Though I’ve only been thinking about this hard for a couple of days, it’s actually been something that’s been floating around in my head for weeks, maybe months. I took the time these past two days to really think and be honest with myself, and after some confiding in my closest friends and family, I’ve decided to put all my MLP-related fan comics on an indefinite hiatus for the foreseeable future.
This decision doesn’t come easy for me, as I’ve always taken pride in working on something that lasted this long. Before I started work on Sunlight Horizons, a lot of my attempts at comic making lasted less than a dozen pages due to a constant change of interests as well as procrastination, but before SH, I did sprite comics, and for the longest time that had long since passed being an entertaining creative outlet for myself.
So why the change now? Well, a number of reasons really, and if I went into all of them, this post would turn into an essay, so I’ll just list the most important:
First and foremost, I simply don’t find it fun to work on these comics anymore. When I first started, I was bursting with ideas and inspiration, and at the time (well over three years ago) I had all the free time to dedicate to these, yet even when I got my current job, I still wanted to get home quick so I could put pen to paper and draw these loveable girls together. It’s been a long three years, and though my frequency in updates has always waned, I still found a desire to keep going, even if it’d take a long time. Unfortunately, that just didn’t stick this time. I look back now, and I realize that for just under a year I’ve been making excuses to myself to keep going. I really do just want to let go and move on to other things, which is my second point.
I want to do other things now. For a while now, I’ve had this growing desire to try and create my own original story with my own characters, my own world, and my own fantasy. I think that’s a growing aspiration for anyone in the creative world, and while I’m not exactly pursuing a career in this, I just love to create and share those stories I create with any who might enjoy them.
I’m pretty much done with MLP as a whole now. We’re way past its golden age, and when it comes to the franchise itself, I’ve completely disconnected myself from it. I stopped caring about the show around about season 5, and EqG became a passing thought a little ways after the fourth movie. I didn’t even watch the series finale, that’s how little it’s meant to me now. Whatever love I had for it is now focused on other shows that I’ve started watching since, and that’s probably where my future fan-arts are going to come from down the line.
Regardless of my personal feelings on MLP now, I can’t deny that it’s had an amazingly positive effect on my life. Since I started Sunlight Horizons, I’ve made incredible friends who I still talk to even after our mutual interests waned, I’ve travelled to America several times to experience conventions in three different states, and I’ve met some extraordinary people along the way. Needless to say, MLP has changed my life for the better, and I will always hold it close to my heart, regardless of my choices today.
Believe me, I don’t make this decision lightly. I’ve gained some incredible fans who enjoyed my work, and I honestly feel terrible that I’m letting you guys down when you’ve been entertained by me and have been waiting anxiously for later updates, but I don’t feel I’m doing anyone a service if I force myself to keep up working on something I have no passion for. After all, if the creator doesn’t care, why will the audience?
However, I use the term “indefinite” because, as one of my friends put it, I’m an “emotionally-driven artist”, and I agree. I draw what I want based on how I feel, and sometimes I can find myself going for over a year, maybe more, before I return to something I grew bored of. This doesn’t just affect my artwork, but my other interests such as movies, cartoons, and games too. Either way, I feel that if I outright cancel my fan-comics, I’ll come to regret it down the line if I ever decide to return, so I’m keeping it on an indefinite hiatus in case things change. But don’t hold me to that, expect me to be gone for a very long time.
With that said though, I’ll be keeping my pages online for anyone and everyone to read if you ever want to check them out, and should I decide to bring closure to the stories I planned to tell but don’t intend on continuing, I might just put together some sketches and write out some narrative to explain where my stories were going so you all can at least find some closure in that. I know it isn’t what you wanted, but really I gotta do what’s best for me here, and I’m truly sorry about that.
Anyway, time to bring this to a close. Once again, I’m sorry for letting you guys down, but I hope you’ll stick around for other pieces I’ll do down the line! My mod-blog here usually just reblogs random funnies, but you can always find my general artwork at @depth-arts where I’ll be posting a bunch of other things, or you can keep up with me here.
Thank you all so much for the three years of love and support. I will cherish these memories forever, and use them to motivate me to bring more content in the future!
Take care~!
