Friday Thoughts Ep.55

Hello Patrons, and a very happy Friday to you! I hope you're doing well, getting excited for the weekend, getting excited for AUTUMN! It's still pretty warm and sunny in Seattle, so I'm trying to maintain some of that outdoor warm spirit, because I know the endless clouds and rain will be upon us soon. But... I do have my pumpkin spice candles sitting out, ready for that first Autumnal day.

I'm writing to you on Wednesday, because I'm leaving at 5 AM tomorrow morning to fly to Colorado for my partner's cousin's wedding and to see my sister Kenna! We'll be in Boulder and Fort Collins, and it should be a really lovely time. 

First things first of course, I wanted to welcome our two new patrons: Paula and Tiana! Welcome you lovely lovely people, and thank you so much for your support! To you and all other $5+ supporters in August, I mailed out your Thank You card packages yesterday. To $2+ supporters in August, I give you my sincere thanks right... now! Thank yooooou!! And of course if you haven't been added to the Close Friends on Instagram, send me a DM!

(Also side note, Patrons, I ordered your exclusive stickers!! They should be arriving soon and I will send them to you ALL before September ends!)

And now! Let's see what happened the last two weeks in Ragonia! *star wipe transition*

Earrings & Pins!

A few weeks ago I had an Etsy customer message me saying their package was supposedly delivered but they hadn't received it yet. We double checked the address they gave  me, I suggested they wait a week to see if it would arrive later (usually it does.) When it still didn't arrive, they suggested it might have been stolen. I did some research on forums around Etsy, and about half say it is no longer the seller's responsibility once the post office has the package, and the other half say it's good customer service to offer a refund or replacement.

This is the only time this has happened, so I decided to offer the latter. Officially my policy is to not offer refunds/replacements, but while I can manage it I'm going to try to trust my customers and try to help out where I can. In the past I had a customer who's dog ripped up her mail right when she got her custom portrait (she sent a picture,) so I offered to redo it for half the price of the original, basically to cover materials and labor, and she seemed very thankful. So again, I think it's good to feel it out and be understanding when you can.

Which meant I needed to remake the two handmade pins the Etsy customer had ordered! I decided to make another big batch of earrings and pins while I was at it. I was feeling tired and art-blocked anyway, so a few days of fairly mindless sculpting and painting was just the ticket.

I even made a batch of my formerly discontinued... Avocado Earrings! These babies are the first sculpted creations I made back in 2016, when I was still working in the restaurant. It was fun sculpting them again, finding ways to make the sculpting easier and faster. Fast enough that selling them for $30 doesn't hurt my heart, haha.

I'll create an article in the future about my specific process for making my pins and earrings!

Stranger Things Fan Art!

As part of my little relaxed week I gave myself the time to do an illustration that I've been thinking about since July, a little fan art from Stranger Things 3! I could not get their outfits out of my mind, and it was so fun trying to work a more stylized/ pattern like pose for the characters (something I'm continuing to strive for.)

Putting this up on Instragram felt like plugging myself into a hoppin' trend; people LOVE this show, and they love fan art. I knew this, but it's still been a while since I had a piece hit on the trend nose like this one. Again, sometimes the reception to your art has more to do with tapping into trends and fandoms than to the quality of your art. And that's okay!

(Side note, the Netflix UK account shared this to their story! I think I got a lot of followers from across the pond this week!)

Doodle Donation Portraits!

So, my patrons! I think I've shared that August has been kind of slow in terms of illustration income. All of my markets I did that month were essentially complete duds, I don't have any big projects going on, I chose not to open my regular portrait commissions to give myself time to work on other things, and my Etsy is slowly picking up but definitely not poppin'. You know I have a LOT planned for the coming seasons (conventions, holiday portraits, black friday...) but I was feeling a little antsy with not much immediate money coming in.

I tried something on a whim yesterday that ended up being super fun and successful, I offered quick doodled portraits in exchange for a $10+ donation on my Ko-Fi! I was simultaneously nervous about no one donating and a billion people donating and being overwhelmed. I ended up having 28 people getting a donation doodle (including one of my patrons, thank you Mariana!!) and received a very helpful $450 for a day and a half of work! It's so good to know that this is something I can quickly do maybe once a month or so for a little extra income.

If anyone's curious, I said these portraits would take me 1-2 minutes, but that's crazy talk. It definitely ended up taking around 5-8 minutes per character. And I have to be really careful cause I definitely had my wrist complaining toward the end of the day. REMINDER! take breaks, stretch, sit up straight, and if you're hurting then stooooop drawing!

Non-Art Life!

Part one of our busy September has been completed, we attended our fourth PAX West! PAX stands for Penny Arcade Expo, and is a huge amazing overwhelming video game convention. If you haven't heard, my partner Zach is a concept artist for indie game studio Forward Instinct. My work is... games adjacent, and also I love playing video games!

Most importantly, we both love the tradition of going to this convention together, and always come out of it inspired and invigorated. I know I'm taking a healthy break from art when new ideas start popping into my head without forcing them.

Some highlights from PAX include:

1. Watching Marlowe Dobbe (an amaaaazing Portland-based illustrator and artist for games) compete in a Great PAX Bake-Off competition.

2. Trying the Freeplay Games areas for the first time ever. Wading through the Expo Hall's the entire weekend is so overwhelming and overstimulating, taking a break to play some games for more than 10 minutes helps break it up. We played Cuphead, Stickfight: The Game, Little Big Planet 3, and lots of Smash Ultimate.

3. Playing the vintage arcade games! The games were set to freeplay mode, so you could walk up to any open game and play it without any quarters. And they were... very hard to play. Kudos to anyone who's good at arcade games!

 4. Enjoying a live orchestra concert in the incredibly gorgeous Paramount Theater to celebrate Supergiant Games' 10th Anniversary. 

5. Not getting sick!... So far. We were constantly hittin' that Anti-Flu Goo. (By the way, this funny joke is from the booth for indie game Frog Detective. A sense of humor I love, an art style love, and the creator game me a free tote bag when I said I thought her game was funny. Good! Stuff!)

6. Dice, dice, baby!! I bought myself a bunch of new dice for D&D!! I haven't been this excited about a little trinket since I can't remember when! I kept pulling them out of my bag and admiring them. Ah they're so gorgeous! I love the top design the most so I bought the whole set, but I also love them ALL. Which one's your fave?? 

My dice excitement gave me an idea for a future product: block or screen printed dice bags? With cute magic fantasy designs? I love.

Okay my typing is devolving form my excitement about these dice, so I'll conclude here. It was been a good and revitalizing week, exactly what I needed. Thanks as always for your lovely and kind support. I wish you a week that is both powerful and peaceful.

xoxo,

Ragon