Waiting for Feedback + Secret Sketches ✸

(if you'd like to skip ahead to the image descriptions please scroll to the end of this mini-newsletter!) 

Hey there, it's been a bit since we caught up, hasn't it? I stopped doing regular newsletters because I got feedback that a lot of folks preferred audio-format updates, or that reading big chunks of text is difficult/exhausting. I also prefer audio over text newsletters, but I was feeling nostalgic for a good written newsletter. This won't be nearly as long as my old ones, but I thought it might still be a nice chatty read with a cup of something warm. 

✸Waiting✸

Lately, I've been waiting for feedback on projects. In short, this means I've finished a big chunk of work (in this case, sketching all of Arden High Book 2: KING CHEER, and doing sketch revisions for the nonfiction middle grade book I'm working on) and I'm waiting to hear back and get the green light to move on to final. The wait time on this varies greatly from project to project. 

Factors that affect this are: amount of work being revised, type being put in place by a designer/letterer, number of people it has to go through to be approved, timing of acquisitions meetings, and publication date goal. For both of the books I'm working on, the publication date is rough or way in the future, so I don't think there's a huge rush. This is both good and bad for me as the illustrator, because it gives me some breathing room, but it also cuts into my time for possible future projects. 

If you follow me on youtube, or any of my socials, you might have noticed an increase in videos and personal projects, as well as sketchbook work. I've had the opportunity to take the holiday season a little slower and focus on "other work" (my own things) because I'm doing some waiting around. This always puts me in a weird headspace; at first I'm excited to have the free time, and then that is quickly followed by "I have no purpose", so naturally I busy myself. It's not necessarily a bad thing, I love to be busy. I love to have something to work away at, especially something I've assigned myself. 

✸What do I want to do?✸

I don't necessarily have the energy to start planning out my own authored/illustrated books, which I do eventually want to do. But I've had the drive to make more youtube content lately, because editing videos is a really fun alternative art form for me. 

I enjoy seeing people interact with my artwork, of course, but I've found that seeing people interact with my youtube videos is what makes me feel happiest (or maybe just the most *seen*/engaged with). Youtube videos are fun for me because I'm able to share more aspects of my life with a community, rather than just one facet of my being (my art). I like seeing people laugh at what my friends and I say, or express that they ALSO cannot burp, or say that they think my editing style is funny. Being seen as a human is so rewarding--as much as I would love to be mysterious and anonymous, I just enjoy vulnerability and accessibility so much more. 

Sometimes it makes me wonder if I'm in the right field. But then I think about not doing books, not being in the kidlit world, not having connected with my agent, etc, and I feel sad. I don't think I want to leave that world, but I do think I want to find balance where I can do everything all at once. In a perfect world, I would be a book illustrator, package designer, sketchbooker, youtuber, patreon-content-maker, tattoo artist and fitness influencer. HA. 

✸Nice Things✸

I used to do this fairly regularly but have fallen out of habit with it. These are just things I've been enjoying lately. I'd love to hear some of yours as well! 

• This Japanese Illustration Publication I found at Kinokuniya Books
• loose fitting jeans that are just perfectly loose
• white rice fresh out the fucking rice cooker!!!!
• wearing a big scarf around your head
• my new confetti cake protein powder  
• Clodsire 

• Having roommates who are like family :')
• ^also watching one of my roommates play the Yakuza games
• Bagels!!!
• rewatching tumblr-era shows 
• uniqlo heattech clothing
• grapefruit bubly (far superior to most La Croix)
• this Takenobu album that I literally just found 20 minutes ago 
• holiday lights in suburban neighborhoods

✸Image Descriptions✸

Image 1: I started drawing myself in some outfits I've worn lately with the intention to do a ton of them, colored.....but I got lazy :-)

Images 2-3: Commission for a friend of another friend's cat (if you for whatever reason know this cat please don't tell its owner because I believe this is a Christmas present!) First is the final, and the second image is a sketch option I offered just in case they didn't want a bipedal clothed cat.

Image 4: Tattoo flash I'm working on! Who knows! Organizing tattoo booking is exhausting so who knows when I'll get around to taking regular appointment again hehehe 

Image 5: Crop of a sketch taken from the nonfiction book I'm working on. Not sure if I'm allowed to talk about it, but if you recognize the person in the drawing then it's not my fault 👀

Images 6-10: Scans from my sketchbook. I posted two of the spreads on my instagram and twitter, but I wanted to show the raw scans here. Most was done with a muji pen, aside from image 7 which was done with a ballpoint pen. I forget the power of the ballpoint pen sometimes.....so buttery

~~~

Thanks for joining me today, and I'll see you soon! 

-JG