june-july 2025 updates: shop opening, color illustrations, ph3 progress
Happy August! June and July's main milestones were...The shop opening!3 color illustrationsPhrase 3 progress
Shop Opening on June 27
Check it out for yourself! In my last blog post, I mentioned that I planned to do a two-week drop, close the shop, then re-open permanently some time in August… That did not happen :P I went straight to the shop opening and prepared accordingly over the course of June.I'd been preparing for this on and off all year, but to meet the June 27 target date, I had to dedicate a full two weeks in the month to solely focus on the final prep tasks. Some highlights from those two weeks:Everyday, I came home from work and rushed into my office to take product photos while the natural lighting was still at its best lolI got 12 new e-mail subscribers! If anyone’s reading this, thank you for signing up!I got a guillotine for cutting my prints and bookmarks. It works like a dream!I had to restock on sticker paper, bookmark paper, laminating sheets, and ink, as I printed a lot of stuff in advance. It feels nice for my “shop” (the shelves in my office’s closet lol) to be full again!
One week before the opening, I posted some peeks into the prep on Instagram. You can view the post here.
And here are the “flyers” from the official announcement post. View on Instagram.
Overall, the shop opening was a success! I spent the next two weeks packing and delivering orders, and I'm extremely grateful for each one.I view this shop as a creative project before I view it as anything else, and I hope the love and care I place into every detail can be seen. I realize most people follow my creative journey for the comic more than they do anything else (which is totally fine!). So I really do thank everyone for any support I receive on this front 💖Cane and Koji in Color (June)
View on Instagram. I did this as a quick break from comic work at the beginning of the month.
Here are some close-ups of the bois + the flat version of the full artwork!
Sanrio Punks! (July)
a.k.a. the collab of my dreams. I did this to celebrate the premiere of the My Melody & Kuromi series on Netflix and the 2025 Sanrio Character Rankings! View on Instagram.
DTIYS Entry for #DEMDTIYSFreeForAll (July)
View on Instagram. For my entry, I drew Fin Enfield, Demigod of Reason from Deus Ex Machina by Lunar Wanderers. I love the storytelling and symbolism in the original work, and in general Fin is one of my favorite characters in DEM!
Phrase 3 Progress
As always, I’m working on the comic... That said, most of the newest work falls into spoiler territory :P There's one more color illustration that I need to complete for a collaborative project, but after that, my sole focus will be completing this episode. I plan to share one more fully completed panel on Friday, August 8 on my Instagram.Given the remaining work, the PH3 release will likely happen in the September-October timeframe, which means there will be 5-6 months between PH2 and 3. I'll be the first to admit it's not an ideal gap, but it is certainly a gap that makes sense, given my recent goals. Over the past months, the summer shop opening took about 2 months’ worth of my creative time, and all my color illustrations probably took a total of 1 month’s worth of creative time as well.I went into publishing BP without a set schedule simply because I know the bandwidth I have to work with, given my full-time job, my other personal obligations, and the fact that the comic is not the only creative project I'm currently working to bring to life. I had a "partial buffer" of art for the first few episodes, and it dates back to 2023. But as I've continued working, I've found myself not using most of this art because I feel it no longer matches my current style and skill level.Will there come a day when the currently published episodes' art will not match future episodes' art as well? Of course. But I at least want my episodes to represent where I am creatively at their time of release, as best as they can. I'm open to changing my philosophy on this in the future, but for now, I want to give myself the time to follow my heart and stay true to this current approach.Something I haven't really discussed online is that I've been building systems in my personal and professional life this year, that will make it easier to balance all the art I want to create. But this building has been a process, one full of trial and error and lessons learned.All that to say, I hope to have a more consistent schedule in the years to come! One of my main goals for 2025 has been to figure out what exactly will make that a reality, and what exactly will not. Til then, my current output is a genuine reflection of where I am in my creative journey and in my life. And overall, I'm happy I've given myself the time and space to explore that for what it is.Introspection aside, since there will be a decent gap between PH2 and 3, I plan to do a livestream where I’ll read PH1 and 2 and discuss art and writing considerations that I had throughout the episodes. I imagine most people who read them had done so awhile ago lol so I hope it’ll be a nice “recap”. If you’re reading this, then you’re first to know!Looking ahead…
Goals for August include:Phrase 3 workColor illustration for an upcoming collaborative artwork
See you in the next update!