April in Ragonia (2020) (Mostly Animal Crossing)

Hello my dear, darling friends and patrons. How’re you doing today? Today in Seattle the clouds are playing with the sun, a warm breeze is blowing and making the cherry blossom petals fall like pink snow. I‘m so luckily still safe and comfortable in my Seattle apartment with my partner Zach and our cat Pumpkin. I’m so happy to get to write to you all today, to share some of the small achievements and joys of the past weird, quiet, antsy, reflective month. 

Before I get started, I want to give a big warm welcome to the 14 new friends who‘ve been able to join as patrons this month: Margaret, Estellarix, Haru, Bryce, Fatima, Kete, Studio Medusa, Heidi, Paola, Sydney, Erin, Erika, Hayle, and Corrie! My goodness, welcome welcome welcome! I appreciate your support so much and hope you enjoy what we share here. Please feel free to introduce yourself in the comments or on the community page, we’d all love to meet you! And a note, if you pledged $5+, your thank you gifts will be in the mail after your first payment processes at the beginning of May. There will possibly be shipping delays due to the virus shutdowns, but the gifts will be on their way to you for sure!

Now, April in Ragonia. I‘m happy to share a few project achievements, and I know looking back on it like this will make it seem very productive. But this month has been a particularly hard month for creativity and motivation for me, like it has been for many others. I got started or partway through on a few bigger projects (hooray book job!), and did some admin work, but very little drawing. Both conventions I had booked for the next few months have been (understandably) postponed until the fall/winter. My online shop has been closed out of an abundance of caution. I’ve been taking a break from social media for the most part.  It’s definitely been a month in suspension. Which sometimes feels good, rejuvenating, and relaxing, but usually feels scary, disheartening, and embarrassing.

What I’m trying to say is, it’s a very hard time. If everything’s felt off for you, even if technically you’re okay, you’re not alone. Be kind to yourself. Celebrate your victories, no matter how small.

I’ll share my small victories here. If you like, share yours in the comments.

$15+ TIER REWARD CHANGE

First, I want to announce an upcoming adjustment to the $15+ Patron tier: Starting in May I will be changing the $15 reward from a one time art surprise pack to a one time 1-2 subject digital doodle portrait (shown above). I want to offer this because:

1) The materials and (especially international) shipping made it a cost prohibitive option for me.

2) A digital reward means international customers don’t have to pay customs.

3) I’ve had such a good response from the doodle portraits that I thought people would like the exclusive choice here on Patreon! 

If any $2-$5 tier patrons are interested in this reward, you can up your pledge to a $15+ tier, and are welcome to go back to the lower tier the next month. Just remember your pledge processes on the first of the month, and I wait until the pledge processes to fulfill the rewards. If you want a doodle portrait but don’t want to change your pledge, then keep an eye on my Instagram for when I offer the portraits through Ko-Fi (for $15 per subject.)
I hope you all like this new reward change! Let me know if you have any questions about it. 🌝

MARTHA’S GARDEN COMMISSION PT. 2

Remember the adorable logo I made in January for an upcoming Seattle dogpark/bar hybrid? They commissioned me this month to design a sign to hang outside their building!

I illustrated it using the Affinity Designer app (like I used for the Verizon mural last year) because they requested a vector file. I used a lot of the same elements as in the logo, but upgraded a bit of the font and color palette to reflect the vintage design inspo they sent me.
I’m so excited to see my art printed and in action for a business for the first time! I’ll absolutely share photos as soon as I get them.

NOISSUE INTERVIEW!

Another nice small admin achievement: the wonderful custom tissue paper company Noissue contacted me this month for an interview to be shared on their website. When the interview is up it’ll be found here, but I’ll do my best to share the link. In the meantime, check out their interview with fellow Seattle illustrator Cheyenne Barton!

As part of the interview they requested photos of my workspace with their tissue paper in use, so I got dressed like a real person, clamprd my tripod to a broken floor lamp, set my iPhone camera to timer mode and pretended to wrap orders for my currently closed Etsy shop. How very surreal!

They also asked for a video of me using the tissue paper. If you like, check it out here to see:

1) How very very dark my hobbit hole apartment is even on a bright sunny day.

2) What packaging an order would look like... IF I HAD ONE!!

PIGSQUAD TALENT TALKS!

This month my Portland illustrator friend Marlowe Dobbe invited me to give a presentation as part of the Portland Indie Game Squad (PIGSquad) Talent Talks, normally an in-person event, but now temporarily a livestream event. I had a great time turning the Art Style Arty Business article into a 12 minute talk, to be streamed as part of their awesome event!

Which you can join FOR FREE! The event starts at 7 PM PST, on Thursday, April 39th, 2020 at Twitch.tv/PIGSquad ! You don’t need a Twitch account to watch, but you will if you’d like to join the chat. I’ll be there, along with a few of the other speakers, to answer questions, hang out, and talk. So say hi if you join, share with your friends, and come learn a bit about art and indie video games!

If you can’t join the livestream you can check it out at the same link starting the next day, or I’ll also upload the video here on Patreon in the next few weeks for you all to enjoy. I wouldn’t have been able to write this guide without your support, so the talk is really thanks to YOU!! ✨

My ACNH art room and kitchen!

ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS!

I absolutely can’t finish the update without sharing my proudest artistic achievement of April: My Animal Crossing Island!

I’m very sorry to anybody who’s sick of hearing about Animal Crossing, you’re welcome to skip over this part. (If you have no idea what it is, check out this NPR article about it.) Basically, you start the game with an almost blank deserted island, and slowly build, design, plant, craft, and dig your island to look like whatever you can imagine, and you can connect with real friends to visit your island and visit theirs.

ACNH has been such a fulfilling, relaxing, and surprisingly creative piece of joy for me and Zach the last two months. It’s helped us experiment with fashion and interior decor more than real world finances let us, connect with each other and real-life friends and family, and disconnect from the news for a part of the day. It reminds me of playing with American Girl dolls when I was a kid, but a thousand times more complex. 

I’m sure you get it, we like it a lot.

Farmer’s market, town center, and path to the museum!

Our island is called Jeju Island (after the South Korean island one of our favorite shows takes place on,) native fruit is apples, native plant is roses, and our first two villagers were Teddy and Tammy. 

My favorite project on the island: a hiking trail!

We are working towards the coziest, outdoorsiest island we can make, and I am so inspired and happy with how it’s coming out.

I’ve been trying to connect with a couple patrons on ACNH for a while, so I’d love to have an official hangout time! I’ll open my gates for a Patreon Animal Crossing party this Sunday, 5/3/2020 at 2PM PST!! RSVP with a DM on Instagram and I’ll send you my friend code. I’m not sure how many people will be interested, but we can discuss more deets over Instagram. Unfortunately I don’t have the gear necessary to stream my Switch for those who don’t have the game but want to watch, but I’m trying to plan other ways we can all hang out online. Let me know if you have any suggestions or requests!

That’s all for me this month. 

Thank you for letting me share my small victories, as always. I’d love to hear from you, how you’ve been taking care of yourself, your victories, or even your hard moments. What’ve you been reading, watching, playing? Let’s connect more in the comments.

Thank you for your continued support and kindness. I wish you health and happiness, strength and peace.

xoxo,

Ragon