The beginning of this week was hard, made possible by me. I had a dream that my book was being picked up by McMillan, but it had a different name for some reason. I was overjoyed and then I woke up anxious and sad. I am working less at Joe because summer staff is cut by our business going down due to students being away. I do not mind working less to focus on freelance, but sadly I still need a paycheck from Joe. Also freelance comes and goes freely so I find that I am not sure if will fill in the gaps until someone asks me to do a job or to buy a painting. I know it is something that I will have to get used to being in business for myself, but I have a hard time not focusing on having enough work, constantly. I dwell and dwell and dwell...its compulsive and completely unproductive.
So, having spent most of the week worrying about money I felt really dumb when four jobs came up. I guess its the worlds way of making me feel dumb. I was stressed because I did not have enough work and now I am worried about getting it all done.
Now the goal is to keep things in perspective and if I do not have a freelance project lined up, but free time I should just make some work for myself. I also do have savings, but I am so used to pretending that they do not exist that I forget the rule of a freelancer; which is to prepare for the lean times by saving up for them constantly. Currently, the big corporate project I have going on, which we shall call Corp. is going slowly, but they have not run the other way (yay!). I have a freelance job coming in at some point of an animal portrait, I just finished the illustration above of Kenzo, Ming, and Mulan, another possible piece for a friend...which I hate doing because I feel guilty about charging for my time, and a project that is illustrations for a book project.
The book project is nonpaying currently, of course, but it has a fair amount of potential. It came up this week and the woman wants to submit samples and the manuscript to her agent this week. I really like that she wants to act fast, has an agent (who is kind of a big deal), she has three novels that all did well, and has a fourth that is coming out in September. In addition, this book has legs and is completely series material. All signs point to yes, but I have doubts in my own ability and of course doubts that a publisher will take me if the book gets picked up. Luckily, I am a doer and I am going to do the crap out of this project and I will channel my
idol while doing it.
Winnie raided the ice cream truck with her allowance.
that's right....I warped the theme of Illustration Friday....it was satellite....so now its "sat a light." I thought the last two themes were dumb (sorry if you suggested it). I just like verbs and adjectives better. There is so much more to work with and you do not get 12000 illustrations of the same things. I'm just sayin sometimes people cannot think outside the box. But what do I know...I draw squirrels and cats when I do not like the themes.
I was going to post a bunch and do a whole vote thing, but I have decided to just really wanted to use this design. Color was a different issue. I had a lot of thoughts on this, but its really important that everything be bold enough to show up on a nature tote. I can post other options if folks are not sold on the color, but I like that they are different and somewhat odd colors.
Something for the Fathers Day. The top one is for my dad, the bow tie wearing machine and the bottom one is for JJ's dad the golfer....these are polar opposite squirrels. I hope they like each other alright. We are going to MD/DC/VA this weekend for father baseball game time...don't ask me about who is playing who I am just going for the snacks.
We went to the bee party at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. It was really fun and the kids were really inspiring.
I have the oil spill on the brain. In movies when people die I hardly ever get upset, but when an animal dies it is burned into my brain for weeks. I care about human life, but there is something that rips at my insides when I see an animal suffering.
The beginning of this week was hard, made possible by me. I had a dream that my book was being picked up by McMillan, but it had a different name for some reason. I was overjoyed and then I woke up anxious and sad. I am working less at Joe because summer staff is cut by our business going down due to students being away. I do not mind working less to focus on freelance, but sadly I still need a paycheck from Joe. Also freelance comes and goes freely so I find that I am not sure if will fill in the gaps until someone asks me to do a job or to buy a painting. I know it is something that I will have to get used to being in business for myself, but I have a hard time not focusing on having enough work, constantly. I dwell and dwell and dwell...its compulsive and completely unproductive.
I am donating 50% of etsy sales (12.50 on prints and 2.50 on cards) of these three prints and cards to The National Wildlife Federation.
Project Maybe Baby is a go! I received my t-shirt and onesy prototype last night and I am very happy with the results. I will be carrying the onesy in 6 months-24 month sizes and the t-shirt in 6 months- 4T (28" chest, 16" waist).
