fantakoi
patreon
review & plans
🕑 Added 2022-01-09 20:42:20 +0000 UTChey everyone, I've written this post a few days ago and didn't get around to post it yet, so even though I'm a little late I wish you a Happy New Year ๐!! I hope you all had a good start and could get some rest.
I also want to talk about my plans for the coming months and do a review of last year. The short version is that I'm very grateful that I could get back into doing things for the comic. And that many readers are still sticking with me and want to know what happens between my boys really means so much to me ๐ Thank you ;;
I'm pretty satisfied with every scene I could finish last year and I feel really proud when I look at them. I think reflecting and reviewing the scenes before I showed them to anyone helped me a lot to voice my own thoughts about the pages. I now write down what I think of the pages after I finish the scene. I also made it a habit to never post the scene on the same day I finish it. It's less stressful that way and I get to spend some days just letting the scene be finished and I can just keep it to myself for a bit.
Journaling turned out to be one of the most helpful things for me and it's still funny to me how I kind of got into that. When I first started writing Ghost Lights I had the strong urge to give Noah his journals as a tool to deal with his feelings and I wanted to show how capturing everything will help him solve problems and certain puzzle pieces as well ๐ฆ Now I'm doing it myself and it's so nice to be able to look back at older entries. Journaling is part of CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and the tools I've learned have been really good for how I view my work and myself.
Keeping record of all the good thoughts I have about the things I create helps me to see those achievements even when I have bad days.
Speaking of achievements~ I'm really happy that over the months I could reduce the time I take to finish a scene almost in half! I think that's what I'm the most proud of and what I mainly worked towards to last year. It took months to get the hang of new ways of doing things, and I still haven't figured out all steps of the workflow, and I think it will be a โwork in progressโ forever. But I'm so glad I took the time to make things easier for myself, and instead of trying to do things how I used to do them I just tried to work with what I have now. It was a lot of work to set it all up, it was a lot of trial and error, and the most difficult part was and is to unlearn things I had told myself for a long time (โI can't do this, because....โ), but it paid off so much.
I really wanted to let go of perfectionism, without losing any quality, and while I tweaked things... I somehow gained more time to add many details in backgrounds! In general I have much more fun while drawing~ And through the reduced time it takes to finish a scene I can make sure that I have enough off days per month and I can rest every day. I didn't want to be โfasterโ to finish more scenes; I just wanted to gain time for myself so I could rest more. Because more rest means I have much more energy for my comic~ I think that's my biggest achievement of last year!! And I'm very proud of that๐ฑ
Soo, this year I actually don't have any specific goals either, I just want to continue to find easy ways to do things, improve my skills, and I hope that I can progress the story steadily!
BUT I have a few very small changes planned for patreon:
Ghost Lights has been running since early 2017 and it's doing pretty well currently. But naturally people tend to lose interest after a while and I'm sure this happens to most series after a few years. It's just something that happens and I don't think my Hiatus made a huge difference (and I'm very lucky I can say that), but I think it's time for me to come out of my hermit crab shell and be a bit more active on social media again.... I thought about it and I think it could be good for the comic if I would show more of my comic progress for public, too.
Soo, change no. ๐บ 1: the โbaby leafโ ($1+) tier will receive access to sketches and wips as usual and I will still talk your ear off on here~ (hehe), but the sketches and wips will be more of a โearly birdโ thing from now on. You'll get to see the sketches first. But when I feel like it I might just post them on social media a few days later.
๐บ 2: I have something nice planned for the higher tiers ($5+ and up) and it's a longterm thingie (I will tell you once i can start adding it as a reward) ๐
๐บ 3: I might implement the yearly subscription option for you! I haven't really looked into it yet, but some of you have been here for so long, I'd love to give you some sort of discount for pledging for a longer time.
๐บ 4: I might change the pledge currency from USD into Euro. For existing patrons there will be no change in your pledged amount as long as you keep your pledge active, as far as I know, but I thought I should mention it here still!
Aand that's it for now~ I'll let you know once I implement those changes!
The sketch in this post is from my newest pages. I'm currently finishing up the sketches for scene 54 and I can start lining tomorrow! ๐พ
Comments
Susan Lilley
So much of this resonates with me. I have to let my stuff sit for a day. Get some perspective. Then come back to it and things I didnโt notice will be SO obvious. Then Iโve got a bit more energy to keep improving. But Iโm also impatient do I post and do โfair warning, probably not finishedโ lol.
Cj Taylor
๐๐๐ฅบ I'm so proud of you Fanta, you've got this, Ill be here just as happy as ever every update ๐, and my year hasn't started off as great but imma keep pushing thru
Nyx Covault
Thank you Fanta that makes me feel better about it! I've started using Daily Bean on my phone recently, I like that it has way more categories than a typical mood tracker, like activities, who you talked to, what meals you had, and stuff like that and then a section for writing an entry. You or other people who read this might like daily bean, it's very cute as well
you're so sweet, thank youu ๐! tbh i don't journal every day either, sometimes i forget to do it too, sometimes you just have no energy for that or other things have to be done, so I totally understand that you can't keep up with daily journaling especially if it's an art journal! i settled for weekly (like 5 mins at the start of each week) and monthly reflection and it helps too because it's still a regular check-in but there's not as much pressure. whenever good things happen and i'm in the mood i write in my journals or when i have a new idea for scenes etc (i have a small journal for myself and a separate for my progress with the comic). and i have a secure place where i vent as well. basically it's just a digital journal that's offline (i use scrivener, it's actually a program for writing but i made a file and use it as a vent diary) and i just write down things that bother me or i have to work through in there! it helps me to know that no one else can or could read it so i can be completely honest with myself. i wish you good luck with your journaling, and really no worries if you don't get to do it super often ๐ ๐ป
ahh thank you so much, forest!! that means a lot to me ; o; ๐ hope you're doing well ๐ good luck with all your projects this year (do you have any cosplay plans?)
I am so excited and happy to hear about your plans and how you reviewed your last year. I am very proud of you Fanta you are doing so well <3
Nyx Covault
This is so good to hear!! Love when you have these positive moments of reflection. I need to get more serious about journaling too. I started that art journal back in December 2019 (!) and I have filled only 3 pages so far with art and doodles. It's just a matter of getting into the habit and adding a little bit even on the bad days. Your posts are always inspirational. Have a good day ๐
