Sunday Thoughts (Ep. 35, New Year Edition)

Hello Patrons, darlings, dears, friends, family, artists and art-curious. Happy happy happy 2019 to you! I hope you’ve had a lovely first week of the year, and have taken some time to reflect on 2018 and where you hope to take yourself in 2019.

The past week here at Ragonia studios has been fairly quiet, with a few exceptions. My first week back in Seattle was spent cleaning and organizing my apartment, unpacking, putting away gifts, reorganizing the spice rack. I was procrastinating true planning, and I felt like I couldn't get much done until I did some deep thinking and planning for my future.

So since not much is going on this week beyond planning and doodling and cleaning, I thought I'd use this as an opportunity to reflect on the past year. I know most of you have been with me since the beginning, but I hope you find it interesting or useful to see my progress and projects over the last year. 

And a reminder that your support here on Patreon has directly helped fund ALL of these projects over 2018! You Patreon contributions were the steadiest form of support throughout the year, and you truly helped carry this artist through.

J A N U A R Y

• Bought a Passion Planner, which guided me through some self-exploratory goal setting. I realized a deep desire to make a career from art and illustration. I was terrified but determined. I set a goal to table at a convention this year, but that felt impossible. I decided to "let go of things that no longer served me." I had saved $10,000 that year, and was ready to... make a change.

F E B R U A R Y

• Put in my 2 week notice at my full-time job as an assistant kitchen manager at an amazing local restaurant. Before I left the bad-ass lady-boss owner met with me for lunch to discuss what I was embarking on, to give me advice, and presumably to make sure I wasn't going to starve on the street.  Had my last day working at the restaurant. 
• I registered Ragonia Art LLC, opened a business bank account through Wells Fargo, applied for a Washington State Sales license. I put $2,000 of my 10k savings into my business bank account as seed money.
• Made this Patreon page!
• Set my first personal project, to design animal/floral patterns. I painted and drew a cat pattern and bunny pattern (which I remade digitally later in the year.)

M A R C H

• Started off my self-employment with two days at my first comic convention: Emerald City Comic Con. Tabling at a convention that year was my goal, but I thought I should at least go to one first. I was extremely nervous, especially the first day. I met a couple local artists that I admired online, including Pam Wishbow, Justin Oaksford , Francesca Buchco, Zoe Persisco. I also met the creater of Inktober, Jake Parker, and saw a panel by two of the actors on Critical Role which I at the time knew nothing about (but is now a weekly habit of mine to watch.)
• On March 8th I "officially" launched my business, with my first giveaway. I tried live streaming myself working on art that afternoon but I had such strong impostor syndrome and stress that I had to stop.
• My laptop died, so I spent  $800 of my $2k seed money on an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil.
• Received my first Etsy review, for a pair of earrings.

A P R I L

• Had my first portrait sale, for Mother's Day. My biggest bump in sales thus far, a bump of about $800. The first time I made a portrait for someone I didn't know.
• Learned and practiced and loved digital painting on my iPad with Procreate.
• Applied to and was listed on Women Who Draw which I'd admired since college!
• Gave myself a daily sketchbook challenge that I called "Drawing Home."
• Applied to Geek Girl Con for October.
• Finished a large traditional style house portrait commission.

M A Y

• Traveled to Tulum, Mexico with my parents and younger sister.
• Bought a printer for $400.
• Made my first four sets of stickers from pieces I had made earlier.
• Visited my middle sister's home in Denver, Colorado. We took a road trip to my first desert in Moab, Utah and camped and hiked in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. I am deeply impacted by parks and wild spaces, and hope to never forget that.
• Submitted my first piece to a zine, Hazel: A Witches Lifestyle Zine. My piece was called "Rituals for Confidence" and was drawn entirely digitally.

J U N E

• Participated in Childhood Week, which pushed me to experiment more with complex illustrations, concepts, and new techniques. One of the illustrations got my first 100 likes on social media. Solidified my current color palette (mostly primary colors haha!) 
• Updated my branding for the first time.
• Handmade and painted my first batch of pins.
• Launched my first pet portraits with a giveaway.
• Started working part time at a local coffee shop.

J U L Y

• Was accepted to my first convention (Geek Girl Con 2018)
• Participated in the first round of #Drawthisinyourstyle challenges, which pushed my style and color palette further, earned my first 1,000 likes, and increased my following to 1,000.
• Signed up for my first two Art Walks ever, which prompted my big fruit and veg rainbow series.
• Traveled to Antigua with my family, and worked on painting my Art Walk series throughout my vacation.

A U G U S T

• Had my first two Art Walk shows, and set up tables with my goods for the first time. Selling goods to customers directly cemented my goals, this is exactly what I want to do as an artist. I love talking directly to customers, seeing them discover my art for the first time, hearing their reactions to it. I sold about $300 worth of products per market, and made connections with local art scenes.
• One of the stores I showed my work in collaborated with me to turn my print in to a Letterpress Print. The store offered to collaborate on more letterpress prints in the future.
• Went to PAX West for the third year in a row, and cosplayed for the first time as Mae from Night in the Woods!

S E P T E M B E R

• Designed and ordered my first set of enamel pins from a manufacturer in Australia.
• Met up for coffee with an artist I met on Instagram who was visiting Seattle with her husband.
• Ordered bulk goods online for the first time: business cards, postcards, and compostable "plastic" sheets.
• Sold at another  "Art Walk" in a different neighborhood that was much less lucrative, but that allowed me to set up a full table rack display for the first time.

O C T O B E R 

• Used POSCA markers to draw another year of Inktober, this time with a Halloween theme. I kept my drawings much cleaner this year with the intention of selling them later.
• Learned to record process videos of traditional art using my iPhone and a flexible phone holder.
• Got a barista job in my neighborhood, because the other barista job was 40 min away. Worked both part-time jobs for a three week overlap.
• Finally went to the DMV and got my Washington state driver's license and registered to vote in WA.
• Tabled at my first convention, Geek Girl Con, sharing a table with my wonderful friend Tori Sharp. I've gone over this many times, so needless to say I am absolutely hooked. I love the energy, the enthusiasm, the connections, and the community. I met so many kind and lovely new artists and connected with sweet customers who supported me even after the convention. My top money makers were my original Inktober drawings, and the Hazel zines.

N O V E M B E R

• Celebrated my 5 year anniversary with my partner Zach, by taking a long walk through our local Arboretum.
• Hosted my second portrait sale, this time doubling the sales and the profits. I had a total of 19 portraits to make by the end of the month!
• Hosted my first Black Friday sale, to enormous success. I had the largest amount of orders ever in November, and I hope to double that next year! Turns out people loving shopping at the end of November, haha!
• Reached 10,000 followers on my Instagram! I have never ever had this many eyes on my art or life, it's both exciting and intimidating. I'm happy to view these followers as 10,000 potential friends, mentors, connections, customers, students, and teachers!
• Put in my notice at my second barista job.

D E C E M B E R

• Hosted my first Draw This In Your Style challenge to say thank you for reaching 10k followers. Over 800 people ended up submitting their version of my plant gal character, humbling and overjoying me.
• Finished up with a few final digital portraits.
• Celebrated my 25th birthday.
• Finished my last day at my second barista job.
• Flew to Virginia to spend time with my family and childhood friends.

  . . . . . . 

This doesn't really highlight the many plans that I had that I never got around to. Or the opportunities that cropped up that later fell through. It doesn't highlight my lazy days or weeks, or my daily hour of self-doubt, where I feel like nothing is ever going to come of this career and that I will never make. This list doesn't highlight the unanswered agent submission emails. The weeks and weeks where I feel like there are no jobs coming in. It doesn't show me crying on the bus on the way home from a show where I sold nothing. Or crying after my "launch" date because I felt like an impostor. 

I'll be honest, friends, the majority of my year I completely relied on my barista job cash tips for groceries, toilet paper, soap, cat food and litter, everything except my rent and utilities. (Tip your barista!)

I feel like mentioning these things feels like complaining, so I avoid mentioning them. I'm not complaining, I know I live a relatively easy life, and that I've achieved a lot. I just want to remind you all, to clarify that it hasn't been perfect. 

But I'm proud of the direction I took my career this year, and I am absolutely determined to have it sustain me and my future. I'm not going back, I'm going to watch this business soar even higher than it did this year.

. . . . . .

Whether you've joined me just for this post or from the beginning back in March, thank you thank you thank you. I write these with the hope of keeping myself on track, of inspiring or connecting with you, of keeping you updated on what your dollars and comments are doing to support an artist. 

Next week I hope to share a (probably shorter) introduction to who I am in 2019, as well as my goals for this year and how I hope to achieve them.

I will say one of my goals is to greatly improve this Patreon! I'd love for this to expand so I can put more time in to making this an educational place for other artists or creatives, or those who are just interested in the life of an artist.

Please feel free to share with me what you'd like to see more of this year on this site, how I can help you, the things that you are or aren't interested in. 

Thank you for reading, this was a doozy! Have a wonderful week, and perhaps take a bit to reflect on your own achievements and movements in 2018.

xoxo

Ragon