08 March 2024

2024 February Roundup

Hello everyone, can you believe it's March already? Spring is almost here 🌸 I know, I say that kind of thing all the time, but it remains surprising! I guess it's because the weather can't decide what season to present us with here in Boise. Most of February, it felt like March or even April weather, dry and warm. But now that March is here, we've been getting snow almost every day! Indeed, on Tuesday it literally snowed ALL. DAY. It was the best! ☃️ Let's see how the weather changes between now and the point at which I finish telling you what I got up to in February 😆

Patreon

I finished my Autumn Gryphon greeting card illustration on February 7th. It went out to Patreon members on the 29th 💌 Most members also received January's reward, which was a WIP version of this piece, so I hope they enjoyed comparing the unfinished version to the finished!

Patreon is my biggest source of support. At the moment, contributions from members are being saved up to buy and install a utility sink in my studio ✨ The funds also really help out when I need to buy supplies. For instance, this week I needed blue lead for my sketching pencil, ink for my art printer, and postcard paper for future Patreon rewards. Member support helped me get everything!

Even more than that though, the support I receive is emotionally priceless. It's a HUGE boost to my morale, knowing there are folks who really believe in my work! Please consider joining them, helping me both practically and psychologically, by subscribing to my Patreon here 🥰

deviantART

Another way folks can support my creative work is through Buy Me a Coffee ☕✨ One of my wonderful supporters, Wolf, made a substantial donation there (I put it toward the utility sink!!!) and I wanted to thank him with a chibi caricature. So I ended up chibifying his beautiful dog, Ahri 💖 It's currently my most recent post on deviantART:

Click here to view, fave, and comment on dA!

If you would like to commission me for a chibi caricature like this, they are available through deviantART or through my Square Shop! It's the same commission on either site, and they both charge about the same in processing fees, so feel free to choose whichever platform you're most comfortable with 😊

Another dA announcement I would like to make is that I created subscription tiers there! There are three tiers and I offer slightly different rewards to Patreon and Twitch, including annual or quarterly chibi caricatures! Please click here and check it out. I'm excited to meet my first supporter there 🤩

Livestreaming

Everything continues to go well for my art streams! Thanks to a suggestion from one of my subscribers, Exie, we've been raiding a fellow streamer at the end of each Twitch session. This has really opened up the world of streaming to me! Not just because new people are finding my channel, but because I finally have a way to enjoy livestreams as a viewer! I never had time before, but now I can watch while I do my after-stream followup work 😄

And for YouTube, Wolf (same as above ❤️), suggested I start making YouTube Shorts. This has helped grow my channel! Again, since I don't have any extra time, little things like this are the BEST because they help Studio Mikarts without hurting me, ha ha. Here's one of the final stream recordings from February:

★ 2024 Birthday Gryphon Greeting Card, Part 5 ★

Something I changed about my livestream schedule, starting in February, is to give myself a week off every month. This year has been really intense and my mental health has started to suffer. I've written about it in more detail on Patreon, so I won't repeat myself here. I'll always turn on vacation mode when I'm taking a recovery week, so you can continue to rely on my Twitch schedule to verify when I'll be live!

Charity Fundraising

Our charity of the month for February was Vegan Outreach! They help animals by helping humans transition to a vegan lifestyle, including a one-on-one coaching program. I am signed up to be a coach for my area 😊✨

My donation formula takes the number of unique Twitch viewers I had that month and multiplies it by $0.10 USD, with a minimum of $10 and a max of $100. So how many unique viewers did we have in February?

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✨🎊 TWENTY-EIGHT!!! 🎊✨

That's a new record!!! Two more than the record set back in June 2022! Thank you so much everyone who joined me and took us to the next level 😄✨ This tallied up to a $10 donation to Vegan Outreach.

As always, I opted to cover the processing fees as well 💛 March's charity is Food for Life Global, an organization whose main effort helps feed the hungry with healthy, sustainable plant-based food. They also promote peaceful, non-violent living, advocating for the right of ALL animals, including us humans, to enjoy such a world. Please help me help them by watching my livestreams this month and bringing your friends! You can also make a donation directly, here.

Gryphia Progress

My first draft continues to develop steadily! In February, I reached 2,900 words for chapter eleven. This is set up to be a twelve chapter novel, with around 3,000 - 4,000 words per chapter. That means I'm VERY close to done with the first draft!

At the rate I'm going, it's possible I may finish this month 🤩 I've been reading Stephen King's On Writing, which suggests putting the manuscript away for six weeks before starting edits. This is to allow your mind to gain some distance and objectivity before diving into revision. I think I will follow that advice, and use the time to catch up on my Japan Adventure posts in the meantime.

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That's all for this roundup, I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you for reading to the end 🥰 How's the weather now? Temps are below freezing but the sun is shining (bring back the snow if it's gonna be so cold!) 😆 I'll be back again with another roundup next month. Until then, may you stay happy, healthy, and safe!

02 February 2024

2024 January Roundup

Hello everyone, I hope you had a lovely start to the year! I can't believe it's already February. It doesn't help that after only three weeks of truly wintry weather from the end of December through the first half of January, we are once again experiencing mid-spring temps 😲 I have no sense of time because of this! But my work schedule for 2024 has been carrying me along nicely, regardless of how weird everything around me feels. Here's what I got up to in January!

Patreon Rewards

I'm trying something new this year! Instead of sending Inktober or Chibi Friday drawings as rewards when I can't get my main illustration finished in a single month, I'm sending a work in progress (WIP) reward featuring the current progress on my main project. This gets me much closer to what I always wanted these rewards to always feature: my main work! And I think it'll be fun to compare the WIP to the final piece; I hope my patrons do find it so!

Please consider supporting my work by joining my Patreon! You can choose from postcards or prints or you can ensure all your contribution goes to the studio by foregoing physical rewards. All members get access to printable coloring pages, our members-only Discord server and the custom emoji there, as well as other digital rewards and studio updates.

deviantART

One of my closest friends used the chibi gift certificate I gave as a birthday gift to chibify her sweet little pup, Missy 💕 The piece was livestreamed on Twitch, and you can watch the recording on YouTube!

Click here to view, fave, and comment on deviantART! You can commission me for a chibi caricature like this while you're there, too!

Livestreaming

My new streaming schedule has been working wonderfully this year! I am now streaming WeThFr for two hours at a time, two days of illustration plus Chibi Friday. Here's my final Chibi Friday stream from January, featuring digital work on our third custom Twitch emote/Discord emoji, Happy Ranger!

I hope you'll join me on Twitch; we have a lovely group of people in the chat, lurkers are very much welcome, and subscribers get access to these cute custom emotes! It's another way you can help support my work and have fun making art with me, too!

Charity Fundraising

Our featured charity for January was Veganuary, an organization that supports people as they see what it's like to eat vegan for a whole month. They send recipes and information to participants each day in January and continue to support with weekly emails throughout the rest of the year!

My formula for donations is $0.10 USD per unique viewer, minimum $10 and max $100. In January, we again got fairly close to our record of 26 set in June of 2022, with 23 unique viewers! This meant a $10 donation to Veganuary 💚

Our charity for February is Vegan Outreach. I hope you'll join my livestreams and bring your friends! It would be so exciting to reach more than 100 unique viewers and get to make more than a $10 donation!

Gryphia Progress

My updated work schedule for 2024 has been paying dividends and nowhere more richly than in my Gryphia illustrated novel project! I made very little progress last year, being completely derailed by my Japan adventure in early spring...

In stark contrast, with only an hour of writing work scheduled each day, I have not only finished chapter eight this January, I reached 3,100 words (of a 4,000 word goal) for chapter nine. With only twelve chapters in the book, at this rate I will most certainly finish my first draft and begin working on my first revisions this year!

Other News: JLPT N3 Results

Finally (I am sooo rushing this blog post right now; I want to post today but it's almost time to livestream!) I wanted to announce here, since I shared in earlier posts my JLPT goal for 2023, that I passed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test at the N3 level! I'm now certified in my intermediate Japanese skills! And the most amusing part of my results is that the section I was most worried about, listening, I got 100% on 😆

I've been asked if I'll now attempt the N2. While I do intend to eventually, this year I'm taking it easy with just 20 minutes of Japanese study per day. My plan is to finish my intermediate textbooks and start on my N2 study materials. Once I feel confident I have enough knowledge to pass, I'll sign up for the next level of the test 😎

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That's all for this roundup post, I hope you enjoyed it! (I'm finishing it up post-stream, hee hee.) Thank you for reading to the end. Until next time, may you stay happy, healthy, and safe!

12 January 2024

2023 December Roundup

Happy New Year~!! 🎍✨ I hope everyone is enjoying 2024 so far. As usual, I've made quite a few goals for myself, this time focusing a lot on daily habits rather than specific outcomes. It's working really well! But there's one last thing to tackle before I can completely let go of 2023: my December roundup! Here's what I got up to in that busy, busy month.

Patreon Rewards

For the last reward of the year, my patrons received an adorable chibi reindeer, perfect for the season! The main drawing was completed all in one go, my final livestream of 2023, and the background was added digitally afterwards. I dropped the rewards off at the post office on my way to the annual Christmas run that I do!

Patreon is my main income stream and the biggest way you can help me keep making cute, colorful, and fantastic artwork. Currently I am saving up to buy and install a utility sink in my studio, which will eliminate lots of time and trouble when dealing with messy media! Please click here to join and support my work 🥰

deviantART

One of the pieces I uploaded to dA in December was Chibi Moon Knight, drawn as a thank-you to my biggest Twitch supporter, Exie, who had reached a one-year subscription milestone 😄 It was doubly awesome that Moon Knight was requested, because he's one of my favorite MCU characters!

Click here to view, fave, and comment on deviantART!

You can also commission me at any time for a chibi caricature of your own! Click here to get started on Square or here to go through deviantART.

Livestreaming

My last month of art streams went wonderfully! I have a new schedule for 2024 now, so be sure to check my Twitch page to verify timing and sign up for go-live alerts. Here's the recording of my final Lucky Dip of the year, which I think ended up being one of my best Lucky Dip drawings of 2023 ✨

Charity Fundraising

This is the second year in a row that I have chosen The Protego Foundation, which is inspired by the Wizarding World for its animal advocacy, as December's featured charity. It just makes sense to me, because the end-of-year holidays are magical!

We had 22 unique Twitch viewers in December. My donation formula is $0.10 USD per unique viewer, with a minimum of $10 and a max of $100. This therefore comes out to a $10 donation to The Protego Foundation!

As usual, I donated a little extra to cover the processing fees ❤️ If you also believe that all creatures are magical, please make a donation to help protect them!

Other News

I actually have quite a bit of other news to share this time! First, I took the Japanese Language Proficiency Test at the very beginning of December 🤓 It was my first time taking the test and I won't get my results for quite a while (I think the soonest is the end of this month) but I feel confident that I passed!

Me at the testing location with two of my siblings, who joined me for the trip to Portland, Oregon.

Next, while I have announced it through other channels already, I wanted to share here that my illustrated postcards are now available for purchase at the new Catalyst Arts Collaborative shop here in Boise, Idaho! If you're in the area, I hope you'll stop by and support all the local artists selling their creations there 🥰 Here's a video I took to show what the shop is like:

Finally, as I promised at the beginning of last year, I'm going to review my 2023 goals and share my 2024 goals with you. Not only is it nice for me to do this and see how things went, I hope it also inspires you in working toward your own goals 😊

2023 Goals Review

  • Career 🎨 I will create 12 new, large, full-color illustrations.
    • 16% complete! I created two such illustrations.
  • Education 💮 I will sit and pass the JLPT N2 exam.
    • I dropped down to the N3 when I realized I didn't have enough study time. Other than that and the fact that I won't know if I passed for at least a couple more weeks, this goal is complete!
  • Finances 💸 I will make, rather than buy, birthday & holiday gifts.
    • I have one more gift to make, for a late December birthday, but other than that, this goal is complete!
  • Health 💤 I will go to bed on time on work nights.
    • Thanks to Pokémon Sleep coming out, I actually surpassed this goal! Ever since day one of the game's release, I have gone to bed on time EVERY NIGHT, even on weekends and vacations! I've been working toward this for YEARS so this might be my proudest achievement of 2023!
  • Hobbies 🎮 I will play Animal Crossing every day.
    • While I wasn't able to play every day, I'd estimate I played at least 6/7 days a week on average, so my underlying goal of enjoying my hobbies and switching off of work mode each day was achieved 😄
  • Travel 🛳️ I will cruise around Japan with my husband.
    • As you may have been reading in my Japan Adventure posts here, this goal is complete!
  • Family 👩‍🍳 I will host seasonal family dinners.
    • Complete! And I will be continuing this new tradition! I always wanted to do it, and I finally made it happen 😊
  • Relationships 💌 I will send a card or letter every week.
    • This was my least complete goal. I succeeded for the first half of the year, perhaps, but I realized it's ironically more difficult to write once a week than every day. Which is why I actually increased my letter writing goal for this year!
  • Reading 📚 I will read & review at least 26 books.
    • As with the JLPT goal, I dropped my expectations for this goal when I realized I wouldn't have enough time. My new goal became a book per month, 12, which I achieved! The very last book was a Christmas present I received from my sister 🥰

Overall, I'm quite happy with what I achieved in 2023! Even the goals that were difficult were valuable because they taught me more about myself and gave me a chance to practice my mental flexibility. I'm stoked to build on the momentum this year!

2024 Goals

  • Career ✒️ I will spend 50+ minutes each workday on Gryphia writing.
  • Education 💮 I will spend 20+ minutes studying Japanese every day.
  • Finances 💳 I will pay off all credit cards.
  • Health 😌 I will meditate every day.
  • Hobbies 🎮 I will play a Nintendo Switch game every day.
  • Travel 🐮 I will visit a Farm Sanctuary location.
  • Family 🕊️ I will do my pet care routine every day before breakfast.
  • Relationships 💌 I will write a letter every day.
  • Reading 📚 I will read at least one page every day.

And that's all for now! I'll let you know how these goals went next year 😄 I hope you enjoyed reading my final roundup for 2023. I'll be back with another post soon. Until then, please stay happy, healthy, and safe!

07 December 2023

2023 November Roundup

Only a few weeks of 2023 left 🤯 I spent the first five days of December in Portland, Oregon to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (N3; feeling confident that I passed but we'll see 🤞) and enjoy some sightseeing and shopping with two of my siblings. The only downside is how little time it left me to prepare this post! Hopefully I can do a blog writing speed-run 😎 Here's what I got up to in November!

Patreon Rewards

Studio Mikarts Patreon members on physical rewards tiers received these colorful fire gryphons! From my perspective, it was perfect, because the weather had gotten really cold! No better way to warm up than with a fantastic flaming flyer 😆 Members receive postcards, prints, both, or neither, depending on their selected tier. Patreon support not only helps produce these lovely images, it pays for art supplies and studio improvements (I'm currently saving up to install a utility sink!), and gives me indescribable emotional support 💖 Click here to sign up!

deviantART

I know I keep saying it, but I am so pleased with myself for staying on top of deviantART uploads~ The most recent piece I added was this Inktober52 drawing, featuring my pet pigeons as little gryphons about to enjoy a seed feast 🤤 Click here to view, fave, and comment on this piece on dA, and to check out my other artwork.

Livestreaming

My livestreaming schedule is the same as always (you can check it here, and sign up to get notified when I go live!) and one of my favorite streams of November was the first round of work on a gift that's going to become a gift, and is, in itself, almost a gift to me! Ha ha, I'll explain X3 One of my most dedicated viewers on Twitch, Exie, reached a one-year subscriber anniversary and I offered to draw a chibi caricature as an expression of my gratitude. Exie chose their best friend's favorite MCU character, intending it to be a birthday gift. And it just so happens that this character is one of my favorites, too: Moon Knight!!!

Charity Fundraising

As a way to make my livestreams more meaningful for me and my viewers, I donate $0.10 USD per unique viewer every month, with a minimum of $10 and a max of $100. Even though I took a week off for Thanksgiving, my November unique viewers totaled twenty!

This meant a $10 donation to my charity of the month, Farm Sanctuary. I like to feature them in November because their Thanksgiving Adopt-a-Turkey program is how I found them in the first place 🦃💖💕

On top of this donation, I adopted a turkey using their fun friendship quiz 🥰 I got matched with Tutu!

Please consider making your own donation to Farm Sanctuary ❤️ I know all the turkeys, chickens, piggies, cows, horses, and other friends will appreciate it!

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That's all for November! Thank you for reading until the end (BTW my speed-writing worked 😎). I'm looking forward to writing December's roundup in the new year! Since I may not write again until then, let me wish you a most excellent 2024 in advance 😊 Please stay happy, healthy, and safe!