I'm pretty frustrated and stressed out right now, mostly (ehh, entirely) because of work. Don't feel obligated to read this. I just think it will help if I vent about it.
Hereville: As I mentioned before, I'm coloring Barry Deutsch's Hereville, and have been since November. This isn't frustrating because the work is particularly hard or because Barry is difficult to work with. In fact, Barry is pretty great and the work is a lot of fun (to the extent that coloring someone else's comic is fun at all). It's just that the project demands about 6 hours a day from me, five days every week, which makes getting anything else done pretty difficult. We're supposed to wrap the whole thing up by the end of the month, and if I can keep to my schedule of 3+ pages a day I should be done with time to spare. It's just.... stressful... knowing that I have to put other important stuff aside to get this done.
Of course, it hasn't been a completely smooth experience either. Last month we accidentally deleted 15 colored pages that I had neglected to back up. Today, I've spent the last 2 hours recoloring dresses because Barry decided that he didn't like a color choice I made several pages back. I'm not offering these as examples of Barry being difficult to work with (both are as much my fault as his), but rather of my frustration at this project eating up more time then I actually have to give it.
Class: I'm teaching two weekly classes this term, and plan on adding a third advanced class after my Hereville commitment is over. The classes are a lot of fun and the students are really enthusiastic this term. We're starting off the term by putting together and printing our books from last term, and since the laptop we used to use to do the scanning and layout in class is non-functional, it's fallen to me to scan all the student work and assemble the book in my unpaid free time. It's not a huge job (and I'm happy to do it), but it eats up a bunch of time I really don't have. In addition to that, actually getting supplies for the classes is proving as difficult as ever. My bosses are happy to pay for what we need, but because they don't know what we need (and because I can't just go out and get it and then get a reimbursement) we have to arrange a time when we can meet and go to a local supply store and purchase stuff together. Which, in the three years I've been doing this has never once happened. What I need to do is just find the stuff online, send them a link, and let them purchase the stuff like that.
On top of all that, I've had some... bad luck... actually getting to class this term. I missed my first week entirely because I was told (or at least thought I was told) that we were running classes on Wednesday this year instead of Tuesday. I was late (very late) to this weeks class simply because my bus never showed.
New Panty Explosion: I've been working on a new version of Panty Explosion for... well, for like 2 years. I've been seriously working on it, taking my ideas and notes and turning them into a new edition of the game, since November. My goal has been to release a new version of the game by May, which means having the whole thing done (text, art, layout) by the end of March. This isn't a set in stone deadline, but it is one I'd like to meet. Unfortunately, my other commitments have reduced the available time I have to work on this to almost nothing. I've been doing most of the writing on my walks to and from the studio, and most of the drawing while I wait for Hereville files to load and save (the files are really big). The other problem is that Matt seems to have no time to work on this with me. Since this is "our" project I feel like I can't just do the whole thing on my own. I don't want to leave Matt out of this, but at the same time I don't want to wait another year to get this done.
I'm not going to rush this project (and given my current predicement, rushing isn't an option anyway), but every project reaches a point where it needs to come to an end, and Panty Explosion is definitely there. After two years of testing and revising the game plays like I want it to play. The current version of text needs to be cleaned up and edited, but is otherwise ready to go (assuming Matt doesn't want to make major changes). The art is coming along nicely, and now that we have a uniform design I'll be able to jump in to finishing up the penciled illustrations I did for the project over the last two months. In other words, I need to get this done, and it's killing me that I can't move forward both because I don't have time and my design partner is unavailable.
Bliss Stage: I finished up my Bliss Stage commitment a few weeks ago. I think. I didn't really hear anything after I turned the work in, and since I've been too busy to actually do any more work on the project I'm hoping that Ben is happy with what I've doen and doesn't actually need any changes. I know it shouldn't, but the idea that Ben is doing to contact me and ask me to redo a lot of the art has been causing me a fair amount of anxiety.
Sign in Stranger: I was supposed to start on this project at the beginning of the year (lies. I was supposed to start last June), but I'm just now choosing my models and doing the initial layout sketches. Like everything else, this project is suffering from me not having enough time to work on it. It doesn't help that out of the 15 people I contacted to model for me (all I needed was head shots and maybe 1 basic pose) only 4 responded. So I may be going back to using mostly book models like I did with Ocean. Anyway, I anticipate being able to plow through this once I have some free time, but I'm afraid that won't be until March or April.
Freelance work: This is the big one. The time i have available to work on freelance projects has gone from about 30 hours a week to about... well... nothing. Since a good portion of my income comes from my freelance work this means I'm broke and (once again) not making rent. Which is stupid since I have plenty of work lined up. I mean, I have two fair sized jobs that will pay fine once I finish them. I just have no time to finish them. Similarly, I have several small jobs (mostly character portrait commissions) on hold until I have some free time to take care of them. I've been doing one of these a week just so I have some pocket money for bus tickets, art supplies and work lunches, but if I had the time I could knock out 10 of these over the course of a week and get paid for each one.
So yeah, being this busy is costing me freelance money. It's also costing me...
Creative Capital: I don't have any free time to devote to following up on new ideas or develop old existing ones. This kind of mental exercise is crucial to my mental well being and creative out put, and not having any time to devote to this has been really taxing and frustrating. A very obvious manifestation of this is that over the last two weeks I've been very unsatisfied with my work (mostly on Hereville), and very anxious for the project to be over so I can move on to something else. And even more obvious manifestation is this post your reading right now.
Most of the frustration here comes from not being able to develop personal ideas and projects. My inability to work on Panty Explosion is part of this, but also my recent realization that I won't be able to devote any time to developing the Gunner Rex idea (and my search for someone to farm it out to) and my inability to return to my webcomic, which I've been very much wanting to do for a few moths now.
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Okay, so reading all that just now, it sounds like I'm saying that my commitment to Hereville is the source of my problems. It's not. If I wasn't committed to that project I would be spending my time on something else. This isn't the first time I've run into this problem, and the fact of the matter is I'm just overbooked.
I've been trying to find a way to budget my time more effectively, and to that end I've built myself a schedule. I've designated Tuesdays and Fridays as days where I don't have to be in the studio. These are days where I can work at home, run errands and spend time doing things that don't require me to be at the studio (like have a social life). It's not coincidental that these are also the days I teach. The rest of the week will be spent in the studio, and I've divided each of these days in half. The first half of every day is devoted to my current primary project (Hereville), with the second half going to one of several secondary projects (depending on the day of the week).
We'll see how that goes.