2012 Game Plan

2012. Hopefully this will be the year of the Derrot! Last year didn't go so great, art-wise. I drew stuff, yes, but now I either want to redraw or trash them. Only a few I still want to finish from the original. But this year I want to start fresh and focused. I wrote out a game plan last month.

I know I won't be able to stick to it. I have more ideas than I can humanly handle. So I am implementing a monthly ranking system. I split my projects into major and minor and ranked them according to perceived interest. Every month, I'll see what people seem to enjoy more, through views, comments, purchases, and in the case of a select trusted few, personal opinions, then I'll re-rank accordingly. To my watchers, don't do anything new! Just naturally view and interact with my art as you see fit and everything should fall into place naturally! :)

What happens to projects at the bottom of the ranking? They won't be dropped necessarily, but if I don't get to them by the end of the month, oh well. They'll just have the lowest priority, which could be the kiss of death due to how many projects I have.

And when I get a job, I might only have time for one or two projects. I might have to rework this system when that happens just so everything can have an equal chance for an accurate ranking. 'Cause if I only work on one project, of course it's going to have the most interest!

Oh, and major and minor projects are separate. I might work on Major #1 and Minor #1 at the same time, but I'll finish the monthly goals on Major #1 before starting Major #2.

And some things are unrankable. I count commissions and the series I am doing for my friends as projects. But they can't be demoted just because not as many people are interested. Commissions are a top priority because I need money and the other, more altruistic projects are high ranked as well. But yeah, unrankable. They are a special class.

My blogs, website, and fan-art are unrankable also. I do fan-art to warm up, so I'll keep doing fan-art that you may or may not like whether you want me to or not, so nya! ;P

One last thing before I get to the list of projects: if you want an easy way to keep track of the stuff I do, follow my Twitter. I don't upload everything to deviantART. I upload art to blogs (like this one), I'll be posting my comics on Smackjeeves, commissions are sometimes posted to the client's website or deviantART. People that only follow me on one site assume I'm dead or inactive because I'm busy elsewhere. Now hopefully that won't happen (so much. There's always a few Slowpoke out there, hehe.)

And now, the list of projects and their current states!

Major Projects

1.) Hellhoney - My anti-Magical Girl comic with possessed stuffed animals. I have an outline for the first chapter and a summary of the second. Two out of six cards for January are penciled, not inked.

2.) Minervellas - My NaNo from 2011 about an American "Japanese-style" idol group. The novel is a little over 20% written, and that's without rewriting it. I want to finish the novel and do plenty of illustrations for it this year, if time allows.

3.) Toilet Spawn - A mock guidebook for a proposed video game where the protagonist must use every toilet in town and defeat the monsters inside them. Still in the concept sketch phase.

4.) Power Warp - Comedy about space pirates trying to reach Earth after seeing a television broadcast from it. Two chapters are planned out but need to be reworked.

Minor Projects

1.) Zodiac Calendars - An Eastern calendar and a Western calendar featuring all the signs in Derrot-esque humor. The illustrations will also be sold as prints. I had three completely drawn, but I want to re-do them.

2.) Super Popcorn - My one-shot mockery of different genres of super heroes. Yeah, still not printed. I feel like a terrible, dirty liar. I want to make a set of illustrations/calendar of it this year.

3.) Mervscorn - Another one-shot about mermaids. I need to completely rework the story.

4.) Birds - 10 birds every four months, made in four different mediums: watercolor, digital paint, colored pencil, and pastel.

5.) Plush - Series of illustrations based on my collection of stuffed animals and the magic that happens when my family and I use our imaginations.

6.) QT Crawlies - Chibi moe insect girls. I want to redraw what I had drawn previously. Which was actually a lot. Over 20 pieces, if I remember, some of them inked.

7.) Pin-Up Calendars/Illustrations - A Man and a Woman one, just to practice and have fun with figure drawing and outfits.

8.) Random Art - I'll be working off my t-do list from random margin notes. Also, I need to use up art materials, like marker paper, paint, fabric, clay, soap, t-shirts, foam, beads, etc.

9.) Optimizzy - The little cat-like creature that always has a smile on its face no matter what! I'm still pleased with the illustrations that I did last year. Now to finish them and make more!

10.) Random/Silly Calendar - I like what I drew of it last year, just need to finish it up.

11.) Pantheon - The 12 main gods of Mount Olympus. I want to practice some epic digital painting techniques. I was going somewhere several years ago and then I think I regressed. My anatomy got better, my coloring got more simple.

12.) Playing Cards - A deck of playing cards, each card with one of my characters on it. I have to decide which characters to use.

13.) Hobo Storybook - How to take care of a pet hobo. I have notes from five years ago to work off of.

14.) Tunnels and Elevators - A one-shot comic based on a story I wrote for Creative Writing. I think it will go over better visually than in words.

15.) I'm a Bug?! - Re-work of a children's book I wrote for a class five years ago. It's about a bug that is afraid of bugs.

16.) Tutorials - A friend and I saw one of those "How to Draw Manga" books and she thought we could do better. I'm not sure if she still wants to do this, though, and I don't think I'm that good. For now, I think there are better tutorials out there.

So that's my current plan. In another month, I'll have another State the of the Projects to see what I've accomplished and what the new ranking is!