300 patrons, giveaway, and re-assessing priorities

Disclaimer: I'm making a conscious effort to write without emojis here, so it might seem like I'm mad. But I'm definitely not!

Good morning, you wonderful people!

It's actually noon, but I've been SO TIRED over the last two days. I blame the weather. It went from hot and summery to rainy and cold - basically overnight. But luckily for me, I was planning on taking time off anyway. I do however, have a bunch of stuff I want tell you. So kick back with a cup of coffee, because this might be a long one. 

300 PATRONS

First things first, we made it to 300 patrons!! I find it hard to believe (in a good way) that there are so many of you. So many people that are kind enough to support my work with their hard-earned money. And yet, here you are! I know I sound like a broken record, but I'm so incredibly greateful for your support, for your encouragement, for your stories, for EVERYTHING. 

I've been thinking about what's truly important in my day-to-day life as an artist and what I want to focus my energy on (more about that later) and I've come to the conclusion that Patreon is hiiiiigh up on that list. I want to do everything in my power to make you guys feel valued and appreciated, because YOU ARE. So I've been cooking up some ideas like giveaways and Patreon-exclusive Q&A livestreams. Anything to make this feel a little bit more like a club house!

GIVEAWAY

On 1 June, I'm going to randomly choose one of you to give this original mermaid drawing to. Also, an artist proof of my Ace of Wands giclée print (embellished!), shipped right to your door, no matter where you live. I'm going to post a nice photo tomorrow or the day after, to make it official. 

RE-ASSESSING PRIORITIES

I have talked about this on Twitter already: I started tracking my work hours last week and it surely made me re-consider my priorities. You can see the breakdown of my week here: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DdarB-jVAAAhc0P.jpg:large

It's actually pretty good. I spend most of my hours painting, which I enjoy (luckily, otherwise I'd be questioning my big life decisions). But I made some other categories that don't show up here, such as "Educational Content". That's video production, tutorials and all that. And to be honest, I'm SO GLAD I didn't do any of that stuff last week, because I fucking hate it. It was so hard to admit to myself, but now that I have, I can't help but shout it out. Seriously, I studied education for 7 years and I have a Master's degree in it and all it did was make me learn what I DON'T ever want to do with my life. 

And yet, here I am, in my job as an artist, putting that burden on myself even though I don't have to. All because "everyone else has a YouTube channel", "it's the thing I SHOULD be doing", "it's a smart move". All bullshit. Making videos makes me unhappy, makes me procrastinate and it makes me hate my job a little bit. I had to realise that I've only been doing it for the likes or to do people a favour. See, I'm glad I have a couple of videos up now to direct people to, if they're curious about my process, but that's about it. No enjoyment beyond that. I already made some promises (a foliage tutorial and a recording of my latest painting) and I'm GOING TO deliver. But then I'm DONE. And I'm pumped to take that energy and invest it into something that I love! Which brings me to an exercise I did to find out what I ACTUALLY wanted to create in the time that I wasn't painting. 

I opened an empty text document and made two columns that I titled What I enjoy & what I'm good at  and What I hate & what I suck at and let the brainstorming begin. Here's what I came up with:

 
WHAT I ENJOY & WHAT I'M GOOD AT

• Digital illustrations     
• Sharing on Twitter & Patreon     
• Giving advice & tips, relating to artists' struggles 
• Encouraging, motivating people to get their shit together    
• Planning, breaking big projects into smaller chunks, organising, systemising     
• Analysing my own decisions & thought process     
• Coming up with & making new products     
• Show my taste & be a curator     
• Answering questions in Q&A type situations     
• Website, graphic design & typography    

WHAT I HATE & WHAT I SUCK AT

• Emails
• Editing videos 
• Recording my paintings & painting in front of people (and no, this is nothing I want to practice and get better at, I simply don't like it)
• Writing long articles (maybe THIS will be the last long one I'll ever write)    
• Packaging orders     
• Making art JUST to sell it     
• Tutorials or any kind of educational material     
• File prep (scanning, cleaning up, formatting)    
• Copywriting     
• Product photography    

CONSEQUENCES

Seeing this list put a lot of things in perspective. My ultimate goal is to get rid of the whole hate & suck category by cutting certain things out completely and by delegating others (emails, packaging orders, file prep, copywriting and product photography are things I want to outsource eventually). The rest I can stop RIGHT NOW. 

But on the other hand, the positive category made me realise what a HUGE part of my life it is to share my experiences and knowledge. I have a couple of art friends and everytime we talk, they seem to be getting a lot out of what I'm saying and thank me for motivating them. And a lot of people on Twitter tell me the same. I guess I've just never thought anything of it, but now I realise that I want to embrace this part of my personality. I can actually help people and make a difference! That's huge! Now it was just about finding the proper outlet or medium. 

I have been tweeting some art advice here and there, but I'm always careful not to post too many things throughout the day and instead, limit myself to a few ones that I believe are most relevant. But I do love the character limitation of a single tweet. You basically convey one chore idea as precisely as possible. BOOM. Done. That's so appealing to me, because I've actually never enjoyed writing longer articles. 

Sooo, the plan is to make a blog on my website that basically consists of short, tweet-like pieces of advice, thoughts and ideas around art and business - like my very own Twitter! Except that I don't have to worry about spamming anyone. And as soon as I made this decision, the floodgates opened and a million little ideas were trying to push their way out of my brain. I did my best to write them all down as quickly as possible to come back to later. And actually, I feel a lot lighter and more at ease now that it's all out of my head (for now, there are always new ideas). Seems like I've been holding onto these things waaay to long and they've finally found an outlet. It feels good. And it feels right. 

I already made the blog on my website to hold myself accountable. There's no content yet. But it is coming! And I'm so looking forward to it. The whole regular blogging experience will also keep me from writing MASSIVE articles like this one, because I'll be able to vent on a more regular basis. 

If you're not sure where you're going, I definitely recommend doing this exercise. Maybe even share it in the comments if you feel comfortable with it! And then identify strategies to get rid of the hate & suck parts and to make use of the things that you enjoy and that you're good at! 

If you made it through the whole article, thank you!
And even if not, you're still awesome.

<3