Blog/Not-a-Poll: New Year's resolutions

Hiya!

Are you all looking forward to the holidays and finally saying goodbye to this godforsaken year? I know I am. 

Of course, being self-employed, I don't automatically get free time around the holidays, and being an ADD workaholic I tend to forget I need that. So under the banner of "better late than never", I'm going to take a break after I finish my Patreon obligations for this month and  sometime into January. Because I don't want to stress myself out by squeezing any more jobs into a small space of that month, I've decided to pause Patreon pledges for January. 

My fiancé says I will inevitably get back to drawing before January is over. He's totally right, of course, so I want to dedicate that time to stuff I don't usually get around to and level up to the next stage of Rosie art!

To that end, I'd like to ask you: what would you like to see from me in 2021? Please reply to this post with any feedback you have--compliments, things that could be done better, or just cool ideas you have. I'll read it all and try to incorporate it going forward.

In the interest of both self-care and leading by example, I'll start by listing some things I'm proud of having done this year, some things I want to do better and some things I'd like to do going forward. I encourage everyone to do the same, because self-reflection is good, despite what college and job evaluations want you to think.

First, the things I'm proud of:

• I've done more drawings than ever this year, with 16 full drawings and counting, plus over 50 Damsel Yearbook drawings (I only started counting in April, so I don't know the exact count for sure)
• I started logging the amount of work I did each day, which made me more productive
• I balanced a day job and drawing mostly really well from January to July
• I started managing my ADD with medication, the aforementioned logging and generally developing better habits
• "The Princess' Bliss" is a personal best in backgrounds and lighting, things I've always struggled with. I'm incredibly proud of it and it's well worthy of being my most popular drawing on DA
• Speaking of which, I surpassed 1000 faves on that drawing as well as reaching the 1K and 2K watcher milestones! Sure, popularity isn't everything and somewhat arbitrary, but watching numbers go up is one of the few things that gives me a natural dopamine rush

Now, the things I think could go better:

• My daily routine definitely needs improvement; ever since I lost my day job I've gone back to getting up late and not really making the most of my time and energy. It's really hard to force myself to retain a habit if anything disturbs it, which is one of those ADD things, but I have to find better ways to do it
• My workaholic nature works up a lot of stress, because I'm always trying to be more efficient and do more work, which leads to productive bursts followed by burnout and depression. That's no good at all!
• The above stress has led me to get annoyed with people who don't deserve it sometimes. I've gotten a lot better about my anger issues than I used to be, but it's not okay until I've got it completely under control.

Finally, the things I want to do in 2021:

• I'm going to buy a new, better drawing tablet and learn how to use it. Hopefully this will make me better and faster in the long run since I won't have as much trouble with clean linework
• I want to dabble in comics. They're a suitable method of storytelling, but I've always been intimidated by how much of a timesink they'd be
• I want to do some pixel art. I've wanted to make a DID game for a very long time and while I've resigned myself to being a crappy programmer, making good sprites is a very valuable part of the process
• Since the above requires me to do some animation, I'd like to try my hand at doing some short animation work outside of sprites too
• This isn't a drawing thing, but I want to finish re-editing the novel I've been working on for a long time so I can shop it around again

Of course, some of the above goals might get delayed if things move along and I can finally move to the States and get married. Heck, once that happens I'll have to figure out what I do with this Patreon until I'm allowed to work! That will be a massive, stressful game-changer, but there couldn't be a happier reason for it, so I'll take it as it comes.

That's all I've got to say for now. What would you like me to do? What are your own plans for 2021? Let me know in the comments.

Rosie rollin' out!