Hand/Patreon update time!

As I write this I am sitting in a nice hotel in USA. We took a trip with the wife to meet her family. United States is a weird place, but that's neither here nor there.

My hand is doing better. Since the last post I've started a new physical therapy regimen and it's been paying off. I am pretty sure that most of my issues with drawing can be fixed with exercise and changing my work habits. While I still need to take it easy, maybe forever; it means that I can draw at least part time. But there will have to be changes in the future.

In the last couple of months I have come to terms with the fact that I won't be able to do long form storytelling in comic format anymore. It's just too taxing. At the pace that I can draw now, a project like Alfie is just not feasible. Which is painful for me, because that's exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I have so many ideas that I wanted to realize as comics, pornographic or otherwise. I will work hard to get my hand back to working shape, but I will always have to be mindful of my limits.

Finishing Alfie is still my priority, don't worry about that. But afterwards, I am sticking to illustrations and really short comics for a while. Maybe forever. It's been rather disheartening to realize your physical limits. I am thirty five, and I am learning what it means to get older. Take care of your body kids. You're not getting another one.

I had to admit to myself that I am never going to draw all these comics I wanted to draw. Which was painful, because I spent the last twenty years telling myself that I am about to start. I'll just finish this or that project and I'll jump right into writing/drawing that SFW idea I've had. It's gonna be great! Admitting that it's not going to happen took me over a year. Letting go of a dream is an awful feeling. It's been rather depressing... For a couple of days, before I started writing my comic ideas in a novel format!

Turns out that writing prose is fun. Did you know that you can just describe what is happening instead of drawing it? Crazy stuff! I am fifty thousand words into a first draft of a web-novel, and I am having a blast. I think that even if my hand was magically cured overnight I would still prefer to write out my SFW stories instead of drawing them. Who the fuck wants to spend three to six hours drawing a comic page, when I can get a whole chapter written in that much time? I can get waaaay more story out this way. I love it!

Right now, my plans for the future look like this: Rehab my hand as much as I can, then split my attention 50/50 between writing SFW stories, and drawing NSFW ones. While writing is still a bit taxing on my hands it's nowhere near as bad as drawing; this way I can squeeze out a full day's work of creativity out of my mangled body, without hurting myself.

I'll let you guys know more about the webnovel once I have something to show. Those who used to frequent my streams a long time ago may know about it. It's the one about the lady in the supermarket. How's that for a tease?

Last couple of months have been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, but I am pretty happy about where I am right now. I can draw, and I can write. I may not be able to combine them in the way I thought I would be able to, but it's still pretty cool.

I hope you are having a good one. I'll be back from my trip in early april, and I will focus my energy on finishing Alfie. After that? Who knows? But at least I am 100% certain that I have a future in drawing, and that's enough for me right now.