Artist's commentary
Puchi-Colle! Puchi 831
Tanglllle.
This is rather sudden, but I believe I'm going to put Puchi-Colle on hiatus. I offer my sincere apologies to all those who have been enjoying Puchi-Colle.
↓Any of you who don't care for my life story, it's okay to skip to the bottom!
Please allow me to provide some of my life story:
I'm 29 this year, so I'll already be turning 30 next year. Owing to a shocking event that occurred right after I entered high school, I became a shut-in for the next 12 years. I spent the first few years truly just idling about, and I even considered suicide more than once or twice during that period. Then, in the midst of my shut-in life, I encountered manga and anime.
My mother was particularly strict, so until then, I hadn't seen anime or manga even once. Here was something truly interesting! The adventure, excitement, funny gags and thrilling scenes were all fresh and new. And so, that's when the thought that maybe I should try drawing art too first boiled up in my head. Up until then, I'd been satisfied spending my days drawing whatever I felt like just for me to see, but then I started posting on Pixiv, and my awareness toward art rapidly began changing.
I think it was about a year after I decided to practice art seriously and I began Puchi-Colle. I came to wonder whether I could really make a living with my art. From then on, I practiced my art (self-taught) and actually sold some Puchi-Colle. Then I realized how naive I was. Making a living through Puchi-Colle alone just wasn't possible.... I was doing my best and drawing Puchi-Colle every day, and I was on the verge of considering that being just fine. And above all, I realized I'd started drawing too late; I was just about at my limit. Since I was a shut-in, I was earning 0 income. I was also nearly at the limit of living on my parents' money. I simply can't just keep drawing Puchi-Colle as I go into my 30s.
However, these two years of continuing to update Puchi-Colle have given me self-confidence. It may not look like it, but in fact, it takes over ten hours of effort to do one Puchi-Colle strip. If I could keep updating daily for nearly two years, I should be able to manage in any workplace, right? And so I came to consider what I'd never considered until then: getting a job.
Until now, I thought a job would be pointless for me, and that I'd probably die when I turned 30. But now, things are different. I'm delighted to to be able to receive the impression that drawing art is truly enjoyable. I've come to believe that I want to keep living in so I can draw art!
Being a junior high grad who's spent 12 years as a shut-in and is now 30, I honestly have some misgivings about whether I can really hold a job, but I'll be happy even with minimum wage for a job, so once I've become able to earn my own living with art as a hobby, then I'll restart Puchi-Colle.
And so I've decided to put a temporary halt to Puchi-Colle and work hard on job hunting. Yuurei Doushi is bound to return, so I hope I can get you all to wait until then!