Seasons greetings to you! (Patreon)

IT'S TIME TO LOOK BACK AT WHAT WE'VE ACCOMPLISHED, AND FORWARD TO WHATS TO COME

2018 is my 2nd year of freelance, and it's been as productive as ever. I wrote a commission tutorial - 2nd edition! I painted approximately 50 commissions. Above you can see my art summary with my personal favourites! I'm happy to let you know that my print shop will be up to date on January 11th - all of these paintings will be ready for your wall! 

On Instagram I've already checked out my top 9 posts. Funnily enough, 2 of them are from throwback thursday, so the art isn't even from 2018, haha.

However, this year I didn't only paint. I also held a friggin Kickstarter! A successful one! If you know me you know that I love 3 things: drawing, chocolate and dogs. I was very intrigued by the internet's recent fascination with enamel pins and decided to create the Good Dogs Pin Collection. What started out as a silly doodle of Rennie (my in laws dog) became a collection of 5 breeds! 

It was a fantastic experience that I hope to repeat again in 2019 with Good Dogs 2.

Which Brings Me To 2019

Kickstarter

Yeah, that's right. I want to do a Good Dogs 2 Kickstarter! It'll be much the same procedure as last time. Probably around march with a few different breeds to unlock! I'm thinking Husky, Jack Russell.. maybe something else? I'd love to hear suggestions on this. 

Merch and Shop Overhaul

For 2019 I also want create more merchandise. Mouse mats, playmats, bags, notebooks and enamel pins. I have some plans for this! But some of these are harder to fulfill than others, so my battle-plan needs more polishing. 

I hope to overhaul my shop and sell somewhere other than storenvy. Maybe Shopify or WooCommerce? Storenvy's fees and limitations bug me, but until I know I will have enough sales to pay for the shop hosting, it's not a priority. 

Step Up my Art Game - get serious! 

I didn't really focus on improving my skills this year, and it's showing. So I’m going back to the drawing board!

2019 will be the year of studies. My priorities are landscape and texture studies, but I need to brush up on everything really. I hope to save up some money to get a mentorship from Istebrak or Schoolism. Specific tailored feedback is so helpful. 

2019 is also the year I will reach out to companies and art directors for work. I love doing personal commissions but I want to broaden my horizons, network and work experience, and show my love for games and fantasy!  I should’ve done this sooner but impostor syndrome was hard at work! Reaching out to art directors is a completely new experience for me and I don't expect to get work immediately - but it's the first step on a longer journey. 

Last but not least, My goal for 2019 is to get back into social media and create even more Patreon content. 

When you have depression it can be hard to look to the future and make plans and goals. Even harder to fulfill them! But I give it my best either way.  

I will be honest. 2018 was tough for me. On top of depression and burn out, my PC died and I wasn't able to paint for a month. The first week was a much needed break to be honest! But it left me more stressed than ever. Deadlines not being met, desperately trying to catch up with my queue and financial trouble because I wasn't able to paint. Korra also took up a lot of my time and energy when she was the dog equivalent of an infant.

It took a few months but I'm finally getting better. It's still hard but at least the finances and commission queue is caught up with. Thank you to all the people who have surrounded me with love and support.