[UPDATES] - Where HAVE you been???

Hey Past-me,

Oops. I haven’t written since summer. (Sorry, mate 😬)

It was for you, though, promise.

But does that still count as selfish cause it’s technically for me, but not now-now-me? ^{How does this work?}

Anyway, if you’re still reading these, hopefully, they’ve been useful.

Before diving into the new year though, how about we recap the last one real quick?

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So, 2024…

This year was about experimentation.

Little’ bit of this, lil’ bit of that. Oops! Not quite right—oh, wait. No.

~Purrrfect.

With the newsletter, I explored some things, mostly between:

• branding visuals

  • testing different email headers, different avatars, thumbnails, colors, fonts, etc.

  • nothing’s final, everything’s evolving, but does it currently say what I want it to? 🤷

• letter formatting

  • what’s more interesting to read?

  • what’s even worth reading?

  • should it be more of a collection of stuff?

  • should it be more art focused?

  • should I be more brief?

  • should I expand more on XYZ?

  • should I have more pictures?…

  • _{should I add lore to this whole future-you, past-me gimmick??? “I am from the year 20XX in the city of Lost Angelez…”}

Here are a few letters I am either fond of or pissed me off the most whilst making:

• ARTISTS: Learn this FIRST

• Design Team RPG Series

• What Avatar: The Last Airbender Taught Me About Being an Artist

And every now and then, I’d hang with the Discord community:

• 🎯 we’d run challenges - 3-week personal project sprint, 5+ week live-action film, animated remake challenge

• 🔥 we’d gather for cave calls - everyone hops on a video call, mics off, music on, and works on something cool for an hour.

• ☕️ we’d coffee chat - chat for a bit before/after work and talk about anything between depressing and amusing or both

Speaking of, look what chat dropped this year:

My favorite part of this whole thing is seeing the behind-the-scenes work going from idea to final.

Well done ya’ll 👏👏👏

Here are some of the community’s favorite pieces of work they did this year:

Devon George - WEB / IG / TMBLR / XTWTR 

DragonSpaghetti - XTWTR / TMBLR / BSKY

Leah - IG / IG 

Graphi - TMBLR

Clay Kurei - IG / BSKY / CARA

Usman - WEB / CARA / IG

KJ Martinez - XTWTR / IG / YT

So, what’s up with 2025 then?

2024 was part of Phase 1: Write newsletters and start a community.

2025 begins Phase 2: Write more newsletters, build a community, and test some training. ^{(and form an Olympian breakdance crew)}

I knew if I were going to give my past-self a real headstart in this creativity business, then letters alone wouldn’t be enough.

They’d need a place to fail.

Skool’s almost open.

MEM Community 2.0 (still under construction) will take place over on the skool community platform.

Here’s what we’ve got planned:

• Free and paid courses/challenges to practice your skills

• online/in-person events like Q&A’s + workshops + hangouts

• Shared knowledgebase and community accountability

DISCLAIMER: This may not be for you. Shonen Protagonist Energy is highly recommended. ^{(Both lazy and unrelenting are permitted.)}

SPOILER: You may go Super Saiyan 🔥🔥🔥

My first gig in cartoons was on a TV show as a painter.

That gig was my art school. I was tasked to paint something I didn’t know how to make every week (or not got paid). I had to learn fast. I had help, but it was still trial by fire. But you learn a clear process that helps you get from concept to finish, even when you don’t feel like it. (That’s the secret sauce.) And the learning accelerates when you’ve got a crew to grow along with.

If that seems like something you’d be interested in, get a sneak preview here.

Anyway, I apologize for the small hiatus, but if you wanna see what I’ve been up to, come check out the community. It still has some things to wrap up before being fully launched, but come and say hi anyway.

I learned a lot last year. The one I’m taking with me this year?

Do more with less.

Now go disappear and make some magic ✨

Talk to you soon,

—Future-you

Say hi on TwitterX/IG/LinkedIn

🔍🐇⛳

• RamonAO dropped some immigrant experience

• irsyadalma schoolin us on dynamic shapes in backgrounds

• nupsume spins a low poly Spinelli

• AnimationObsessive shares a stop-motion gem

• Yuming Li drops some knowledge about learning technical skills in art

• Stefano shares some excellent character design work from Jentry Chau