Hey Guys,
Now I know its sort of cliched to create a "new years resolution" and more likely not to keep it. However, I always like to set goals for myself and see if I can accomplish them as well as things that I have tried but found overall that I failed at. A sort of self-evaluation before the new year.
Part of this eval is to also remove things that are taking away from my lifetime goals and replace them with things that will support my lifetime goals. I this that is a critical cause if you're trying to say train for a 4k this year but find that you're guzzling down sodas each night, then you will find it will become more difficult to complete a 4k mile.
Ok, let's begin!
What I am cutting out for 2018!
Added Sugars (overall improving my diet)
This has been an issue that I been dealing with for years and as I am getting older just makes me feel so unmotivated and lacking the energy that it's just affecting my overall health. I am hoping by cutting down on the sugar intake and some foods like bread, dairy, some alcoholic beverages, etc, that I can gain some energy back after a long day at work. Plus help my goals of doing a 4k run and improve my exercise sessions.
TV and social media consumption (become the content creator)
I am not as bad as the President of the United States (8 hrs a day seriously!?!?!), but I there have been times where I have found myself watching a whole series, or spend a couple of hours watching something on Youtube vs actually creating something for Youtube. Now I know I need to have some escapism from time to time but I want to do for Monday-Saturday focus on content creating. That way my weekends are free to do what I want whether it's hanging out with friends or just relaxing with Kelly (GF) and Tia (Cat).
OVERTHINKING and being FANCY!
I can get pretty crippled when I overthink. It's almost like a constant loop that I can't seem to break myself out of. Like for example, worrying about whether I sound clear enough to you guys when I do a video. Like I know that I have improved so much with years of speech therapy. Heck people are shocked whenever I say that I was in speech therapy. Or a recent one is deciding on what kind of laptop I should get so that I can do video editing or art on the train rides to and from work. I think that caused me to not post as many videos and content cause I was worried about if people will like it vs just evaluating what worked and what didn't. I am hoping for future content that I will be more on just getting it out there vs being fancy.
On hold for 2018
Freelancing
Being able to work full time as a 3D artist has helped me cut down on looking for freelance work. Though I haven't been freelancing since I landed this job, I have done a couple of projects here and there. Though this year I am putting that on hold for the time being. If anything I want to focus on collaborations that can help provide more content opportunities for tutorials and possibly interviews.
Selling Art
This is more of playing by ear. I have a couple of ideas that I want to play around with but for the time being, I am not going to push merchandise unless its something that you the fans would love to own not just an "I think people would love this as a *insert merch item* you should make it. If you personally want one of my works, let me know and I will add it to my Redbubble store!
Ok, now things I want to do, continue doing or bring back in 2018!
Saturday morning cartoons on TWITCH + Animating again!
I miss streaming and interacting with you guys! This is a two-parter cause not only that I want to bring back the stream, but I want to create some animated shorts. The idea I had was each Saturday, I will animate a small portion of the animated film and post each section up on my Instagram. Once I finish animating the whole animated short, I will then add music and sound to it along with the backgrounds etc. I have two films idea in mind for this year with hopefully a fan suggested the third film. I also want to do mini demos with the films so that if you're interested in animation you can ask questions as I stream! I have had a thought of doing a monthly "Chris Jaser Animated Stories" sort of like theoddonesout or Jaiden Animation style of animation but have to find the right store for that but we shall see!
Tutorials Tutorials Tutorials!
One thing I have found this year has been that I love sharing my knowledge with you guys and you guys enjoy it as well. I actually started creating a list of tutorials that I want to make and its already at 46+ videos ideas (which I plan to add more throughout this year). I am hoping these videos will help you guys on your artist journeys throughout 2018. I really love making them and if I don't over think them I hope to have them out each week. I also plan on developing an online course this year. One that leans more towards a career in arts as well as a drawing and animation courses.
VLOG, BLOG & Film?
So I experimented with vlogging when I was doing inktober this past October. I was surprised how much I actually enjoy doing it more. As well as with each tutorial I want to add a blog post with additional information! As far as filming, I would like to try my hand at creating some live action short films. Either with a script or just documenting my journeys. Good reasons to get out of the house and film!
Molly's Follies Comic (was there any doubt?)
Molly's Follies has been one of my favorite projects to work on since starting it in 2015 (wow its going to be coming up on 3 years on this cartoon...). I am hoping to keep incorporating them into the tutorials as vlogs but I would also like to be able to continue comics each week. I have a whole list of ideas for the new comics. It will be more about posting them more frequently on here as well as Instagram.
2017 to 2018
2017 I will admit hasn't been the greatest year for me but it hasn't been the worst. I am finding myself in a better place and I hope to continue that into 2018. While I might not reach everything on this self-evaluation, it's still good to asset what I want and I don't want in this life. Overall it's more about how I want to be remembered and what I left for this world to enjoy. Here is to 2018! let's make it a great one!
-Chris J