January 2019 Update : Upcoming posts and changes

My view from the plane when I was flying home after Christmas

Hi everyone, 

I thought it was about time I put together an update post, so that you can all know what to expect to see in the coming weeks. I also have a few questions and changes to pass by you to get your feedback and opinion, so if you are only interested in those, and want nothing to do with my typical interminable ramblings, you can skip to the last section of this post!

First and foremost, Welcome everyone! 

Welcome to all the new peeps that joined us in the last few weeks, and welcome back, to all of you who are still here being amazing! 

I hope you will enjoy your time with me in this little Patreon art bubble during this new year!
I have a bunch of projects lined up for 2019 already, some of which I can't talk about yet, even on here (but you'll obviously be the first to hear about them once I can, of course!), and some that are personal challenges and ideas, which I am excited to tell you about! 

I'm sorry for not having posted much new art lately, things since Inktober have been mostly admin related, with little time to create, which I am feeling the frustration of gradually building up in me. I don't terribly mind admin, but when it comes in the way of my creative process, it does start weighing on me. 

I have a few things I need to finish before the end of January, but I am hoping to be back to drawing and painting in the current of next week! I am trying to sketch a little when I get a minute, so I'll share what I can with you in the meantime. 

Here's a list of the posts I have already planned for the next few weeks!
These are the ideas I have at the moment, but, as usual, 

Commissions and Partnership Projects

✦ I was recently commissioned to do a video series for a big company (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say who it is yet, but I'll let you know once I do). I can't tell you much more about it right now, but I just wanted to let you know that that will be taking a chunk of my time this year, up until the summer. I plan on managing it so that it doesn't come in the way of my other commitments, like Patreon, but as always, I like to be transparent about how I spend my time with you all, so I just wanted you to know about it. 

✦ I will be finishing a film poster commission this month for a small independent film, so should hopefully be able to release it once it's done, depending on the wishes of the director. I'll keep you updated, as always. 

Personal Projects

 ✦ I am planning on participating in the Month of Love Challengethis year, once again (http://monthofloveart.com/).
That is the challenge I created Golem, Amber, and Innocence for last year, during February.
If I manage to create some pieces for the challenge again this year, I will make sure to record my process, so that some of them can become step-by-step posts or Process PDFs.

My pieces for the 2018 Month of Love Art Challenge.
From left to right "Golem", "Amber" and "Innocence"

✦  I very much want to get back into Sculpting.
I have a vague plan of creating a sculpture for a Prosthetic Make-Up Trade Show called IMATS that I used to attend every year when I worked in the film industry. I still have contacts there, and they have a Museum of sorts set up during the show, of which I know the curator, so I was thinking of perhaps using that opportunity to exhibit a sculpture there.
But this is not a certainty, and I will have to see if it is actually worth it or not.
But I definitely want to start creating some 3D work this year, based around my paintings, so you will all get the exclusive on that once I start working on those! 

For those of you that may not have seen it, here is a small post I did a little while back, detailing the sculptures I did back in the day :
https://www.patreon.com/posts/my-sculptures-20393544

✦ I have the firm intention to start making Skillshare Classes.
I know I have been talking about doing this for a while now, but I want to focus some of my attention on teaching this year, and I need to explore more income avenues, as I still don't break even yet every month, so I will be taking some time to create some in-depth courses in the coming months.
I plan on creating a detailed Gouache course and a Hand Drawing course, which I have started writing already. I also have a few extra ideas, but do feel free to offer up topics you think you'd also be interested in, since all $10+ patrons will get access to any Skillshare courses I create via Patreon. I might also offer up the courses for sale on Gumroad, if anyone, patron or other, wanted to own the courses to watch at their leisure. They would be a bit more expensive to obtain that way than they would be if you were a patron, but it would be an option also. 

✦ To my immense delight, I recently discovered that the pub right down the road from my flat, offers weekly life drawing sessions every Monday Night.
They are £10 for 2 hours, and seem to be very friendly and good quality, so I am planning on attending a few sessions, to see how it goes. It could help me socialise more, get out of the house, and get into doing some life drawing.
If you are interested, I could share the work I create during those sessions with you!

✦ in 2018, although I was organised, I realised I was putting a lot on my plate, and was often too optimistic about the amount of work I was able to fit in one day, and also often overwhelmed by all the tasks I needed to get done.
Therefore, in the spirit of improvement, I have started a Bullet Journal!
It is going well so far, although I am planning on keeping it extremely minimal, no doodles, no art in it, just organised information. Would that be something you would be interested in seeing more of and hearing more about?

Here's a quick list of some of my ideas for upcoming posts and updates.
These are in no real order, and will be peppered throughout the coming weeks and months, as and when I get the time to put them together.
They are not an exhaustive list of everything you will see on my Patreon either. These are ideas I have right now, and hope to implement as time goes on, but are in no way the only things you will see either, as I will also upload works in progress, sketch scans, random projects..etc...that will happen as I create new work. 

✦ There are two major things I need to do soonish for all of you patrons, that I am quite late on (I'm so sorry!!).
Those two things are both goal rewards :
➤ An Original Art Giveaway
➤ An Enamel Pin Design
Once January is over, I will start brainstorming those with you, and begin planning those events so as to hopefully have them happen as soon as possible. 

I also owe you an Inktober Process PDF, detailing brush pens and hat I learned from using them for a month, and general things I learned during Inktober. I'll be aiming to get his done in January.  

I am so sorry for how late I am with  those, I think I have a tendency of being overly enthusiastic with the amount of things I put on my plate. I need to be careful with that in 2019. 

✦  Upcoming Posts and Topic I'd love to share with you (feel free to offer up topics in the comments, knowing what you are all interested in seeing is always extremely helpful!) :
➛ My Prosthetic Make-Up Career
➛ I was given a Membership to the British Museum as a Christmas gift, so would love to create a post or two about going there to sketch and paint
➛ My favourite Artists and how they inspire me
➛ My favourite art supplies of the moment (an update to this post basically)
➛ How I stretch watercolour paper  (masterpost and/or video)
➛ How I transfer my sketches to my final painting paper  (masterpost and/or video)
➛ How I make your prints (masterpost and/or video)
➛ The evolution of my watercolour work
➛ Another Free Reference Image Package

➛ I would like to maybe put together a small book of my sketches this year. I am thinking of putting the first few pages up for a vote on here.
I would basically create a poll with a few choices of sketches, and the 5 most popular (for example) would be the first 5 pages of the sketchbook. You could also help me design the cover!

These are my ideas so far, but obviously you can add a lot of what I talked about previously in the list also, like posts about the life-drawing sessions, tiny tutorials, Month Of Love art, sculptures, wips, sketches...etc...

✦ Process PDFs : Process PDFs have been one of those steep learning curves in 2018 that I feel weren't working very well for me in the way I originally implemented them.
Process PDFs take me a long time to put together, and are very work-intensive, not only in the making of them, but also because I need to create a piece big enough every month to warrant a PDF, which in itself is often actually quite difficult.
The pressure of having to create a big painting every month is coming in the way of me practicing and creating smaller work, which are just as beneficial to my process, if not more.

Therefore, I was wondering if you would be opposed to me creating PDFs every two months from now on?
You would still get a monthly reward, but PDFs would be every two months, and every month where I wouldn't have a PDF, you would get a detailed step-by-step post of a painting or drawing.

It would allow me to still create a detailed step-by-step for smaller paintings that are too simple to fill an entire PDF (like Cherish or Eternal for example), and posts take me less time to put together than PDFs.
Does that make sense?

What that would mean for this month and upcoming months:
I still owe you all an Inktober Process PDF, which I will be putting together for this month, but then next month, February, you would get a step-by-step post of a piece I created this month, instead of a full-on PDF. And then back to a PDF in March. 

✦ $15 Postcard Tier :  $15 will now include two postcards in their package every month.
Voting will mostly continue as usual, with a poll for $15+ patrons going up in the first half of the month. Only the first postcard, that $20+ patrons also get, will be up for a vote. The 2nd postcard will be of my choice. 

✦ Tiny Tutorials :  I really want to create more tutorials for my $10 patrons, but, because I have a tendency to go all or nothing, and am not very good at seeing the point in small, quick, non-comprehensive tutorials, it takes me a very long time to put decent courses together.
But I think I need to simplify things a little for myself, and see the value in also having smaller, more to-the-point tips and advice posts, that aren't necessarily massive, in-depth, full-on tutorials.
For example, I would be interested in creating quick little posts, mostly consisting of simple diagrams and drawings, detailing, for example, how to draw an elbow, a shoulder, the neck, eyes, how to make things look more organic, texture detail...etc...

I would aim to maybe do them on a bi-monthly basis (every two months), but I need to give them a try first, to figure out how much time they would take me and how viable an option that would be.   

The Tiny Tuts would look a little like the one below, although sometimes even simpler in concept. 

This tutorial is by Aranda Dill on Tumblr.
http://arandadill.tumblr.com/post/47076016662/shoulder-tips

So basically, here are a few questions for you : 

✦ Would you mind if I did the Process PDFs every two months from now on?
You would still get a step-by-step post every month you don't get a Process PDF, but those step-by-step posts would not be in PDF form, and would be less detailed. I would be available to answer any questions any of you would have about the process, techniques, materials...etc...and obviously would still include a lot of that info in the post, but given that those posts would be for smaller paintings, it would not require the extensive information I include in PDFs. If that makes sense. 

✳Let me know how you feel about this!✳ 

✦ Would you mind if I put some of my sketches up for sale on my shop as prints?
I realise that I initially offered my sketches as Patreon exclusives, but I am not getting the feeling this created a particular incentive for anyone, or that
It wouldn't be all my sketches, I would still keep some as Patreon exclusives, but I have been asked quite a bit to put some of my more popular sketches up on my shop, so I thought of maybe putting 4 or 5 of them up there too. 

✳Let me know what you think! ✳

✦ Do the upcoming post topics sound interesting to you? Do you have anything else you would like me to share with you this year?

✦ Would you be interested in some Tiny Tutorials?

✦  Would you like to have a peek into my bullet journal, and hear more about how I organise my life and my business?

✦ Would you be interested in helping me plan an upcoming book of my sketches?

I think this is all for me for now! 

You will have another post tomorrow, detailing my first experience with oils! It will include the paintings I created, as well as all the materials, and my thoughts! It will be just ahead of a video on that topic later that day :)

I hope you are all well,
Thank you, again and always, for sticking with me, and being the most incredible people.
It's an honour to have your support! I will do my best to create more and more art for all of you to peruse very soon! ❥

Take care and see you soon,