October Newsletter 🦇 🎃🌜

Welcome back, traveler. 

So...was it just me or did September feel like it vanished in an instant? I blinked, and suddenly I'm here writing my second-ever monthly newsletter, feeling as though I just wrote my first one. Time moving this quickly can be either good or bad, depending on your life's circumstances, don't you think? If I'm honest, I needed this month to feel a bit longer so I could prepare for October, which promises to be busy (Halloween isn't the only spooky thing about this dawn of a new month). Regardless, I really hope you're doing okay. Have you indulged and had something pumpkin-flavored yet?

According to the feedback from the Google Survey, it seems you'd like to have a bit more of a peek into other areas of my life besides art, which makes me happy to hear. I took photos throughout the month of September as little snapshots of things that were significant to me to compile into one image as a recap:

Also! If you have not already seen, I decided to include a podcast as sort of an accompanying-newsletter. From the feedback I got, it seems most of you enjoyed the length of the previous newsletter, but some told me they find it difficult to read large chunks of text (I understand completely), so I wanted to provide additional auditory content where I talk more in-depth about some cool stuff from the previous month. I see it as audio-journaling, and I hope you enjoy it!

If you have followed me for some time now, you will know that my heart is made up of a few sections (imagine a pie chart), and one whole section is boldly labeled: musician Andrew Bird. I wanted to devote a section of this newsletter (much like my heart) to Andrew and his work, because he is one of my main creative fuels. There are a few musical artists that feel like “home” to me, but Andrew occupies a space so special, I sometimes cannot even begin to comprehend it. I must be careful writing this section, for it could get very, very long. I will do my best to express why he is one of my life’s biggest inspirations while still keeping it bearable. 

In case you are not familiar, Andrew Bird is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His genre is technically indie rock, but that is not his entire body of work. He has a few albums that I would say verge on blueglass, and others that are purely orchestral/ambient. One of my best friends, Em, introduced me to his work initially back in 2018. Side note, Em and I were supposed to see him live back in April, which would have been my very first concert--and a special one at that--but it was cancelled due to Covid. He is what I would consider a creative genius, and an incredibly gifted human. He is most known for his violin skills, incredible bird-level (perfect, right?) whistling, and looping (recording a piece of music and then performing over that loop, adding layers and layers). Before we go any further I invite you to listen to these three songs which I think accurately portray his range:

Roma Fade (indie rock andrew) , Frogs Singing (bluegrassy andrew) and Behind The Barn (instrumental, emotional, give-you-chills andrew)

And I would say the best introduction to Andrew Bird would be his Tiny Desk Concert

I recommend listening to as much of his discography as you can. Because of his range, you’re sure to find something you like, even if the above stuff was not your cup of tea. But I have one big, huge reason why he inspires me in such a profound way, other than just “his music makes me want to explode with passion”. The way he experiences and creates music incorporates science and creative solutions, which is very adjacent to the way I look at my artwork. Here’s a couple of examples of that:

His two albums called Echolocations: Canyon and Echolocations: River were recorded in both of their namesakes: a canyon, and a river. Andrew brought his violin, and just his violin and recorded these full albums on-site. He stood in the river, pants cuffed to his mid-calf. 

Upon hearing these albums for the first time a couple years ago, I actually took my lyre-harp and played it by the local bayou, where the water was steadily flowing and banks canopied by spanish moss-draped trees. It changed both how the music sounded, and how I felt about what I was hearing.  He said this amazing thing in a meditation podcast once that I think encapsulates why it is so important for us to create in a space that is interesting and inspiring to us:

“I start to notice what’s coming in through my eyes begins to affect what I hear, and then how what I hear affects how I see, and this has a profound effect on the music I’m making”.

This can absolutely be applied to art, too. Painting plein air (outdoor on-site paintings of landscapes) always had a different energy than sitting indoors and working from a photo, or painting something outside my window. 

The podcast I mentioned earlier called Meditative Story, states in the episode description (about Andrew Bird):

“Rather than imposing his vision on the world, Andrew’s music becomes a reflection of what the surrounding environment is trying to tell him. He learns that sometimes a sense of connectedness is easier to achieve alone, where you’re able to find out what’s happening inside you in order to make it sing outwards.” 

Wow, wowowow. If you have not already listened to the podcast portion of my monthly newsletter, I recite the lyrics to “Lull” which is a song specifically about being alone. I think that, along with this quote says just about everything that needs to be said on that. 

Finally, if you aren’t sick of my linking you to Andrew Bird content yet--and especially if you did not click on the last five links--maybe at least give this one a watch. This encapsulates everything about Andrew, and you get to hear him speak, use his “spinning horns” which are AMAZING, and he summarizes the importance of playing his music in a specific space. 

I will retire from my Andrew Bird soap box now, and switch gears just slightly to the “inspirations” section of my newsletter that is less hyper-focused on one thing and covers a bunch of things that I discovered/enjoyed this month.

musician Cosmo Sheldrake, specifically his song Wriggle. A friend once asked me if I had songs that I felt represented my work. As soon as I heard this song, I listened to it for nearly 12 hours straight on repeat because I felt an instant connection with it. He is a hobbit-esqe brother of biologist (and mycologist!), Merlin Sheldrake (also hobbit-esqe), who commonly does Field Recording, which is next on my list of inspiring things.

Cosmo, looking very Cosmo.

Field Recording, which I kind of spoiled with my above passage on Andrew Bird, is the act of simply performing and recording in nature, allowing the sounds of the environment to seep in to, or rather add to, the song. I believe the aforementioned Cosmo Sheldrake samples his own bird calls, too. I have seen a video of him with a very long-pole boom mic stuck up in the trees.

Fleet Foxes just released a new album, called Shore. Though it's only been out for a week and wasn't necessarily inspiring me throughout the whole month of September, my final week was filled with it. Robin Pecknold, the band's frontman said that this album was in production before Covid, but that it was lacking "any kind of a lyrical perspective". However, in quarantine, he found himself going on solo drives, just singing and writing lyrics. The sound is gentler than their previous albums, and to me, feels like a blanket of warmth when you need it most.

I mentioned this on my instagram story, but Autumnal/Halloween/Seasonal "moodboard images" have been a constant source of shameless inspiration as well as a simple joy. I include the word shameless because I think it is typical for our generation to immediately form a judgement when hearing "Pinterest Aesthetic". Is it just me? I swear it's become cliche or tacky to a lot of people. I frankly don't give a damn though, show me a picture of some tumblr girl holding a cup of hot drink with cinnamon on top, with a way-too-orange filter and some cozy fairy lights, and I will eat that shit UP. Seeing this compendium of seasonal images inspires me to make the characters I do. The trick-or-treaters I drew were like my visual interpretation of instagram accounts like the below:

These were from "halloween aesthetic" instagram accounts that are active only during the fall. I believe life is too short to not allow yourself to thoroughly enjoy and get excited about "tacky" things. Here is my autumn/halloween pinterest board, if you'd like it!

The idea of manifesting has been strangely inspiring to me lately, as well. I was not raised with any sort of faith, though I did attend just about every type of religious service I could, just out of curiosity. Nothing really stuck with me. I also do not consider myself a very spiritual person. Astrology is something I think about for fun, without any sort of reliance. Manifesting, to me, can be more worldly. I guess it could be seen as a sort of ambition-type-deal. "If I say it, it will happen". I found comfort in saying "You know what? I'm manifesting this right now", and then making a statement about something I wanted to speak into existence, whether it be a success for myself or a friend, or even hoping for good weather. 

To add on to the idea of manifestation, I wanted to credit a patron/friend named Jewel, who shared with me a link to some of science fiction author Octavia Butler's own sort of "manifestations". She would write these things in her journal while working part time jobs, speaking her success into existence and reminding herself of her goals. There are no if, ands or buts to her journal entries. Simply "I shall" or "it will".

And that leads me to a new section of this newsletter!

Can you believe that even though I am technically a professional illustrator, this section was the one that stumped me the most? I was sitting here for some time in front of a blank document trying to figure out how to get any helpful information across regarding the one thing I do to make a living. 

I think it has something to do with the fact that I can talk about my passions and inspirations freely, while with my business I worry that I'm just "fooling" myself, and therefor do not have a place to give advice to anyone else on the matter.

I have been getting a few questions regarding my agent lately, and how that all works. I hesitate to talk about this, and I hope you understand that I can only reveal so much out of professionalism and respect for my agency! However, transparency is so important, not just to me but it should be to all of us in the illustration/creative industry. I would like to share with you how it has been going lately:

I have had my agent since early June, and have gotten three jobs through him so far. He takes a cut of 20% on advances, which is pretty standard. Do you know how all that works? I didn't really, at first. An artist gets paid advances, up front or upon different stages in the process. Depending on the scope of the job, this can be around 1-4 payments. And sometimes, the advance is not paid until publication date. If it is not a flat-rate job, the artist gets royalties for every item sold. Again, it all depends on many factors but for books the advances I have commonly seen tend to be 3-8%. Pretty small, and I don't think many people realize that. They think artists are getting paid big chunks for every book they sell, but that isn't the case. Money is really made from royalties if the book is massively successful. The advances ensure that the artist is getting paid no matter what, though. 

Okay, all that aside, here's what my experience has been so far. Keep in mind, I did not think I was going to be going into the kid's book industry--so my portfolio wasn't necessarily built for that. My agent is pushing me to work up my portfolio more than anything. I have gotten three jobs through him thus far (I will be stating rates with his cut already taken out):

(DONE) Full-page poem illustration for a children's magazine: $350 (being published in November), not paid yet

(IN PROGRESS) Wrap-around book cover for middle grade chapter book: $2000 (publication sometime in 2021), not paid yet, many revisions.

(BEGINNING SOON) 30-page illustrated children's book and cover: $9,500 (publication date unknown), not paid yet 

So let's talk about this. First of all, these prices are pretty low. Even my agent has acknowledged this. He is getting me some starter jobs to get book work into my portfolio. Because of this, and because of my workload with patreon, etsy and social media, as well as my need to work on paid work (keep in mind how I have not been paid for any of the above jobs yet), it has been a little frustrating. Those are my honest feelings. This is not my agent's fault, it is all due to unfortunate timing. I told him on the phone the other day that I just need to be focusing on only things that make money right now so I can afford to...well, stay alive. We talked for a long time that day, and I feel hopeful moving forward. Communication with one's agent is extremely important, so I was relieved to finally sit down and have a much-needed conversation with him. 

If you'd like to hear more about my feelings on this, as well as what I have hopes for in my realm of book illustrating, I go into that in my newsletter podcast!

Aside from my agent-related work...

I love patreon. I really do, guys. It makes me happier than you could know. I hope it's making you happy, too. Like I stated in my September newsletter, there is just something to be said for coming back to this space like a cozy treehouse, adorned with all of our favorite things. It has really helped me to come alive with embracing my brand and the sort of world building that inspires me most. When I work on content for patreon, it feels like "ah, so this is what it is like to be a real artist."

I cannot thank you enough for your support. The reason that this has now become a sustainable thing for me is entirely thanks to you. When I am feeling unmotivated, I just open up my patreon, read through the comments repeatedly, or look through the feedback I got from the Google Form. I quite literally am able to live more comfortably and continue to producing work that I (and hopefully you) love because of patreon!

That being said, I have some fun plans for throughout October for you. I would love to make some printable Halloween decorations for the Harvest tier, as well as some bonus art/process-related content for the Sapling/Harvest Tiers. And a special October-exclusive surprise for all Seeds, Sapling and Harvest patrons!

So tell me, what inspired you in September? What are you looking forward to in October? Also, what do you guys think of a discord server? I will have to educate myself a bit more on all that, but it would make me so happy to have a patron-only community where we can all hang out. Here's to hoping all of our Octobers are enchanting!

-JG.

P.S. Here is my September 2020 Lookbook