EclipsisStudios
patreon
February 2023 Summary
🕑 Added 2023-03-01 16:45:01 +0000 UTCFebruary is a month I’m not entirely sure what happened. Mathematically it was the lowest productivity month in about two years in terms of produced pictures.
There were several items that contributed to that, and probably all of them combined made a difference:
Alts
With the alt picture sets, each alt is basically like producing a whole other picture in terms of time investment. If I put at price on how much labor it took to do each of the alts this month it would be about $120 or more each. Just a year ago I was producing entire pictures for that price.
But I hope you all are enjoying alts! I want them to be an experience you at not likely to find anywhere else. ^.^
Mom’s Knee Replacement Surgery
I live with my mom and she had to have knee replacement surgery for her second time. Thankfully my aunt came up and stayed for 2 weeks to assist her. It still took up some of my time and when she was here it was a little distracting. Then after she left I had to take up those care responsibilities.
Building Work
While there was still some work to be done with my commercial real estate, it wasn’t as much as you’d think that I actually did. I’ve grown rather frustrated with the whole thing and was very minimal with it in February.
But in the final few days of the month, I got a kick in the stomach over it. In late December/early January I had to have one of the 4 HVAC units repaired. The bill got misplaced from me for over a month and when I finally got it, it amounted to $3,000. The shock of finding this after coming home from working one of the busiest Bookstore days of the entire year so far soured me so hard.
This told me I really need to get serious about the property and really get stuff done for it so it can be fully ready to rent out on a moment’s notice. In March I’m expecting to devote more time to it.
Short Month
Naturally February is a short month and 3 entire days less than January makes such a huge difference for someone who works 8-10 hours per day, every day. >.>’ I just need to be kind to myself over that low productivity.
Those were reasons getting in the way of a productive February.
Mental Health
Here was a big game changer for me for my life I started in February.
As some know I’ve been dealing with lots of problems mentally and emotionally for this heavy work load with nothing to show in my personal/recreational life for a year now. I’ve been dealing with explosive bursts of anger, jealousy, depression, disinterest in work, and so on; much more often these days, made worst by my bipolar.
I’ve always had these problems as bipolar is a genetic disorder, so it’s not like this is the onset of anything. My body and mind are so tired from doing this for so long, I’m more vulnerable to breakdowns.
But here is what I started doing to be serious about dealing with these mental issues.
I created a document that I can easily access on my Dropbox from the desktop of any computer I regularly use. In it, are difference sections for dealing with major problems that often happen, usually from some trigger or just waking up in that mind set. As of this writing, there are four major sections:
~Jealousy/envy
~Disinterest in work
~Insecurity in my abilities/activity
~Extreme adversity beyond my control
If I am feeling something from one of these major issues, I make myself open this document and make myself do items I’ve put under that section. I usually create these items under the lists based on things I did to fix the problem in the past. And I came up with these fixes from the years of listening to business and motivational podcasts among other things. These listed items include webpage links so I don’t have to go find or remember where they are. They are instantly there to click.
So for example is the “Extreme adversity” section. This one was created in response to the $3,000 bill I got. That night I was so angry and I snapped at several people for unrelated/uncalled for reasons both online and in real life.
The things I did for this was:
~Close Discord and any other social media distractions, such as streams
~Listen to Lo-Fi music
~Have that music playing in the background while listening to a particular podcast clip on “Gratitude” and loop it.
~Work on a sketch refinement picture (preferred) or simple digital flat coloring while doing above (something that doesn’t demand much brain power)
After doing this for about an hour, it fixed my mind set and even the days after, the $3,000 bill didn’t bother me. I accepted it and my situation around me for handling it. It helped me move on to other things and return to being a more pleasant person!
And no, the $3,000 bill didn’t magically go away or get reduced. I still have to deal with it in its entirety. It was a matter of changing my mindset on it.
Yah, my mental health is a problem but I don’t want to be one of those artists that just talks about their problems as an excuse for their productivity. I want to find a way to overcome it. I hope me sharing this strategy might inspire some of you!
March Outlook
I expect March to have much more content produced and posted. At the end of February I had about 6 pictures in progress to be fully finished and I expect them all to get done and posted to Patreon. This will be on top of the 3 Patreon poll winners plus any other commissions I start and finish.
Please note that February was an unusual anomaly that I don’t expect to foreshadow a new trend.
My Thanks
I hope you all are well! Thank you for reading this if you did! It helps give you a more real view of what is going on with me.
Thank you Patrons for supporting me; I deeply appreciate it from the bottom of my heart! I hope what I do helps put a smile on your face and brighten your day in these dark times we life in.
Comments
Eclipsis
Most of my business & motivational sources I listen to have some religious messages that accompany them, so I've been hesitant to share them around knowing how some people can be about such topics. >.>' It doesn't bother me as I'm focused on the main message they are portraying.
Zeke (Xelios)
May I ask about the gratitude podcast? I might enjoy having a listen to it myself. And thank you for making beautiful and creative artwork for us!
