My annual summer break is usually a time I spend relaxing, whether it’s with my wife and son or by myself while they go to her family’s yearly vacation spot. This year I did the latter, except I didn’t spend a lot of time relaxing. I worked straight through my break.
The commission list from my latest Kickstater campaign was massive, thanks to offering commissions as an add-on to almost any pledge tier. People could even double-up their commissions if they wanted two characters, or even triple-up if they wanted three! I don’t think anyone quadrupled but my memory of last week is fuzzy at best. In any case, my commission queue was huge and I’d only been chipping away at it over these past few months. By taking away my responsibilities for updating comics and watching my son, I figured I could power through this queue in a day or two and spend the rest of my break relaxing.
Boy, was I wrong.
As I mentioned, lots of folks doubled or tripled their commission request, which meant I was drawing two or three pictures worth of commissions for only one person. I was getting a lot done but I wasn’t going through the queue as fast as I thought I would! Turns out having to replicate a complicated anime outfit then draw a full-size dragon is more time consuming than I anticipated! You’d think I would’ve known that after twenty years! I ended up working on commissions all day every day, and by the time my wife and son got home I still wasn’t totally done.
That’s not to say I wasn’t grateful. Daunting as this commission list was, it brought in a lot of good money that allowed me to reprint the second Oracle for Hire omnibus! It also meant that, given the opportunity, there are lots of folks who want a lot of art from me! That’s a massive compliment, and a boost to my confidence as an artist! It was a lot of work, but I know I’m lucky to have all that work to do.
The list is still being worked on, but after last week I’m in a much better place with the queue. There are only a handful of outstanding commissions and I anticipate being done with them by the end of this month. And then, finally, I can put this campaign’s responsibilities to rest.
Until the next crowdfunding campaign, that is.