2025 reflection, 2026 goals!
Happy New Year! 2025 was a wonderful year full of challenges, successes, and many lessons learned. 2026 is now here, and I’m ready 😎 Let’s get to yappin’ about both.
2025 Reflection
My main goals for 2025 were:
Publish webtoon episodes (no specific number).
Lunar New Year Color Artwork.
Create color illustrations with backgrounds/more scenic illustrations.
Practice perspective.
Open my art shop permanently, instead of through the temporary, drop-style launches that I’ve had in previous years.
Other goals cropped up as the year progressed, but I did my best to prioritize the above 5. And in the end… All my goals were completed!
That said, some were “more completed” than others. For each goal, I had specific acceptance criteria that dictated whether or not I’d consider the goal to be met, and they were roughly as follows:
Publish webtoon episodes (no specific number). My acceptance criteria was to publish at least one Phrase of the story. For 2025, that was Phrase 2. Therefore, this goal was met at its bare minimum criteria.
Lunar New Year Color Artwork. My acceptance criteria was to complete and share one artwork featuring Team NIN. I actually wound up completing two Lunar New Year color artworks, one of NIN and the other of the Junior Punks. Therefore, this goal was met beyond its bare minimum criteria.
Create color illustrations with backgrounds/more scenic illustrations. I had 3 color illustrations in mind at the start of 2025. By the end of 2025, I completed 19, majority of which included extensive backgrounds. Therefore, this goal was met far beyond its bare minimum criteria.
Practice perspective. Rather than a concrete number of artworks, my goal for practicing this was simply “as much as I can” lol. Many of my color artworks required an understanding of 1-point or 2-point perspective, and most of my environment panels in the webtoon also demonstrate that I’ve been practicing. Therefore, this goal was met at its bare minimum criteria.
Open my art shop permanently, instead of through the temporary, drop-style launches as I have in previous years. The acceptance criteria was simply the goal as is. That said, I also created new products, upgraded existing products, and did sales. Therefore, this goal was met beyond its bare minimum criteria.
Completing my goals for last year is something I’m proud of! And breaking them down with respect to specific criteria helps to inform what my goals for this year will be, how much attention I give each, and how conscious and intentional I need to be in order to give the right levels of attention.
2026 Goals
Starting with goals where the objective is to create art or build my skills with creating art:
Publish Phrases 3, 4, and 5 of Bulgogi Punks. The webtoon will be a larger priority this year! If I have to sacrifice any of the goals below to meet this one, then so be it.
Lunar New Year Color Artwork. The tradition continues!
Lantern Festival Color Artwork. I did one for 2025, and while I don’t foresee this becoming a tradition like the LNY artworks, I have a particular concept for 2026 that I’d like to realize.
Study lighting and color theory at a greater depth. I’ve loved seeing how my art has evolved with regards to both of these fundamentals, but I feel that more structured, intentional studies are needed moving forward to continue growing. I think it’s natural for an artist’s progress to occasionally have time periods of plateau, but I think I’m about due for another surge!
Learn how to use 3D modeling software. Because yes, I admittedly still don’t use anything to speed up my process 😬 This year, I will finally develop my skills with using these tools. I’m looking forward to it!
And the goals that still involve creating but are not about any particular concept or addition to my portfolio:
Do in-person sales and Artist Alleys. A goal most folks are already aware of, as I’ve been preparing since last summer!
Launch my Snail Mail Club! This could arguably go in the “create art” category above, since this project will birth new sticker designs and writing snippets. That said, I ultimately view this as something that is derivative of my core art and writing, i.e. I don’t create art so I can have a Snail Mail Club, I create art and because I do that, a Snail Mail Club can now exist as well.
Launch my Patreon. Everything is drafted and planned as I’ve been working on this behind the scenes since last year :’)
Start posting on YouTube. As much as I’d love to create studio vlogs, I’m going to stick to uploading Shorts for now, so as to not add too many projects to my plate this year.
As you can see, aside from two very specific artworks, I do not have a goal for color illustrations or creating more art for my portfolio. To me, those will come naturally from the goals that I have actually stamped out… and honestly, from whatever songs I play on a loop this year :) That’s usually how my color artworks come to be.
Goal #1 is easily my biggest priority though! For all my goals and new projects, I want to focus on the webtoon more than anything else this year!
Blog Posts in 2026
Last year, I enjoyed using this blog to summarize my work on a monthly basis. It helped me to better understand my pace, what goals were completed as I intended from the previous month, and how often additional goals and ideas would crop up as each month progressed.
I still intend to do monthly update posts, even though I’m pretty sure no one reads them :P They’ve always been a very personal undertaking and a way to ensure all my work has a home outside of social media platforms.
That said, I’ve always had another goal for this blog: Resource-sharing! In 2026, I plan to share tech specs, my favorite brushes in Clip Studio Paint, etc. I’ve honestly had this information in my drafts for a good fraction of last year; it’s just a matter of completing the posts and finally publishing them.
I am also interested in doing larger deep-dives about my existing artworks. I may do that on Patreon first (publicly and for free), but those discussions will eventually live here as well.
Just want to end this post by saying that I’m always so grateful for the love and support I receive. I make art for myself before anyone else, but I never said I wanted to do this alone… It means everything to me that I’m not. I’ve said this before many times over the years, but I always mean it… And to be honest, I think I mean it more with every year that passes 💖
To anyone reading this, I wish you all the best in 2026!
-Steph
