Ragon

Friday Thoughts (Ep. 54)

Added 2019-08-23 20:09:31 +0000 UTC

Greetings and salutations, my beloved Patrons! Guess what, it's FRIDAY! Another week passed on Earth experienced through the lens of our human bodies, that's what we call time. And, I'm wearing my sparkly star leggings and listening to a Bossa Nova playlist, which we all know means it's Friday Thoughts time!

I also just ate three cookies, so is this the sugar talking? Very possibly.

Anyway, some announcements!

We have three NEW PATRONS this week to welcome: Ashley, McKinley, and Nur!! Hello, new friends, welcome! Thank you so much for your support, it honestly means the world. Feel free to comment, message me, post on the discussion page. This platform is for you as much as it is for me.

I also wanted to share another reminder that if any patrons are interested in accessing my Patron-Exclusive Close Friends stories on Instagram, please send me a DM with the name you pledged with, and I'll add you right away! I've been sharing some more transparent feelings and photos, in progress art, my studio, and the like. I think it's been fun so far and people have seemed to enjoy it! And I'm so glad I have a place to get a little sillier and even less professional haha!

And finally, a few things about September's Arty Business post! I'm shaping up to have a very busy couple of weeks, so September's guide will be shared around 9/20/19, instead of at the beginning of the month. I hope that still works for you all! New $5+ Patron gifts will still be mailed out at the beginning of the month, after your first payment processes.

I also would love another round of requests for Arty Business articles! I have a couple ideas but I would love if you would leave a comment on this post with requests for topics. For reference, we've already done: Social Media, Etsy, Markets, and Style Development. Once I get a few suggestions I'll put out a poll to choose the next one! Thanks so much for your help, friends! I'm excited to see what you're interested in learning in the future!

Now let's hear about this week in Ragonia!

LETTERPRESS GREETING CARDS

This week I finally got around to finalizing my first two letterpress greeting card designs I'll be producing in collaboration with Annie's Art + Frame here in Ballard! The letterpress artist, Demien, invited me back to the shop last Friday to give me a little more information about the printing process, and to gift me a bunch of cool letterpress greeting cards he had made.

Some details he shared with me during that visit:

Square cards are more expensive to mail than rectangular, so they're not as popular.
Birthday cards account for more than half of cards sold.
His letterpress machine was made in the early 1900s, was run by a foot pedal before it being retrofitted with an electric motor.
Letterpress ink doesn't usually show up well on colored paper, except metallic inks.
Wholesale customers usually look for a line of about 6 greeting cards from an artist.
Letterpress files need to be separated by color. I experimented with an overlap of the colors in some places, especially in the Sriracha card, and I'm interested to see how it will turn out.
Simpler designs usually have a more consistent output.

After meeting with Demien, I returned to my studio to rework my card designs and separate the files by color.

I wanted to get these files out as quickly as possible so I could have some cards to bring to Rose City Comic Con, but my next goal for cards is to design a thank you card. I would love to be able to use letterpress cards as my thank you cards for $5+ Patrons!

Designing these cards has not come easily for me, as I'm not usually someone who buys greeting cards. But I think it has pushed me to simplify my work, and imbue meaning in a way that fits with my style and doesn't feel too cheesy or trite.

STICKER DESIGN + ART BLOCK

I have a very busy couple of weeks coming up very soon, but before then I have created a little free time for myself to fill with sketching, experimentation, and new designs.

Which is... not coming easily so far. It's so painful to get back in to the practice of personal work after a few months of portraits and client work. I really see the importance of forcing yourself to stay in the practice of sketching, because otherwise you truly get rusty.

I think one of the most helpful ways to get back into sketching is to allow yourself to ugly sketch. Draw whatever comes to mind, however it comes to mind. Write your thoughts. Get it down fast. Maybe even scribble, like a kid. That junk up there? Not pretty. But absolutely necessary to get back in to drawing after a long break. Everything you draw doesn't have to be pretty or good. I slogged through a few days of feeling like nothing I draw will ever be good again, and I'm just now breaking through to the other side. And sometime's that's the only way through. What's important is that I keep going.

My next most pressing project is the reward for reaching 25 patrons, Patron-Exclusive Stickers! I wanted to share every step of the project, and above is the first step, rough sketches! I have three favorites already, but I wanted to open it up to all of you and see what you thought first!

Leave a comment letting me know your top favorite sticker designs! If there's not a clear winner then I'll put out a poll to help choose everyone's favorite.

NON-ART LIFE

This week was a little difficult because I've had another bout of a reoccurring chest pain. Don't worry too much, though, I went to the doctor and she's as sure as she can be that it's not a heart or lung problem. I'm thinking that I've somehow been pulling a muscle in my chest every once in a while. This time the pain definitely happened after a sneeze. It's made it uncomfortable to slouch even slightly, lay down, sleep, and breathe deeply. I've been icing it, taking ibuprofen, and trying to very gently stretch.

I really feel for people with chronic pain, because even this little strain makes focusing on work difficult.

I also thought I'd share that it's been a kind of weird month here for my partner. Our finances have shown that my partner, Zach, needs to find another job very soon, and I've been helping him plan for that. He's trying to make a big career change in the next few months, and has a lot of portfolio and resume work to do to make that jump. Career changes are hard, especially if you are going into something brand new and more difficult than other jobs you've worked in the past. I've been trying my best to be a strong emotional support for him during this change, as he's been for me in times of change in the past.

Combine this with our three upcoming events: PAX West next weekend (for fun, but still a convention), flying to Colorado for Zach's cousin's wedding the week after that, and driving down to Portland for RCCC the week after that.

Writing all this out, I can see how I might have some fatigue (emotional and physical) and artist's block.

Or maybe I'm just coming down off the sugar?

Either way, this is the benefit of reflection. It's reminding me that there's a lot going on that's effecting my creative output right now. No shame. There's plenty to do besides trying to force myself to make tons of the best art ever RIGHT NOW! Give yourself a break, girl. Literally.

Okay, my friends, thanks for being my outlet for reflection. As always I hope this gives you some insight into your own creative or professional life. Or maybe inspires you to do some reflecting for yourself? Is now the time to push, to create, to explore and have fun? Or is now a time to rest, be gentle, tie up the easy things?

To close out with something happy, here's been a few of my favorite things this last month: