Frustration

I'm mad at my stupid achy breaky body

Hello, hi, here is the current state of my drawing hand:

Yes, indeed, it is TWO wrist braces on my poor hand. Double the compression, double the hold, yet the same amount of pain.

I’m feeling pretty frustrated about it at this point.

How I’m currently feeling

I’m so close to finishing the book I am working on. Yes, the one with over 500 pigs in it. I have one page and then the cover left to paint. Then it’ll finally be done. I just need this hand to not give out over the next two weeks.

Here, have a pig.

I’m just pissed. I’m frustrated because there’s so much stuff I want to do but I feel the amount of work that my hand can handle diminishing quicker and quicker. I want to make newsletter comics, I want to draw in my sketchbook, I want to be able to brush my teeth or pull up my pants easily but every damn thing is reliant on this damn hand (yes, I am struggling to even pull up my pants with my stupid hand now).

No moral of the lesson to today’s post, just voicing my frustration into the internet void.

I too have become the painter being accosted by pigs

I know I’m supposed to rest it and let it heal. Then work on physical therapy to strengthen it. I know what I’m supposed to do and what the next steps are it’s just frustrating as I also know I just have to get through these next two weeks. Then I can hopefully try to be on the road to “recovery”. But who the hell knows how long I’m supposed to “rest” before it starts to get better? I got some steroid injections for my hand last time I visited Taiwan and that helped for like 5 months but now it’s back. I feel like I need a more permanent solution than steroid injections twice a year or I’m going to end up so jacked they’ll put me in the Olympics.

I guess I’m just feeling a little helpless and hopeless.

Current mood

I am really excited about this book though, I scanned everything the other day and damn does it look good!

Coming to bookstores near you in 2024

I’m usually incredibly self critical (and probably still will be when it releases) but for now, I really feel like this book is something really special. I received copies of Oh, Olive! the other day and I went down a bad spiral because I kept thinking that I was a huge failure and the book was the worst thing I’d ever made.

My huge stack of books that I have nowhere to put

Luckily after spending a couple weeks picking up the book, flipping through it, feeling bad, then putting it back, I did come around to liking it again. But more on that later.

On a more positive note…

I got some Olive stickers made!

They’re fucking adorable (yes, I swore) and you can get a sticker if you pre-order my book through Books are Magic! You might be wondering, why is Olive licking a painting? Well, it’s a reference to a fan favorite page in the book:

Let’s hope parents won’t get angry at me oops

Also a small reminder, if you preorder my book through any bookstore and forward your receipt to liantomato@gmail.com and you’ll get a FREE YEAR ACCESS to PAID POSTS!

A whole bunch of people have already jumped on this train and now they’re apart of the Cool Kids Club! It’s way more cost effective to pre-order my book for $20 vs the $50 annual subscription to the newsletter. But I mean if you really want to throw more money my way, I am not complaining.

I know this is an old drawing, but listen, I told you about my hand already weren’t you listening (reading)???

If stickers aren’t your jam, remember you can also pre-order through BuyOlympia and receive a free print with my book!

All the freebies you can get if you pre-order!

Here are some sexy buttons to entice you to preorder my book:

Thanks for reading today’s post and absorbing my frustrations. I’m sorry it’s not a fun engaging comic like it usually is.

I’ll leave y’all with a short poem I copied into my sketchbook that I completely forgot about:

Till next time fellas!