I'm having such a hard time balancing my life right now. Though after today it'll be a little easier.
So for some reason that escapes me at the moment I made a whole bunch of art related commitments around the end of July. I think I must've forgotten that I just moved, am still unpacking at that school was starting so my time was going to be more stretched then it all ready was.
Most of the commitments were 'soft' commitments; as I was the only person involved in the transaction.
Social Media
I'm trying to build up my portfolio and be more active on social media, all while trying to get everything else done. Of course- facebook, instagram and youtube are all making pretty big changes in the next couple of months- so I don't know how much longer having a social media presence is going go be a thing that freelancers should pursue. This is why I've said for years now that people should build a social media presence but still have some sort of blog and a website that you maintain and update regularly. I'm great at the advice and watching the markets- really bad at incorporating that advice myself. With a lot of the changes I've been learning and reading about... I think I might have to rethink and relearn my approach to social media. We'll see how it goes. More on this below.
SkillShare
I also have been working on a class for skillshare- this has been an ongoing process for years- I finally forced myself to actually write an outline and script and film the whole thing. It is officially published!! So if you want to check it out use this link: https://skl.sh/2mXgqyq Check out my class- and sign up for SkillShare if you haven't.
Inktober
I will be participating in Inktober this year. I've spent the last 2 weeks gathering every 2019 list I can find. As of this moment I haven't decided if I'm going to follow the Jake Parker official inktober list, one of the other lists OR just create my own. I will decide in the next couple of days though- as October first is only 6 days away.
Gallery/BFA/RPG Terrain
This has to to have been the biggest source of guilt these last few months, and probably some of the other art commitment I made should not have been made because of this. I HAVE been working on it- albeit in the background. Part of the reason I've allowed myself to focus on other art things, including the SkillShare class is because I can sit down and work on them for 10 or 15 minutes at a time and if I get interrupted it isn't a big deal. The big Terrain project though... I need like an hour at a time to work on it, minimum. I have finally gotten to the point where I can in fact carve out that time- so there will be more updates on this.
Schedule and Plan for the next few months
social media:
YouTube: I'm going to be publishing a video at least every two weeks hopefully every week to my YouTube account. For now I think they are just going to be sped up painting/drawing videos that are just of various little sketchbook and hopefully portfolio pieces.
Instagram: My current goal is to post 3 times a week- I'd like to post daily- but until I get the house unpacked and put away- that isn't happening.
Facebook: for now it'll probably continue to reflect my Instagram account.
Other: I'm looking into other video hosts and social media platforms- but for now I'll continue to focus on the big 3.
Twitter: I just... don't twitter... I go there to check things- but I find I just do not like the atmosphere of that platform.
projects:
SkillShare: I do have plans to do more skillshare classes- but not until next year. I need to focus on some other things first. Plus after listening to my class again (post publishing) I need to get a better mic and probably even re-record the audio for what I've published thus far...
Inktober: This WILL be a daily thing in October. That overly ambitious voice in my head wants me to record all of the drawings and put up little IGTV videos daily. As much as I like the idea... I just don't think I have time for that. I'll be happy just to get the drawings done and published.
Gallery: my goal is to put in at least 4 hours a day on this- I want to do more like 8, but I have to accept once again what I constantly have had to accept while going through school... I am a mom- and that means my time to work on this is less than that of an average student.
Now to clarify- I know I sound like I must be SO far away from being done- I feel like that to an extent- but the truth is I'm about 85% done with the digital part of the project (which includes creating all of the models and putting textures on them and exporting them out to workable paper model templates) So I'm not doing that badly. I know it is going to be hard to build these in the real world- both in terms of cost of materials and time. That is the part that has me a little panicked. It'll all come together though. This is absolutely my main focus from this point on.
Webtoons: I had promised a few people that the comic 'The Sisterhood of the Seven Stars' would be up by now. Most people don't even know about this one- only a select few who saw the concept art last March and were excited about it. It's been pushed back for now- the script needs to be written- it isn't much more than an outline at the moment. All the concept art needs to be redone. SO I still intend to put this up- but it might be September of 2020- I don't know right now.
Writing in general: I have started poking around in my old scripts and stories- I've decided I am going to start writing again- I miss it terribly. However it is low priority right now. I'll be happy if I can just get 20 minutes a day in on this one.
Blog: Starting today I'm going to be making weekly entries onto the blog- the plan is to upload something every Tuesday- I know that at the moment people don't really read any more so this probably doesn't matter as much as other things- but I am going to start doing it. Also as soon as I can figure out a fast way to do it I'll do a Vlog as well. It'll basically be me doing some sort of sped up drawing or other art while reading pretty much word for word my blog entry for the week. So it would go up on Tuesday as well. I don't think there is any problem doing it this way- some people just watch video some people only read- some people to a combo of both.
Anyway- this isn't the best written post; more than anything it is a stream of consciousness post more than anything. Future posts should be better written. At least that is the plan.
Thanks for reading!!
Alicia
