𝔑𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔪𝔟𝔢𝔯 Newsletter/Blog/Secret Sketches

Hello Happy November ◡̈

I'm writing to you with a mild cold, and I'm not bad enough to not get any work done, but not well enough to go lift (I tried to bench yesterday and went failure mode pretty much immediately).

Since I'm not someone that loves to read long-form blog posts (and I figure some of you might be too) I'll also be recording a sort of companion podcast once I'm less sniffly where I'll elaborate on some of the things I talk about here.

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The Too-Long-Didn't-Read preface is as follows: 

-I moved my workspace around and it's fugly, plus I am beginning to feel that "moving soon so don't get settled" feeling way too early

-I've been feeling like I am not making enough money this year but I've had one of the most fun years of my life

-Something with work needs to change

-Projects I'm working on, sketches, crops of finals

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𝚟𝚒𝚔𝚝𝚘𝚛 𝚙𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎𝚜:

Since Viktor The Cat joined my household, my office became sort of a gutted "baby room" where he resided some of the time, but now that he's more settled and my roommates and I have a system to separate him and the other resident cat, I got my office back.

My desk was temporarily in my small bedroom, and the shelves and other furniture in my previous office setup have since been moved elsewhere throughout the apartment.

But now my desk, my chair, and a single plant has been moved back into my old office space. And it looks so ugly, and so nothing. But it's nice just to have a space away from my bedroom again. Even though the wifi doesn't really reach the office room--YAY! I am making due.

I put my rainbow vintage Christmas lights up which does boost morale. But it's pretty barren. I am mostly okay with it.

Knowing that my roommates and I won't be renewing our lease at this place come late spring does put this weird feeling of "don't get too comfortable". And if you've been here a while, you'll know that feeling is all too familiar since I have moved FIVE times since 2020.

We have to leave this place behind though, as much as we all loved it. So now I'm looking ahead to the future, holding off on making anything too cute or filling every space with furniture. It's hard, but I know I'll be thankful once it is time to move.....even if that is ~6 months down the line.

I am considering leaving Chicago more and more every day. Is that shocking to you? It's a great place to be, and even if I never imagined myself moving here, it's treated me really well. Andersonville specifically has been such a wonderful place to live. There is definitely one path where I stay here forever. But I've got some good reasons to head to Cincinnati, or possibly even Cleveland. It's looking like Ohio might be the way forward. Cheaper, possibly a good decision career-wise (closer to my COWORKER @LeighEllexson ☻) and there's....possibly going to be something..or someone,..very important in Ohio soon. I am not taking questions on the matter at this moment.

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I made the least amount of money this year since graduating college.

I'm not in trouble, don't worry, but it's definitely less than I'm used to. To be fair, that first year out of college I was grinding way too hard and in the end, the money made was barely worth the suffering.

This year I prioritized living.

sorry the quality of that final photo is ASS <3

My point is that although I am anxious because this year was spent spending money moreso than making it, I also know how badly I needed this. I can make more money next year. Freelance is kind of fun because you can do that. It's one of the few big pros of not having a steady income.

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That being said....

Something Has To Change With My Career.

I love parts of it, and I want to continue doing art and illustrating books and making online content. But I was talking with a friend recently about how we feel that once we have a really good financial year, and realize how HARD we had to work to have that....vs this year for me where I slacked off more and had my point proven that I need to work harder to make a lot of money--it is a harsh realization.

Something needs to change next year, because I'm falling out of love with creating most of the time. Very occasionally I still feel that deep passion, but it's rare.

What has to change is still up in the air. Working on a farm and essentially making no money from that but feeling the love for it really got me thinking about things. I want to have that perfect work-life balance where I'm making enough money to feel good (for me, that is ~80k a year), but also having enough time to do things outside of my work. Or find a way to make work more fun.

There's a few theories I have on to fix this, or at least how to make things a little better:

-move to cincinnati and be leigh's coworker basically full time

-get a part time job outside of art that makes decent money (but who knows what that is)

-get a full time job in a creative field

-continue doing exactly what I'm doing, but streamline it, make it more efficient, put myself on a stricter hourly schedule.

-shift over to doing more shop/patreon/independent art

Difficult to know which way to take it. I'm going to spend the next few months really thinking it over.

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Right now I'm working on two book covers, two books for other authors, and my own book that I'm authoring and illustrating.

On the side I am also working on a game with friends (I say this SO loosely because I haven't had any time for this at all and have done barely any vis dev work so far YAY).

I've also been doing a lot of video editing, aside from illustrating (but you guys already know that).

Additionally went failure mode bigtime trying to execute a traditional postacrd-size piece recently! I only made it this far:

Honestly don't know if I'll keep going on it because I kind of hate it and kind of think it's too small to get the detail I want with the materials I'm using. Might start on something new for the gallery nucleus postcard show, even if I barely have the time.

Other secret sketches stuff below!:

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Okay, that's all I have for now. Podcast coming soon when I don't sound nasty! Love you.

-JG