When planning work for the new year, I realized once again that my studio was into its 7th year since officially opening on July 23rd, 2014. I actually thought about taking a Sabbatical leave back in July, but a couple of interesting opportunities kept me dreaming up proposals. Unfortunately, both proposals were turned down and the second half of 2020 just seemed to have vanished without any accomplishments whatsoever. When explaining to my non-Christian colleague the concept of a Sabbatical leave and my intention to take one until the studio’s 7th anniversary, she quickly calculated that the bank account had just enough money to cover both of our wages till July, not much and not less. In many ways, God seems to be nudging me to take a break from my usual work. The more I think about this the more it seems like a good plan during these slow economic times. My first ever Sabbatical was hence decided and commenced last week!

My plan for the Sabbatical is more of a mentality than actually taking a physical vacation away from the studio. I’ll still be going back to the studio sporadically, but will focus more on R&D and other personal projects.

The first week of the Sabbatical already seemed quite fruitful. I tried learning Chinese painting on my own and got some decent outcome. I’m also exploring comics/manga design for my second year of doing the weekly Inktober52 challenge. Besides art, I’m slowly picking up web design/development again and had just registered a couple of domains to play with. God seems to be encouraging me to explore this new path when a brother from church called me today out of the blue to see my availability in helping with the church’s website. My studio’s digital fabrication work was kept alive when a friend asked me to help him 3D-print his architectural designs last week, a perfect way to keep the idling printers busy while I explore new things during this seemingly promising Sabbatical leave.