February Monthly Newsletter 💌🍫💐

Hello travelers. Hey, I missed you. 

Today we'll be chatting about the Love Month, a patron-exclusive gift exchange, how freelance booking with an agent works, looking back to a year ago when I had no idea what I was going to do, listening to our bodies, lovely smells and such, and fun funky little guys. 

The year sheds it's first layer of leaves...we are officially one month into the year! We have a lot to look forward to. Please grab your favorite sweet snack for this one (I have been dreaming about those strawberry kitkats, personally...)

I'm really leaning into the aesthetic of February = Valentine Month for someone who does not really "believe" in Valentines day. I've had a complicated relationship with this day my whole life because I always felt like it put a lot of pressure on society, and would impose a feeling of loneliness even if someone wasn't lonely at all. Even if I was in a relationship on Valentines days past, it just felt clunky, awkward--as if the holiday was forcing us to celebrate something that we normally celebrated every day. 

The idea of a "Palentines" is sweet. I like the idea of reinventing a holiday (because after all, it is still a holiday, and I do enjoy the idea of celebrating for no reason other than "today is a holiday"). I invite you to reclaim this Holiday with me! Relationship or not, we're putting that aside this month. Show love to your partner if you have one, of course, but let's take this month to focus on loving ourselves and the other people in our lives (our family, our friends who we are safe to visit, our internet friends, our online communities, etc.)

Make yourself some heart-shaped pancakes! Drink a pink-colored beverage. Hell, make it alcoholic if you are of legal drinking age (I am still your lumberjack dad, sorry). Write a love letter to yourself. Maybe a love letter to your friends or family too. Treat yourself to an at-home spa day and wear a sexy little robe! Take a--as my friend Cheyenne called it--"hot girl walk" or, to keep it more on brand with our little family, a "hot girl hike" (being a girl is certainly not required for this) where you just walk/hike with the soul purpose of thinking only about what you are grateful for, your goals, and why you are hot and cool.

If I could make you some mushroom-shaped chocolates and give you a massage, I certainly would. Please accept my emotional mushroom-shaped chocolates and mental massage instead ❣ 

Oh! Yes, that reminds me. In our patron discord (open to all patrons! If you're interested, join here) we are doing a virtual gift exchange of sorts. The theme is "virtual valentines care package", where you draw/write about/knit/sculpt etc. a few items that you want to give everybody (think along the lines of baked goods, comfort items, self care products). The idea is instead of being assigned one person to give your gift to, you're giving it to everybody in the discord! I'm already dreaming about the basket of goods I want to draw...

Now, what are we really talking about here today? The Love Month is important but this is, in the end, the newsletter of a logical freelance illustrator who loves to talk business and trees. 

In January, I was officially given my set-in-stone freelance schedule for all of 2021 into 2022. I had no idea that this would be happening my first year out of college, and in fact I didn’t really even know that this is how it works. 

It makes sense to me now though: agent finds their illustrator work, testing the waters with a few project pitches. Some projects stick, some don’t. The agent typically forwards their artist a message from the client, wherein the client says “I want [artist] to illustrate this upcoming project”, the illustrator then works with the agent to get more details, complete any preliminary sample work, and talk about schedule. If all lines up and works out, the agent communicates with the client to get a contract for the artist. The artist signs, is given an official deadline for sketches/first drafts/finals/revisions—then it’s time to begin. The project has begun.

As an illustrator, I have full control over whether I want to take on the project or not. I have declined one large graphic novel project (150 pages, a few books in the series) due to the fact that I know I’m already a little overloaded. It’s the agent’s job to (hopefully) be understanding about their illustrator’s decision and then get back to the client. So far I have had a great experience with that. My agent knew that even though it was a great opportunity, I have four books coming up for 2021, a couple of which have hefty demands.

So here I am. I have 4 books on my plate, and deadlines for each of them--A couple of which that have quickly impending sketch deadlines. I will be working on freelance nearly every day for all of 2021. I always try to take one day off a week, but that's all I can allow myself this year (I'll be talking about life balance in the Inspirations and Endeavors section later).

As a refresher: I am almost complete with Anne of Green Gables. This job paid a smaller amount and I will not be getting royalties due to how small the publisher is. I knew this going into it, as I have stated before. No worries! It was my first full book project and was given to me as “portfolio work”. Little did my agent and I know that shortly after the Anne job was offered to me (and accepted), I would be getting three more offers which are larger, higher advances, all of which will also be paying royalties.

I realize this is sort of a reiteration of something from a previous newsletter. I wanted to give some context and transparency about my career to transition into my next statement which is: I still cannot believe that I am a living, breathing, functioning adult with a job!

My youtube channel was previously dedicated to documenting my journey of being an unsure art student in my senior year. It was this time last year that I posted this video where I sat down in front of a camera, expression my anxiety over choosing a career, the lack of job opportunities for someone in the illustrative field, and finding a place to live after college. This was before covid and before I had ever visited Greenville for an extended period of time, where I currently live.

Yes, it did work out. Yes, I do have a job. And yes, it was not what I thought I would be doing at all. My biggest struggle was choosing one career track. I wanted to dip my hands into everything. I was applying to every creative agency (mostly ad/design/motion) that I could find. I got a few interviews (at the same time, I did not hear back from 10+ companies), and despite the fact that they went well, covid ended up cancelling any of those opportunities. 

It felt a little bit like fate was presenting freelance to me in covid-times when my agent reached out to me and asked if I ever considered doing book work. It was unexpected, but I felt myself give a little nod to past me that once said “I don’t have to try everything at once, I can do something for a little while and change my career track later”, because this unexpected track was the first opportunity presenting itself to me, and I chose to take it.

Life has strange ways of working itself out. 

And as much as I would like to believe in the magic of fate and destiny, I do give myself the credit in saying that I worked as hard as I could to make something happen. I was prepared to be a full-time independent artist and shop owner the day that my agent reached out to me. He told me he found me because I had entered work into the society of illustrator’s student scholarship gallery (and had won one of the scholarships). He told me I stood out to him because he checked who was following me on Instagram and he saw some big name illustrators. Social media is absolutely not the end all be all, and neither is entering into gallery competitions. But in this instance, my hard work had paid off, after years and years of putting myself out there. I will give myself credit for that. I will thank myself for that, in this self-addressed love letter in the aforementioned Love Month.

❣

Hey. I just realized I have been spelling "Endeavors" wrong for months now. 

Um. That will be corrected next month. 😳

Anyways! As mentioned above, I wanted to cross over from business into lifestyle in this section by talking about balance. I get a lot of questions on how I manage my time as a freelance illustrator who also does patreon, social media and occasionally youtube. 

I find it hard to answer that question, because I do not feel I have "figured it out" yet, and I don't know if I ever will. Many days in the first few months felt like a whirlwind--like I was panicking to get the work done and fit in all my fitness, self care and time for friends/family. Nowadays, I feel much less panicked despite an even heavier workload. I think this is due to me listening to my body, finding balance, as well as settling in.

I do not have a set schedule every day. In fact, I think life would be boring if every single day followed the same format. It does, however, include most of the same basic things (in varying orders) which includes: 

💐7-8 hours of sleep, usually sleeping anytime between 10PM-midnight, waking up anytime between 6-8

💐exercise at some point, usually 6 days a week (again, listening to my body--does today call for HIIT, running, lower body weight training, upper body weight training? Should I add in a circuit for my abs at the end?)

💐Getting some sun (with sunscreen or spf moisturizer of course), or if it is cloudy that day, sitting in front of my SAD light.

💐working anywhere between 4-7 hours. This includes both freelance and patreon. The time of day or intervals vary depending on how I feel. 

💐Time for myself (this changes every day, sometimes it's watching something, reading, playing video games, self care, talking with friends, cooking a meal, etc.)

It took me some time to realize that balance is what makes up a successful lifestyle for me. As long as I get a bit of everything in, I am productive, I feel healthy and it keeps me motivated/happy! I also realized that without the outside-of-work activities, I would not be able to work as much as I do. I count activities such as exercise to be a part of my work life, because I need it to refuel my brain. So often times, even when all the work is done for the day, I still consider myself "busy", even if I am just laying completely horizontal watching anime--because that, in itself, is a part of my work schedule as a freelancer!

❣

Once again this month, I wrote down all the things that popped into my head as a lovely thought/experience (I recommend doing this, as it helps me to stay aware of the positive things in life, even the most mundane ones):

• Ducks
• Warm sun on a cool day
• Tamagoyaki (Rolled Egg)
• Natural wood furniture
• Reading clothing reviews online and seeing people say positive things about how they felt in the clothes(!!)
• Finding time to play video games (It's been a few months since I did this)
• Seeing a painting of someone that has your exact body type
• Designer toys (again. Always.)
• Someone noticing your fitness progress
• The smell of sunscreen
• When spotify creates a radio based on a song and you discover lots of new music
• Pikuniku
• Smelling laundry in the early morning when you're outside
• Nice hotel lobbies 
• New activewear that makes you feel confident
• Loving who you have grown into ❣

I cannot seem to get enough of Pikuniku's aesthetics, Kewpie dolls, and current designer toys such as Starfy Thinkers, Sonny Angels, Sticky Monster Lab, or Circus Boy Band. I'm just constantly thinking about these funky little color-blocked guys that I can hold in my hands. I can feel myself leaning back into themes of solid fun colors, simplistic features and abstract shapes, and I couldn't be happier about it!

With that, I want to say thank you. Thank you for your support, thank you for reading these words, and thank you for being present with me in this crazy timeline. I hope you have a wonderful February!

P.S. Just as reminder, content will be released throughout the month instead of all on the first, following the same format as January! This is the format from now on. 

xoxo

-JG