If there's anything a Leo will do
it's root for themselves
Hi friends,
I have to admit, I have yet to listen to Bretman Rock’s new podcast, but I took a screenshot of his behind the scenes.
I find myself second-guessing myself, see-sawing between finding untapped value in past art that simply needs a rework, and the overwhelming awareness that I haven’t drawn nearly enough. So this little saying has given me the extra push to be my own cheerleader (tbh I don’t do horoscopes, but gotta use what I can get, right).
I’m not forgetting you, of course! Thank you for being here to watch things unfold. 💖
👀The Portfolio is done…
FINALLY! It’s small, but good enough!
Feel free to take a look! Its new home is on an unlisted page on my website. It’s super easy for me to update as well!
…but I haven’t sent a pitch yet🥲
It does feel a little bad, considering I completed my portfolio on the 11th, and my bf looked it over and was super encouraging about how I have something to aggressively peddle. I had plenty of time to try to email any company. The goal isn’t even to get a “yes, we’d love to work with you.” I’m aiming for a “I put myself out there” sort of angle.
But I will take action in September! I intend to make up for it, review the pitching practices in Leverage Your Art and start up a workflow of pitching to companies while filling in gaps in my range of work.
SO! I owe you an update!!! HOLD ME TO IT! Comment on this now to hold me accountable! 🔥🔥🔥
Onto the things I did instead of send a pitch: 😅
My Spoonflower is up and running!
With the swatch purchases last month, I was ready to batch upload all the patterns from my debut collections. Resizing the files, exporting, and uploading them all was a hassle and a half, but yielded a wonderful high of accomplishment.
Entered my first design challenge
Spoonflower holds biweekly design challenges for its users. This time, I decided to join the Ditsy Christmas Challenge.
Of course, I couldn’t go about it so straightforwardly.
To yield my best in such a short time, I started and completed Weronika Salach’s ditsy pattern course for Affinity Designer on Skillshare. While she demonstrated how to make a floral ditsy, I decided to follow the course content while making the Christmas ditzy I would submit for the Spoonflower Challenge. Here it is!
I’ve titled it “Immaculate Christmas Vibes.”
Description: An all-ages pattern featuring cookies, mistletoe, reindeer, and Santa exuding immaculate vibes, assuring you you've been doing your best this year.
I’ll be uploading this video to Instagram as well, but I wanted to give you the first look from behind the scenes! (No music because I plan on choosing a track on the site directly).
OPTIONAL: “Immaculate Christmas Vibes” has been entered into a voting pool, but you need to have an account on Spoonflower in order to vote and ensure you even see my design (there’s a A LOT of designs and the designs appear in random order).
I understand not many people on this list are into fabric and home decor or are Spoonflower customers, so I’m not expecting you to go out your way to make a whole new account for someting you’ll use like once every two months etc. BUT! If you do know someone into fabric, let them know about Spoonflower and that it’s a platform filled with amazing designs from small-time and big-time artists alike.
But anyway, here’s the direct link to the voting section for the Ditsy Holiday Challenge:
Star Gremlin Studio on Instagram
In the middle of the month, I posted on my streaac instagram that it would become the sketchbook and fanart outlet of my practice while stargremlin takes main stage. Happily, a mix of irl friends and internet friends followed the account; if you’re interested here’s a QR code to follow! (alternatively, search up stargremlinstudio)
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next month with a pitching debt paid!
Heya Strea!
It's about halfway through the month and, after chartering the perilous unknown reaches of my email inbox, I have arrived with but a simple question... have you pitched? I'm holding ya up to it.
On another note, the Christmas Ditsy is lovely. A+ for the thumbs up Santa. At first, I clocked him as having a charming little smile, but I realized it was just his nose. One of my favorite, and somewhat niche, character design traits is when a character has an easily mistaken feature, almost like an illusion. A recent example would be the Pokémon Rookidee, who has white patches of feathers that make it look like it has big angry eyes, when in reality it has cute lil' dot-eyes. Or, look to our beloved Aomori mascot Ikubee. For a while, I thought they were in a constant state of screaming agony. Turns out the giant black void in the center is not a screaming mouth, but a big koala-esque nose, and the little scruff below is the mouth. It's not something you see much, but every time I clock it, I find it incredibly charming.