March in Ragonia (2021)

Hello Patrons and friends, and a very happy weekday to you! It's a beautiful sunny spring day in Seattle, and after two unusually cold months we're set to possibly have our first 60 degree day of the year today. I'm wearing my spring-iest dress, with (gasp) no tights or leggings, so you know I'm in a spring mood. It's the last day of March 2021, and I'm very excited to take some time to share with you some of the happenings in my life and business this past month. 

First, I want to give a big warm welcome to our new patrons for March: Mikey, Raylynn, Rhodora, Lizzie, Kelsey, Julia, Jemima, Joana, Ilse, Jennifer, Michelle, and Artemis! Thank you SO MUCH for your patronage, I hope you love my little special spot for bonus content and sharing. Please feel free to introduce yourself in the Community tab, (or head there to check out your fellow patrons), comment on any post, send me requests or anything! I'm an open book here, and all the patrons I know are happy to help with anything.

Next, I want to announce a CHANGE to the Ragonia Patreon: 

Starting in April, NEW Patrons will be charged on the day that they pledge, and then every subsequent payment will be on the first day of the month. Patreon calls this "charge up front" As it is now, new Patrons aren't charged until the first of the month, so it's possible for people to pledge, get content, and then cancel before having to make a payment. I've been fine with that in the past, but I think it's more fair to both me and the rest of my patrons to structure it this new way, since we have amassed such a big collection of articles and content that patrons can access immediately.

There will be no change to existing patrons, you'll still be charged once on the first of the month. The only change to you is, now I'll be able to offer yearly subscriptions for a discount! I'll let you all know when that's set up. For more info on the new "Charge Up Front" structure, check out this FAQ.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about this change! I think it should work well for all of us. 

Now that all the fun admin stuff out of the way,  grab a sparkling water or tea, pop on some spring-y background music (The Stardew Valley soundtrack perhaps?) and let's chat!

Thoughts in my journal from early March.

What a strange month to talk about! January was moving, February was two big deadlines on the book and the HP printables, March was.... purposefully quiet. And you all might know that quiet in my career freaks me the hell out, even when it's purposeful. Quiet is when I question everything, when I panic, when I turn to instant gratification projects that I don't really need and that don't really push me forward.

But I've known for months that I need some purposeful quiet, to refocus my art and my business, . I've been saving up money for quiet, and preparing myself to prioritize, but that doesn't make it any less scary to turn down projects that, when I started Ragonia, would have been a dream project. It's scary and fortunate that I can and have to let go of that work-hungry earlier Ragon who will take any job that comes my way no matter how little they pay, so that I can build to better things for myself. (Part of my ability to do that is thanks to your support here on Patreon, so I can't thank you enough for that.)

I wanted to build better things for myself, because for a long time I've been feeling like my art is directionless, not mine, inspired by not what I want to make or say, but what I see other artists making on Instagram or what I think will sell. It feels like someone else's hand and brain is making my art, and I hate that feeling. On top of that, I love and appreciate all my client projects I've gotten, but I wanted to double check the direction that the jobs I've been getting are going and make sure that it's what I want in the long term. I've been feeling like I set my art and career train on a track in 2018 and I let it go, and now I'm looking out the window and making sure I'm headed to the destination that I want.

Books for study: "Illustration Workshop", "Becoming a Successful Illustrator", "How to Be an Illustrator", "Find Your Artistic Voice", "Steal Like an Artist", "Steven Universe: Art & Origins", "Show Your Work!",  and "The Story of Art".

So I made some space for myself this month, and I've slowly been setting about to work. To start, I ordered some books for reference and illustration, and have been reading them on my balcony any time I feel panicked or lost. 

All the books have been helpful in their own way, but I've particularly connected with Lisa Congdon's quick read "Find Your Artistic Voice", and the "Steven Universe: Art & Origins" art book.

Lisa Congdon's book is helping me through the process of examining my interests, preferences, and personal story to give me inspiration about what I want to make in the future. The Steven Universe art book is calming and beautiful to look at, and gives me insights into the creators process for making the show. Including the extremely collaborative process necessary to make a cartoon, AND the months of loosey-goosey downtime, exploration, flexibility, and creative freedom they gave themselves in the early stages of the show. There's a time for hard work and productivity, and there's a time for ideas, experimentation, and taking in inspiration, and both are necessary.

Returning to an old favorite self-help book.

Zach and I have also started re-reading a book that I got right when I started Ragonia: "Creating a Life Worth Living" a 1997 book by Carol Lloyd. It's a very workshop-y self-help-y book about building a life and career in an artistic field. You're supposed to read one chapter a week and follow the homework/activities, which is exactly the prescription we need.

The first week's homework is to establish a 15 minute daily action to provide an empty space for creative thinking and to set the tone for your day. My daily action in 2018 was to go for a walk every morning, this time my daily action is to sit on my balcony first thing in the morning. We've only been doing it for three days, but it already is feeling like a good establishment for a better daily routine.

Pinterest Mood Board for inspiration.

As inspired by Lisa Congdon's book and Andy J. Pizza's podcast Creative Pep Talk, I've gotten back into taking time to create mood and inspiration collections. I love following people on Instagram, but because I follow so many artist for many different reasons, not all of them are where I draw inspiration from for my own art. Getting back in the practice of curating inspiration for myself will help redirect my technique.

Not pictured here, but I also have a collection of non-art or less-contemporary art, since I think it's useful to draw inspiration from more than just current artists online.

1 minute figure drawing exercises from this month.

Another tool in breaking out of my own paralysis and refresh my technique is figure/gesture drawing sessions. I like using the Senshistock Sketch  tool with 30 sec-1 min timer, drawing in one of my big recycled sketch books from childhood. I've been doing this for about 20 minutes a day, and can feel myself starting to loosen up and focus better. I want to expand this practice to include animals, hands, and objects.

Some sketches, doodles, and drawings from this month.

In addition to all the research and thinking, I've been really trying to just get down to drawing, something that I'm ironically pretty bad at (spending time drawing.) Nothing to do but shrug off the judgement of myself and just get back to making, and making a lot.

One great practice has been to draw while talking with friends over video chat, the first six drawings above where done in that time. It's low pressure and feels good to just draw without a plan.

It's also helped to start using new brushes on Procreate. I recently downloaded the Comics Max Pack brushes from Max Ulicheny and it's helped shake up my technique.

Note to self in my planner. A mantra I need to repeat to myself often, as I'm always rounding up or skipping forward in time in my mind.

In summation, it's been a month of work and reflection. That has almost every day felt 'lazy' and 'unproductive', but now looking back I see it's just weirdly painful and scary and hard to slow down, reflect, and push yourself.

I have three main takeaways for myself moving forward:

1. Spend less time on Instagram. Seek and curate inspiration elsewhere, and use the tool only for connecting with others and when you have something real to share. Drop the desire to try to keep up with what everyone else is doing, drop the FOMO. Don't need it. Byeeee.

2. Make art every day. If at least for 30 minutes. Sketch, doodle, and do exercises like figure drawing. Have multiple projects going at once. Just start making things instead of obsessing over the idea.

3. Maintain a routine. And keep boundaries around it. The routine should include multiple parts of what you need to do in every day and week: AKA you don't have to spend all day doing one thing until it's done. An hour of business, an hour of learning, an hour or two of drawing... Work little by little instead of all at once.

Pumpkin by the "Farm".

So the re-focused work has begun, I just have to keep it up. And when it gets off the rails again, which it always will because I'm human, I'll just pick it up and put it back on. No panicking. It's all part of the process. But for me, the process always feels weirdly scary and unproductive and wasteful in the beginning.

My partner and I finally started our very first garden (which I'm calling our Farm.) We've been wanting to do this since we graduated college, and five years later it's begun! 

We went to an outdoor garden store and bought a bunch of seeds, soil, and containers. When we got home we started the seeds indoors in old recycled food packaging, watered them, and set them on a shelf in the kitchen to germinate. After all that excitement, money, and work, that first day our farm felt extremely underwhelming. Like we'd just done all that for a couple of buckets of wet dirt.

But that's the process, right? You put the work in for something that feels like nothing at first. But then it slowly starts to grow, and you see the buckets of wet dirt were what you needed to grow something beautiful.

Well, honestly that remains to be seen, for both our Farm and my art. But I'm hopeful that this time and effort will be worth it. And even if it doesn't grow the way I expect, I'll have learned something in the process.

Metaphors!! We doin' it! 

I hope you have some seeds growing, my sweet buds. 

What are you putting in the wet dirt this month? Did you have any exciting fruit that you harvested or will be harvesting soon? Is there something you'd like to cultivate more of in the future? Plants or Art or Life, I'd love to hear it all in the comments. :)

I look forward to hearing from you, and if not I hope you have a LOVELY week and a LOVELY start to April. THANK YOU for being here. THANK YOU for being you.