Friday Thoughts (Ep. 53) (Patreon)

Hello hello, my sweet friends and Patrons and art lovers! Another very happy Friday to you! I hope this post finds you relaxed and hydrated. If not, brew yourself a big cup of your beverage of choice, and plop down in your favorite seat. Sit back and let me share with you the tale of the last two weeks as a freelance illustrator.

To begin, we've had quite an influx of new patrons this past few weeks! Join me in welcoming our eight new patrons:  Ann, "Lamekidfrommars" (how mysterious), Magnolia, Tori, Anna, Rhianna, Nina, and Jo! Welcome, new friends, we're so happy you're here!! It looks like a couple of you were brought over with my most recent Arty Business article, and as always I'm so glad it resonates with you. A few others I'm guessing were interested in the new Close Friends perk on Instagram, which also makes me super happy!

Speaking of which, here's another reminder that all Patrons are now invited to enjoy even more behind-the-scenes content by joining my Close Friends on Instagram! To be added just send me a DM with the name you pledged with and I’ll add you!

I also want to share that together we have reached our next goal of 25 patrons!! Thank you so much, friends!! The reward for this goal is to create a set of Patreon exclusive stickers to then be mailed to you all as a big thank you for your continued support! Next week I’ll start sketching a couple ideas for the stickers, and then I’ll share them on here for you all to vote on, so keep an eye out. And thank you again! I’m blown away by having 31 people supporting me on Patreon right now, and I hope I can live up to your support.

BUMMER MARKETS

This past two weeks I’m sad to share have been a big bummer as far as markets go.

Two weeks ago I had my second time tabling at a lovely downtown outdoor market, and I convinced Zach (my partner) to join me. Unfortunately, This became my first experience with a windy outdoor market, and had my regular set up completely fail me. After setting up most of my wire racks with prints and pins and things, both of them blew to the ground with a racket of a crash. Nothing was damaged, but I had to completely abandon my usual display and just lay everything on the table. I forgot my wooden shelves at home, forgot tape, and any attempt at setting up picture frames with prints just blew over as well. It was embarrassing to see how flimsy my display is, and another reminder that I am actually very new at this. On top of that, it was a very slow day and we made less than $100. Blegh. Well, I learned not to risk wire frame displays at outdoor markets. And after researching outdoor craft fair wind issues I learned that I am definitely not alone in this embarrassing experience

The next Saturday I had signed up for another Pop-Up Market, this time in my neighborhood, and was ready to have a bit more success. This time, my display didn’t blow down (but I was very anxious that it would,) but the market ended up being equally slow. I met a couple very nice people, including a little family that had seen my first wholesale order at a shop in Olympia the day before! But for whatever reason it still ended up very quiet for most of the vendors there. I might continue to experiment on and off with these small brewery markets, but I’m starting to think it isn’t worth my time or energy.

Next goal to try instead: Farmer’s markets!

D’VASH COLLAB GIVEAWAY

In more positive news this past week I hosted my second collab giveaway, this time with Vegan Sweetener company D’Vash Organics! They reached out to me after I shared my first block print t-shirt on Instagram. They sent me six bottles of their date and sweet potato nectars in exchange for one of my shirt designs as part of the giveaway. I was so excited to partner with a vegan company, as I’ve been specially looking for opportunities to giveaway vegan products that I love to my followers.

I’d never had date nectar before, but since they sent me some I can say that it is delicious! Like a deeper, richer flavored honey, but lighter than molasses. We replaced the sugar in a muffin recipe with half the amount of date nectar and it was BOMB. They’re not paying me to tell you all about this, but I’m just sayin it is tasty and I’m so happy they wanted to collab with me.

NEW PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY

I made all of these pins and products back in May, but haven’t made the time to photograph, edit, and upload the listings until this month! I was feeling pretty down some days these past few weeks, so on the days that I didn’t know what to work on next I made myself go through the motions of making a new Etsy listing. There’s always something to do

If anyone was curious, these were photographed using my iPhone, set up next to my kitchen window on big pieces of colored art paper, and edited using the free Snapseed app on my iPad. I can’t afford a camera or a laptop, so I work with what I have, and it works well enough!

Hmm, would anyone be interested in an Arty Business article on exactly how I photograph and edit my product/art photos?

PREPPIN’ PRINTS

Another project that I’m super behind on, but finally got done this week: redrawing my Inktober and Animal pieces that I wanted to order as bulk prints. It feels great to clean up and slightly rework some older pieces, and to FINALLY have them ready to become prints!

Having these both done relieves a lot of stress, partially because I’ve had these traditional pieces kicking around for many months, and I felt a little bit like I couldn’t start any new projects until I finished these up. I also have Rose City Comic Con in mid-September, but I’ll be busy/traveling for the two weeks before the event. So! I need to have all my products ordered and ready before the end of August. Finishing these up and ordering a bulk set of new vinyl stickers, means anything else I work on before then is just a bonus!

That’s called prioritizing, baby, and it is saving my mental health!

PORTRAIT ORDERS

(Are never-ending!) I also have been wrapping up/ starting even more custom portrait orders. I’m keeping my commissions closed until October, when I have more time to work on portraits for the holidays. But if people request a portrait with a long enough deadline (I’m quoting October right now,) and are willing to pay a big extra fee (for ordering outside of standard commission openings) then I’ve been accepting them. And by that I mean I’ve accepted two extra orders.

We’ll see if I hate myself for it by the end of September, but I think it should be great!

Well, buddies, that’s all for this update! It’s a weird, kind of tense time lately, while I wait to see how successful my autumn and winter will be. I feel like a lot of exciting things have been happening this summer that I haven’t appreciated, and I haven’t really given myself time to step back and enjoy or relax.

But I’m working on it, my friends. 

Your support truly does help give me some breathing room in this hard start of my career, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.

You’re the best. I hope you have a wonderful week, and take good care of yourself. You deserve a break, to be proud of yourself, and to enjoy.

Xoxo, Ragon