We’re back! In a reduced capacity! I’ll be uploading a page a week untill the end of this chapter. For chapter 17 I think I’ll do 2-3 pages a week. We’ll see.
Anyway, wow that was quite a break. I was so burnt out I couldn’t even draw for weeks. Usually when I am tired of Alfie I just work on something else, but this time I was really, really, really done. I ended up spending a month learning how to do 3d art just so I could do something else. But that’s a story for a different time.
I’ve had time to think about what happened that got me so tired of Alfie. I think it was a combination of a couple of factors:
-General story fatigue. I’ve been working on Alfie for a long time, and I am ready for other projects.
-Stress from some real life issues that I won’t be going into
-How labour intensive chapter 16 is.
The last reason is what tipped the scale from simply being tired into full on burnout. Chapter 16 was originally supposed to be the last porn chapter. I wanted to go out with a bang, with a 90 page long super visually polished megachapter! I figured I can handle the extra work if it’s in service of a grand finale. And it would have been fine if it wasn’t for my decision to extend the story one more chapter. Which made all the effort put into the visuals of chapter 16 turn sour and contribute the burnout.
Lesson learned! Never again! Screw full coloring with complex lighting and painted backgrounds. Chapters 17 and onwards will be simpler visually! Flat shading all the way baby! We don’t need a grand finale.
I am still sick to death of this chapter and it’s visuals, but I now feel like I can handle wrapping it up. One page at a time.
For those who worry that the burnouts/hiatuses/breaks are a sign that the comic is dying, don’t be. I plan on spending the rest of my life writing and drawing webcomics and I won’t tank my reputation by not finishing my first one right near the end. That would be dumb.
It may not be pretty by the end, but I will crawl over that finish line if I have to.
Anyway, see ya next week and sorry for the lack of news from me over tha last month. I tried thinking of Alfie as little as possible.
