2.1.21
Hello!
Thank you so, so much for subscribing to my very first newsletter!
I appreciate all the love and support from you guys-really, it means a lot that you guys decided to subscribe and follow me through this next new, exciting thing I am trying to put out there into the world!
I am hoping to use this newsletter as a chance to further connect me and the artwork I make through sharing some tips in my overall process, share inspiration material and visual reference, share artists I am looking at, and any other exciting thing that comes to mind!
The reason I decided on a newsletter was because other things such as social media posts so not really give me the opportunity to share so much in detail as this format does. However, I do not have the time dedication to follow-up on something like a blog. I do hope, however, to expand on these newsletters over time once I have more time (eheh).
Anyway, these newsletters will be archived and posted on my website in a blog-like fashion for newcomers, and those wishing to revisit some of the content, to come and revisit those previous posts. As I further develop building my brand and fostering this community of creators, I hope to find other ways to interact with you guys!
If you ever want to reach out and let me know what you think, please do not hesitate to send me an email or DM on any of the social media links attached to my website and referenced below! I would super appreciate any and all helpful feedback.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this newsletter and the content provided!
Thanks guys.
What a Year
I know everyone is going to remember 2020 as the year of the COVID-19 Outbreak-let’s just get that settled. However, I feel as though 2020 gave a lot of opportunities (though it definitely took many opportunities, as well!) for people who knew how to adapt, change, and develop during such a tumultuous time period. However, I hope that you find opportunity and chances to develop in 2021 if you did not find chance circumstances in 2020. While you might not exactly be where you imagined you would be (I, for one, am in a vastly different place than I could have ever imagined), I think that a ‘glass is always half-full’ mentality can be the game changer between finding success or failure when met with unfortunate circumstances.
So, while things might be hard, sometimes very hard, it is important to always mentally push past and persevere! Also, keep in mind; you don’t always have to do it alone!
With that pep talk out there, let’s get going with this new, exciting thing! Let’s all look forward to tomorrow and support a better future; collectively.
Upcoming Goals
I am being featured in an upcoming online publication!
You can find their instagram here where you can learn more about what they do. It has been a great experience working with the other illustrators to put this landscape-themed zine together and I can’t wait to see what it looks like altogether! In fact, it is the art piece we will be diving into in this month’s newsletter!
I am putting together a side-project of an art collective for local illustrators to band together and design stationery-specifically greeting cards.
We will be using a riso-print based method where you can learn more about here. The NYC RisoLab not only gives a good explanation as to what Riso Printing is, but is also an excellent educational resource with their partnership with SVA (School of Visual Arts) in New York City. If you are local, I would definitely check it out!
Last little business-related update is that I will be updating my social media.
I have been somewhat on hiatus (I had another big move after the holiday season-stress, stress, stress!), but I will be back in full swing this month and moving forward. I plan to get back into daily posting or at least 5 days of the week. Not too exciting on that end, but I hope you will be around to check it out!
Life and Shtuff
In terms of work and life, as I stated I recently moved (again), but I think I am pretty happy with where I am settled now. At some point, I should clean my work station area dn give a sneak peek as to what is going on! If you guys are interested in that, please let me know and I can do a little dissection of my work space and include the equipment I use, research and books I look at, my set-up, etc.
Towards the end of January, I also got to wrap-up some freelance projects which left me some more time to go deeper into research about some other things I think every freelance artist should heavily take into consideration-business practices.
Such concepts include business models, revisiting contracts and baseline agreements, bookkeeping,fiscal management and so on. I know, this all sounds so boring, but nonetheless very important! Again, if you would like to see a special edition where I talk about my own practices (or idealized version of what I practice, eheh), definitely send me an email or DM! I would love to have some space in this newsletter for you guys to curate some of the content. So please do not hesitate to let me know what you would like to see!
Overall, January was a nice breather and chance to get planned for the rest of the year.
What I Worked on in January
Here is the piece I made for the online publication In The Streets of Zine. Essentially, my process is somewhat simple;
sketch, ink, color, finesse, done.
Sometimes repeating/revisiting some of those points, but overall that is the process my work goes through. For this piece, I was inspired by La Felicità which is this unique indoor/outdoor train station restaurant in south-eastern Paris, France. I just loved the combination of the indoor/outdoor vibe, that fact it is a communal dining space, all the lovely juxtaposition between man-made items and the overgrown foliage-just my style.
Pure, elegant chaos.
Sketch of the space. Kind of wish I had more time to add the animals from the original concept in the finished.
This was also a great opportnuty for me to play and experiment, specifically with my color palette. I oftentimes adore very loud, vibrant, and energized pieces but oftentimes retrain using that same vibrance in my own work.
Why?
Oftentimes as an artist, I for sure experience a degree of choking my own creativity. It is bad enough when a client, art director, or some other editor requests changes or adjustments. So, why should I (or you!) do the same thing to my own work?
I use Adobe Photoshop to ink my sketch. If you have not had the chance to check out Kyle’s Brushes, I would highly recommend his inkbox set!
An area for improvement I would love to see after these next couple months is being more free with my artwork. I know if you are an artist, you;ve heard it before and it is vague and does not really make sense-I am making artwork, so am I not already free?
You would be surprised! So, have no fear-embrace your will to be weird! (nice rhyme-I should put it on a shirt or something equally kitschy!)
There will be some weird, but nonetheless exciting, ventures for my work these next couple months. And if I am not delivering-call me out on it!
I was really taking a chance with coloring the image with this funky palette. The Adobe Color website is a great resource for purely just seeing color. Do what I did and drop some illustrations you like and extract the theme-no copyright on color! However, I needed to get more weird with it; push farther than what I normally do.
One word:
Finesse.
Maybe it is good, maybe it is bad.
There are many, many directions I could have gone with color, but I personally wanted to experiment with something loud and vibrant. And I did! I think the overall end result is definitely different than what I would normally do, but I do not think it is bad. I think it was a growth opportunity and I took it. I think I accomplished what I set out to do with this piece which was to push myself more into making vibrant, exciting work.
So, overall, I can't be mad at it! And can’t be afraid of stepping stones, either. Sometimes one might slip, other times, one can make leaps.
Either way, one can only moving forward!
What’s Inspiring Me
Here are a couple things I found inspiring to my work this past month!
Elenor Davis’ book, The Hard Tomorrow (amazon link!)
I love looking at Elenor Davis’ work. You should check out her portfolio, there is some great stuff there! I came across this gem in my local Barnes and Noble. I often like to thumb through bookstores and see what’s on the shelves or what I can get inspired from. Since I am moving more into publication these days, I am always looking for the next good, illustrated read!
Historical french events
Because I had to do a deep dive for my Streets of Zine project, there were some other cool things I found along the way, too! Here is an article discussing a telescope exhibit in Paris-France in the 18th century.
Natural Geographic is always a great resource
I've been taking a peek at trying to find more inspirational material to generate more lore-based concepts. Articles like this one just get my mind rolling about possible underwater civilizations, seascapes, and fantasy adventure!
A Sweet Treat I Think You Should Eat
I know christmas has since passed, but that doesn;t mean we should stop enjoying the taste of ginger and chocolate! You can find the recipe from the wonderful Dorie Greenspan here!
My cookies lacked some sugar topping, but overall a great treat with a glass of milk!
I tried out this recipe and had some success with it (when I say some, it is mainly because I may have missed an ingredient or two-whoops!).Ah well. Just go and enjoy some cookies this month!
Welp, that wraps up my first newsletter!
Thank you again ofr checking in and subscribing! I really appreciate the support. As I move forward with this newsletter, I hope to better streamline and develop it into an exciting blog/journal monthly check-in type of thing (hopefully that makes sense; maybe not?).
Ah well.
This is a place for me to have fun and share what’s going on in my head and in my work. Hopeful you find it entertaining, insightful, or informative!
I hope you enjoyed this month’s newsletter! I would appreciate any and all helpful feedback to make this better, things you would like to see, an, in general, your thoughts on it!
Thanks again guys! I look forward to what next month’s newsletter will turn out like.
:)