Ragon

Get To Know (Ep.1): About Me

Added 2020-10-19 18:49:09 +0000 UTC

(BIG NOTE: I wanted this month to do a general introduction and FAQ. But as I was typing up some answers to your questions, I found that some of them could be much more thoroughly elaborated than in one post. Like my history with art, my thoughts on art school, thoughts on the career etc.

So, if you all are into it, I thought I'd add the Get to Know series as a Patreon series similar to the Arty Business and Making It series! Where I'll share my thoughts/history on big art topics and questions, and invite you to share yours as well. Let me know if you all are into this series idea and if you have any additional topic requests! I'm hyped! )

Hello, friend, welcome! Take a seat, get comfy. Prepare yourself a cup of something nice, and let's get to know each other.

Autumn always feels like the start of a new year to me, and in the spirit of the changing of the seasons I thought it would be a perfect time to re-introduce myself. My audience and number of patrons have grown quite a bit in the two years since I last introduced myself, and I often forget that I'm essentially a stranger to those new people!

I'm happy to tell you a bit about myself, and I'd love to hear about who you are as well! I have an audience of creators and art appreciators around the world, and many of you have connected with each other and me. At the end of this post there's an invitation to use a few prompts to introduce yourself as well, so I look forward to hearing all about you, too.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

So! Let me introduce myself.

Who are you?

Hello! My name's Ragon Dickard, I'm a 26-year-old American, and while my heart (and most of my stuff) is in Seattle, Washington, I'm currently living for a few months with my parents in my hometown of Fredericksburg, Virginia. My pronouns are she/her and they/them. I'm an athiest, vegan of 5 years, ambivert, ENFP, enneagram 7, Sagittarius.

I live with my partner of seven years, Zach Turcich, and Pumpkin, our tortie cat child we adopted in 2017.

My lovely little family: Zach, Pumpkin and me!

Outside of making art I love spending time with animals, cooking vegan yums, traveling, reading, playing video games and TTRPGs, playing music and singing, dancing, hiking and camping.

I've worked full-time as a self-employed freelance artist/illustrator since March 2018.

A self portrait from middle school, 2008.

How did you get into art? Did you always want to be an artist?

(This one's a long story! I'll elaborate even more in the second episode of the Get to Know series!)

I've made art and considered myself an artistic person for as long as I can remember, but didn't take it seriously as a career until recently. At every stage of my life I've made art for fun and felt like I was pretty good at it.

I went to art college at the Savannah College of Art + Design, but didn't know what to study. So I took someone's suggestion get a BFA in Architecture (long story) which was not even close to the right career for me. Flailing for any career after college, I briefly worked in a restaurant with dreams of opening my own. While working at the restaurant I starting making art for fun again, and with some encouragement from coworkers, artist friends, and artists online I decided to jump head first into an art career.

My first commissioned portrait in early 2018: watercolor, micron pen, colored pencil.

I quit my restaurant job in early 2018, and worked that first year to build my audience and improve my work. To supplement my income I worked part time at two different coffee shops, and since January 2019 I've been completely full-time working as a freelance artist. And I absolutely love it.

Visiting Canyonlands Nat'l Park in Utah, 2018.

What are your long term goals, in art and life?

My major art career goal right now is to establish a consistent, comfortable income and work-life balance. So that I feel settled and able to afford to do the things I want to do, rather than just keep myself alive and fed. I'm getting closer with every year, but it's still what I'm working toward.

Beyond that, I want to open a studio, storefront, and workshop space like Outlet PDX by Kate Bingaman-Burt, so I can help educate and inspire creators as they've inspired me. I would love to design art for a film or video game, like Marlowe Dobbe's game art. I'd love to start a podcast, print zines and art books, publish a book, have my art printed on clothes at NooWorks...

I want to travel across America and the world, to visit all the National Parks and major cities and states! I want to try living in a different country! I want to build a house myself! Take care of companion animals and rescued farmed animals! Learn how to forage, grow my own food, make my own furniture. Participate in mutual aid and political causes. Visit Japan, Australia, Thailand, South Korea, Ireland, Europe again, Chile, Tanzania...

There's so much I want to do.

POSCA marker pieces from 2019.

What are your favorite mediums?

I love digital art with Procreate on the iPad Pro (favorite brushes right now are Evolve, Freycinet, and Nikko Rull), POSCA paint markers, Prismacolor colored pencils, and Winsor & Newton watercolors and gouache. I also love block printing and sculpting with polymer clay, and am always looking to try new mediums.

This table runner my parents bought in Mexico when I was a baby is one of my favorite possessions, and partially inspired my color palette.

How did you develop your color palette?

Intentionally! When I was dissatisfied with my colors when I first started Ragonia I took a day to research the things that I like - art, animation, interior design, film, fashion - and assess the color themes that I'm drawn to. My current color palette reflects the funky, playful, energetic primary colors that I found I love most. Then I made a color palette on Procreate that I can always draw from and adjust as necessary.

Check out my Arty Business episode on Art Style for more on this!

Who/what are you inspired by?

I’m inspired by fashion, interior design, animation, pop culture, folk art, niche subcultures, and video games. I'm inspired by sociology, introspection, creativity itself, collaboration, and blending and warping of genre and symbols. I’m also inspired by plants, animals, fruits and veggies, and nature in general.

Specific media pieces that inspire my art include Night in the Woods, Steven Universe, the Muppets, Studio Ghibli films, Stardew Valley, and Animal Crossing.

The creators I've been most inspired by lately are:

A 2020 illustration series on a D&D livestream that I love, Critical Role.

Other favorite things?

Music: Jukebox the Ghost, Punch Brothers, Fleet Foxes, Ella Fitzgerald, First Aid Kit, Daft Punk

80s New Wave, Video Game music, calm jazz and classical, trad. and neo bluegrass, sad folk singers, good times 70s hits, funky electronic, weird blends of genres in general

Check out my Spotify if you like!

Movies: Mad Max: Fury Road, Spirited Away, Titanic, Grand Budapest Hotel, Frances Ha, When Harry Met Sally, Spider-Man-Into the Spider-Verse (I've been mostly watching TV and Youtube lately to be honest!)

TV: Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, Netflix's The Witcher, Gilmore Girls, Schitt's Creek

Youtube: Yoga with Adriene, Critical Role, The Financial Diet, Defunctland, Monster Factory, Game Maker's Toolkit

Podcasts: My Brother, My Brother & Me, Oh No! Ross & Carrie, Stuff You Should Know, Minority Korner

Some hair history! Long straightened in early high school, then various lengths and colors of curly hair, then growing out a buzzcut!

What's the curly hair story, tho?

Honestly a lot of people asked about my hair haha!

I'm usually too impatient to do anything fancy with my hair, but I know there's a whole cool situation on the internet for curly hair people right now.

I'd say I have very thick 3A-3B curls, and I haven't straightened or blow dried it since 2011. I just wash it 2-3 times a week, get it wet every morning to refresh the curls, then scrunch it a little with my fingers and air dry. I've used product in the past but I haven't lately, just water and air.

I like to experiment with my hair and have dyed and cut it so many ways! I got my first pixie cut in college and loved it, and have been alternately growing it out and cutting it short again ever since. I'm currently growing it out from the buzzcut I gave myself last May. I'm trying to grow it into the chin-length curly bob that seems to look the most fun with my hair, without going to a salon during the pandemic. The buzzcut was fun but it felt like it took a year to even grow back to pixie length, so I probably won't do it again. Or maybe I will, who knows!

The rest of my family seems to have thinner and wavy hair, so I'm not sure where the curly gene came from. And yes, I did hate it when I was younger, but I love it/don't think much about it now.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

If you want to get to know even more about me right NOW, you can check out this interview with GeekGirlCon, or this interview with Noissue Co. Or head to any of my past Patreon posts! Or, of course, drop a question in the comments, and please do let me know if you have any requests for future episodes in the Get To Know series!

Until then, I want to Get To Know YOU!

Now that I've introduced myself, let us meet you! I invite you to introduce yourself in the Community tab here on the Ragonia Patreon.

If you like, head there and share:

Your name and pronouns!
Where you hail from!
Your job/creative field!
Favorite mediums!
Sources of inspiration or favorite things!
Links to any of your socials, websites, shops, etc. so we can all connect further!

So excited to meet you/re-meet you!

I hope you enjoyed this re-introduction and learned something knew about your pal Ragon. I'm really looking forward to getting to know you better, and to talk more in depth about some personal things that might help you in your journey as an artist.

See you soon!