[Patron-Only Feed] What might we do now, I wonder...?

Oh my... So moody! Spent a lot of time on that middle piece.

And that's more or less the first week of November done. Still pretty tired, but I got some nice things done during that week. I've been straining my eyes a bit as of recently with some of these works. Might just be looking at the monitor for so long though. 

Some Patreon Adjustments...

You may (or may not) have noticed some adjustments made towards the Patron reward tier descriptions & Patron "About" section. The difference isn't drastic compared to what it was before, as it's more of a refinement than anything else, but it's hopefully a precursor to the concrete shifts in direction I expect I'll take in the following months.

I'd like to do NSFW variants of previously Safe for Work pieces a bit more often, as they're a simple way of adding more value to each piece, as well as providing more regular content for the $10 Patrons. So the description has been changed to reflect this direction.

I might consider changing the tier names & illustrations as well. Brellomascots are good, but they might look more appealing with some other characters up there, like Link and Elayne. They're very old illustrations too, and the year is almost over, so it's a good time for a revamp.

Anyway, again, not a big change. But in the interests of transparency, I thought I'd bring it up.

Legend of Zelda Comics...?

we're gonna be on this topic for a while in this post...

In a recent stream (I've been streaming more as of lately), we had a brief discussion about bringing a greater sense of narrative to my Legend of Zelda artwork, which will hopefully provide greater direction & value to my body of work.

Additionally: according to a previous twitter poll, my Link is very popular. So, unsurprisingly, there's a great interest in artwork featuring her. Like, maybe also comics?

Looks like a lot of people who might really enjoy some more ambitious art of Link.

Comics would be a great format to flesh Link's character out. It also provides a solid reason to draw other characters, backgrounds, emotions, etc. There's a lot of possibility for the range of stories that could be told, since they can be assorted adventures which take place across her entire journey across the world.

On writing... and crowd-sourcing?!

Writing, however... Takes a long time. I don't write very often nowadays, so I'm out of practice, and it's not liable to be the most streamlined process. However, it may also be worth bringing Patron Interaction to the concept in the form of polls or idea suggestions. Crowd-sourcing stories may assist in the concept phase, while giving you some of that creative interaction I like to give you. How exactly might that be handled though...? Here's an example:

A series of votes. The exact paradigms have yet to be determined, but the examples that were suggested include: Location, Subject 1, and Subject 2. This provides us with a really simple framework for a mini-adventures, and behaves as an extension of Patron Sketch Suggestions. Each poll is separate, so the second subject will be based on the results of the previous polls, for some extra cohesiveness. 

For instance, we could get: Desert > Followed > Treasure; so we might end up with a story about Link being followed in the desert during her search for a piece of legendary treasure.

The rate at which these polls take place is currently uncertain, and would probably be linked to the amount of time it takes to complete each story.

Patron-Funded Comic...?

If we look at Wossa's Patreon, we can see that it revolves around funding their ongoing comic, with brief breaks to allow for the creation of fan-art & other illustrations while the bigger project is in production. 

Focusing a Patreon's efforts primarily around a comic offers patrons a concrete product to support, which is wonderful if they're passionate about it. Wossa's making a lot more money than me too, so SOMETHING about it must be working. So perhaps it's something I should consider incorporating into my patreon experience

Visual Presentation...

I've got a pretty good idea what the tone would be like, at least for my serious stories. I'd like to have a nice balance of emotionally wholesome, heavy, and silly fan-service for the "series." How exactly the works will be drawn, however, has yet to be determined.

I was Initially thinking of something along these lines:

These were drawn some time ago as a series of commissions for one of my Patrons (that's one of you guys aaaa), and they're certainly pretty to look at. They do, however, take a long time to make. So I may try to find some faster production methods or styles as well. 

That's not to say I'd create only Zelda comics from here on, but Zelda's probably got the most initial reach, and Elayne, as a concept, is still in it's infancy.

So what are your thoughts on the matter?

Other Stuff...

I decided to check if Ayami Kojima had an art book of her work published, and she has, but holy crap, it's 200-300 dollars. I could probably better use that money on something like a Playstation 4 or a major life upgrade... Or I could accept more commissions & obtain more Patreon support. I don't do a good job of promoting myself.

As an aside, I've been doing a lot more work for Cassiopeia Quinn as of lately, so if you haven't read it yet, you should consider doing so, because it's a fun comic.