4th Week of October 2024

~Hello Sprouts!~

Welcome back to my atelier

I missed last week, so much was happening and I completely forgot to stay in touch at the beginning of the week! I got a nearly 6 day weekend and I was spoiled for sleeping in and relaxing. It was a semi-chaotic beginning to the week and I just wanted to relax.

HOWEVER!

I think I am going to be changing my weekly blogs to AT LEAST one at the beginning of every month. (and if I can afford to; push out a blog in the middle of every month as well with progress or new ideas and developments)

The blogs will consist of accomplishments of the previous month and then discuss the plans for the upcoming month. The blog in the middle of the month will talk about progress and what I have accomplished + any fun topics relating to art, fun stories, product ideas and more. Though feel like doing weekly blogs will help keep me on my toes and give me something to commit to at the beginning of every week, sometimes I either forget to or things arise that get in the way of weekly uploads. There will also be very uneventful weeks where there is nothing to discuss besides small progress and little ideas. I can also understand weekly emails can be a handful for both the writer and reader, unless I have something of true value to add to a weekly email that's short and sweet, I should stick to monthly. At the end of the day, blogs are informal ways of understanding a person, idea or subject. Blogs are meant to have ideas and opinions and are in a way diaries of thoughts and experiences as well as goals and updates. But I want to use them to stay in contact with my small community but to also keep myself in check and find ways to give myself small goals every month rather than give myself so many small goals that eventually pile up. Take things little bits at a time, it's okay if you can't tick off every box on your list, we have all the time in the world to create and communicate. Just make sure to enjoy yourself along the way!

I will be making a weekly blog for the rest of this month, and then starting November 1st, I'll be putting this new tactic into practice.

~SHOP~

I have updated my KOFI with 2 new digital products for FREE, almost all of my products at the beginning are going to be completely free, as somebody only starting with the digital shop idea, I dont know who would want to purchase anything from me, nor would I know what works and what is popular. As someone JUST starting, I dont want to put a price tag on everything when I'm only a beginner. I want to get a sense of what people like, and what works, I also want customers to get a sense of what they will receive and will expect in the future. I have one more product that I will be releasing at the end of the month- which is my Light Academia Stream Overlay, which will also be 100% free. I want to also practice making better fonts so I can release more free fonts up for grabs. Then slowly work on vtuber assets after I'm done with my current big commission.

~PROJECTS~

as mentioned in ~SHOP~ I have had my hands full, it's hard to want to make a lot of things and work on a lot of projects when you're stuck with a few that already consume a lot of your time. But that's good! Because you don't want to take on too much at once, or you'd be spreading yourself too thin and burning yourself out. I have done that ooh too many times. I'm currently working on a HUGE commission that will be due by Christmas and won't be revealed until after Christmas time. It's an 8 in one package! It will be so fun to share once it's done. I'm also working on a 3 part crochet project for my mother for both Christmas and her birthday. I'm TRYING to find time for a new drawing style, but because of these other projects, I haven't been finding the time to. (though I'm also nervous to continue working on them) I also have a YouTube video I need to start and want to get uploaded SOON... then of course.. school assignments which SHOULD take more precedence. I've made a lot of assignments so far but I have been very unsatisfied with most of them and will be revisiting them to try and make them "portfolio-worthy" ~SCHOOL & Art~

Speaking of... I have reached the middle of the 2024 fall semester and though it's one of the shortest and less hectic semesters I have ever had. It's been settling in a lot of things for me. Last semester my Drawing 3 professor told me that I dont draw nearly enough, I need to be drawing almost all the time, in and outside of class. My life needs to be sleeping, eating and drawing. But this semester has hammered in what he said.

This semester my professors have wanted me to take these classes as seriously as possible and give 150% of our energy to them. We are going to be making a portfolio to present to the heads of our majors for them to review and accept whether we can continue with our field of study or not. I have been putting in a lot more time and energy to drawing this year, especially this later half of the year, but watching my peers draw and make art, I can hardly believe how much time they put into half of the pieces I see. It's only made me also think about how I have barely made anything of note for the specific careers I want to be in (specifically concept design)

It's made me also discover how much of a creative rut I'm actually in. I have been stunted creatively. I haven't been able to come up with a lot of ideas and approach things in a way that would be typically an obvious answer. Something hasn't been right, and since discovering that through... poorer art pieces I've made so far, I've been meditating and doing introspection to understand why. I've come far as a person, my confidence and how I carry myself- but my art and creative ability and artistic freedom have been stunted, repressed and lacking. It's a sore spot & my new goal is to fix that. I've come to understand and appreciate how lucky I have truly been. Being able to live at home for this long. I've been allowed to be somewhat slow and lazy. But this slowness and patience that everyone has given me has allowed me to be able to do a lot of introspection. Allow me to mentally and emotionally catch up with myself, where I'm at, with my partner and get to a stage where I can say I'm happy. Truly happy? Well, I still have some hurdles, not big ones- but one related to self-forgiveness. But, this lack of self-forgiveness and true acceptance may be the big thing between me and my art. An artist's work is their inner self, their truth, their love and appreciation, their true self and their true emotions on display. We reflect in our work. I've come far enough to understand this, but need just a little extra help and time to push through this last little bit. Beyond that.. I'll finally be free, all it'll be going forward is polishing myself and and sanding the edges. ~GOING FORWARD~

Next week I plan on releasing the Light Academia overlay, continuing to stream every week, and finally getting started on the YouTube video that was made over the Summer. As well as make an Instagram post of a fun side project I'll be SLOWLY working on, possibly some of my previous school assignments.

SEE YOU NEXT WEEK

~Wani~