2024: New Year, New Plans... hopefully.

(I originally posted this public post to my Patreon (viewable by all) and created a link on Twitter ("X", eyeroll) back on January 4th):

I had been thinking for the past month or two about what new projects lie ahead in the "World of BustArtist." I've been pondering new Commission themes, thinking about animation (2D), possible individual commissions, printed merch, and a new cinema series.

Well, 2024 started out pretty shitty, and has thrown a monkey wrench into things.

(The following was edited way down to the nitty-gritty from a rambling post that I realized was just venting and not productive, so I stripped it.)

Jan 1st AM: Was informed about credit card fraud on our account. Most charges declined, but one we didn't make is pending removal. We have faith it should be removed by Fraud Dept.

Jan 1st afternoon: Car's transmission blew while driving home from our family holiday vacation. We were still 250+ miles from home, and in a remote area. Got a tow, but dealership was closed.  Had to get a hotel (added expense).

Jan 2nd AM: Informed by dealership that car's CVT transmission needs to be replaced. Cost? EXPENSIVE! How long? About a week (at least 3 days ordering, 3 days fixing). So, off to rent a car for over a week (more money). Also had to plan on an 9-hour roundtrip next week to pick up our car once it's done.

Jan 3rd, AM: Pushed off some scheduled, expensive dental work (which we finally budgeted out last month) for 1 more month (the work is due to a deep infection 18 months ago that cost me teeth). Need it done, but delayed it by a month so I can rebudget things due to car (above).

THANK YOU for being a $upporter: either Patron and/or a grOw customer!

Your continued $upport is very much needed for the next few months — scratch that — few years!! I appreciate ALL who $upport artists and creators and their long hours and hard work.

On to future work...

Individual Commissions

I mentioned doing this once before, which was actually back when my dental issues all started and I needed the extra money to pay for it. It never happened, as I was too focused on Patreon and grOw, and couldn't decided a fair price, and needed to learn how other artists dealt with the "red tape" on creating commissions (How do fans submit? How do you choose? How to accept payment? How do you close the deal? Etc., Etc., Etc).

Well, I think I am forced to now do this due to our outstanding expenses. I will need to work some hours on weekends in order to achieve this. I still need to figure out the issues laid to above, so this may take a few weeks to a couple of months.

Patreon Commission themes

I had hoped to implement this for January, but I was too busy with the latest issue of grOw/cinema 2, finalizing Patreon rewards before my trip, and getting ready for the holidays. To bring new life to the Commissions, I wanted to try new things. One thought was to add a "theme" to some commissions from time to time, OR, a size-limit (say, nothing above "huge"). This will add some life by injecting new ideas. I think the "huge limit" on a few commissions is not a bad thing, as this is still "way above normal" and would normally illicit a shocking reaction if it actually happened in real life. "Themes" may help inspire new ideas from patrons (As an artist, I've had people say "Cool! Draw something!"  which is a LOT harder than "Draw a cat licking its paws.")

Animation

(This was full-go when I posted it, but may take a back seat to the personal commissions, which have started for higher level tiered Patrons)

I've seen some really good 2D animation out there, and thought my art would really sing if this was applied. Now, to be clear, this is not any time soon. I just purchased Moho animation software at the beginning of December and have been watching tutorials. I will then need to experiment and do simple projects (which I will post here).

This will be 2D animation and will probably begin as taking my artwork, slicing it into "parts" like a puppet, and adding motion and growth. We will see where it will lead from there.

However, there may be a slower output schedule for animation than I had originally hoped due to taking on the Individual Commissions, as outline above, which was not part of the plan when I started to think about animation.

grOw/cinema

With grOw/cinema 2 ("grOwing to a Crescendo") put to bed, it's on to other things. For the next release (or two), I will work on the next installment of grOw/cinema 1 ("The Ever-Expanding Universe"), and brainstorm ideas for grOw/cinema 3. I am thinking the third series of this format will be an anthology, or a bunch of grOwth short stories (1 or maybe 2 issues in length) that can cover a lot of new themes and quick storylines. Like cinema 1, it can be published sporadically, with breaks in between issues while I work on other projects, such as retuning to cinema 1 ("Ever-Expanding"), new grOw/stOries, or animation projects (maybe).

Printed Merch

The least of all new projects. This will start as simply working out a way to sell the printed art books not sold at Exxxotica in 2023. I have about 45 to sell, along with some stickers. My first priority is to recap my investment outlay. I am not sure if I will pursue more, mostly due to the time it takes to process physical merch (packaging, mailing, tracking, etc.). The wife is ready to do most of the fulfilling, I just need to set-up the store and take orders.

It's off to the races...

Now it's time to end this post and begin work for 2024. Stay tuned!

grOw/cinema 2, Ep.6, frame 59 completed.

It's been whirlwind of chaos for the last few weeks.

I just finished frame 59 of grOw/cinema 2, Ep.6 — this final chapter of this series! This puts us at the 79% completion mark of the issue. Here are 2 previews for the work done since last update. 

During that time, I was also prepping for Exxxotica NJ (Nov 2-6) and then I and the wife were down for the count for a bit with COVID right after coming home! After nearly of week of down time, I played catch up for the work that got delayed from all that. But I seem to be back on track again (albiet, a little behind on this issue from my original release goal of early November).

grOw/cinema 2, frame 62 completed!

It's been a very busy time over the last few weeks!  Working hard on my Patreon page as well as grOw/cinema 2.  I also took some time off again to see family who I haven't seen in about 3 years, partially due to the COVID. Good to see Mom again!

Here are some previews of grOw/cinema 2 since the last update. 

I'm baaaaaaaaack! What happened you ask?

If you haven't seen some of my other communication fronts (Patreon, Twitter, etc), you may not know that I had a major hard drive failure back on Thu., May 20. I sat down to work that morning and was greeted by a black screen with a folder icon that had a blinking "?" in the middle. Uuuhhh...

Well, the drive WAS about 8 years old, so it was doomed to fail soon. (And was showing some signs that, looking back, should have warned me.)

However, the good news is that I had everything backed up, including all work that I completed the day before.

I would have made an update here to let you know but... I had forgotten my password to the blog (since my computer saves it for me).  Oops!

I received my computer back from the repair shop this past Wednesday, and I've spend the last 2 days reinstalling 2 TB of files, and reinstalling numerous Apps and settings. While I still have some of these to load onto the new drive, I will be focusing on my Patreon work that was due in the month of May before I start on grOw/cinema again. I am sure I will spending most of next week working on this work. It is possible I will finish this before Friday, and will be able to start back on "grOwing to a Crescendo" again.

Stay tuned!

grOw/cinema, Ep.XVII frame 41 completed!

It's been a busy and "difficult" week (more on that later), but I was able to get 10 more frames done, plus halfway through an 11th.  The latest Episode is now 58% complete. The last few weeks have also been slow in the grOw/cinema production department, and I am hoping to get back on-track next week.

Hope you were able to attend SizeCon[micro]2020 and saw me on the Expansion and Relationship panels!

On a personal note, our "fur buddy" (9 year old tuxedo cat) had a difficult visit to the vet this week, having an ultrasound and diagnosis of congestive heart failure. It's not a good prognosis, nor does it offer long-term survivability. But he's taken well to medicines from the vet, and is comfortable, happy, and mostly his normal self for now. I can rest easy (for now) and concentrate on grOw.

grOw/cinema, Ep. XVI, frame 40 completed!

Well, I'm moved in and my studio has been set-up! (House-wise, there is still a lot of boxes to unpack.) Work on grOw/cinema has been again, and I was able to finish up to frame 40. That means we are at the 56% mark — more than halfway! Whoohoo!

grOw/cinema, Ep. XVI, frame 26 completed

I made great progress this week, completing 14 new frames for Episode XVI, completing up to frame 26! This is fantastic, as I had at least one half-day that I need to focus on some pre-move preparations, made some extra Patreon content, and still was able to get this many frames done. The issue is now 37% done! 

I will be doing as much as I can early next week, before shutting down (April 14th) for about a week while I move. I should be back up and running by about April 21-22. After 2 years renting in our new home state, we are finally moving into our permanent home next week.

grOw/cinema, Ep.XIV frame 30 completed!

It was a very busy week – in the grOw wOrld and the real world. I was away from my desk a lot more than usual taking care of "real life" things this week (such as "real life work, time needed for our future new home, and a last minute dentist visit for a missing filling, yikes!). I was only get 5 frames for grOw/cinema done this week (and a huge chunk of frame 31). I hope next week will be much more productive in the grOw/cinema realm.

But, if you are a Patron, you have seen the new, monthly grOw illustration of Elvira experiencing BE across 3 images (cropped previews shown here). I really liked how this series came out! Happy Halloween month! (bustartist.com/patreon)

grOw/cinema, Ep. XIII frame 38 complete!

It was a busy week — busy in real life, and busy with grOw!  Had some "real life" work pop-up that was of the "emergency sort" that took some hours in the early part of the week. And, I am taking off today for a long weekend (more on that later). In terms of grOw/cinema, some very detailed frames were worked on this week, between multiple characters, liquid effects, and the building frames with many multiple layers so that I could construct a "detailed movement sequence" with the current frames. Up to frame 38 done, and much work done on frames 39 and 40.

Now for the weekend, I am about to head out with my wife, Juliekat, and meet up with Demora and hubby, as well as some peeps from MaxGrowth Productions for a fun-filled expansion weekend! See you on the far side!

Frame 19 completed on grOw/cinema, Ep. XI

I just realized that I hadn't posted an update last Friday. Last week was a crazy week, filled with personal issues, taxes, "real life" work, taxes, grOw/cinema drawing, taxes, business planning for 2019, etc., etc.  And taxes. After all that, I closed up shop late Friday and went into my weekend, forgetting to post my usual update.

I was able to complete 6 more frames last week. This week, while there was still some leftover "busy-ness" as mentioned above, I was able to complete 11 more frames (up to frame 19), and made great progress on frame 20. Things are getting slowly back on track for Episode XI.

Enjoy the preview!

grOw/cinema, Ep. X, frame 42 complete!

I was able to finish up to frame 42 of 50 (and completed most of frame 43) this week (12 3/4 frames since last Friday). This is actually great progress, considering what a rollercoaster of a week it's been. 

You may have read about last weeks hard drive failure. That has been corrected, with a new, external hard drive for backing up my files; plus, the erasure and reformat of the failed drive and copying of files back to it. Add to that, I've had some delays due to more "real life" work getting in the way.

AND... for the past week, I've been dealing with a stomach-clenching, acute gastritis. While it's luckily now going away, let's just say the after-eating stomach pain was quite uncomfortable. Eating lighter, a visit to the doctor, and some meds, are getting me back on track.  (Ugh.)

Well, because of all of the above, I am not sure if I will be able to complete the issue and release next Friday, as I had hoped. I still have 8 pages to go, drawing and coloring the cover poster, proofreading and correcting, finalizing the PDF, programming the website and creating the required graphics, as well as setting up the ecommerce store.

For now, I would say, instead, to look for Episode X's release early the following week (Jan 21-25).

Possible delay in grOw/cinema, Ep.VIII's release due to Hurricane

Just as I was hoping to release Episode VIII at the end of this week (Friday or Saturday), there is a rapidly increasing chance I will have to deal with level-2 hurricane, Florence, on that very day. Most current hurricane track predictions have the storm making a direct beeline for us. With rain and winds beginning Thursday evening, the chance of loss of electricity is VERY HIGH. I cannot release an issue, monitor orders, respond to emails, etc. without power. There is a possibility that this power loss can stretch on for days.

You can follow me on Twitter as well (@BustArtist) for updates.

But then again, we could luck out, and a change in direction for the storm will save the day! It's still 5 days off.

Keep your fingers crossed!

grOw/cinema, Ep. VIII production resumes after my move!

I meant to post this on this past Friday, but got busy and forgot. I am now (mostly) settled in to my new home, with my studio set back up and Wacom pen in hand!  Last week, I was able to spend a day and a half working on grOw/cinema and completing 4 frames. This week, I have returned to my normal production schedule.

Now, there WILL be another hiatus next week, as I travel back to NY to close out some accounts and visit friends and family who I hadn't had the chance to do so before we left. But this trip ALSO includes attending SizeCon2018 in NYC!  See you there on Saturday, July 28. (I won't be there on Sunday, as I have other plans and will be leaving to go back home afterwards).

However, after that, I will back on full steam ahead on Episode VIII!

grOw/cinema, Ep. VIII artwork is now in production!

This week — in addition to the mulTITude of chores required for our upcoming movie — I was able to complete the last 70 frames of the storyboard for the next Episode, as well as complete the first 3 frames of final artwork!  I also hope to get some more frames finished early next week before shutting down production until after our move.

As for that SizeCon preview, I am now able to release it in its full entirety. I call it, "Expanding Your Education".  Enjoy!

Work on grOw/cinema, Episode VIII has begun!

Work on the next chapter in the "The Ever-Expanding Universe" saga has begun! After the release of "Meaty-four Shower", I had initially taken a break to rest my arm/wrist, as well as begin the full effort to get ready to move to our new home (and sell, pack, and leave our current house). 

As for the wrist/arm, yeah, I really overworked it getting the last chapter out... lots of ice, heat, ibuprofen, massage, and rest later, it's 90% back in action! ("Hoohaaa!" -- Johnny Bravo).

As for the move, as mentioned in previous posts, we are moving to a new state about 600 miles South. This will happen at the end June. Setting up in a new place, especially a new state, where you need new driver's licenses, bank accounts, and other things, takes time.  Because of this, I will be wrapping up my work probably at the end of next week (or maybe by the middle of the following week). I will be returning to the interwebs about 2-3 weeks later (mid-July).

As for Episode VIII, I have finished the initial script! I call it "initial" since, as usual, I continually mold and shape it as I sketch out the storyboards and the actual art itself. The story line gets to "age" as I work, and I retool it to make it better when I can. Sometimes, this change is small, sometimes it's major. For example, the story of this new episode (VIII) was supposed to be Episode VII! The storyline in the showers in Episode VII was originally just going to take up 3-4 panels. But it grew to have a life of its own, and bloomed into a full chapter.

I have also sketched out the first 20 storyboard frames of this new 90-frame Episode!  I am going to try to complete the storyboard, at least, before taking my "moving break" (see above). Who knows? Maybe I'll even get to begin the actually artwork!

Another thing I have been working on is a SizeCon Promo piece! Here is a preview of it below. It contains many SIZE-related themes, including BE, Ass/Hip Expansion, FMG, Blueberry, miniGTS, and even SW!  For now, I am releasing this preview. As SizeCon asked me to make a promo, I am not sure if they want this kept as a surprise until being fully revealed at SizeCon (as had happened in 2016).  If so, I will release the full image after SizeCon2018 (June 29-30).  If they OK it, I'll release it sooner!   :)

As for SizeCon, I AM hoping to be there this year, if only for one day (Saturday).  I will be returning to the NY area to settle and close out some business and personal items once my relocation has taken place. I will be piggy-backing this onto a trip to SizeCon! This is great timing, as I originally wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it!

So, hang in there and get ready for a new series of previews leading up to the latest installment of "The Ever-Expanding Universe"!

grOw/cOmic#6, page 59 completed!

Page 59 was another busy page, taking a full 3 days to work through all of the overlaps, wet clothes effects, background blurs, folds in tight clothes, dry and wet hair, and see-through clothing effects.  Add to all of that the fact that the page contains 12 character "instances" including faces, which are all intermingling or overlapping. Whew! You can get a small example of all this in this preview.  Enjoy!

(I'm now off for a walk! Having already broken my 1-week record of 12.16 miles (19.6 km) by walking 12.76 miles (20.5 km) in the first 3 days of this week alone [taking yesterday off for a bit of rest for obvious reasons], I am now going to add to that record with today's walk.)

grOw/cOmic#6, page 58 completed!

It took a little extra time, but I was finally able to finish page 58. It was a busy page, with overlapping characters and some depth of field effects as well as aligning characters to the 3D-rendered background. I had gotten very close to finishing it yesterday, but I lost a little time in the morning to other stuff (*see below) and wound up running out of time.

(*Sometimes, if I was so close to finishing a page by the end of the "work day", I would stay longer [sometimes 1 or 2 hours] to finish it up. But, over the last few weeks, I've been avoiding doing that on some days [but not all]. On the evenings that I would end "on time", I would then head out and walk. I don't mean slow strolling, but fast-paced power walking. In the last 8 weeks, I've walked 62.5 miles (100 km for the non-US reader)! Each day I walked, I traveled between 2.5 to 3.5 miles in the beginning, and 3.5 to 5.5 miles in the last few weeks per day. And, in those 2 months, I've lost 10 lbs. (4.5 kg for the non-US reader). And I'm feeling great! I'm looking to lose another 10-15 lbs over the next few months and I'm ready to achieve this goal! Plus, my sitting so long in front of the computer working on grOw and my other "RL" work had an adverse affect on my blood pressure [from lack of activity]. It had risen to an unhealthy peak of 140/90 about 6 months ago.  Since that time, I've gotten it back down to an awesome 124/68 !  "The morning stuff" I mentioned above was that I had decided to do my walk in the morning because the weather was promising to be very hot in the afternoon with high humidity... not great physical activity weather.)

But now that this is posted, I'm off for a walk! ...

grOw/cOmic#6, issue 4 pencils begin!

The last few weeks have been filled with a lot of behind-the-scenes work on the next issue of "Milking the Plot" which will be entitled "Conflict."  After the release of issue 3, I took a week to catch up on some "real life" work so that I could concentrate on this newest issue.  

My work spanned the gamut from writing to design to drawing. I took a look at the script and refined it in many places.  I then proceeded to layout the entire issue, including setting the type to see how much space it would take up. Then, I thumbnailed each page's layout. During this process, I realized to do the script justice, this issue will also be a longer-than-usual issue with 19 pages like the last issue. And, once that was all done, I proceeded to put pencil to paper and draw!  I was able to complete 5 of the 19 pages this week on top of all the above mentioned work.

Another thing that I've done over the last few weeks is get back outside and back to my long walks. (The weather has been great.) These are not slow, meandering summer walks, but fast-paced exercise.  It's been too long, and my body has felt the effects of my sedentary habits since last fall.  I pounded out 12.5 miles the first week, 6.8 the next, and logged 8.86 mi in the last 2 days alone at about 15:07 minutes per mile. Feelin' great!   

But, during these walks, even with the music playing, my mind began to wander, exploring possibilities in the future issues of this grOw/cOmic series.  While I haven't typed up any ideas yet, I may be "expanding" this series from 6 issues to 7 or even 8 chapters!  I thought up of some great "enhancements" to the original storyline (which was already "fleshed out") to make it even better and to really "milk it" for all its worth. (OK, enough puns.)  

Issue 4's script is pretty much set in stone, so I won't announce for certain the changes to the series until after issue 4 is released. I will probably take time between issues 4 and 5 to solidify these ideas and write them out. I actually have to do this anyway, as the current script for issue 5 is only half-written and the other half are simplified bullet points. Stay tuned!

grOw/cOmic#6, issue 3 -- more pencils completed!

More, but not all. Unfortunately, I am no near where I had hoped to be at this time on issue 3 of grOw/cOmic#6. Right now, I have completed 10 out of 19 pages. The last two weeks were filled with big "real life work" projects as well as many personal, time-consuming issues. This includes the passing of my wife's father, just 3 days ago. I will be traveling out of state for the service, so I will not be producing any more drawings for the rest of this week. I will be back to work on Monday (Apr 20) and hope to pump out the last 9 pages as quickly as possible so that I can start on the color ink and paint.

However, the 10 pages so far have been coming along swimmingly!  I have been very satisfied on how they've turned out. This issue has seriously turned up the heat.  ;-)

grOw/cOmic#6, page 20 completed!

With snow shoveled, ice scraped, and vehicles uncovered, I had nothing else to do but to work on the next page of grOw/cOmic#6, completing page 20. Luckily, the snowfall was on the low end of the forecast (however, this was still about 18 inches), which required less time shoveling, and left more time for inking and painting.