September in Ragonia (2022)

Hello Patrons and pals, and happy OCTOBER!!!

The summer has been holding on TIGHT to Seattle the past month, with unseasonably warm temperatures, smoke from wildfires drifting from the mountains, and no rain in sight. :( But you know the Halloweeny spirit is still strong here at Ragonia studios, and has been for weeks!

Settle in y'all, and let me share with you what I got up to in September!

1. SHOP UPDATE!

Updating my shop is something I really struggle with in my business. I've discovered I am really bored by the minutiae of listing new products, and therefor will put it off forever if I let myself. In the past I've had a product for more than a year before I finally list it! No, it's not my strong suit.

On top of that I've been meaning to move my shop off of Etsy for a long time, since my monthly fees from selling on Etsy have long gone way over the monthly fees for other e-commerce platforms. (And because most of my customers come directly from my social media, not from Etsy's search functions.) But again all the details of choosing the best alternative and doing the work to set up a new shop have made me put it off for... about two years.

But this past month I finally DID IT! 

The Ragonia Shop update and new website home is now aliiiive and beautiful at a NEW domain name:

WWW.RAGONIA.COM 

My full name, ragondickard.com, still works, but I figured it'd be easier for customers to remember my bizzy name.

It's got all my new products finally listed: stickers, enamel pins, washi tape, BIG 11x17" prints, originals, keychains, suncatcher stickers, it's all there!

Aaaand pals, I also have a mailing list set up for those who really want to keep up to date on my shop's happenings. You can sign up with the pop-up on my website!

I won't email very often, just if there's something cool coming up! Make sure to add ragoniaart@gmail.com to your contacts if you sign up, so it doesn't go to spam!

Check it out and let me know what you think, and if you have any questions about my new shop or how I set it up. Or why I moved off of Etsy, or anything! 

Townies and Local Legends can also drop questions in the new Livestream Question Box in the Art Town Discord for me to chat about at the next Art Town Wednesday!

2. DRAWTOBER PROMPT LIST!

Thanks to the encouragement of Townies Tay and Victoria, I also made my first Drawtober prompt list since 2020, the GHOULISH GALLERY!

I made this prompt list on one of the Wednesday Livestreams, with lots of awesome suggestions from other Residents and friends in chat, and tweaked it later with Zach!

We're in the midst of this arty challenge right now, and it's never too late to start! The official challenge is doing a drawing a day using the prompts in order, then sharing it to social media with the tag #ghoulishgallery. BUT, you can jump in at any time, do as many or little days as you like, or add it onto something else you're already doing! I've had to skip about half the days so far myself, so no pressure to do them all!

I'll share some of my favorites from Residents in the October newsletter. Tay and Victoria have been killing it with ALL of them so far!! Love to see the art you're all making!

3. PUMPKIN'S BEDROOM + RESIDENT GIFTS

In September I did a much needed cleanup of my studio, because it gets MESSY so quick, and then I extra don't want to work. As part of the clean up, I decided to give Pumpkin's room an upgrade with some of the cat-themed art I've collected over the years.

(Pumpkin's room is a cardboard box covered in fabric and a folded up towel on the top corner of a shelf in the studio. To get to it she jumps on my desk, onto my bookshelves, and climbs into her bed. It's her favorite spot in the house.)

The white embroidered banner on the far right is a beautiful handmade gift from Sightseer Katie, a embroidered portrait of Pumpkin! Thank you Katie!

In other gifts news, after I shared a picture of Pumpkin's newly decorated room to the Art Town Discord, Townie Renee made this adorable rendering of Pumpkin's Room! Full of sweet details and references to the streams and me and Zach. 

Everyone please check out @renzorade on Instagram for more of Renee's lovely art!

Thank you so much, Renee, this is so special!

I also wanted to give a huge thank you to Townie Kat for the absolutely beautiful handmade gift that she sent me in September, a lovely handmade fabric doll of Jack from Animal Crossing. This doll is full of thoughtful and special details, from the little removable jacket and bowtie, hand stitched details on the face, to the glittery eyes. I totally teared up on livestream at the kindness of this gift, and the lovely community that my Patreon feels like.

Kat has shared on the streams that she's been practicing and preparing with dolls like this to get ready to sell them and other handmade products in 2023, and has been livestreaming her progress on Sunday mornings! Follow cat at @moobear_kat on Instagram to see more art and hand sewn dolls!

Thank you so so much Kat!!

4. SEPTEMBER ART

I had a couple of long-running client projects continue through September and into October, and the only personal project that I really worked on (outside of making my Inktober prompt list and STARTING to sculpt a couple sets of Halloween earrings) was re-working this Pumpkin Punk Inktober piece from 2018.

Above is the original.

This one is the re-worked sketch.

And this is about all the progress I made for the new linework!

I'm really liking how it's coming out, and definitely do think I'll continue to work on this and someday get new prints made.

Here's the livestream VOD of me working on this Pumpkin redraw! 

So I didn't really finish any personal artwork in September, but already halfway through October I've made SO MUCH that I'm excited to share soon!

5. NON-ART LIFE

I think it's been through most of September and the end of August that I've started VIDEO GAME STREAMING pretty regularly!

With the kind donations from the folks who join my livestream I've been streaming playing a number of fun games, including Stray, Cult of the Lamb, and most recently Resident Evil: Biohazard and Resident Evil: Village! I'll share more about Resident Evil in my October recap, but for now I just want to share with any Residents who might want to join me while I play some games. 

Follow me on Twitch and turn on notifications, I usually stream games on weekday evenings!

(this is a real picture of me in 4th grade)

It's been really fun and fulfilling, I've been wanting to play more games for a long time and streaming it has been helping me do that! 

Here's a VOD of me streaming Cult of the Lamb for the first time! 

So that's all for September, it's been pretty busy! And I can feel myself needing to slow down a bit actually haha.

As usual thank YOU for supporting me here on the Patreon and paying me to slow down and reflect with you, to slow down and make personal art, to slow down and do things that fulfill me creatively.

I hope you're having a wonderful month, and I look forward to sharing a bunch of Halloweeny Art with you in early November!