May the ideas be ever-flowing!

I’m brewing a concept for a new low-maintenance fantasy graphic novel. Something short and punchy, that I can write and draw within the space of a couple of months. Maybe.

In truth, I always have ideas like this that I almost never turn into anything, usually because it’s not ready. Other times, I’m not ready. So I’ll be casually brewing a new story for a while until I’m ready to talk about it more. I just like keeping the fires going. And what’s great is just letting the ideas come to me without feeling compelled to get them down right now, but feeling them out. So, what I like to do is jot down ideas on a sticky note and have them at my desk. Thinking I actually need to crack open the old Notion and set up a little notebook database and template of all these ideas when they come to me. In either case, putting all my story ideas somewhere just lets me revisit them when I’m feeling compelled to work on something brand new and I need a break. The trick is to stay productive, even when I’m on a break from my main stuff.

So, on the subject of “staying busy,” we have a very big, important project to look forward to: a full rebrand. We’ll start at the top.

There’s a new Twitch channel layout in development. With the relaunch of the new titles, some changes will naturally come to the Twitch channel to keep all that likewise updated. So, I have new categories of videos for each series I work on. Anytime I go live, I’ll be working on one of those four, or playing a game, and the recordings will be uploaded to those categories. So like what you’re seeing now, but with new art in the panels, but also:

1. New emotes

2. New layout

3. New point redemptions

4. New art emotes

5. New channel name(??)

6. New bits badges

Next, these channel changes would, of course, slide over to Discord! That will get an associated update as well featuring:

1. New community name

2. New member titles

3. New member rooms

The community rooms will probably remain the same but any changes overall would cause a change to some of those rooms, so expect a little something-something on that front. Once I’ve finalized my drafted ideas, we’ll see that come through.

But finally, and most importantly, the changes will be much bigger for my branded presence overall. You’ve all seen the website change over, and the things I’m working on here are also ongoing, but the big structural parts of that are largely in place. Any new pages or sections are just part of the ongoing development of the brand and site accessibility or design. But the Illustrator Of Fantasies itself? Now that’s worth looking at closely.

When I started, IOF was a thing I called myself. Now that I’m older and looking to work more seriously, I’ve been looking at the name and realizing I want to be very intentional about my name and what it means across the internet and in the minds of friends, readers, and audiences. There might be a name change on the horizon, but for now we’ll just keep that in the brewing stages.

On the subject of other projects, I have to do something about the workload already on my drawing table! There are still scripts to finish, arcs to plot, and now covers! Yes, during October, I’ll be redrafting the covers of the four stories so I can finally have some solid art on the site! Well, really, they’re already in draft form; they just need to be finished. October will be the month that I work on sticking to this new production schedule I set, and how much patience I have for myself. So we’ll be testing out the new schedule and seeing how well I can stick to it during the week while working on new art. That should be fun!

See you then!