June Report

☀️Hello and happy July!☀️
Thank you so much for supporting my work this past month as well as the work of my collaborators! This little enterprise keeps incorporating new people I'm happy to say💗Meet Iggy🐸Parrish who is a dear friend and collaborator who has saved my ass on multiple projects in the past 💚

Stay tuned to the end to see some previews of some of the collaborative projects in the works. But for now: report time, please take your seats.📊

4️⃣/4️⃣GOALS MET🎉
✅CYOA Part 19 Update
✅Weekly Updates June
✅Faun x Swordsman Comic Pages 9-12
✅Patreon Restructure - Technically this is still a work in progress, but critically it's in progress.👷Pardon the mess!
Adding on our progress from the last two months, it's been a productive Q2 at the office.🗄️✅CYOA Part 17 & 18 Update
✅International Shipping for Physical Comics
✅Weekly Updates in April & May
✅Satyr x Swordsman Comic Pages 1-8 (Already forgot how much of a struggle it was to get this started)

The unglamorous goals- Expanding the store, restructuring Patreon and setting achievable goals for myself I'm glad to have out of the way because they're necessary but not fun and creative.

On the other hand, they make it possible to do more ambitious projects, which you've already started to see in a small way this month's longer CYOA Update, thanks to Iggy's🐸 contributions! Thanks Iggy!💚

Here’s what we had cookin' last month...

At the beginning of the month I was finishing a tricky illustration project (can't show it yet, sorry - client's wishes 🥲) and I'd made a lot of witchy sketches in the process that at first I was going to throw away, before I realized I could use them for other purposes 😈

One of the sketches became this portal piece below and I had some other half-baked ideas I'm still going to play with in this vein as July rolls on...

I've been sketching some more Daisies, one of which got the polish treatment (Maid Daisy or maybe Nurse Daisy?) and some others which you'll probably see more of soon as I get further on the Daisies Zine project 🌼

After drawing some cartoony Zeldas I got derailed by my new muse, Don Bluth's design for Eve from Dragon's Lair 2.🍇🍌🍍

I'm glad I followed this particular rabbit hole because it feels like it's feeding into my interest in cartoons in a nice way.

✅The Patreon Restructure is almost complete and will get ironed out gradually this month.

When I'm done old stuff will be better tagged and browse-able and separate out the past comics into collections for featuring.

As I get into this whole rotating comic archive thing, I want to use it as an excuse to make new art of old characters, starting with Poppy & Oak this month??? I miss drawing those two sometimes.

✅Faun x Swordsman Comic Pages 9-12

I’m pleased with how these pages have been turning out, and I don’t mind having less speech bubbles for a couple pages so I can focus on people enjoying themselves :3

That said, I wish the pages were going a bit faster, I’m in mid-project hyper fixation mode where the characters have clicked and now I’m just adding more details on every page.

The hoof floors are getting pretty elaborate on some of these, but it's just my enjoyment showing. 💖

Similarly, drawing characters making love in a field of anemone flowers has basically been my ulterior motive for this project all along so I'm excited to have made it this far.

I’m not sure if focusing on these pastoral, fairytale moments is hurting the pacing, but if it becomes a problem I can always add or subtract a page down the road.
Remember your mantra, Winton, Fix It In Post. 
My brain, rebelling:

I think the theme of my whole month was everything taking longer than I expected (surprise surprise) especially ✅ The Orc and the Tower Part 19, but that's because it’s got more than double the number of illustrations from last month's! 😤

I indulged in a bit more of my Bernie Wrightson/Frazetta influences for this update by adding a lot of hatching.

The style for this project has gradually evolved and I’m using a bit grainier brushes now which helps it feel fresh to work on.

This marks a new first because my friend and collaborator Iggy🐸 contributed these two illustrations to this update⤵️

This allowed me to focus a lot more on the big spreads ⤵️ without cutting the fun flavor illustrations. I feel like I’ve been talking about collaborations with other artists for months and finally being able to show some of it is really exciting.😤

I think having structure and systems for  creative work is super important and I plan to get Iggy’s🐸 help on stuff on a regular basis going forward

Getting this stuff in the rear view mirror is just going to allow us to make bigger, better stuff and that’s really exciting!

My next collaboration with Iggy🐸 (who conveniently likes to draw flowers also) is going to be about dusting off some animation ideas to polish up. It’ll take a couple months to figure out a process that works, but the dream is to have little animations be a part of what we produce on regular basis. I love being able to work with other artists and PAY THEM so thank you for making that possible.💖

Kitt🐰 is keeping the physical store running smoothly (thank you to everyone who bought comics and stickers this month!❤️) Especially those of you who were patient with us as we figured out all the international shipping quirks, we really appreciate! New orders are going to come with Daisy/ Peach postcard prints 🌼🍑 Thanks Kitt! 💖

We're also fixing bottlenecks and stock issues by professionally printing the Libby & Holly comics, and wow I do like that thicker paper ❤️ Check 'em out~ www.cominginhandy.com.

This brings us to THE FUTURE, here’s my July plans.☀️

⏹️CYOA Pt 20 - Maybe a smidge shorter this time.
⏹️Faun x Satyr 13-16 - There’s going to be more flowers :)
⏹️Weekly updates - I'm going to try to find a consistent cadence for this like Wed/Friday updates every week.
⏹️Daisy Zine Progress for August release - I think I have enough Daisy drawings for the zine, I’d just like to clean up and collage a bunch of them, make the covers, etc. So you'll probably see some of these get polished.

Thank you for helping make this possible, everyone! I feel like we're turning a new page on this whole endeavor and I'm excited to have a lot of new things to show soon!

💚Winton