Hi there! And Merry Christmas in advance 🎅

This is in fact the last issue before Christmas! So this week I wanted to stay in the theme and chat with you about gifts and art, and why I started giving away my art in this Newsletter Club.

Grab a warm drink, and let's dive into it!

But before that, how's the book going?

This week I finished 3 (!) inked illustrations, and colored only one (oops). I wanted to do more, but I had several priorities, including writing this very newsletter; which takes some time!

The progress continue to be smooth sailing, although I feel the grind more and more

It makes me more tired and a bit insecure; during lows, I start to doubt my abilities, wondering if anyone would be interested in my silly book. And there is sometimes that discreet voice that makes me want to spend more time studying my fundamentals first as my shortcomings become apparent.

But I'm thankfully at a stage where I know that I would learn so much more by finishing this book and releasing it into the world—way more than any abstract study, or waiting to be good enough.

It's an incredible gift in that context to have this outlet, my Newsletter Club, to report and see that, slowly but surely, I'm making progress!

Want to know what the next milestone coming up is? There are only 5 more illustrations to ink! Five!

At this rate, the book will be fully inked by January, or even possibly before the end of the year! Which is really exciting!! :)

Why I Give My Art Away for Free (and Why Maybe You Should Too)

This week, I initially wanted to talk about a fun gift project I was making for my girlfriend, but exceptionally, I've decided to keep this one private and personal between us.

BUT, this and the little canvases I gifted last week made me reflect a lot about art ,and gifting art to people important to you. And I want to share this with you.

If you've been following what I've done recently, including this Newsletter, you might have guessed that I decided to take my art more seriously, after many years of practice.

Putting my money where my mouth is, I decided to invest in it without expecting anything back (in fact, you cannot give me any money for my art at the moment, even if you tried—and some people have!).

However, I considered selling prints at some point in the future, to make it more sustainable; and while I was toying with the idea a few months ago, I realized how uncomfortable I would feel, not only to sell my art but also to gift it to a friend.

Many objections popped into my head:

• It's going to take space to store and hang
• it might not be the right fit for them
• such a decoration is a big commitment after all...

and it was absurd to have all these limiting thoughts and also expect to be comfortable charging strangers for it. If you don't think your friend would like your art, then who would?

You might be an artist of some kind, or you might have a creative hobby that is deeply personal to you.

Drawing is one such thing for me, and it took some great discomfort to slowly talk more about my art, join an exhibition in real life, and finally now start this Newsletter.

We fear being judged, of talking about our inner life, of bothering uninterested people.

But the reason I'm growing out of this is because I not only make art for myself anymore but also as a service to the person seeing it. I shifted my focus from myself to other people.

And to that goal, to be more comfortable with who you are and what you're making, I encourage you: Give your art away.

First of all, simply because it's a lot of fun.

And it really doesn't have to be costly either; print pictures at the mall in those photo printing machines (I did that! Multiple times. And it costs nothing), make a collage and print it yourself, put music or a game on an old pen drive and give this away, or send it in a zip file with a cute message!

I'm encouraging you, so that you can free yourself from this fear of sharing what you're passionate about.

And this is why this Newsletter Club from the very beginning was built on the idea of giving my art for free to the members. It costs me quite a lot, but to spread my art and my passion in such a form has been invaluable. And we are just getting started!

This is a topic I'm really passionate about, I could write way more about it! But for now, I just hope you'll make someone happy with what you create :)

That could be a goal for next year!

Need a fun game to play during the holidays? ;)

One last thing before we go!

Speaking of gifts, I actually released a game specifically made for one person.

Last year, I participated in a Secret Santa on the website Glorious Trainwrecks; the constraint was that you had to make a game for a specific person, based on their requests!

In this adventure game, you become a miner in a strange cave, but not to dig for gold—rather, for old computer chips. Expect many fun characters, a unique style and world, and I promise you a great ending.

I spent a lot of time working on this game, and dealing with the constraints and the person in mind pushed me to make something that would be worth their time and be a lot of fun. This is why I think making gifts with your art is a great idea!

Some reviews:

This is the first anniversary of what is, in my opinion, the best game I have ever released, so if you're curious and have a few minutes (10-15 at most) to spare, you can get the game here! :)

Alright! That's it for this week, thank you for sticking around 💖

As I was mentioning at the very beginning, this is the last one before Christmas; next week I'm going to be with my family and I want to enjoy it fully. We'll be back on the 29th, with a ton of progress on the book and some more celebration :)

Enjoy cozy and warm holidays, I'll see you soon!

Take care,
- Nighten