Friday Thoughts (Ep. 33) (Patreon)

Hello hello Patrons, happy Friday, and happy first week of December! The month of the holidays, of my birthday, of coziness and darkness and chilliness. I hope you had a wonderful week! Did you set up a Christmas tree or menorah? Have you started your gift shopping/wrapping? Are you enjoying the setting in of winter or feeling the sad effects?

This week has been fairly quiet in terms of Arty Business. I am coming off the tail end of my portrait sales and holiday product sales, a few still trickling in here and there. Which is working out fine for me because I am finishing my last two weeks in my part time job, the independent mailing center/coffee shop. The holidays are the busiest time of year for that business, so my hours have been increased slightly until my last day on the 18th. More on that change in a bit!

The most exciting event of this past week has been my celebration of reaching more than 10k followers on Instagram! On my Instagram story I had a poll asking followers if they would rather a giveaway or a draw this in your style event to celebrate, and the Style event won 60/40!

You might remember my participation in a few other Draw This In Your Style challenges in the summertime. Essentially an artist does some sort of drawing and invites their followers to draw their own version of their art, and to tag it so others can see. Those challenges during the summer were one of my first big growth periods in terms of my follower numbers and my own personal stylistic development! They are such a fun exercise that allows you to experiment, relax, and have fun, without the pressure of making your own character.

So about a week ago I drew the above character on Procreate on my iPad Pro, uploaded it to my Instagram, and invited my friends and followers to draw their own version!

A week later more than 150 different illustrations inspired by my character have been shared, and I am absolutely FLOORED! I've seen art from all over the world, from artists of all different mediums, styles, techniques, skill levels, and ages. From young tweens sharing HB pencil drawings that take me back to my middle school DeviantArt years, to professional illustrators sharing elaborate digital masterpieces. 

It's not an exaggeration to say that this is my favorite thing that I have ever done on social media. The kindness and talent and connection in this online community of artists is so SO touching. Some of these people are artists I knew in college, some are artists I started admiring when I first started my art journey in the spring, most are amazing artists I am just now connecting with!

It's AMAZING, and I am OBSESSED!!

Go to #ragoniaredraw to explore the many many wonderful, sweet, adorable, creative, beautiful works of art that people have shared with me.

So much of my week has been spent either finishing up orders and a portrait or two, and thanking each person who joined my art challenge! It's been just what I needed.

Non-Art Life:

As I said my part time job has been taking up four of my work days per week, as opposed to my original two day per week schedule. It's been getting steadily busier, and I have a hard time not trying as hard as I can at my job, so I've been a bit tired.

I've decided, with advice from some of my friends and family, to use some of my earnings from this holiday season to take at least the month of January off from a part time job, to focus on setting up my year for Arty Business success. I've had a part time job since mid-summer, and I think it would be very smart to capitalize on the successes and knowledge from this year in the beginning of the month.

I plan to use the month to:

• Email potential (larger scale) clients, especially local vegan businesses.
• Update my online portfolio (it's been a while.)
• Find and apply to local markets, conventions, and pop-ups. More opportunities to sell in person!
• Develop a wider range of products.
• That's probably enough but I have ideas of a million more things to do.

But happily this week I have done a few things to make me feel more like a person and less like a working machine! I finally did a little Goodwill shopping and donating, Zach made huge batches of cookies for some reason, I've finally been doing some home yoga, and we went to our local produce shop where the employees know who we are and helped us find a cute yet affordable tree.

We decorated the tree with Zach's childhood ornaments, my art market pom pom garland, and our vintage "Woolworth's" glass ornaments (that match our 1950s apartment!)

For some strange reason I've been doing a lot of daydreaming about visiting cozy woodland cabins with no internet or wifi or tvs, about skiing and snow and pine trees. I've been longing for some time to nap and hike and read and journal.

I've also been doing a little bit of reflecting on the last year, which I hope to write more about very soon. But to get started, you've probably seen a lot of peoples' Spotify Wrapped year-in-review lists, so if you're interested, check out mine! 

Ella Fitzgerald has been my top listened to artist every year for the last four years. Chris Thile, the Avett Brothers, and Daft Punk are also classic Ragon favorite artists. ConcernedApe is the developer for Stardew Valley, one of my favorite video games, and apparently I listened to the OST a lot while I worked!

Another hilarious surprise in my Spotify Wrapped was the apparent first song that I listened to this year. What does this mean about me:

That's all for this week! I always feel like these updates aren't enough for the kind donations you all are giving me every month, so feel free to let me know anytime if you'd like to see more or less of anything! I make this Patreon for YOU!

Have a wonderful weekend, friends! Comment below what you are up to this coming week, I'd love to hear!

xoxo

Ragon