May in Ragonia (2022) (Patreon)

Friday's greetings to you, Residents of Art Town!

I'm writing to you from the slowly warming Seattle. Flowers are blooming, rain is currently falling, birds are singing, and the nearby arterial street is full of the noisy whoosh of heavy tires on asphalt speeding towards their weekend camping trips in the mountains, and that means it's late spring!

I had a busy and eventful month, which I'm excited to share with you today. What did I get up to in May, and what's coming for the summer?

1. I am AFFIANCED

On May 1st, Zachary, my partner of 8 years proposed to me at the top of our favorite hill overlooking our neighborhood, after an absolutely lovely day shared doing all of our favorite things.

Alas, the life of a spinster will no longer be my tragic doom, and upon the year of 2023 (or so) we will be bound in holy matrimony!

2. GAM JAM ART!

My friends at Portland Indie Game Squad hired me to make promotional art for their 2022 Summer Slow Jam game jams, which are online and open to anyone anywhere who wants to join a team to make a quick video game in a month!

The art I made is some of my favorite I've made so far, especially the Stealth theme and the Final Boss theme!

AND, I'll be taking part in June's jam with the Character Creator theme... I'm going to make the art for a video game this month!!

3. EMERALD CITY COMIC CON

I was accepted into the Artist Alley for the local comic con for the first time! Which means I'll be focusing my Wednesday art making endeavors toward making new products to sell there in late August. (And in my shop online, no worries!)

Send me your product ideas/requests if you have 'em!

(Photo from Rose City Comic Con in Portland 2019 :')  )

4. NORDSTROM SPEED PORTRAITS

I was hired to spend a few hours at the Downtown Seattle Nordstrom drawing portraits on greeting cards for customers for Mother's Day!

AND I was just hired again to do the same thing for Father's Day! Seattleites, I'll be at Nordstrom Downtown on June 18th from 1:00-5:00 PM PST doing free quickie portraits!

5. SO MUCH ART + LIVESTREAMING!

Here's some things I drew this month, mostly as apart of the weekly Wednesday Art Town livestreams!

We've had a solid core group of Art Town Residents joining the streams, and the number of arty buddies hanging out legitimately grows every week!

(Upgrade your pledge to the Townie or Local Legend tier if you'd like to keep up to date with the livestreams and VODs! They get a schedule at the start of every month, a practice prompt to work on, and access to the Discord with the chat and reminders. c: )

POSCA marker on 8x8" bristol.

Townie Carli's kitkat Oliver doodled during stream. :)

POSCA marker and gouache on 12x16" watercolor paper.

Townie Kaila's greyhound Greer in her PJs, doodled during stream!

Digital Sketch for a new POSCA marker ghost piece.

Digital illustration to announce my and Zach's engagement!

6. PATREON UPDATES

Quick things:

★ Monthly updates will now be shared the first week of the next month, not the last week.

★ Practice Prompt of the Month will replace weekly practice prompts during the livestreams (for Townies and Local Legends.) Hope that's more flexible for all! Will be shared with the monthly schedule. Here's this month's!

★ Reminder about the joys of Resident ID cards :)

★★ And reminder not to feel any pressure to participate in any of the Art Town activities you don't want to! You can lurk if you want, or just enjoy supporting me as an artist! The activities are here if you want them, and pleasant background noise if you don't. I appreciate you!! ★★

7. THINGS I'VE BEEN LOVING:

This show on Netflix.

This and This Video by this creator on Instagram.

This local store where I picked my engagement ring!

This Youtube Channel.

That's May, it was a big one, and I'm gearing up for a big Arty Summer! It's gonna be awesome!

Chat again soon!