Sunday Thoughts Ep. 41 (Patreon)

Hello hello lovely darling Patrons, and happy March!

And happy ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY to my business and this Patreon! Can you all believe it? Thank you so much for being here, hooray!! To celebrate I have FINALLY updated my Patreon with all new post series, tiers, all new rewards, and all new goals!

Updates to my Patreon:

The biggest change is that I've added a $2 tier, which means you in the $5 tier are now the higher ups! You're welcome to change your pledge to the lower tier if you wish, but I'm hoping to now use the $5+ tier to emphasize the educational/informational aspect of this Patreon. This month I'll be starting a new semi-monthly series called Arty Business, where I'll write a more in depth, practical articles about the most frequently asked business and art questions I receive.

I'm thinking article topics like: social media growth strategies, style development, working from home productively, creative tips, packaging and mailing, whatever you all are interested in! More on that later, but I hope these improved rewards will allow a more entry level as well as giving more value to the higher rewards.

Basically, I want my Patreon to be a place to help other artists who were in a similar position as I was last year. Educational and inspirational, rather than focused on goodies and stickers and prints.

Let me know what you think of this change, and if you have any requests for ways I can make this a helpful and informational place for you! Okay, on to the activities of the week!

Portraits Round 1,000:

Another round of portraits took up most of my week. Which has been the case for the majority of January and February, but I'm not complaining. It literally pays the bills, haha! This round was majority digital portraits, which you can see above. On the left is the preliminary sketch phase, on the right is the final portrait I send to the customer.

I added a new feature with digital portraits where customers can pay an additional $10 to have me print and mail a copy, and a few people were very happy to order that. I'd say it's a great option to add to your digital commissions if you have a good printer and paper cutter!

I'm also working on a very special wedding commission for a sweet customer and her bridesmaids. They're going to frame and display the portrait at their wedding, so I added a thumbnail sketch step to my process. (See how much less developed they are than the previous sketches?) They chose option 2, and I'm excited to finish this up this week!

Does this mean I'm an influencer:

This week I received this beautiful package from Arteza, an American art supply company! To be honest, lately I've gotten a number of emails offering to mail me "free things," but I either didn't believe they were real, wouldn't normally support the company, or thought their request wasn't worth my time. If an eyeglass company offers me 2 pairs of glasses in exchange for me to tag them in 3 separate posts, that isn't worth my time and feels inauthentic to me. If a vegan food company offered to sponsor me, I'd say ABSOLUTELY, because that is a message I would normally support anyway!

Anyway, I only believed the Arteza email after I saw a lot of other artists talking about receiving free art supplies to test out. Oops! 

They mailed me a huge box of their watercolors, some lovely watercolor sketchbooks, and watercolor pencils, in exchange for an honest review (which I will be posting on my Instagram.) I tested them out in a live-stream on my Instagram, where I painted whatever was recommended to me by those watching.

Quick review: HUGE range of very bright colors, fairly chalky after drying, very little staining (easy to wash/scrub away from paper.) I wouldn't call this a "professional" quality watercolor, but for it's price it's a great entry level watercolor! A big step above Crayola, a few steps below Windsor & Newton. But again, very affordable!

Non-Art Life:

-I met one of my patrons and fellow Seattleite, Kaila! Put simply, she's super awesome, an amazing artist herself, and gave me so many ideas for this Patreon. Definitely makes me want to set up some online meetups. GREAT to meet you, Kaila!!

-I cut my hair! Spring-time chip chop! Cut off all my pink ends, which makes me a little sad, but we move on.

-Got my nails done! Back to demon lizard claws! They were so sharp I literally stabbed myself in my middle finger, and had to file them down a little. 

-Pulled my spring clothes out of storage (florals!)

Okay, that's all for this week's update! I've got a couple of big things coming up (my sister visiting, a 13 year old coming to learn about this career for school, my 1 year anniversary of my business, March Meet the Maker, Emerald City Comic Con,) so be prepared for a few more fun things!

xoxo

Ragon