January Recap & Behind-the-scenes

Hey patrons! Since this update was so meaty, I decided to break it up into two parts. Today I’ll go over all the happenings in December and this year’s wrap up, and tomorrow I’ll share all the cool things I have currently planned for January and 2018. So let’s dive right into it! 

Firstly, I’d like to extend a huge welcome and thank you to this month’s new patrons:

Brian R Whitacre

Destiny June Geppert

Kevin lindner

Killurmonkey

Mel

Nagito_Eevee

Thank you guys for your support!

New monthly segment alert! Not only do I want to take time to welcome new patrons, I also want to thank the people who have stuck with me through thick and thin. As of this month, the following patrons have been supporting me for a year or more. Happy patroniversary to:

Pedro Galicia

Mike Diaz

EnzoComics

Mark Glavin

Cowgirl Zombie

Olivia Walch

Lunarbaboon

Kyle Sue

Kevin Matos

Vemocleus

ShyCake

ZMS

Josh

Jason rousos

Max Hapner

Galev

Chris

Michael S.

Zeke

Vokiman

Matt W

Thor. A

Reavyn

Maria Anwar

I’m truly grateful to you all for reading and supporting my work. 

December Recap:

December started strong with the launch and promotion of the Doodle for Food holiday sale. Holiday portraits were one of the biggest hits, which was a pleasant surprise. I got so many requests in person and through the shop that I had to close commissions almost immediately so I could make sure all portraits were finished in time for the holidays. In case you missed them, here are a few of the completed portraits:

(Quick note: I’m currently finishing up avatars for gold patrons for the winter season. If you’re a gold patron and interested in an avatar and for some reason I didn’t message you, let me know! LET ME DRAW THINGS FOR YOU) 

Several people received shirts and hoodies and the reviews are in: They’re a hit! I always try to offer the highest quality items, and prefer to test product firsthand but this time around I was only able to go off of reviews I found online. It’s a huge relief that people like the shirts and find them super soft. I can’t wait to release more designs!

There were also two livedraws this month for gold patrons, and I was joined by my friends Pedro, Jane, and Olivia. We discussed things like holiday traditions and our thoughts on resolutions while I drew doodle requests. Here are a few of my favorite sketches from both sessions:

Things were going pretty smoothly up until I injured my hand. After waking up to excruciating pain, I was forced to go to the doctor and stop all work for over a week. I’m paid per comic, so missing a week’s worth of work is a pretty stressful situation to deal with on top of medical expenses. Thankfully, my medical bills were minimal and I was able to make up for the missed comics after I recovered. 

While I was out for the count, I decided to use my time in a productive way: researching and planning! (This decision may or may not have been based on the fact that the medication I was on gave me an insane level of concentration). After reflecting upon 2017 as a whole, I quickly realized two things. Firstly, I wasted a lot of time because I didn’t put in proper effort to plan and organize the various projects I have going on. Secondly, I was tired of feeling out of control with my work schedule. This included things like: working crazy hours, not having regular days off, and being unable to take vacations, holidays, or sick days. So I read up on time and project management and began piecing together a plan of action for 2018.

Based on what I learned and the goals I set for myself, I created a test schedule for my new workload. It looks something like this:

I know it looks scary, but let me explain! My schedule is broken up by three main calendars: Social Media, Merchandise, and Work. The Work calendar helps me track projects I want to work on plus any recurring weekly deadlines. The Social Media calendar reminds me when and what to post on any given day. This includes things like reminders for comic updates, and promo posts for Patreon or my online shop. The merchandise calendar helps me keep track of when I should be planning, designing, or ordering merchandise so that I have items in time for big holidays or events. While the calendar is certainly colorful and looks full, a lot of these items are quick tasks and are more of a guideline than hard deadlines. 

Being both an artist and entrepreneur is a really difficult thing to balance, and it’s been a slow learning curve for me. I thought having all of my projects and tasks laid out with this much detail would be overwhelming and I’d end up running and screaming the other direction. However, I’ve found it to have the opposite effect. I’m working more efficiently, have more ideas, and I’m not nearly as stressed out. Funny how things turn out, huh?

After I was cleared to draw again, I spent all my time oscillating between making up missed comics and building a buffer while attending social obligations with people known as “family” and “friends” for events known as “holidays”. I made 12 comics this month, which I think is pretty impressive considering I only worked for half of December. I’m really proud of what I was able to accomplish this month despite some setbacks. Makes me super excited for the rest of 2018!

From me to you, Happy New Year! Please enjoy this comic from 2013, which is probably one of the first hints at Dark Megan humor: 

See you tomorrow with the second part of this update!

-Megan