Today is the last day of 2007. New Year’s is always an occasion for looking back to reflect and then looking forward to the coming year. So I thought this would be a good time for me to pause and evaluate my blog.

I saw a big jump in readership this year, and it’s been a fun challenge for me to keep the blog interesting enough for readers to keep coming back. I’ve tried to focus mostly on topics related to illustration, cartooning, and freelancing, but my goal of posting something new every weekday has forced me to zig and zag a bit as I try to figure out what works and what doesn’t. I’ve posted a mixture of personal sketches, freelance work, tips on the freelancing biz, reviews of products and books, interesting links, an occasional mindless distraction, and a few opinions and thoughts totally unrelated to art. This year I also took a character design class from Stephen Silver at Schoolism.com, and I received a lot of positive feedback from posting my assignments. I also gave the blog a new look, added a Tip Jar, and created a Recommended Resources page that links to Amazon.com.

I want to make the blog even better for 2008, so I’m asking you my readers to give me your thoughts. What have you especially liked? Did anything bug you, or worse, bore you? Is there anything you really liked and would like to see more of? I’m not fishing for compliments–I figure this must be a pretty decent blog, otherwise you wouldn’t keep coming back–but I am genuinely interested in getting some overall feedback, suggestions, and constructive criticism on how I can make it even better.

So please leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Every comment will get read, and I won’t delete anything unless it is obviously a “spam” comment. Feel free to post anonymously if you’d like. (Hint: For those of you who read but never comment, this would be a perfect opportunity to stick your toe in the water.)

A very happy new year to one and all!