Sunday Thoughts (Ep.47)

Hello Patreon family, and a very happy Easter to you! 

As always, I hope you're having a relaxing and joyful or productive and fulfilling weekend. I'm here to share a little bit about this week's Ragonia Art activities!

This week I was so happy to open up my traditional commissions in time for Mother's Day! Last year my mother's day commissions were my first couple hundred dollars in income, and  a real boost for my confidence and creativity. So this commission spot will always be special for me.

I had a couple of orders thus far but not as many as last year. My prices have gone up since then, though, so I'm not too bummed! Portraits are just one of my revenue streams as an illustrator, so I'm not devastated if portraits don't sell well in a certain month.

This week I also FINALLY took and edited all the photos of my new products for this Spring. Can you believe how many there are?

Once we reach 10 patrons here on Patreon I'll make an Arty Business article on my Easy Product Photography process. 

But the basic process is that I have big pieces of paper in a couple different colors, set up that paper by my window, and photograph my products using my iPhone. Then I edit the pictures on my iPad using Google's free photo editing app Snapseed.

 It's not perfect, but it's worked well thus far!

So many products! I also went through the process of slowly making new Etsy listings for each product. It takes so long, I wasn't able to upload all of them yet! I haven't uploaded the tote bags, zipper bags, t-shirts, or bandannas yet. Soon!

Head to my Etsy if you'd like to see my new listings in action.

Since the Mac Down competition I've been longing to find more opportunities to sell my art in-person, and to actually get myself there! So when an organizer shared information about a local maker's market called Ballard Night Market that was happening on Thursday, I jumped on the opportunity! 

At this point, if an event has a table, then I'm ready to be there. 

I texted a few of my friends and posted on Instagram that I'd be there, and luckily had a number of people interested! These kinds of events are nowhere near as lucrative as conventions or craft fairs, but they're easy and cheap to get in to and don't require a big commitment. And you never know who you're going to meet! 

To make up for the terrible picture, here's an absolutely amazing picture that the organizer's shared from Vegan Mac Down last week! I'm so proud of how far my little business and I have come.

Speaking of markets! I received the exciting news that I was accepted to Urban Craft Uprising's summer show!!

 This super rad local craft show is probably the biggest show that I've ever been accepted to, even bigger than Geek Girl Con last year. For this show I signed up for two days with a full table, and I know I'm going to be working in all my spare time from now until late June getting ready for it. Ahh! I've got so much to do, and I'll share every step along the way with you.

Non-Art Life:

I've taken a few breaks this week to enjoy the gorgeous explosions of spring flowers in the city. Our entire street is lined with bright pink trees, and the petals are now falling and gathering like pink snow. I'm so glad I don't have seasonal allergies.

Yesterday I finally bought some bags of potting soil to freshen up all of the plants in my house. A lot of them haven't gotten fresh soil in 2+ years!

Sitting on my patio and getting my hands dirty was so incredibly fulfilling. I would love to learn more about gardening, farming, and plants in the future.

This gorgeous scene is right outside my patio. I'm part of the color, too!

More Media:

Zach and I also caved in this week and watched the first episode of the last season of Game of Thrones. In college all of our friends used to gather together every Saturday night to eat pizza and watch the new episode. Now our friends are scattered around the country and the world, but watching this show reminds us of when we were all together. (Arya is my favorite character, if you were curious.)

I've been watching this series of Gameplay Overviews by brothers Griffin and Justin McElroy. And it's making me want to play video games like...

Stardew Valley, which I played on the PC but need to download for the Switch. The Witcher III which I always play a few hours of and then stop for months and forget the controls. Dishonored, which I finished but feel like I need to play the DLC before I can move on to Dishonored II.

Critical Role, the live streamed Dungeons & Dragons game played by a group of professional voice actors that Zach and I watch every Thursday, (basically our equivalent to sports) recently raised $11.3 million on Kickstarter to fund an animated tv series of their game. That makes it the most successful film or television product Kickstarter fundraiser ever. Did you know D&D is experiencing a huge enormous renaissance and that geek culture is mainstream? Now you do.

Zach and I are working through this book, and trying to learn how to use our smart phones more mindfully.

That's all for this week!  Let me know in the comments if you have a favorite video game or tabletop game, I'd love to hear!  I'm going to head out and enjoy my Sunday, and I hope you are too! 

xoxo

Ragon