Category: Blog Posts

IMPORTANT! Upcoming Changes to This Patreon

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared anything here, friends!  I’ve taken some time to let myself rest, recuperate, and reflect.

As the Birthstone Goddesses draw closer to their finale, I’ve been pondering where I go once this years-long project wraps.  This Patreon began 9 years ago as an experiment in a new, exciting format to help support artists, with the Birthstone Goddesses occupying over 6 years of that time.

But now, times are changing for my husband and myself.  I’ve been working in overdrive for so many years to provide constant Patreon material, feeling the burnout from my long project, and feeling the crunch of an industry that’s slowly strangling illustrators like me out of the profession with machine-generated art trained on my years of hard work.

I’m so tired mentally from these industry shifts and recent ongoing health issues involving chronic illness have made this feeling even worse.  I’m struggling to even create art anymore, especially as I feel myself moving away from art and more into writing and other story-driven endeavors.  That’s meant less material to share here as time has gone by as I have been struggling to solidify where it is I want to go next as a creative professional.

What’s Next?  Looking to the Future

The Birthstone Goddesses were about creating a passive income for me as an artist with beautiful merch that brings light and tranquility to our everyday lives.  It was also something I owned controlled by me and not a publisher or company that didn’t value my work.

By contrast, my future projects are looking to be more narrative in nature, possibly comics, possibly illustrated novels, possibly even animatics, or some combination of all of these things!  All I know for sure is that the Illustration industry doesn’t feel safe for me anymore and I want to focus on the passion projects that fulfill me and add more to the world than a ‘product’, especially a product that works for someone else and not for my good as the creator.

These ambitious ideas need time to bake while I work through current health challenges, take new classes to educate myself on multimedia approaches, and settle into a new, focused me!

And so I’m making this Patreon primarily a Tip Jar with Loyalty Merch perks until further notice.  I’ll still be offering WIP’s, sneak peeks, etc, but at my own pace so I have the energy to work on my projects without stress.

My archives of digital downloads & private Discord access will still be available for Patrons, plus I’ve added brand new Patreon-exclusive Loyalty Merch rewards for those who choose to support me here!

Loyalty Merch is Already Here!

I wanted to give something extra back to you all for supporting me here aside from digital archive/Discord access, so I’ve added brand new Loyalty Merch Rewards to ALL of my tiers starting at $5 and up!  I have been working on several Patreon-exclusive designs for the past few months and I am so pleased to FINALLY be able to share them with you all!

Here’s a little taste of one of my new Patreon-exclusive designs, the Wheel of Eternity featuring the 12 new amulet designs for the Birthstone Goddesses (more merch previews coming in the next update):

Current Patrons don’t need to change a thing.  If you’re currently pledging at $5 and up and have chosen a tier with benefits, you’ll start earning time towards Loyalty Merch deliveries starting on June 1st!

Loyalty Merch begins to be mailed out after every 3 months of successive support and every 3 months afterwards up to a year.  All you need to do is make sure your mailing address has been entered into Patreon, your country is on Patreon’s allowed shipping list, or opt out if you don’t want to recieve anything in the mail.

Your pledge already includes the cost of shipping, even for international shipping!  Patrons outside the US need no longer add any extra funds for shipping to their pledges.

I’ll be sharing a visual preview and FAQ of exactly what Loyalty Merch will be added to each tier in the next update once I get my hands on the physical proofs, so stay tuned for that post!  In the meanwhile, check the descriptions of your tier here to get an idea of what merch is coming your way.

The higher you pledge, the fancier your Loyalty rewards will be!

Summary of Patreon Changes

– New digital downloads (wallpapers, premium tutorials, etc.) will only be added as & when I have time to create them, making this Patreon more of a Tip Jar.  I’ll post a head’s up when new material is coming to my digital downloads.

– New Loyalty Merch (IE. mini prints, stickers, mugs, and tshirts) have now been added to each tier starting at $5 and up!  If you’re currently pledged, you’ll start earning towards Loyalty Merch on June 1st.

See my Tiers list for a peek at what merch you’ll be getting and to update your pledges before June 1st!

– A Loyalty Merch visual preview + Merch FAQ is coming soon!

– I’ll still be sharing WIP’s and sneak peeks here on Patreon, especially during the Birthstone Goddesses’ final phase.

– My future projects will be totally different than the Birthstone Goddesses. Brace yourselves for narrative projects and Fantasy genre geekery!

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That’s all for now, folks!  This was a lot of info, so if you have any questions, please let me know in the comments or drop me a message.  I’m happy to help as this Patreon transitions fully into a new structure.

Thanks to everyone who has stuck it out with me thus far!  It’s been an amazing journey and I hope to keep sharing the ride for as long as I can stay creative.

♥ Ang

Inspiration Trip: Myrtle Beach + Ripley’s Aquarium & Odditorium

Last week, my husband and I took some time off to enjoy the beach, which was a very big milestone for us as we’ve never taken a vacation together!  We’ve always done staycations and convention trips, but never anything like a complete escape thanks to the pile of medical bills that have always thwarted us in the past.  This was our way to celebrate Kev’s career change, our new home, and so many little and big victories that have been happening for us over the course of this year and last!

It was a lovely time spent walking in the sea breeze, catching dinner shows, and spoiling ourselves!  We went to a Murder Mystery dinner where we had to solve a series of murderers by dessert.  We also set sail with a Pirate dinner show with dancing skeletons and aerial acrobatic mermaids in a water-filled stage.

It was an awesome time and after the rough start to 2023 I’ve had, I’m happy for a reset button!  Taking time away to actually leave the house reminded me how important it is to do these things before the burnout catches up with us, which it has for me for years now for a multitude of reasons.  I’m very happy to be able to just enjoy myself and get outside of my own head for awhile!  There’s so much more to life than angsting about my projects, skill level, and existential threats like AI and I really needed this break away from the anxiety of it all that’s quadrupled over the course of the pandemic.

Another highlight of the trip was visiting the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Aquarium and Odditorium buildings, which are the source of the reference photos I’ve collected at the top of this post.  Atlanta’s Aquarium still reigns supreme, but there’s something nice to be said about the quieter Ripley’s Aquarium where we could take our time without a huge crowd.

IMAGE CAPTION:  My fave souvenirs from the trip – a tiny stone turtle which supports conservation efforts and a mug to fit all the matcha!

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IMAGE CAPTION:  My husband, Kevin, and I at the Ripley’s Aquarium.

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I’m already missing that calming breeze, but I’m also excited to get back in the studio!  We finally had our chance to properly rest and now begins the efforts to re-organize my new bigger studio space and also to start fixing up our new home the way that we want instead of living out of boxes as we have for the past 3 years.

Now that I’m back home, that also means I’ll be working to re-launch this Patreon and  learning how to use the Merch system, which I think will be fun and easier for you guys to use than my Backerkit Secret Shop for those merch tier rewards.  I have some exclusive goodies coming that I finished before vacation that I’m excited to share the big final reveal of!

More soon!  Till then, enjoy the pics and feel free to use any of the animal and beach images as you like for your own projects.

♥ Ang

Featured

March 2023 Sketchbook – Character Explorations & Forgotten Sketches + A Lesson In Patience

Well then, 2023 continues whoopin’ my butt!  I spent a few days in the ER with food trapped in my esophagas thanks to a chronic condition that suddenly got worse, which caused me to be down for another week for recovery.  The docs are on my case to help me make sure this doesn’t happen again, but I’m beyond frustrated with how much time I’ve had to take off this year because of my fragile meat shell.  It’s been a lesson in patience and in recognizing I’m going to have to work at the pace I can work at and nothing more or less.

I’m definitely looking forward to our beach vacation coming up in April!  Kev and I haven’t taken a proper vacation outside of a staycation at home since we’ve been together and had always planned a trip for our honeymoon, which we have not taken in the years since we’ve been married.  We’re finally taking the time to spoil ourselves rotten after the past few years we’ve had!

The Little Victories

Thankfully at least I did manage to get back in the studio to clear out the mess from the move.  I still have little bit to go, but it’s finally looking sane inside!  In the meanwhile, I’ve been slowly, but surely learning how to use Clip Studio Paint, which has some fantastic vector inking features I’ve been utilizing for my amulet designs.

I chipped away at the medallion designs to complete the Goddesses of Winter set (December, January, & February).  I was supposed to have all of them done by now, but I’m trying to be kinder to myself when health things happen and let things develop as they can!

Here’s a little sneak peek of January’s pink carnation motif:

Forgotten Sketches

I realized putting together sketches that I had forgotten to share a couple!  Back in November when I was playing with my Flame of the Sultana story for NaNoWriMo, I was inspired to do some concepts for my Fire Genasi’s sister, an Earth Genasi named Badeema.  While I began this sheet last year, I’ve been coming back to it every now and again to play with more crystal hairdos for her because it’s just so very fun!  I’m sure I’ll wander back to this character to play with more agate-inspired skin striations, too.  

She deserves her own dedicated sketchbook post, along with Rabs’ other Genasi sisters, methinks!  I’d love to have my own illustrations to use for this story’s Campfire Writing story bible.

 

Next, we have an idea that came to me while I was pondering a story you all haven’t really ‘met’ yet.  Tentatively titled Sacred & Profane, this D&D inspired tale did show up in my NaNoWriMo poll as the ‘story of friendship between a pair of dysfunctional monster hunters with werewolves, vampires, and ghosts, oh my!’

One of these pair of monster hunters is Nils, a Ghostslayer, who often trains by willingly enduring near-death experiences, which opens him up to experiences like the one pictured.  The angel has a deeper significance later on, but I’ll leave that for future exploration.

I’m excited to play with the notion of the surface of water breaking up the perspective plane for an extra trippy composition if I end up polishing this image later!

More Character Sketches

My go-to ‘my body betrays me and I must control my stress levels’ happy project has been continuing the party line-up I’ve been working on during my dedicated ‘carefree sketchbook play time’.  The goal is to end up like this with a whole spread of clothing/armor looks for the party!

I finished Rabs’ armor base and now Cal, the flirtacious circus Tiefling, is up next!  I adore Cal’s carefree attitude and parti-color theme and had a lot of fun exploring his armor base in gesture sketches.  For Level 0, I wanted him to seem a little unsure of his skills, but with the potential to improve, while his Armor Base is meant to show off the confidence he gains in his skills since those training days.

Cal’s player and I have already picked the final poses for his Level 0 and Armor Base poses, but feel free to try and guess which ones we picked out of each row!

A little reminder of what Cal looks like:

Well, that’s all for now, friends!  I hope to have a more significant update next month as my body hopefully does not implode.  But also I have a lot of looming medical tests which may mean more downtime or slow time for me, depending on the outcome.  So here I am, just trying to go with the flow without raging too much about that anymore.

Bless you kind souls who still remain pledged here!  Your support when I’ve been in Tip Jar mode warms my heart.

♥ Ang

Posts You Might’ve Missed in March

Inspiration Reference Photos: Spring Flowers in Georgia

As you know, nature plays a big part of inspiration for me, especially for my Birthstone Goddesses.  Part of the joy of moving to a new place is seeing what new flowers will emerge in spring!  Now that it’s started to get warmer here at our new home, our house and neighborhood have erupted with blooms.

We have Spring Stars, beautiful starlike blooms that range from purple to white. I’ve never noticed these blooming here before!  I’m definitely saving them for fantasy landscape inspiration, as I can imagine them twinkling like little stars in a night scene.

We also had daffodils and narcissus all over, though they’ve sadly withered by now.  I was so happy to see a line of daffodils pop up lining our driveway on both sides!

Next, we have what I thought were Snowdrops, but are actually a smaller, more  delicate flower called Summer Snowflakes.  The little green smudges on the petal tips make the designer in me very happy, it’s such an elegant little detail!  They’re like little fairy bells.

Finally, as we were wrapping up our walk, we spotted this feathered friend who was powered by bird screams.  A red-shouldered hawk, I suspect!  We have a lot of hawks and owls in this neighborhood, which points to a healthy ecosystem.  I enjoy living in our shaded little patch of forest and am so happy we’ll be staying for the foreseeable future after our past few years of home-hopping.

If any of the images here might make good reference for you, feel free to use them!  I’m looking forward to seeing what summer will be like here and taking a trip to Gibbs Gardens for more reference hunting.  I hope you all enjoy the beauty of nature as much as I do.

♥ Ang

Sketchbook Feb 2023

Sketchbook Feb 2023 + Recovery Update!

Well, guys, January and February didn’t go exactly like I had planned.  I’ve been dealing with an allergic reaction to surgical glue, other nasty incision difficulties, and just trying to catch up on all the sleep I’ve missed from being unable to sleep comfortably after surgery.

This may end up affecting other plans I’ve had this year, like the amulets Kickstarter, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.  I at least want to finish the designs to have for stickers and Patreon goodies!  I’m finally healing up today after those recovery hiccups, so we’ll see what I can achieve without overwhelming myself.

Speaking of the amulets, I’ve started inking them in Clip Studio Paint!  This design for January needs some tweaking because I can’t unsee the Eye of Sauron in the middle, but it’s been exciting learning more about this extremely useful program, as I’ve finally started taking proper classes on the software.

Before anything else can happen with the Birthstone Goddesses project, however, I need to clean up the studio/shipping area, which has been taunting me since I haven’t been able to lift much!  It’s been stacked with garage and parents’ basement overflow and I’ve only just now begun the excavation process to sort what’s for donation and what’s for keeping. (Oh no and is it also tax season? Halp!)

More Character Art!

Meanwhile, in my continued mission to manufacture happy brain chemicals during my stressful times, you all have witnessed Rabs’ development over the course of the past couple months.  I’ve FINALLY finished her Level 0 form!

Enjoy Teen Rabs in all her irreverent glory!  Teen Rabs hasn’t earned her tatts through training yet and sits on a gallon of pent up anger against the world and her messed up family.  Hopefully I’ve captured the difference in Teen vs Adult Rabs, with Adult Rabs being much more at peace with herself and her past.

You can watch a timelapse of both of these portraits here.

Have an additional closeup because I spent hours on the faces and I’m proud of them:

Both painted in Procreate.  I’m getting more comfortable with this style the more I do!  Though I’m a bit grumpy that you can see the skill gap already between Teen Rabs and her Adult form which was rendered first last year.

Next up, I’ll be doing a Level 0 & Armor Base for the party’s flamboyant Tiefling Arcane Archer, Calumny, which I’m very much looking forward to.

(Cal in all his sassy glory!  He belongs to my dear friend, Hayley.)

Eventually once all these base forms are done, I’ll be doing an armor/level progression chart for them, which will be great practice for me, as I consider armor, in particular, to be a big weakness after years of drawing mainly flowing dress feminine fashions.

Finally, I started playing Elden Ring when I’ve been couch-bound during recovery.  What a strangely beautiful dark fantasy game!  I wasn’t sure I would like it, at first.  The enemies can be frustrating to beat, but now I’ve found myself thoroughly hooked by its hauntingly beautiful world and intriguing exploration.

Behold my swashbuckling mage, Asha the Starless!  Still just a rough sketch, but I expect with all the cool imagery of this game, you may see more fan art from this game pop up here.

Screenshots for reference:

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That’s all for this month, friends!  In March, I’m hoping to be back in good health (knock on wood) which means I’ll hopefully have more to share next time.  I also have some inspiring books, supplies, and photos I want to share.

Till then, don’t forget you can come hang out on my Discord whether you’re a Patron or not!  I love getting to know you all there and sharing inspirations and interests.  You can use this invite to join the public server, though if you want my Patron perks for Discord, which include a private Patrons-only area where I share my private sketchbook, you’ll need to connect your Discord to Patreon.

Till next time!

♥ Ang

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Posts You Might Have Missed from February

Jan 2023 Sketchbook + Health Update!

I wanted to peek my head out and give you all a sign of life!  I’ve been taking it easy this month while healing from surgery and dealing with very heavy doses of pain medication, which means I don’t have a lot of art to share from January.  However, I hope you’ll enjoy what fun I was able to have with art!

January was all about stimulating the happy brain chemicals to help with the stress of recovery, which meant, once again, having fun with totally pointless original character art!

The Uncrucified VTT Tokens

I wanted to practice drawing tokens for virtual tabletops and so the cast of The Uncrucified, my Exalted tabletop RPG story, felt like a good starting point!  I’ve also created a project logo for The Uncrucified which I incorporated into the token’s decorative border.

(Watch a timelapse here.)

This style might not have enough contrast to really stand out for smaller tokens, but I enjoyed the painting practice, none-the-less!

WIP – Young Rabs

I’ve been poking at this young teen Rabs, my most recent Dungeons & Dragon character, since last year!  You all might remember the full body of her present day self done for a D&D party level progression chart (which I’m using as reference on the left).  

I wanted every member of the party to have a unique Level 0 example to show what each character looked like when they first got that glint in their eye to become an adventurer.  Seeing their younger self makes it even more interesting to see how they’ve changed over time/levels.  I wanted to do this to incorporate more storytelling into what is otherwise a very basic straightforward level chart.
Plus, it’s good practice for me at drawing younger ages.

(Explore a mini-gallery of Rabs’ tattoos and design here.)

Rabs was a scrappy, angry teen who used to practice her combat skills in secret in preparation for a coup her mothers and sisters were plotting against her murderous father (more on that from my 2022 NaNoWriMo exploration of her backstory).  She’s chilled out a lot since those dark days and is now rather more the cheerful optimist of the party!

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With my medications thinning out and body and mind getting back to normal, I hope to ease into a more regular schedule in February.  I have big plans this year to launch some exclusive Patreon goodies and a couple of Kickstarters I have been looking forward to for years, now, so I’m excited to FINALLY get started on working towards those goals!

I’m also starting back to my art studies and classes, as I’ve felt my skills have stagnated while I’ve been in Recovery Mode.  Working digitally has been wonderful since I can do it comfortably with my shoulder (and now stomach) limitations, but I really want to get my hands dirty with traditional paints again, which means getting my butt back in the studio!

I hope to have more to share soon, with a Patrons-only sneak peek coming soon.  Keep your eyes peeled!

❤️ Ang

Project Status: Birthstone Goddesses FINAL PHASE!

It’s the New Year and that fresh beginning is always an exciting time of re-assessment and looking forward!  2022 was a time of adjustment for me while we set up our new home and got used to a whole new flow to our lives.  I’ve had a lot of time to think about this Patreon and the Birthstone Goddesses and it’s my hope to both re-launch this Patreon and wrap up this project in 2023!

The Birthstone Goddesses: FINAL PHASE!

So what’s in store for this year?  I want to complete the collections I started when I was prototyping various merch at DragonCon back in 2019, an endeavor which was thoroughly waylaid by the pandemic, our own life challenges, and supply chain issues.  Folks really enjoyed the more wearable and utilitarian art I shared at the con back in 2019 and I’m all about bringing beautiful things into the everyday!

Prototype Scarves and Totes from my DragonCon 2019 display. It’s time to redesign them with your feedback in mind!  I still have a few of these prototypes available in my Secret Shop, as well.

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My tentative biz goals for 2023:

  • Mandala & Goddess Tote Bags, Apparel, & Journals
  • Frame & photograph the complete set of Birthstone Goddess paintings
  • Kickstarter Project in Late Spring – Mandala Enamel Amulet Necklaces
  • Kickstarter Project in Late Fall – Birthstone Goddesses Wall Calendar
  • Designing Gift Sets for each Goddess’ Collection by the holidays!
  • Re-launch this Patreon with Exclusive Merch!
  • Finish setting up automation with Art of Where & Printful
  • More video content & streaming! Without conventions, I need face time with folks again. I miss your faces!

A Big Decision – Birthstone Goddesses Art Book Delay?

One of the biggest decisions I’ve made this year is that I don’t think I have the energy in me to do the Birthstone Goddesses art book I wanted to do.  I could either release that book now as a simple collection of my years of work on this project OR I could set this book for a later time where I’m able to create a few of the experimental paintings I had in mind to include, as well as create the luxury experience I feel would make the book special.  I’ve opted for the latter.

Waiting till later means I can give myself the space away to not be burnt out by spending the time on the book that I’d like to in order to make it extra special!  I’ve been working on this project for so long and I need a break before I come back to the book at a later point in my life.

As for this Patreon?

I’m still aiming to re-launch this space with a bit of restructuring to make it more of a low key Tip Jar with a few extra options for those who’d like to collect some premium exclusive goodies. I’ll still be sharing my experience and archive of material (coloring pages, tutorials, Secret Shop, etc), but I’ll be adding material here at my own pace instead of overwhelming myself.  More details on that when the re-launch is actually happening!  Right now this Patreon is staying in Tip Jar mode for health reasons.

I have another minor surgery for a hernia repair of an old surgical incision in my belly scheduled for tomorrow (eep!), so that’s definitely delaying my start to the year!  Designing the exclusive merch will have to wait till I’m able to sit up comfortably again.  2022 had one last sucker punch to give, it seems!

After that, though, I hope to hit the ground running and give you guys a tour of the new studio space because it’s so amazing aah!

I’ll be back soon with hopefully more substantial updates and new things to share after a little recovery time.  Till then!  I hope you all are good!

♥ Ang

Featured

2022 Year-End Wrap-Up, An Existential Crisis, & Future Plans

EDIT: I’ve added a more thorough collage collecting my sketches and WIPs from 2022 as well. Enjoy!

2022 has been quite the ride!  As most of you guys know by now from reading here, I’ve had to take a lot of time off in 2022.  Not only did we go through an intense house move during an interest-rate hike and unfavorable housing market, but I’ve also been recovering from major shoulder surgery for tendon repairs from an old injury and subsequent physical therapy.  My art biz functioned on the bare minimum, mainly bolstered by the kind folks still supporting here on Patreon and my merch sales.

Thankfully, I still managed to draw at least one thing a month and that kept me sane and happy!  Even if my indulgent art resulted in sharing such an odd smattering of character art and writing here.  I hope to get back on task with my Birthstone Goddesses in the new year and keep these more exploratory pieces to sketchbook compilation posts while that project’s going on.

My Personal Favorite Artwork from this Year – The Pirate’s Kiss

This gift art for my good friend, Sam Hogg, was my fave from this year.  I had resigned myself to not making much art and spent a process of several weeks slowly chipping away at this painting in short bursts while just enjoying the painting process and learning new tools in Procreate. I hadn’t slowed down that much in a very long time!  It made me love making art again during a time I was feeling extremely burnt out on it and unsure of my future.  Thankfully surgery turned out okay after this painting was completed!

  • Read more about this piece’s creation here.

My Level Up Artwork from this Year – The Unmerry Band

Created for a Dungeons & Dragons game with friends, I pushed myself out of my comfort zone drawing vastly different looking characters, weapons, and body types.  My Genasi gal from this image also sparked off a whole NaNoWriMo inspiration adventure. 

  • Read more about this piece’s creation here.

An Existential Crisis

Unfortunately, this year has also brought us the wider proliferation of AI generated imagery, which has been a lot for me to process! I’ve written up a resources list of my research, should you want to read more about this topic.  I had played with this tech for a while thinking it could be a fun and useful tool to integrate into my process…until I learned that it functions by stealing artwork from the internet (including my own!) without the consent of artists to make its creations.  

We’ve now seen this tech spreading without much oversight and even a major publisher using it on a book cover. I’m not here to debate the merits of the tech, so please don’t start that debate in the comments.

For me, it’s made me LESS motivated to work on my more decorative art because I don’t feel it can compete with AI imagery in the same vein and MORE motivated to move my work in a direction where the narrative aspect takes priority to convey a message that I hope will make my work stand out from AI generated work.

For this reason, I’ve left longtime platforms I have loved for 20 years (half my life!), including DeviantART and ArtStation, which I’ll be using sparingly because they have allowed unethically sourced AI generated art to drown out human artists on their platforms and are common targets for unethical AI scrapers.  If you Followed me on those sites, be sure to look for me to be primarily sharing new artwork on Inkblot instead, with my presence still the same on IG, Facebook, Twitter, etc. for now.

Future Plans

I’m not giving up on art!  I still take joy in the act of creation, I just have less hope now that art can sustain me in a meaningful way within the illustration industry, which is already being flooded with AI generated competition, especially in the smaller independent arenas and even in some larger ones.  This is more incentive for me to work on what makes my artistic voice unique, to refine my traditional techniques, and to tell the stories only I can tell from my unique perspective.  

Thankfully, my husband and myself are stable enough right now alongside your support so that I can focus on my own personal IPs and stories in a way I never thought possible before now.  The advent of AI generated images has only helped convince me that pursuing my own stories instead of commercial work is less foolish of an endeavor than I used to think it was.

I still may try to pursue some of my dream commercial art jobs (IE. Magic the Gathering, TTRPG art, and pursuing more commercial book/comic cover work), but I want to stay focused on my own ideas rather than feeding an industry that grows more hostile and automated by the day, while continuously devaluing and underpaying artists.

What does this mean for this Patreon?  My plans have remained the same.  I’m moving forward with a re-launch of my Patreon (aiming for February) where I hope to wrap up my Birthstone Goddesses project over the next year or so and then I’ll be switching my Patreon’s focus to more narrative endeavors.  I also plan to shake up how I’m doing business now that I am no longer attending in-person events.  More specifically, I hope to do more online streaming, video content, etc. to invite you all into the process and get some of that face time back.  I really miss your faces and meeting kindred spirits at events!

I want to celebrate my Patreon’s re-launch with flair and am currently working on a line of Patreon-only merch for the occasion.  I’ll share more about the new merch, my evolving biz plans, and my specific Birthstone Goddesses Final Phase plans in a dedicated post soon, so stay tuned!

For now, this post is long enough, so I’m going to stop rambling here and wish you all happy holidays.  Thank you once more for making all the difference with your support this year, despite the fact I haven’t been able to give back as much as I’d like in return!  The downtime has been healing and invigorating for me and I can’t wait to put that energy back into my art and art biz in 2023.

We have a new home and studio to celebrate and a whole new path ahead.  Here’s to a 2023 full of passion and a glorious return to art-making for me!

♥ Ang

Ang's NaNoWriMo 2022

NaNoWriMo 2022 Wrap-Up: Flame of the Sultana

We’re at the end of November and I’ve wrapped up my journey with National Novel Writing Month!  Thanksgiving, post-house move vacation, and the distraction of a new home/studio desperately in need of unpacking proved too much for me to reach the 50k word goal, but I’m excited to have spent some time writing, which has been a personal goal of mine for a long time now.  I wanted to share a bit of the NaNoWriMo journey with you all with some thoughts, excerpts, etc.

My Final Word Count: 6,534

Despite not making the word goal, I’m still jazzed to have written as much as I did!  I loved spending time with Rabs and her horribly loving and (at times) just plain horrible family. I loved indulging the D&D nerd in me who had an awesome time roleplaying this character and exploring her more through writing, while also getting some excellent practice.  TTRPG games have always been a pathway into writing and inspiration, for me!  This was just the Muse Vacation I craved before I return to the serious business of Birthstone Goddesses next year.

Writing With Campfire

I also got a chance to play with Campfire’s worldbuilding management tool this NaNoWriMo and I’m absolutely in love with it now that I’ve spent some quality time with it.  Not only can I manage all my world and character notes, but their manuscript and research modules help me keep everything all in one place so that my notes and chapters can be stored together.  

I’ll be jumping ship from Scrivener to Campfire, as it’s always bothered me how I’ve previously spread my files across Scrivener and Google Docs.  It’s too easy to lose things that way!  Now, I can point beta readers to a shareable link where they can also leave comments if I grant them permission. This will be SO invaluable when I’m ready for that!

I hope to write a full review on Campfire later once I’m done polishing this story’s entries.

(A peek at my story’s info in Campfire complete with a custom theme I tweaked to match the mood/palette of my story.)

(The entry for Rabs’ sisters.  Featuring inspirational images from left to right: Kii Weatherton, Minttu Hynninen, Ashima-Leena, art of Rabs by me, Rachel Denton, and Wabi.  These are just placeholders for right now until I can draw my own versions of the sisters, which are bound to look vastly different, as these images were used more for vibes than direct lookalikes.)

My NaNoWriMo Journey

To be quite honest, I didn’t actually write anything of the novel I had pitched in my synopsis, but rather let myself explore the fictional Genasi kingdom my MC hails from with worldbuilding notes, while also experimenting with a novel-planning method from Lisa Cron’s Story Genius book on writing.  

The Story Genius Blueprint method tasks you with finding the ‘third rail’ that brings your story to life through emotional resonance and challenges you to explore the internal and external influences on your protagonist in a very in-depth manner through prompts.  I’ve always had a problem with pantsing my way through stories, only to result in several rewrites because I didn’t really understand what I was trying to say with my stories, so I’ve been very curious to try this method which purports to save me from my own meandering!

Here’s the list of what I wrote for NaNoWriMo.  The links should be clickable if you want to read my raw, rough musings in their imperfect states.

– Story Spine for Flame of the Sultana – Exploring the overall view of where I think my story should go and how it should resolve.
My Story’s Thesis: Who you are is not your fault, but it is your responsibility.

– Story Genius Blueprint Questions (Incomplete) – As I worked through Story Genius, I kept my explorations of the answers to the prompts from the blueprint exercises here.  I wasn’t able to make it entirely through, but I really enjoyed how the exercises suggested in Story Genius prompted me to dig deep into my character’s motivations and my story’s themes, rather than getting too caught up in the plot over the emotional ‘meat’ of the story.

– Worldbuilding Notes – A good deal of time was spent fleshing out my MC’s large family, how they’re related, what elements they represent.  Seriously, HOW does anyone write a novel with more than 3 characters?  Figuring out Rabs’ 4 half-sisters, their moms, and their associated elements took some real brainpower!  

I also figured out the core tenets of the humanitarian organization, the Burning Saints, which Rabs joins as an adult to help atone for her family’s sins. The Burning Saints believe in proper actions over proper thoughts and allows those convicted of crimes a second chance by giving up titles and riches to become humble servants of the people.  For Rabs, they’re a second chance to divide herself from her past and become a worthy warrior on her own path away from the palace.

– The Origin Scene – A scene exploring the most dramatic moment in the past where Rabs’ core misbelief took shape.  A young Rabs experiences a moment of rage that ruins her mother’s carefully planned assassination attempt of their corrupted father, the sultan.  This moment of rage costs her mother’s life and haunts Rabs in the years afterwards that lead up to our main story.  In history, this night would be known as The Night of Five Blades.

CW: Graphic violence/fight scene.  My baby D&D Barbarian’s first Rage as a teenager was a nightmare for her!

– The Misbelief Scene 1 of 3 – The Witness – A scene that reveals an early childhood experience where Rabanne witnesses her birth mother murder her aunt for threatening to reveal their planned coup against the sultan.  This terrifying incident informs Rabanne’s misbelief as an adult that she is bound to her family’s history of violence even as an adult. 

I ran out of time before I could write scenes 2 and 3 for her Misbelief, but you can read the paraphrase for those incidents in the main Blueprint.

CW: Brief non-graphic violence, psychological trauma

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Even if this year’s NaNo experience equates to nothing more than skillbuilding, I’m excited about the epic amount of imagery I have for future art fodder, on top of everything else!  It’s my dream to get at least ONE story done in my lifetime and I feel like I’ve taken one more little baby step in that direction after giving myself that permission this month.  I’ve written plenty, but have finished very few to a state I’m satisfied with and that’s something I want to change!

Did any of you take on the novel-writing challenge this month?  Tell me about your stories (or other crazy dream projects)!  Making our dreams come true always starts with voicing them aloud and giving them power.  Ramble away, dear dreamers!

Resources 

* This affiliate link gives me a little kickbick, if ya like!

Exalted Art Challenge 2022 Collection

Happy Halloween, everyone!  I have a treat for you today in the form of the completed collection of challenge pieces for this year’s Exalted Art Challenge!  We moved right in the middle of this challenge, so I only had time to partake in the weekly topics, instead.  Still, this challenge is always a lot of fun and a great excuse to experiment with different methods and styles!

I created all of these entries in Procreate.

Week 1: Your PC (Player Character)

Rather than draw the same old characters I’ve been drawing lately (cough Kalara), I thought I’d shine the spotlight on Laughing Fox, a trickster Kalara has met in her travels as a young demigod.  Laughing Fox is a Lunar, chosen of the goddess of the moon in the Exalted RPG setting.  He prefers seduction over murder and prides himself on his clever schemes and collection of secrets.  His Tell, or the characteristic that marks him as moon-chosen, is the white tips of his hair which is reminiscent of a fox’s tail.

He wanders in and out of Kalara’s tale as he pleases!  You’ll no doubt be seeing more of him before too long.

The inspiration for Laughing Fox’s animal shape is the gorgeous cross fox.  Just look at this majestic creature!

Week 2 – A Meal In Creation

Next comes a fun topic featuring food from the setting!  This meal comes from the celebration of Plentimon’s Day, the god of gambling.  Inspired by the real-world King Cake from Mardi Gras, those who find the Plentimon’s dice in their serving of cake will be crowned royalty for the day and have the god’s blessing for the next year.

Plentimon Day’s feast consists of goat kabobs marinated in yogurt and spices, with a almond-based cakes in the shape of a D6 die with slivers of almonds to represent the numbers.  The dice cakes all have different flavors stuffed inside to emphasize the Plentimon’s theme of gambling. You never know if you’ll get bitter or sweet flavors!  Finally, you can’t have a feast day in Gem without an alcoholic drink, in this case, date wine.

I’m a big fan of the aesthetic of the food in Monster Hunter, which definitely shows in my choice of design for this dish.

Week 3 – Fave Charm

This one started off as a Fave Charm (or magic ability), but quickly got off-topic with drawing FX for Kalara’s anima aura, the glowing halo of energy which appears when she channels divine energies at different levels of intensity.  When she’s at ‘fall blast’, a phoenix appears rising behind her, an animal that is part of her personal symbolism as someone who rose from her near-death to take on the world.  This will be my first time drawing an FX sheet and it was quite fun. I will definitely be adding them to Kalara’s proper reference sheet!

Week 4 – Fave Fashion

For the final topic, I was going to keep it ‘simple’ and sketch a concept for glass armor, but the topic ran away with me and I ended up with a full portrait!  The glass remnants of the magnificent buildings of old Chiaroscuro magically retain their luster and strength and are usually used for sturdy, but sleek armor.  I figure why not armor AND a gown for Kalara?

This portrait also provided me with an opportunity to paint Kalara in a more realistic style, as well as test out a new style I’m currently evolving which combines a soft and painterly look with hard-edged elements for a look inspired by Klimt and tarot cards.

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Fave Fashion was undoubtedly my favorite topic from this year!  Which one is yours?

As ever, if you like Kalara or any of the imagery I put out for the Exalted Art Challenge, check out the Exalted tabletop rpg from Onyx Path Publishing and Kalara’s stories and art at The Uncrucified or check out the older Exalted Art Challenge collections for art you may have missed!

Now that the EAC is done, I’m turning my attention towards some fun surprises I’m working on for this Patreon’s re-launch and the topic you all chose for me for NaNoWriMo (Flame of the Sultana).

Till next time!  Stay tuned for more writing and art peeks from Rabs’ NaNoWriMo adventures.

♥ Ang