so slightly ahead of schedule, but social obligations from here to Sunday might throw that off a bit. The plan is to pull ahead in February, maybe get the last week before March free, and then take a break from the Showcase through March itself. Without the Mon-Wed-Fri update schedule, I’ll be able to recuperate a bit and fiddle around with some other things that I don’t currently have the time for. I did want to get in some Blender practice for the February story, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to refine it to the level I want in time; it would make elements of the story more visually distinct, but it’s no great loss if it doesn’t happen.
However, just because the Showcase will be on hiatus in March, doesn’t mean I’m going to be inactive. Magic Beans and Bottom of the Deck will continue as normal, since they are relatively low effort in comparison, and I’m going to take the extra time to try and boost my social media presence. Odds are that you reading this, are someone that I know personally because I’ve happened to tell you about my website; we don’t get as much traffic around here as you might think, and my social media insights leave a lot to be desired. As such, March is going to be my time to upload some eye-catching stuff all over the socials to try and direct more people here; I have an idea or two about how to go about this.
The big thing with a lot of social media these days is that they don’t like external links; putting a link to a different website in your post is almost guaranteed to have it buried. Unfortunately, that’s what most of my posts consist of, because I don’t want to put the artwork displayed on my website directly onto another platform; it kind of defeats the purpose of having a website, y’know? So with that in mind, I want to start uploading more standalone art pieces that I don’t mind having out there in the wild; I’ve also recently learned about Clip Studio’s time-lapse feature, so posting some short videos showing the drawing process will no doubt do wonders for my Instagram, at the very least.
But before all that happens, I’m going to finish powering through Issue #3, so that there’s no chance of leaving it unfinished for a year like I did with Issue #2. Wish me luck!
Ciao for now.