XMACX Monthly | January 2026
Happy Dappy New Year!
Starting a new year is always refreshing and exciting! Somehow, it feels like your slate has been wiped clean and you can start fresh and new! Even though, technically, time just marches on… But away with negative thoughts! It’s 2026, the Year of the Horse! What does this year have in store for us?
Last year, I fell off hard on monthly updates because I didn’t want to stress about something I didn’t have to given all the wedding shenanigans and fun my husband and I went through. I attempted to resume XMACX Monthly in July and I got through to August, but after that, I didn’t make much progress on stuff. I focused on spending time with friends and family.
I think another thing that really discouraged me from making things or progressing on my creative projects was the state of social media and the internet. Some time in the middle of last year, itch.io began de-listing projects with adult content in response to some organization that made some demands regarding adult content. This, of course, really upset me because I thought of it as a form of censorship. If that organization could do that, what other media or content could they erase from history? Needless to say, some of my projects were also affected, which sent me into a sort of panic mode. I thought, “If you can’t find my work online, I need to somehow find other ways to share what I make.”
On top of all that, A.I. slop going around and people claiming it’s supposed to make life easier because you can produce more things quickly, yada yada blah blah blah — shut up. All that talk about A.I. is just depressing and infuriating. You remove the joy, passion, and soul of creating and are promoting a culture of consumption and a future where people won’t even be human anymore because they won’t have to think or work. Everything will just be handed to them. Outta here with that shit.
Because of all that drama, I want 2026 to be a year where I reconnect with what made me passionate about creating in the first place, and I want to continue to be patient with myself. My projects and art don’t have to be rushed or completed right here, right now. I can take my time with it and appreciate the journey.
New Year Goals
When I was a kid, I was taught that goals should be measurable so you can easily track progress, so here are my goals for 2026!
1) Play TWO consoles games this year.
Listen. I love video games. Hell, I develop video games!!! And I used to play games all the time!!! I grew up on Pokemon and GameBoy SP games and played Mario Kart and Nintendogs on my DS Lite! I even bought the Nintendo Switch when it first came out! It’s sad to think that I haven’t touched that thing in at least two years. My husband also plays games on it, but I mean I personally haven’t sat my ass down in a chair and played a good ole handheld console game. It’s a good thing I have a backlog of Switch games to play! I bought Bayonetta 3 when it came out and never got around to playing it, and I got Hades 2 for Christmas, so I’m very much looking forward to sinking some hours into those games!
2) Read ONE physical comic per week.
I love comics. I remember trading manga volumes with friends and gushing about Miroku and Sasuke! And it’s unfortunately been too long since I last read an actual, physical comic. I also bought some physical ones that are sitting in my backlog. Oops. I have no excuse now, haha… I read webcomics from time to time which is fine, but I think it’s a good thing to get back into reading and having a physical book in my hand. It’s nostalgic, sure, but in this day in age where days, DAYS are spent racking up screentime, it’d be nice to lose myself in paperback. I feel like maybe this goal somehow contradicts my first one because I’m trying to avoid more screentime… BUT I think you might understand my sentiment. I fell in love with drawing because I wanted to draw comics and tell stories through comics like my faves back in the day: Vampire Knight, Inuyasha, and Naruto to name a few.
3) Cook TWO dishes per month.
In my family I am notoriously known for not cooking. I have a passion for not cooking, lol… It’s a chore to me. I mean, I know it’s not a waste of time, but even just ten minutes chopping up vegetables and tossing it in a pot of boiling water and waiting for it to become not raw is like an eternity to me. I know. I need to change the way I think about cooking. Lo and behold, in these awful, godforsaken hell times where social media brainrots us, these damn reels and shorts have BRAINWASHED ME into romantacizing the kitchen! Like, what? Something good born out of my doomscrolling??? Lol. Alex actually enjoys cooking so he feeds both of us, but I want to put in some effort into learning how to cook good food so maybe I could enjoy it with him? These baking and cooking influencers make it look so easy and fun… Maybe you’ll see me in the kitchen on your phone cooking up something delicious while you’re doomscrolling one day. BAHAHA! In any case, this will be a challenge to overcome, so I think two dishes per month is super reasonable.
New Year Hopes and Dreams
These aren’t measurable, so they’re just wishes that I can maybe work towards if time and life permits. (And I won’t feel as bad if I don’t accomplish them LOL).
Draw more of my original characters other than Kaimana. I spend a lot of time fawning over him. It honestly takes away from my other great characters… LOL
I’ve always wanted to try designing stickers sheets and I’ve been meaning to make more fruit character merch…
This is a hope and dream every year, but… release my Kaimanga project LOL. I promise you it is in no state to be released at all. I have nothing except sketches and brainstorms. It’s a skeleton that needs flesh and blood.
Visual Novel Development Updates
Froot Basket White, Chapter 2
Kristi and I are slowly parsing through Chapter 2 and getting it proofread. I’ve also begun drawing up some concepts for Beau’s outfit and the CGs I’ll be including.
After-Party Chemistry
Man, I tell ya, writing is hard. Why did my English and Creative Writing teachers think I was any good at this? Lol… I think I’m just super out of practice. All that to say, it’s been rough. I have an idea of how I want things to play out in this story, but I just don’t know how to get there or what words to use and where… It’s a mess, but I’ll fix it! I can fix it! C’’: I just feel bad asking others to read it because what if it’s super bad? WHAT IF IT’S UNSALVAGEABLE?! I’ll fix it…
Cover Art | Paniolo Kaimana
I always try to start the year with a drawing of Kaimana because, (1) his birthday is on January 3, (2) he’s my favorite original character. With that in mind, I was unsure how to approach another illustration of him. In the past I’ve always drawn him enjoying the sun and beach because that’s how I imagine he’d spend his birthday. This year, however, I didn’t want another beach drawing. How many more ways can we see Kaimana in the water or on the sand? (Lots. There’s definitely lots more ways, but I needed some change). I saw that the Chinese Zodiac animal this year is a horse, so I considered drawing Kaimana as a centaur or Cowboy Kaimana riding a horse. Clearly, I went with the latter.
The Concept
For those unfamiliar, the Chinese Zodiac is comprised of twelve animals. They decided to race each other and the order they crossed the finish line is what determines the Zodiac animal each year. It’s a cycle, so it just begins anew whenever we make it to last place, but this year happens to be the horse! ANYWAY, each year is also assigned one of five elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. This year happens to be fire, so Fire Horse! I thought it’d look cool if its mane and tail where ablaze.
Because of Old Westerns, I always associate horseback riding with cowboys, so of course I had to draw Kaimana in a cowboy outfit. BUT HOLD YOUR HORSES! He’s not just any cowboy. He’s a paniolo, a Hawaiian cowboy! See, back in the 1800s, there was a wild cattle population problem, so King Kamehameha III sent some dude off to California to learn how to handle them. This guy brought back some cowboys who taught Hawaiians how to be cowboys. Eventually, the lifestyle blossomed into its own, whole culture here in the islands!
With my main pieces of the illustration done, I needed a fun background, so I threw in an erupting volcano to tie in the “fire” concept. Coincidentally, that tied in the whole paniolo concept too because paniolo culture and the country lifestyle is big on the Big Island where the active volcanoes of Hawaii are located. And again, this too was super not intentional but just happened to work out… Hilo — which is Kaimana’s hometown — is also on the Big Island! So somehow I ended up drawing something that represents Kaimana very well. We love when things work out like that!
Other Fun Details
The print of Kaimana’s shirt is reminiscent of palaka, a yarn-woven, heavy duty, working man’s shirt worn by paniolo and plantation workers back in the day.
Kai is wearing a maile lei to celebrate his birthday! I previously talked about the maile lei in July 2025’s update.
I wanted to fill up some empty space in the bottom left corner, so following my husband’s suggestion, I added an ‘ohi’a lehua plant! Each island in the Hawaiian chain has it’s own representative flower, and the ‘oh’ia lehua is the Big Island’s flower! The plant is sacred to the volcano goddess, Pele!
Upcoming Events
This year I return to Citrus Con’s Artist Alley! Citrus Con is a free online Boys Love convention taking place between February 27 and March 1!
I also recently learned I got accepted into Kawaii Kon’s Artist Alley! Yay! It’s always been a dream of mine to share my art at Kawaii Kon! This year it’s being held between April 24 and 26!
I’m trying to make an effort to be more active in my local artist scene, so I’ve been looking into events and craft fairs! I hope to make friends who are just as passionate about creating as I am, and to also meet people who enjoy my work in person!
Next Month?
Let’s not even think about what’s happening in February. Let’s get through January first, haha.
Much Love, xxAri
