Did you miss me?...

I'm baaaaaaaaack! This time I'm not kidding, I was gone indeed. No, really, I really was (the fact that you guys didn't notice, it hurts, it truly hurts). OK, as I was saying, I'm back. I went to Mexico, again. This time I went along with family to visit more family. It was a very quick trip. I spent a bit more than 50 hours in my home town... but it was all worth it. Being gone was the main reason why I'm only writing one post this week, instead of two.

So, now I'm back in Las Vegas, back at my studio. What does this mean? It means I have a crap load of work to do. Make that a monumental crap load of work :) I was gone for a short time, but I was behind on my projects even before leaving. By now you might know that I actually enjoy being in this kind of situation: projects and deadlines up to my neck. They bring a sense of an action movie to my life as a pin-up artist. I know, it's kind of a lame comparison, but hey, I'll take any excitement available, even if it's just inside my head.

Among the miscellaneous projects, I have two that are not part of my regular line of work. However, I won't be sharing them for now. They are more or less a surprise. I say more or less, because I've shown a couple of photos or images in the past already, isolated, not as part of a project. The first project is a more immediate one, and it pertains to a series of pin-up images (what a surprise!), with a very very interesting central theme. The second project will take me longer, and even though it doesn't involve pin-ups directly, I know that I will be incorporating them eventually. The key word here is ink :) It's a long road from now, but I am confident I will get there. Once I release the images for these projects, you'll know what I'm talking about.

So, what's going on besides working on "secret projects" and pretending I have secret projects even though I don't have them... or do I? :) Well, I'm also working on pending images from the previous months. In addition to that, I'm getting ready to work in a couple of projects derived from the contacts I did at AVN AEE. By the way, in case you're wondering, I do know that I've been talking about AVN AEE a lot in the past few blog postings. I'm very aware of this, doing that it's actually a good thing, if not great. The reason why I've mentioned it so many times, it's because this past visit to the expo really brought a lot of opportunities to my artwork. It was a short but productive visit... the kind of move I want to keep doing in the near future. I might not be attending a lot of conventions as a vendor this year, but I surely want to be there at least as a visitor. I learned that there are plenty of business opportunities at the expos and conventions... even if I'm not a vendor. Of course, I would like to be able to sell my merchandise at every single event out there, but time and/or money are the biggest obstacle to sort. So, I'll keep pushing and taking advantage of any opportunity available.

There are so many projects that can be potentially exploited. But, since available time is currently a luxury in my life, I must be careful regarding about decisions on what to do with the little available time. This doesn't mean I'm not having fun with my work, it just means that I must constantly decide how to have the fore mentioned fun, selecting the projects that will allow me to keep growing. I am still an independent artist, and that's the part that I enjoy the most. But, if I want to keep being one, I need to look in every corner for potential uses of my art. That is the reason why I am so grateful to all the persons out there that keep helping me in soooooooo many ways. At the end of the day, it's up to me to keep pushing forward, but the friendly push from the fans and supporters make everything a lot easier. By the way, last minute commercial: if you would like to support my artwork more directly, please consider becoming my patron. Visit www.patreon.com/popeyewongart to become one. Sorry for the commercial, I couldn't resist :)

That being said, I better stop procrastinating and get to work... January is already gone! Again, thank you for your support and for you patience reading through my ramblings. Please don't hesitate to leave your comments, I always love to read feedback. It gives me a  better sense on how I'm doing. See you next time!
~Pops.

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